There are some years, like 1939, 1967 and 1999, that are famous for the movie masterpieces that were released during those pivotal periods.
1986 isn’t one of those years, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t any classics released during that time.
On the contrary, those twelve months gave the world such beloved fan-favorites as Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, starring Matthew Broderick, and game-changing films like Blue Velvet with Laura Dern.
Watch With Us ranks the 10 best movies of 1986 and argues why they are still worth watching 40 years later.
10. ‘Something Wild’
Charlie Driggs (Jeff Daniels) is a straight-laced NYC investment banker whose life is turned upside down when he meets Lulu (Melanie Griffith), a free spirit with a killer black bob, a honeysuckle voice and a tendency to steal people’s money. After she offers him a ride home, Lulu instead takes him on a wild journey that includes robbing convenience stores, running out on a pricey Italian dinner and attending her high school reunion. It’s there when the unlikely couple faces real danger, as Lulu’s ex-con boyfriend, Ray (Ray Liotta), shows up and wants Lulu back at any cost.
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It’s hard to describe Something Wild without capturing how weirdly fun it is when you watch it. It had the broad outline of a rom-com mixed with the adrenaline of a crime thriller. Director Jonathan Demme lends his offbeat vibe to a love story about two wrongs who somehow make it right together. Griffith has never been more bubbly or — well, wild — than she is here, while Liotta is memorably intimidating as Lulu’s live-wire former lover.
9. ‘Labyrinth’
Jim Henson was an architect of dreams, and no live-action film quite captured his boundless imagination quite like Labyrinth. Working from a script by Terry Jones, who injects his own Monty Python-esque craziness into the narrative, Henson crafted a modern-day fairy tale featuring Jennifer Connelly as a suburban girl, Sarah, who wishes her annoying infant half-brother, Toby (Toby Froud), would just go away. Much to her dismay, her wish is granted by the Goblin King Jareth (David Bowie, wearing a very generous codpiece), and she has only hours to save him before he’s turned into a baby goblin.
Unlike most modern kids’ fantasy films, Labyrinth offers no explanation as to why goblins exist or how Sarah journeys into Jareth’s kingdom. It simply happens because Henson is smart enough to know that it doesn’t matter. Instead, he concentrates on worldbuilding and what a world! Filled with magical creatures and reality-warping rooms that would make M.C. Escher gleeful, Labyrinth not only invites you to escape from reality, it encourages it. The result is a movie that’s truly for all ages — who can resist visiting a world ruled by Ziggy Stardust and populated by charismatic puppets?
8. ‘An American Tail’
The 1980s were a terrible time for Disney animation, which continued its downward spiral by releasing such critical and financial bombs as The Fox and the Hound and The Great Mouse Detective. Disney’s misfortunes were Don Bluth’s golden opportunity as the maverick filmmaker started his own animated studio and gave his former Disney bosses a run for their money.
His best work is An American Tail, a beautifully hand-drawn animated story about a young Jewish-Russian mouse, Fievel, whose family immigrates from Russia to America at the turn of the 20th century. Featuring the Oscar-nominated song “Somewhere Out There,” the movie evokes earlier Disney classics like Pinocchio and Dumbo as it chronicles Fievel’s rocky but adventure-filled assimilation into his new homeland. Tender and sweet, An American Tail is perhaps the last animated movie that doesn’t contain a whiff of irony or sarcasm. Its heart is as wide open as the America that welcomes little Fievel in the film.
7. ‘Down and Out in Beverly Hills’
Eat-the-rich films are all the rage these days, but they aren’t new; you can find them in every decade in the 20th century, with the Reagan-era ‘80s being a particularly productive time for the genre. The best of them was and remains Down and Out in Beverly Hills, a loose American remake of the 1932 Jean Renoir classic, Boudu Saved from Drowning.
When Richard Dreyfuss’ rich capitalist takes in Nick Nolte’s homeless socialist, he sets in motion a chain of events that gradually destroys his lush lifestyle — and saves his soul, too. Paul Mazursky’s sharp script has plenty of jokes about the wasteful rich, but it also has some keen observations about wealth, privilege, and how both capitalism and socialism fail their followers. Add in a great Bette Midler performance and a memorable closing sequence set to the Talking Heads’ “Once in a Lifetime,” and you have a now-classic comedy of manners that’s even more relevant in 2026.
6. ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’
It’s every kid’s dream to skip school and embark on an adventure with their friends, and no film conveyed that fantasy quite like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Anchored by a charismatic lead performance from a young Matthew Broderick, the comedy doesn’t exaggerate reality too much. All the things Ferrris and his hypocondriac best friend Cameron (Alan Ruck) and fashionable girlfriend Sloane (Mia Sara) get up to on their unplanned skip day could happen, like going to a Cubs baseball game or visiting the Art Institute of Chicago.
What makes the movie so powerful then and now is an undercurrent of sadness that writer/director John Hughes instilled underneath all of its comedic bits. There’s a sense that this is the last time these three friends will fully enjoy what their youth and privilege bring them. It’s this subtle melancholy, combined with some inspired comedic performances from Jennifer Grey as Ferris’ perpetually put-upon sister and Jeffrey Jones as Ferris’ determined principal, Mr. Rooney, that make Ferris Bueller’s Day Off 1986’s best comedy and an enduring teenage film classic.
5. ‘The Fly’
What is it like to see the person you love the most slowly disintegrate in front of your eyes? That’s normally subject matter for dramas, but David Cronenberg’s fascinating remake of The Fly uses sci-fi as a way to explore just how horrific that experience is — and how helpless you feel if you’re the person watching it.
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As a straightforward horror film, The Fly is brutally effective, especially when Jeff Goldblum’s geeky scientist hero Seth begins to realize his experiment has gone terribly wrong. But factor in the film’s social context, when the AIDS epidemic gained widespread mass media exposure in 1986, and The Fly turns into a rich metaphor about terminal illness. The movie also established that genre remakes could be taken seriously and not considered cheesy cash grabs by critics or audiences.
4. ‘Big Trouble in Little China’
No American director had a perfect track record quite like John Carpenter did in the 1970s to the 1990s. From 1976’s Assault on Precinct 13 to 1994’s In the Mouth of Madness, the Halloween filmmaker made banger after banger, and one of his best films ever is Big Trouble in Little China.
Teaming up with frequent collaborator Kurt Russell, Carpenter crafted an irresistible adventure tale that mashed together action, Western and martial arts genres, with a little room for romance and comedy. The result is a film that’s unabashedly silly but also surprisingly smart, with Russell cementing his status as the ‘80s answer to John Wayne and Kim Cattrall showing her screwball comedy skills as Russell’s perpetually in danger love interest.
3. ‘Aliens’
Even in 1986, sequels got a bad rap. For every The Godfather Part II, there were dozens of Jaws 2s or Grease 2s, subpar follow-ups that existed primarily to make as much money as they could from the goodwill of their originals. And then came James Cameron’s Aliens, which completely changed the game for not only sequels, but blockbuster filmmaking as well.
Whereas Alien was a haunted house movie set in outer space, Aliens is a balls-to-the-wall sci-fi spectacle that jumps from one breathless action sequence after another. Cameron’s genius was to turn Ridley Scott’s boo!-horror original into an action movie fueled with feminine energy. Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley is one mean mother, and she’ll do anything to protect her surrogate child, the orphaned Newt (Carrie Henn). In the film’s unforgettable climax, she faces another intimidating mama, the Alien Queen, who isn’t too happy Ripley keeps killing her spawn. “Get away from her, you bitch!” became one of the film’s signature lines and proof that the genre could produce a movie that’s both kick-ass and deep.
2. ‘Stand by Me’
When Rob Reiner died in 2025, a lot of people marveled at the director’s decade-long run of churning out one classic after another from 1984 to 1995. The crown jewel in this period is probably Stand by Me, Reiner’s moving adaptation of Stephen King’s short story, The Body. Some critics at the time dismissed this coming-of-age story about four pre-teen boys who set out to find a dead body near some train tracks as too simplistic and nostalgic.
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They weren’t wrong, but the beauty of this film lies in how simple and open-hearted its storytelling is. It also features some of the best child acting in movie history, with Wil Wheaton and River Phoenix delivering outstanding performances as two boys who know they’re on the cusp of growing up and aren’t quite ready to leave childhood yet. If you’re not tearing up after the movie’s devastating coda, you need to check yourself for a heartbeat.
1. ‘Blue Velvet’
The opposite of Stand by Me in every way, Blue Velvet was the defining movie of the year — and perhaps the decade. David Lynch’s surrealist take on American suburbia, populated by boys next door who like to spy on women and old men with mommy fetishes, divided critics and audiences, with some praising it as an instant masterpiece, while others, like Roger Ebert, were repulsed by what Lynch showed them.
No one could deny the impact the movie made on cinema and pop culture, which planted the seeds that would allow Twin Peaks, American Beauty, Desperate Housewives and countless others to flourish. Seen today, the film has lost none of its power to captivate and disturb, with career-best performances from Dennis Hopper and Isabella Rossellini and flawless direction from Lynch. Blue Velvet is a macabre masterpiece and one of the film medium’s definitive works.
