top films of 1986
by StanGriffen | created - 11 Dec 2014 | updated - 24 Jan 2023 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Blue Velvet (1986)
R | 120 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
The discovery of a severed human ear found in a field leads a young man on an investigation related to a beautiful, mysterious nightclub singer and a group of psychopathic criminals who have kidnapped her child.
Director: David Lynch | Stars: Isabella Rossellini, Kyle MacLachlan, Dennis Hopper, Laura Dern
Votes: 215,566 | Gross: $8.55M
2. Aliens (1986)
R | 137 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Decades after surviving the Nostromo incident, Ellen Ripley is sent out to re-establish contact with a terraforming colony but finds herself battling the Alien Queen and her offspring.
Director: James Cameron | Stars: Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Carrie Henn, Paul Reiser
Votes: 762,532 | Gross: $85.16M
3. Platoon (1986)
R | 120 min | Drama, War
Chris Taylor, a neophyte recruit in Vietnam, finds himself caught in a battle of wills between two sergeants, one good and the other evil. A shrewd examination of the brutality of war and the duality of man in conflict.
Director: Oliver Stone | Stars: Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, Keith David
Votes: 439,244 | Gross: $138.53M
4. Labyrinth (1986)
PG | 101 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy
Sixteen-year-old Sarah must solve a labyrinth to rescue her baby brother when he is taken by the Goblin King.
Director: Jim Henson | Stars: David Bowie, Jennifer Connelly, Toby Froud, Shelley Thompson
Votes: 149,497 | Gross: $12.73M
5. Stand by Me (1986)
R | 89 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
A writer recounts a childhood journey with his friends to find the body of a missing boy.
Director: Rob Reiner | Stars: Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O'Connell
Votes: 441,345 | Gross: $52.29M
6. Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
PG-13 | 94 min | Comedy, Horror, Musical
A nerdy florist finds his chance for success and romance with the help of a giant man-eating plant who demands to be fed.
Director: Frank Oz | Stars: Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene, Vincent Gardenia, Levi Stubbs
Votes: 86,302 | Gross: $38.75M
7. Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
PG-13 | 99 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
A rough-and-tumble trucker and his side kick face off with an ancient sorcerer in a supernatural battle beneath Chinatown.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Kurt Russell, Kim Cattrall, Dennis Dun, James Hong
Votes: 153,845 | Gross: $11.10M
8. The Mosquito Coast (1986)
PG | 117 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
An inventor spurns his city life and moves his family into the jungles of Central America to make a utopia.
Director: Peter Weir | Stars: Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren, River Phoenix, Jadrien Steele
Votes: 31,181 | Gross: $14.30M
9. The Hitcher (1986)
R | 97 min | Action, Mystery, Thriller
A young man who escapes the clutches of a murderous hitchhiker is subsequently stalked by the hitcher and framed for his crimes.
Director: Robert Harmon | Stars: Rutger Hauer, C. Thomas Howell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jeffrey DeMunn
Votes: 52,500 | Gross: $5.84M
10. River's Edge (1986)
R | 99 min | Crime, Drama
A high school slacker commits a shocking act and proceeds to let his friends in on the secret. However, the friends' reaction is almost as ambiguous and perplexing as the crime itself.
Director: Tim Hunter | Stars: Crispin Glover, Keanu Reeves, Ione Skye, Daniel Roebuck
Votes: 20,651 | Gross: $4.60M
11. Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
PG-13 | 103 min | Comedy
A popular high school student, admired by his peers, decides to take a day off from school and goes to extreme lengths to pull it off, to the chagrin of his Dean, who'll do anything to stop him.
Director: John Hughes | Stars: Matthew Broderick, Alan Ruck, Mia Sara, Jeffrey Jones
Votes: 386,205 | Gross: $70.14M
12. The Fly (1986)
R | 96 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
A brilliant but eccentric scientist begins to transform into a giant man/fly hybrid after one of his experiments goes horribly wrong.
Director: David Cronenberg | Stars: Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis, John Getz, Joy Boushel
Votes: 201,745 | Gross: $40.46M
13. Critters (1986)
PG-13 | 86 min | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
A group of small but vicious alien creatures called Crites escape from an alien prison transport vessel and land near a small farm town on earth, pursued by two shape-shifting bounty hunters.
Director: Stephen Herek | Stars: Dee Wallace, M. Emmet Walsh, Billy Green Bush, Scott Grimes
Votes: 39,292 | Gross: $13.17M
14. Gothic (1986)
R | 87 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
The Shelleys visit Lord Byron and compete to write a horror story.
Director: Ken Russell | Stars: Gabriel Byrne, Julian Sands, Natasha Richardson, Myriam Cyr
Votes: 8,859 | Gross: $0.92M
15. Castle in the Sky (1986)
PG | 125 min | Animation, Adventure, Family
A young boy and a girl with a magic crystal must race against pirates and foreign agents in a search for a legendary floating castle.
Director: Hayao Miyazaki | Stars: Mayumi Tanaka, Keiko Yokozawa, Kotoe Hatsui, Minori Terada
Votes: 182,193
16. Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
PG-13 | 107 min | Comedy, Drama
Between two Thanksgivings two years apart, Hannah's husband falls in love with her sister Lee, while her hypochondriac ex-husband rekindles his relationship with her sister Holly.
Director: Woody Allen | Stars: Mia Farrow, Dianne Wiest, Michael Caine, Barbara Hershey
Votes: 76,752 | Gross: $40.08M
17. Kin-dza-dza! (1986)
PG-13 | 135 min | Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi
Two Russians push the wrong button on a strange device and end up on the telepathic planet Pluke with its strange societal norms.
Director: Georgiy Daneliya | Stars: Stanislav Lyubshin, Evgeniy Leonov, Yuriy Yakovlev, Levan Gabriadze
Votes: 13,743
18. The Pied Piper (1986)
Not Rated | 55 min | Animation, Fantasy, Horror
The story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin with a twist.
Director: Jirí Barta | Stars: Oldrich Kaiser, Jirí Lábus, Michal Pavlícek, Vilém Cok
Votes: 1,661
19. At Close Range (1986)
R | 111 min | Crime, Drama
Reunited with his career criminal father, tough teen Brad thinks he's found his ticket to an exciting life of crime, only to find out he's wrong.
Director: James Foley | Stars: Sean Penn, Christopher Walken, Mary Stuart Masterson, Chris Penn
Votes: 17,718 | Gross: $2.35M
20. The Name of the Rose (1986)
R | 130 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
An intellectually nonconformist friar investigates a series of mysterious deaths in an isolated abbey.
Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud | Stars: Sean Connery, Christian Slater, Helmut Qualtinger, Elya Baskin
Votes: 117,185 | Gross: $7.15M
21. Highlander (1986)
R | 116 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
An immortal Scottish swordsman must confront the last of his immortal opponents, a murderously brutal barbarian who lusts for the fabled "Prize".
Director: Russell Mulcahy | Stars: Christopher Lambert, Sean Connery, Clancy Brown, Roxanne Hart
Votes: 147,352 | Gross: $5.90M
22. Dead Man's Letters (1986)
87 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
In the aftermath of nuclear holocaust, a group of intellectuals crave to find hope in the pale and colorless new world. Among them, a history teacher tries to contact via letters his missing son.
Director: Konstantin Lopushanskiy | Stars: Rolan Bykov, Iosif Ryklin, Viktor Mikhaylov, Aleksandr Sabinin
Votes: 3,804
23. Demons 2 (1986)
R | 92 min | Horror
A group of tenants and visitors are trapped in a 10-story high-rise apartment building infested with demons who proceed to hunt the dwindling humans down.
Director: Lamberto Bava | Stars: David Edwin Knight, Nancy Brilli, Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni, Bobby Rhodes
Votes: 12,028
24. Three Amigos! (1986)
PG | 104 min | Comedy, Western
Three actors accept an invitation to a Mexican village to perform their onscreen bandit fighter roles, unaware that it is the real thing.
Director: John Landis | Stars: Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, Martin Short, Alfonso Arau
Votes: 83,575 | Gross: $39.25M
25. Straight to Hell (1987)
R | 86 min | Action, Comedy, Western
A gang of bank robbers with a suitcase full of money go to the desert to hide out. After burying the loot, they find their way to a surreal town full of cowboys who drink an awful lot of ... See full summary »
Director: Alex Cox | Stars: Sy Richardson, Joe Strummer, Dick Rude, Courtney Love
Votes: 2,779 | Gross: $0.21M
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