10 Must Watch Road Trip Films

For road trip films, Hollywood has always had a soft spot, and others have been iconic not only for what was seen on television but for what the spirit of the film meant to the viewers who watched them. For example, take "Easy Rider" whose no-rules style unleashed a new way of producing movies for decades. Or "Thelma & Louise," which was as much about female liberation as it was about a film on the run from the law about two individuals.

Posted On March 8th, 2021

Bad Grandpa

Hilarity ensues as a grandfather takes his grandson to visit his real father on a road trip through America and the two share several misadventures together.

Due Date

When his wife gives birth in five days, Peter Highman (Robert Downey Jr.) will be a dad for the first time. He wants to take a flight home from Atlanta so that he can be there for delivery, but his preparations are thrown into a monkey wrench by a casual meeting with young actor Ethan Tremblay (Zach Galifianakis). Desperate to meet his wife before their baby is conceived, as he must take a road trip cross-country with dog-toting Ethan, Peter's sanity is tested.

Rain Man

Sleazy Charlie Babbitt plays Tom Cruise, and his brother Raymond, who suffers from savant syndrome, is Dustin Hoffman. Charlie sends the two off on a cross-country trip that leads to a lot of self-discovery, aiming to cash in on the fortune Raymond received from their aunt.

Thelma and Louise

Because of the #MeToo today, Ridley Scott's look at the road-trip-turned-manhunt experience of friends Thelma (Geena Davis) and Louise (Susan Sarandon) is arguably better than when it opened in the early 1990s.

Dumb and Dumber

Friends Lloyd (Jim Carrey) and Harry (Jeff Daniels) are persuaded in this classic Farrelly brothers that the gas guy is out to get them after the death of their bird, so they plan to travel to Aspen to hand-deliver a briefcase at the airport that the lovely Mary (Lauren Holly) "forgot". Yeah, and in a truck that's made to look like a puppy, they're hitting the lane.

Almost Famous

The love letter of Cameron Crowe to the 1970s rock and roll scene, which he covered as a Rolling Stone journalist, is a humorous look at puberty, success, and highlights the non-stop grind of being on the road with a band.

Greenbook

Dr Don Shirley is a world-class African-American pianist, preparing to embark on a 1962 Deep South concert tour. Shirley hires Tony Lip, a tough-talking bouncer from an Italian-American neighborhood in the Bronx, in need of a driver and security. Despite their differences, when facing bigotry and risk in an age of apartheid, the two men quickly develop an unlikely friendship.

Flirting With Disaster

Adopted as a boy, the new father, Mel Colpin (Ben Stiller), determines that once he finds his parents and decides to make a cross-country search to locate them, he can not call his son. He departs on an epic road trip accompanied by his wife, Nancy (Patricia Arquette), and an incompetent but magnificent adoption agent, Tina (Tea Leoni), which soon transforms into a farce of erroneous identities, wrong turns, and overzealous and love-struck ATF agents (Josh Brolin, Richard Jenkins).

Sullivan’s Travels

Sullivan's Travels is an American adventure film by Preston Sturges, produced and directed in 1941. It's a spoof about Hollywood's top comedy director, played by Joel McCrea, who longs to create a drama that is socially important, but ultimately finds that his biggest contribution to society is producing laughter.

Easy Rider

Two Harley-riding hippies, Wyatt (Peter Fonda) and Billy (Dennis Hopper) complete a cocaine trade in Southern California and plan to journey cross-country in search of divine truth. They witness bigotry and hatred from the people of small-town America on their journey and often meet with other travelers searching for alternative lifestyles. The two travelers wonder if they can ever find a way to live happily in America after a traumatic opioid encounter in New Orleans.