The globetrotting spectacle of adventure movies and the romantic passion of love stories can make for a match made in heaven if a filmmaker can pull off both of the genres effectively. From Alfred Hitchcock to Robert Zemeckis to Charlie Chaplin, plenty of great directors have made action-packed adventure movies whose emotional core is a love story.
John Huston’s The African Queen is a prime example of a movie that combines adventure and romance perfectly, as Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn set out to blow up a German gunship with the eponymous steamboat and fall in love on the journey.
10 The African Queen (1951)
Humphrey Bogart stars in The African Queen as Charlie Allnut, the boorish captain of the titular steamboat. Katharine Hepburn co-stars as Rose Sayer, a Methodist missionary in German East Africa who’s forced to join Charlie on the African Queen when her village is attacked and her brother is killed.
They plot to turn the African Queen into a torpedo and plow it into a patrolling German gunship to blow it up — and, of course, they fall in love along the way.
9 The Mummy (1999)
After the 2017 reboot starring Tom Cruise showed moviegoers how bad things could get, the Brendan Fraser version of The Mummy looked like a masterpiece in comparison. Stephen Sommers ditched the horror vibes of the original Universal Monsters films and directed 1999’s The Mummy as an Indiana Jones-style action-adventure crossed with an old-timey screwball comedy.
The heart of the movie is the bickering dynamic between Fraser’s character Rick and Rachel Weisz’s character Evelyn that inevitably morphs into romantic tension.
8 Romancing The Stone (1984)
Kathleen Turner stars in Romancing the Stone as romance novelist Joan Wilder, who heads to Colombia to pay the ransom of her kidnapped sister. Michael Douglas co-stars as Jack Colton, an Indy-esque mercenary who joins forces with her.
From Back to the Future director Robert Zemeckis, Romancing the Stone has plenty of laughs, thrills, and passion. Danny DeVito gives a hysterical supporting turn as one of the kidnappers.
7 The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
All of the Bond movies have a romantic subplot — the “Bond girl” has even become an antiquated trope — but The Spy Who Loved Me leans heavily into this angle as 007 teams up with Major Anya Amasova.
The pinnacle of the Roger Moore era, The Spy Who Loved Me exemplifies everything a Bond movie can be when it’s firing on all cylinders.
6 The Princess Bride (1987)
William Goldman’s novel The Princess Bride — and his screenplay for Rob Reiner’s movie adaptation — upended a ton of fairy tale tropes, primarily by giving a spotlight to the underserved side characters.
While supporting players like Mandy Patinkin and André the Giant steal the show, Robin Wright and Cary Elwes anchor the movie’s love story.
5 The Circus (1928)
Charlie Chaplin took his iconic Tramp character on an adventure in the 1928 romantic comedy The Circus. When he stumbles into the middle of a circus performance and unwittingly becomes the star of the show, the Tramp is hired by the ringleader. During his time with the circus, the Tramp falls for a horse rider.
Production of the film was delayed by countless problems — a fire at the studio, the death of Chaplin’s mother, his problems with the IRS, his second divorce, etc. — but when he finally got the cameras rolling, Chaplin turned out yet another masterpiece.
4 The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Technically, The Empire Strikes Back tells the story of Luke Skywalker training to face Darth Vader in battle and learning that the masked Sith Lord is his father, and Han and Leia’s romantic arc is more of a B-plot, but there’s plenty of romantic tension in this movie and it’s one of the greatest adventure films ever made.
As they flee from Imperial forces through asteroid fields and giant worms, Han and Leia are forced to confront their feelings for each other. John William’s “Han Solo and the Princess” is one of his greatest compositions and the final moment between the characters (“I love you.” “I know.”) is one of the most iconic scenes in film history.
3 North By Northwest (1959)
This is essentially Alfred Hitchcock’s take on a James Bond-type spy movie. Cary Grant is mistaken for a decoy government agent and has to go on the run. He ends up falling for femme fatale Eve Kendall along the way.
From the opening U.N. murder to the climactic chase across the top of Mount Rushmore, North by Northwest is a nonstop thrill-ride. The highlight is, of course, the iconic cropduster scene.
2 King Kong (1933)
There’s a love triangle at the heart of King Kong between a man, a woman, and an ape. Carl Denham brings actress Ann Darrow to Skull Island to shoot a movie and, while she falls for first mate Jack Driscoll, the local giant ape becomes infatuated with her.
Peter Jackson’s 2005 remake is surprisingly effective in telling the same story on a much grander scale with modern visual effects and a blockbuster sensibility.
1 Up (2009)
Pixar’s Up is a different kind of love story. Instead of charting the beginning of a relationship, its opening minutes take audiences through Carl and Ellie’s entire decades-long marriage before she’s stricken ill and tragically passes away. The movie is about dealing with grief and honoring the memory of a loved one.
With a talkative Wilderness Explorer in tow, Carl decides to take the trip to Paradise Falls that he and Ellie always dreamed about by using thousands of helium balloons to lift his house off the ground and fly it across the world.
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