The Action genre has always been one of the most popular Genres (after Drama and Comedy) so it’s not surprising this genre also has quite a few subgenres. The most popular Action subgenre by far (and could almost qualify as a genre by itself) is the Action Adventure subgenre.
Many of the most popular films over the last 70 years are Action Adventures and have remained a favorite subgenre during every decade of film. The 1960’s saw James Bond films Dr. No (1962), From Russia With Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), You Only Live Twice (1967) and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969). This decade also had Adventures films set within other genres like Sci-fi, Historical Biopics and Westerns with The Time Machine (1960), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Planet of the Apes (1968), and The Wild Bunch (1969).
The 70’s saw the continuation of The Planet of the Apes and James Bond franchises and multiple Zorro films also gained popularity with The Mark of Zorro (1974), Zorro (1975) and Mark of Zorro (1975). The Poseidon Adventure (1972), The Three Musketeers (1973), and King Kong (1976) were other notable Adventure films released in the 1970’s until the 2 greatest adventure films of the 1970’s (and of all-time) were released towards the end of the decade with Star Wars (1977) and Superman (1978).
The 80’s would come to define the Adventure subgenre and introduce many of the Adventure film tropes we see to this day. The list of popular Adventure films from the 80’s reads like a list of all-time classic movies: Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Flash Gordon (1980), Superman II (1980), Escape from New York (1981), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Time Bandits (1981), The Road Warrior (1981), Conan The Barbarian (1982), Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), Tron (1982), First Blood (1982), Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983), Romancing The Stone (1984), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), The Terminator (1984), Dune (1984), Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985), The Goonies (1985), Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985), Highlander (1986), Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), The Princess Bride (1987), Willow (1988), Rambo III (1988), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) and The Abyss (1989). And you even had Roger Moore taking over as James Bond with multiple 007 films including For Your Eyes Only (1981), Octopussy (1983), and A View to a Kill (1985).
The 90’s couldn’t top the genre defining films of the 80’s but there were still many great Adventure films released in this decade including Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991), The Last of the Mohicans (1992), Jurassic Park (1993), Mission: Impossible (1996), Independence Day (1996), The Fifth Element (1997), Starship Troopers (1997), The Mask of Zorro (1998), The Mummy (1999) and Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999).
The 2000’s saw a resurgence of sort with Adventure films set again in different genres with many film franchises continuing throughout the decade. Star Wars, Star Trek, The Lord of the Rings, Mission Impossible, X-Men, The Terminator, Batman, Spider-Man, James Bond and Indiana Jones all had franchise films released during this decade. Other popular Adventure films from the 2000’s included Gladiator (2000), The Last Samurai (2003), Big Fish (2003), Master and Commander (2003), Hidalgo (2004), The Chronicles of Riddick (2004), National Treasure (2004), War of the Worlds (2005), King Kong (2005), Transformers (2007), I Am Legend (2007), and Avatar (2009).
The 2010’s to present saw a continuation of the franchises from the 2000’s and this decade also saw the launch of new Adventure-based film franchises including Captain America, Planet of the Apes, The Avengers, The Hobbit, Wonder Woman, and Jurassic World. This decade also saw the emergence of YA (Young Adult) fiction sci-fi franchises such as The Hunger Games, Maze Runner and Divergent. Other popular Adventure films from 2010 to the present include The Expendables (2010), Life of Pi (2012), Oblivion (2013), Interstellar (2014), Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), Everest (2015), The Martian (2015), The Revenant (2015), Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017), Jungle Cruise (2021) and Dune (2021).
Our list of Action Adventure films includes over 625+ films and we’ll create ‘best of decade’ lists for the Adventure subgenre in the near future. For now, we’ve included an overall list of Action Adventure Films You Haven’t Seen with the following honorable mentions: The Mission (1986), The Count of Monte Cristo (2002), The Fall (2008), The Way Back (2010), The Grey (2012), Tracks (2013), Black Sea (2014), Time Trap (2017), Jungle (2017), The Lost City of Z (2017), Arctic (2018), The Mercy (2018), Alita: Battle Angel (2019), and Love and Monsters (2020).
We have embedded a compilation video of our Top Action-Adventure Films You Haven’t Seen and more details on these films can be found in the list below. Note: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
