We all have those days when life is doing too much, and you think… I could just drive. I could just get in the car and go, right now, destination unknown. Not permanently, of course, because your aforementioned life won’t let you stray too far for too long. But there’s something so freeing and cathartic about the open highway that, some days, you yearn for it. Road trip movies exist for that exact feeling.
They tap into the more primal parts of you: your desire for reinvention and freedom and spontaneity. Sometimes you watch for escapism; sometimes you watch for healing. Either way, you’re reminded that you’re not stuck, and that the road is there waiting for you whenever you can steal away for a day, week, month, whatever.
Below, you’ll find some of the best road-trip movies ever made, sorted by which flavor of wanderlust you’re currently nursing.
For When You’re on the Brink of Leaving It All Behind
- Thelma & Louise (1991): The blueprint! Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon leave for a weekend, never to return, giving us some of the most gorgeous American scenery along the way.
- Nomadland (2020): Frances McDormand plays a widow who packs her life up into a van and joins the seasonal-work circuit.
- Thelma (2024): A 93-year-old (played by June Squibb) gets scammed out of $10k by a phone con artist and decides she’ll just go get it back via mobility scooter, with Richard Roundtree riding shotgun.
For Female Friendships & Self-Discovery
- Boys on the Side (1995): Whoopi Goldberg, Mary-Louise Parker, and Drew Barrymore heading west? A required-watch trio, for sure. This is deeply ‘90s and lowkey heartbreaking, but so worth it.
- Crossroads (2002): Britney Spears plays a small-town girl who, along with her two childhood best friends, drives cross-country to LA. Some of the acting? Iffy. But it’s still a classic. The equivalent of a wine cooler on a hot summer night.
- Drive-Away Dolls (2024): If you're in the mood for something silly and, erm, raunchy, this is it. Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan take a “drive-away” car to Tallahassee and find an unexpected surprise in the trunk.
For Good Ol' Chaotic Family Energy
- Little Miss Sunshine (2006): A yellow VW bus, a dysfunctional family, and one little girl’s beauty pageant dreams in Redondo Beach. It’ll make you cry, but the final dance scene alone makes up for the tears.
- National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983): Clark Griswold hauls his reluctant family cross-country to a theme park that turns out to be closed, and it’s LOL-funny. Chevy Chase’s slow-mo breakdown at the Walley World gates is a meditation on parenting.
- RV (2006): What can go wrong when Robin Williams rents a big-ass motorhome for family vacation? Uh, everything? But it’s all so funny and goofy. Comfort food, but make it a road trip.
- Vacation (2015): Ed Helms plays grown-up Rusty Griswold, dragging his own family to Walley World and, unsurprisingly, repeating history. Who says generational trauma can't be funny?
- We’re the Millers (2013): Another RV contender, this time with Jason Sudeikis pulling together a fake family to smuggle weed across the border. Jennifer Aniston plays his faux-wife, so you know it’s good.
For the Soundtrack
- Almost Famous (2000): One of Cameron Crowe’s best films (if not the best), it follows a 15-year-old writer touring with a rising rock band for Rolling Stone. Kate Hudson shines, and the “Tiny Dancer” bus singalong is a top scene in cinematic history.
- The Blues Brothers (1980): Jake and Elwood get the band back together on a mission from God. Unfortunately for them, like half of Illinois is on their tail. But Aretha, Ray, James… the music is elite.
- Easy Rider (1969): From “Born to Be Wild” to “The Weight,” this movie has one of the most famous movie soundtracks ever. It’s like ‘60s counterculture in a bottle. Here, Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper are free-spirited bikers who ride from LA to New Orleans.
- The Motorcycle Diaries (2004): Gael García Bernal is a young Ernesto Guevara, years before becoming Che, as he rides through South America with a friend.
- O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000): George Clooney is exceptional in this movie following three convicts who break out of a Mississippi chain gang and stumble through a Depression-era retelling of The Odyssey. And there's a reason the T Bone Burnett soundtrack won Album of the Year.
For Found Family & Full Reinvention
- To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995): If you need a genuine mood-lifter with huge heart, look no further. Patrick Swayze, Wesley Snipes, and John Leguizamo play professional NY drag queens who break down in a tiny Nebraska town and prove that the right people showing up can truly change a place.
- The Fundamentals of Caring (2016): Paul Rudd as a caregiver, Craig Roberts as his teenage client, Selena Gomez as a hitchhiker, and a journey full of offbeat roadside attractions. What’s not to love?
- The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994): Three drag performers cross the Australian outback in a lavender bus named Priscilla. The costumes alone are legendary.
- Peanut Butter Falcon (2019): Such a warm movie! Zack Gottsagen plays a young man with Down syndrome who leaves his care home to chase his dream of pro wrestling, picking up a fugitive fisherman on the way.
For Romantic Escapism
- Away We Go (2009): What does “home” actually mean? Maya Rudolph and John Krasinski explore just that as a couple who are expecting, unmoored, and traveling the country to visit friends and family.
- True Romance (1993): If you like a little adrenaline rush with your romance, try this Tarantino flick where Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette fall in love fast, steal a suitcase of cocaine, and drive to LA with, well, everyone chasing them.
- It Happened One Night (1934): Let’s start with the fact that this swept all five major Oscars! A runaway heiress (Claudette Colbert) and a broke reporter (Clark Gable) end up on the same bus from Miami to New York and bicker their way right into history.
- Before Sunrise (1995): OK, not technically a “road trip” movie, but Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy do meet on a train and get off in Vienna. So, adjacent! They spend practically the whole time just walking around talking, and it manages to be one of the most romantic movies ever.
For Indie & Existential Vibes
- Y Tu Mamá También (2001): One of the greats! Two teenage boys and an older Spanish woman go on a spontaneous road trip across Mexico in search of a beach that may or may not exist.
- Sideways (2004): Weirdly beautiful, this gem sees Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church spend a week in California wine country ahead of one of them getting hitched.
- Nebraska (2013): This is bittersweet, even kinda brutal at times. But it’s also funny and genuine and so, so good. Bruce Dern plays an aging man convinced he’s won a million dollars, so his son, played by Will Forte, accompanies him to collect.
- The Straight Story (1999): A surprisingly sweet film from David Lynch, this gentle film focuses on a retired farmer and widower who takes his riding mower from Iowa to Wisconsin to reconcile with his brother. It’s based on a true story!
- Into the Wild (2007): Another based-on-a-true-story pick, Emile Hirsch plays Chris McCandless, who gave away his savings to journey to and live in the Alaskan wilderness. Directed by Sean Penn, soundtracked by Eddie Vedder… oh yes.
For Nostalgic Comfort
- Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987): Steve Martin just wants to get home for Thanksgiving; John Candy won’t shut up. This is a John Hughes favorite, full of slapstick humor and touching moments.
- Tommy Boy (1995): Chris Farley and David Spade are the most likable, unlikely-together duo as they drive around the Midwest trying to save the family brake-pad company. You’ll know every line but still laugh your ass off.
- Due Date (2010): Planes, Trains, and Automobiles for a new generation, this one pairs Robert Downey Jr. with Zach Galifianakis on a zany quest to get Downey’s character home for his kid’s birth.
- Dumb and Dumber (1994): I mean, this movie shouldn’t still be this funny 30 years later, and yet. If your brain is fried and you need to crack up at something delightfully lowbrow, this is it.
- Smokey and the Bandit (1977): Burt Reynolds is a Southern charm powerhouse in this zero-stakes classic that sees his title character haul bootleg beer across state lines.
For Watching With the Fam
- The Mitchells vs. the Machines (2021): This is, hands-down, one of the best animated movies of the last decade! It follows a family as they drive their daughter to college… and sorta get caught in the robot apocalypse along the way.
- Cars (2006): When Lightning McQueen gets stranded in a bygone Route 66 town, he has to learn to pump the proverbial brakes. The kids will love the racing; you’ll appreciate the love letter this movie is to the American highway.
- A Goofy Movie (1995): You can’t get much better than this sweet adventure where Goofy takes his teen son Max on a fishing trip (I mean, that Powerline concert finale?!). Passing this movie on to our kids is practically part of the millennial mission statement.
Even More Road Trip Movies
- Joy Ride (2001)
- Paris, Texas (1984)
- The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
- The Hitcher (1986)
- Badlands (1973)
- Bones and All (2022)
- It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
- Jeepers Creepers (2001)
- Broken Flowers (2005)
- Zombieland (2009)
- Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
- Rat Race (2001)
- Road Trip (2000)
- EuroTrip (2004)
- Kalifornia (1993)
- The Darjeeling Limited (2007)
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
- Alice in the Cities (1974)
- The Brown Bunny (2003)
- Detours (2016)
- Vanishing Point (1971)
- The Lucky Ones (2008)
- The Yellow Handkerchief (2008)
- Sightseers (2012)
- Last Flag Flying (2017)
- Midnight Run (1988)
- Mr. Pig (2016)
- Dog (2022)
- Mississippi Grind (2015)
- Until the End of the World (1991)
- Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows (1968)
- Bandwagon (1996)
source https://www.scarymommy.com/entertainment/road-trip-movies
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