Filmmakers worldwide are constantly drawn to the road trip concepts, where a simple car, bus, or bike ride can turn into a stunning and beautiful story.
It provides plenty of opportunity for unexpected change, often in front of a magical and beautiful landscape. They will never stop making movies about road trips because people will never stop seeing them.
This kind of movie has a huge craze among viewers. Hence, we have selected some of the top-rated best road trip movies of all time.
Easy Rider (1969)
Cast- Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Terry Southern.
Director- Dennis Hopper.
IMDB rating- 7.3
Storyline- “Easy Rider” Movie follows two hippie bikers, Wyatt and Billy, as they travel from Los Angeles to New Orleans after a successful drug deal.
They ride Harleys across the country. The film explores the counterculture of the late 1960s and early 1970s – LSD, marijuana, societal life – and the changes that were taking place in the United States as the younger generation rebelled against the rules and norms of their parents and grandparents.
Into the Wild (2007)
Cast- Emile Hirsch, Catherine Keener, Vince Vaughn.
Director- Sean Penn.
IMDB rating- 8.1
Storyline- This movie is based on the 1996 novel. This film tells the story of Christopher McCandless as he travels across North America and Alaska in his quest for self-sufficiency, rejecting traditional life and living off the land.
In the end, he ended up near Denali National Park in Alaska, where he found an abandoned bus that he made his home.
Sadly, it turns out that life in the Alaskan wilderness isn’t easy.
Joy Ride (2001)
Cast: Paul Walker, Steve Zahn, Leelee Sobieski, Stuart Stone.
Director- John Dahl.
IMDB rating- 6.6
Storyline- College student Louis is driving home for summer vacation when he has to bail his brother Fuller out of jail in Utah.
He goes to Colorado to pick up one of his childhood friends and fellow students, Vina. In this film, Louis and his brother pull a prank on a truck driver.
It turns out they messed with the wrong truck driver as their road trip quickly turns into a quest for survival when the truck driver repeatedly tries to kill them for revenge.
Lost in America (1985)
Cast- Julie Hagerty, Tina Kincaid, Albert Brooks, Sylvia Farrel.
Director- Albert Brooks
IMDB rating- 7.0
Storyline- A married couple who quit their job to explore America and find themselves. Of course, things don’t go well, mostly due to the naivety and greed of these two middle-class Californians.
The Straight Story (1999)
Cast- Sissy Spacek, Richard Farnsworth, Jane Galloway Heitz.
Director- David Lynch
IMDB rating- 8.0
Storyline- Richard Farnsworth plays a man who sets off on tour by riding a lawnmower to make things right with his ill brother.
The story is based on a real-life event, where Alvin Street traveled 240 miles from Iowa to Wisconsin on a lawnmower. This movie is based on a simple story yet very touchy.
The Motorcycle Diaries (2004)
Cast- Mia Maestro,Gael Garcia Bernal, Rodrigo de la Serna,
Director- Walter Salles.
IMDB rating- 7.8
Storyline- This movie chronicles “Che Guevara’s” life before he turned became a Marxist revolutionary. In the film, young Guevara takes a trip across South America along with his friend Alberto Granado.
During this 8,000-mile road trip by motorcycle and other means of transportation from Argentina to Peru, she explored the world’s suffering, injustice, and oppression, and eventually, she formed some ideas on freedom and equality.
Dumb and Dumber (1994)
Cast- Jim Carrey, Lauren Holly, Jeff Daniels.
Director- Peter Farrelly, Bobby Farrelly.
IMDB rating- 7.3
Storyline- Unquestionably, this one is the funniest road trip movie on this list.
This movie is about Harry and Lloyd and their trip from Rhode Island to Aspen, Colorado, to return a suitcase. This is also probably the laugh-out-loud funniest movie of all.
It Happened One Night (1934)
Cast- Clark Gable, Walter Connolly, Claudette Colbert.
Director- Frank Capra
IMDB rating- 8.1
Storyline- It Happened One Night movie is all about a newspaper reporter Clark Gable who is gradually falling in love with spoiled heiress Claudette Colbert during their glamorous trip from Florida to New York. It is rightfully considered one of the greatest films.
Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
Cast- Oscar Isaac, John Goodman, Carey Mulligan.
Director- Ethan Coen, Joel Coen.
IMDB rating- 7.4
Storyline-This movie is all about a sad, deep, and darkly funny presentation of a folk musician’s life in Greenwich village during the early 1960s.
Who travels from New York to Chicago and then back again, trying to prove his talents.
National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983)
Cast- Chevy Chase, Imogene Coca, Beverly D’Angelo.
Director- Harold Ramis.
IMDB rating- 7.3
Storyline- The National Lampoon’s holiday may feature the coolest comedy team ever assembled.
It simply revolves around Chevy Chase, who is taking his family on a trip from Chicago to Wally World in California, where he meets increasingly hilarious setbacks.
Grandma (2015)
Cast- Julia Garner, Lily Tomlin, Marcia Gay Harden.
Director- Paul Weitz
IMDB rating- 6.7
Storyline- A teenager and her grandmother hit the road together in search of money to pay for an abortion.
They’re both broke, and the girl needs $850.Then there comes the tangle of personal relationships that winds its way at seemingly every turn leading to a series of uncomfortable accounts along the way.
Grandma is a small movie, but it reflects the meaning of family and the value of living on one’s terms.
Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
Cast- Toni Collette, Steve Carell, Paul Dano, Alan Arkin, Abigail Breslin, Greg Kinnear.
Director- Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris.
IMDB rating– 7.8
Storyline- The Hoover family-A man, his wife, uncle, brother, and grandfather-recreate fun in a dysfunctional state by going via a California-bound Volkswagen bus to support a daughter to win the Little Miss Sunshine contest.
Their sanity is stretched to the limit when they travel together, which causes epic trouble.
Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)
Cast- Steve Martin, Lila Robbins, John Candy, Kevin Bacon.
Director- John Hughes
IMDB ratings- 7.6
Storyline- Steve Martin and John Candy play two men who suddenly become traveling buddies as they try to get home for the holidays.
Neil Paige is somewhat of a control freak. Attempting to get home to Chicago to spend Thanksgiving with family, his flight was rerouted to a different town due to a snowstorm.
Things get worse when he is forced to bond with talkative Dale Griffith, which he finds extremely annoying. Together, they must overcome the holiday travel challenges to reach their intended destination.
The Color Wheel (2011)
Cast- Carlen Altman, Kate Lyn Sheil, Bob Byington.
Director- Alex Ross Perry
IMDB rating- 6.6
Storyline- Being stuck with an annoying person on a long road trip can be a miserable experience. “The Color Wheel,” an obnoxious brother and sister whose journey across New England leads them to meet strangers and old friends who are more terrible than they are.
Stranger Than Paradise (1984)
Cast- John Lurie, Richard Edson, Eszter Balint.
Director- Jim Jarmusch
IMDB rating- 7.4
Storyline- Although road trips can be fun and exciting, there are chances to be boring, especially when there isn’t much scenery to see.
Writer-director Jim Jarmusch expertly captured the boredom of a bad road trip in his 1984 debut Stranger Than Paradise movie, in which three-person move out searching for new experiences and can’t find them anywhere.
My Own Private Idaho (1991)
Cast- River Phoenix, James Russo, Keanu Reeves
Director- Gus Van Sant
IMDB rating– 7.0
Storyline- “My Own Private Idaho” begins with River Phoenix character Mickey Water saying that he has traveled so much by so many roads that he can recognize the roads just by seeing them.
His life on the road is beautiful but lonely, too, until he finds someone he can share it with for a while, the son of Senator Scott Favor.
Their journey through deserted roads and rocky landscapes is somehow absurd but mostly poetic and melancholic, as two lost youths appear on the scene as they are in their own lives.
Wild at Heart (1990)
Cast- Nicolas Cage, Willem Dafoe, Laura Dern.
Director- David Lynch
IMDB rating– 7.2
Storyline-This movie is funny and romantic as well as scary.
Sailor and Lula, the ever-young couple played by Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern, hit the road after Lola’s mother attempts to kill Sailor, and on their journey, they’ll deal with more killers and more victims.
But their love is strong enough to keep them safe every step of the way.
The Muppet Movie (1979)
Cast: Charles Durning, Steve Martin, Austin Pendleton, Edgar Bergen, Milton Berle.
Director: James Frawley
IMDB rating: 7.6
Storyline- Music, mayhem, and marionette are the perfect features for a road trip movie. This movie has them all.
The Muppet follows Kermit the Frog on his cross-country journey to Hollywood to pursue a career in show business.
Along the way, he meets Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, and rock musician Dr. Teeth while staying in electric mayhem. This movie is for you if you enjoy puns, visual humor, and celebrity cameos.