Essential Classics from a Golden Year of Cinema
Explore the best films of the year, featuring Oscar winners, action blockbusters, and cult favorites that defined a legendary era of filmmaking.
If you ask a casual moviegoer to name the greatest year of the eighties, they will likely point toward 1982 or 1984. But for those who value a year where the high-concept blockbuster and the prestige drama lived in perfect, sweaty harmony, 1987 stands alone. It was the year that Hollywood mastered the art of the adult thriller while simultaneously pushing the boundaries of what an action movie could be. It felt like the industry had finally found its footing in a decade that had previously been defined by neon excess and teenage whimsy.
The summer of 1987 belonged to the hard R rating. It was the season of Predator and Robocop, two films that could have easily been forgotten as disposable genre fare. Instead, they became pillars of the canon. Paul Verhoeven used a cyborg policeman to deliver a blistering satire of American corporate greed, while John McTiernan turned a standard Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle into a masterclass of tension and subversion. These were not just movies for kids. They were loud, violent, and surprisingly intelligent reflections of a late Cold War society.
At the same time, the domestic thriller reached a fever pitch with Fatal Attraction. It was more than just a box office smash. It was a genuine cultural earthquake that changed the way people talked about relationships and infidelity. Around the same time, Adrian Lyne and his contemporaries were proving that audiences were hungry for stories that dealt with the messy, dangerous sides of adulthood. Even the comedies of the year had a bit more bite. James L. Brooks gave us Broadcast News, a film that remains the gold standard for movies about journalism and the compromise of integrity.
For movie fans, 1987 is also remembered as the year the independent spirit began to truly rattle the cage of the studio system. We saw the arrival of Raising Arizona, which announced the Coen brothers as a singular force of comedic genius. We got Withnail and I, a British masterpiece of misery and wit that would become the ultimate cult classic. These films suggested that you did not need a massive budget or a traditional narrative structure to capture the imagination of a global audience.
The year also showcased an incredible range of performances that have lingered in the collective memory. We watched Michael Douglas personify eighties avarice as Gordon Gekko in Wall Street, a role that defined an era of financial obsession. We saw Cher dominate the screen in Moonstruck, a film so charming and structurally perfect that it remains the blueprint for the modern romantic comedy. Even the horror genre found new depth with Clive Barker’s Hellraiser, which brought a dark, literary sophistication to a genre often dismissed as cheap.
Ultimately, 1987 was significant because it felt like cinema was growing up. The blockbusters were smarter, the dramas were more daring, and the niche films were finding their way into the mainstream. It was a year where quality and commercial success were not mutually exclusive. When film fans look back at these twelve months, they see a time when the silver screen felt vital, dangerous, and endlessly creative. It was the peak of a specific kind of American filmmaking that valued the visceral thrill as much as the intellectual hook.

A high-school gym teacher has big plans for the summer, but is forced to cancel them to teach a "bonehead" English class for misfit goof-off students. Fortunately, his unconventional brand of teaching fun field trips begins to connect with them, and even inspires ardor in some.

A minor car accident drives two rival aluminum-siding salesmen to the ridiculous extremes of man versus man in 1963 Baltimore.

Aspiring composer Jim Sanders is engaged to spoiled rich girl Patty. But the morning after his bachelor party, Jim wakes up to discover a beautiful, broken-winged angel in his pool. When everyone finds out about his heavenly houseguest, Jim must cope with a dangerously jealous fiancée, an exploitive future father-in-law and a group of buddies with an outrageous business plan!

Bobo, a feral man raised by wolves, is reunited with his family by a researcher. However, this disappoints his brother, Reggie, who has no intentions of sharing the family inheritance with him.

Tim Madden awakens one morning to discover a fresh tattoo on his arm, his car covered in blood, his girlfriend in bed with the town sheriff, and a woman's severed head in his weed stash. Sensing a setup and in desperate need to clear his name, he begins an investigation that soon begins to expose a web of corruption in the small coastal community of Provincetown.

Benji has become stranded on a remote island after a boating accident. He finds himself struggling to survive in the wilderness, avoiding close encounters with a wolf, a bear, and a territorial female cougar with her cub.

A suburban housewife chokes to death and is brought back to life by a spell cast by her wacky sister.

When a Supreme Court judge commits suicide and his secretary is found murdered, all fingers point to Carl Anderson, a homeless veteran who's deaf and mute. But when public defender Kathleen Riley is assigned to his case, she begins to believe that Anderson may actually be innocent. Juror Eddie Sanger, a Washington lobbyist, agrees, and together the pair begins their own investigation of events.

A rookie cop goes undercover to infiltrate a gang of car thieves led by smooth and charming Ted. The rookie becomes too involved and starts to enjoy the thrill and lifestyle of the game, and becomes romanticly involved with the leaders sister.

Deceased drifter Mike arrives in Heaven and quickly falls for newborn soul Annie, soon to start her assignment on Earth. When Annie leaves, Mike follows.

A few years ago, a mysterious serial-killer caused panic on Crippen High School. The killer was never caught. A movie company, Cosmic Pictures, has decided to make a feature movie about these events - on location, at the now abandoned school. Since members of cast and crew disappear without a trace, it seems as if history is repeating itself...
A psychiatrist comes to the aid of a compulsive gambler and is led by a smooth-talking grifter into the shadowy but compelling world of stings, scams, and con men.

After separating from his wife, Leonard Parker quit the spy business and became a restaurateur. His wife refuses to speak with him, and his daughter, who changes her career more often than her clothes, has begun dating a man old enough to be Leonard's father! On top of it all, the government has asked him to come back and save the world again.

In a soon to be demolished block of apartments, the residents resist the criminal methods used to force them to leave so a greedy tycoon can build his new skyscraper. When tiny mechanical aliens land for a recharge, they decide to stay and help out.

Brantley Foster, a well-educated kid from Kansas, has always dreamed of making it big in New York, but once in New York, he learns that jobs - and girls - are hard to get. When Brantley visits his uncle, Howard Prescott, who runs a multi-million-dollar company, he is given a job in the company's mail room.

Larry Donner, an author with a cruel ex-wife, teaches a writing workshop in which one of his students, Owen, is fed up with his domineering mother. When Owen watches a Hitchcock classic that seems to mirror his own life, he decides to put the movie's plot into action and offers to kill Larry's ex-wife, if Larry promises to murder his mom. Before Larry gets a chance to react to the plan, it seems that Owen has already set things in motion.

A womanizer meets his match when he falls for the daughter of a gambling addict who is in debt to the mob.

Claire Gregory, an upper class New York personality, witnesses a murder in a luxurious nightclub. Detective Mike Keegan, recently promoted, is assigned to protect her.

A very successful stock broker is called to court to testify against a mob boss who was into some inside trading. Andrew Morenski must become Max Hauser and go back to high school for protection from the mob.

J.C. Wiatt is a talented and ambitious New York City career woman who is married to her job and working towards partner at her firm. She has a live-in relationship with Steven, a successful investment broker who, along with J.C., agreed children aren't part of the plan. J.C.'s life takes an unexpected turn when a distant relative dies and the will appoints her the caretaker of their baby girl, Elizabeth. The baby's sudden arrival causes Steven to leave, breaking off their relationship. Juggling power lunches and powdered formula, she is soon forced off the fast track by a conniving colleague and a bigoted boss. But she won't stay down for long. She'll prove to the world that a woman can have it all and on her own terms too!

Two terrible lounge singers get booked to play a gig in a Moroccan hotel but somehow become pawns in an international power play between the CIA, the Emir of Ishtar, and the rebels trying to overthrow his regime.

When the young, attractive Joe Orton meets the older, more introverted Kenneth Halliwell at drama school, he befriends the kindred spirit and they start an affair. As Orton becomes more comfortable with his sexuality and starts to find success with his writing, Halliwell becomes increasingly alienated and jealous, ultimately tapping into a dangerous rage.

When average, law-abiding citizens suddenly turn to a life of hedonistic behavior and violent crime, Detective Tom Beck is tasked with helping young FBI agent Lloyd Gallagher determine the cause.

An alcoholic drifter spends Halloween in his hometown of Albany, New York after returning there for the first time in decades.

A young inductee into the military is given the task of looking after some chimpanzees used in the mysterious 'Project X'. Getting to know the chimps fairly well, he begins to suspect there is more to the secret project than he is being told.

A dramatic story, based on actual events, about the friendship between two men struggling against apartheid in South Africa in the 1970s. Donald Woods is a white liberal journalist in South Africa who begins to follow the activities of Stephen Biko, a courageous and outspoken black anti-apartheid activist.

After a convivial holiday dinner party, things begin to unravel when a husband and wife address some prickly issues concerning their marriage.

Mourning the accidental death of his wife and having just moved to New York with his young son, laconic police psychologist Cal Jamison is reluctantly drawn into a series of grisly, ritualistic murders involving the immolation of two youths.

A restauranteur teams up with a police officer and his ex-con brother to avenge the death of a friend's daughter.

Navy Lt. Tom Farrell meets a young woman, Susan Atwell , and they share a passionate fling. Farrell then finds out that his superior, Defense Secretary David Brice, is also romantically involved with Atwell. When the young woman turns up dead, Farrell is put in charge of the murder investigation. He begins to uncover shocking clues about the case, but when details of his encounter with Susan surface, he becomes a suspect as well.
A middle-aged man recalls his childhood growing up in and around London during World War II.
A farm boy reluctantly becomes a member of the undead when a girl he meets turns out to be part of a band of vampires who roam the highways in stolen cars.
Downtrodden writer Henry and distressed goddess Wanda aren't exactly husband and wife: they're wedded to their bar stools. But, they like each other's company—and Barfly captures their giddy, gin-soaked attempts to make a go of life on the skids.

The Narrator tells us how the radio influenced his childhood in the days before TV. In the New York City of the late 1930s to the New Year's Eve 1944, this coming-of-age tale mixes the narrator's experiences with contemporary anecdotes and urban legends of the radio stars.
A hedonistic man finds a mysterious puzzle box that summons a group of gruesome beings known as the Cenobites. These otherworldly entities open the doors to a dominion where pain and pleasure are indivisible.

After another deadly shark attack, Ellen Brody decides she has had enough of New England's Amity Island and moves to the Caribbean to join her son, Michael, and his family. But a great white shark has followed her there, hungry for more lives.

Two aged sisters reflect on life and the past during a late summer day in Maine.
Expecting the usual tedium that accompanies a summer in the Catskills with her family, 17-year-old Frances 'Baby' Houseman is surprised to find herself stepping into the shoes of a professional hoofer—and unexpectedly falling in love.

In this modern take on Edmond Rostand's classic play "Cyrano de Bergerac," C. D. Bales is the witty, intelligent, and brave fire chief of a small Pacific Northwest town who, due to the size of his enormous nose, declines to pursue the girl of his dreams, lovely Roxanne Kowalski. Instead, when his shy underling Chris McConnell becomes smitten with Roxanne, C.D. feeds the handsome young man the words of love to win her heart.
When the nefarious Dark Helmet hatches a plan to snatch Princess Vespa and steal her planet's air, space-bum-for-hire Lone Starr and his clueless sidekick fly to the rescue. Along the way, they meet Yogurt, who puts Lone Starr wise to the power of "The Schwartz." Can he master it in time to save the day?
Axel Foley returns to the land of sunshine and palm trees to investigate the near-fatal shooting of police Captain Andrew Bogomil. With the help of Sgt. Taggart and Det. Rosewood, they soon uncover that the shooting is associated with a series of "alphabet" robberies masterminded by a heartless weapons kingpin—and the chase is on.

LAPD Sgt. Joe Friday -- the equally straight-laced nephew of the famous police sergeant of the same name -- is paired up with a young, freewheeling detective named Pep Streebeck. After investigating some strange robberies at the local zoo and the theft of a stockpile of pornographic magazines, they uncover cult activity in the heart of the city and are hot on the case to figure out who's behind it all.

When plans with her boyfriend fall through, high school senior Chris Parker ends up babysitting the Anderson kids, Brad and Sara. What should be a quiet night in, however, turns into a series of ridiculous exploits, starting when they leave the house to pick up Chris' friend Brenda. Soon, Brad's buddy Daryl is involved, and the group must contend with car thieves, blues musicians and much more.

Jonathan Switcher, an unemployed artist, finds a job as an assistant window dresser for a department store. When Jonathan happens upon a beautiful mannequin he previously designed, she springs to life and introduces herself as Emmy, an Egyptian under an ancient spell. Despite interference from the store's devious manager, Jonathan and his mannequin fall in love while creating eye-catching window displays to keep the struggling store in business.
Los Angeles teenager Ritchie Valens becomes an overnight rock 'n' roll success in 1958, thanks to a love ballad called "Donna" that he wrote for his girlfriend. But as his star rises, Valens has conflicts with his jealous brother, Bob, and becomes haunted by a recurring nightmare of a plane crash just as he begins his first national tour alongside Buddy Holly.

Three bachelors find themselves forced to take care of a baby left by one of the guy's girlfriends.

The men of Bravo Company are facing a battle that's all uphill… up Hamburger Hill. Fourteen war-weary soldiers are battling for a mud-covered mound of earth so named because it chews up soldiers like chopped meat. They are fighting for their country, their fellow soldiers and their lives. War is hell, but this is worse. Hamburger Hill tells it the way it was, the way it really was. It's a raw, gritty and totally unrelenting dramatic depiction of one of the fiercest battles of America's bloodiest war. This happened. Hamburger Hill - war at its worst, men at their best.

Lincoln Hawk a hard-luck big-rig trucker takes us under the glaring Las Vegas lights for all the boisterous action of the World Armwrestling Championship. Relying on wits and willpower, Hawk tries to rebuild his life by capturing the first-place prize money, and the love of the son he abandoned years earlier into the keeping of his rich, ruthless father-in-law.

When an unsuspecting town newcomer is drawn to local blood fiends, the Frog brothers and other unlikely heroes gear up to rescue him.

Test pilot Tuck Pendleton volunteers to test a special vessel for a miniaturization experiment. Accidentally injected into a neurotic hypochondriac, Jack Putter, Tuck must convince Jack to find his ex-girlfriend, Lydia Maxwell, to help him extract Tuck and his ship and re-enlarge them before his oxygen runs out.

Au revoir les enfants tells a heartbreaking story of friendship and devastating loss concerning two boys living in Nazi-occupied France. At a provincial Catholic boarding school, the precocious youths enjoy true camaraderie—until a secret is revealed. Based on events from writer-director Malle’s own childhood, the film is a subtle, precisely observed tale of courage, cowardice, and tragic awakening.

Two detectives observe an escaped convict's ex-girlfriend, but complications set in when one of them falls for her.

After a defecting Russian general reveals a plot to assassinate foreign spies, James Bond is assigned a secret mission to dispatch the new head of the KGB to prevent an escalation of tensions between the Soviet Union and the West.
Ash Williams and his girlfriend Linda find a log cabin in the woods with a voice recording from an archeologist who had recorded himself reciting ancient chants from "The Book of the Dead." As they play the recording an evil power is unleashed taking over Linda's body.
A high-strung news producer finds herself in a love triangle between a talented but self-doubting reporter and a charming news anchor who embodies the growing trivialization of news that she is determined to fight against.
Three single women in a picturesque Rhode Island village have their wishes granted - at a cost - when a mysterious and flamboyant man arrives in their lives.

By 2017, the global economy has collapsed and U.S. society has become a totalitarian police state, censoring all cultural activity. The government pacifies the populace by broadcasting a number of game shows in which convicted criminals fight for their lives, including the gladiator-style The Running Man, hosted by the ruthless Damon Killian, where “runners” attempt to evade “stalkers” and certain death for a chance to be pardoned and set free.

Two out-of-work actors -- the anxious, luckless Marwood and his acerbic, alcoholic friend, Withnail -- spend their days drifting between their squalid flat, the unemployment office and the pub. When they take a holiday "by mistake" at the country house of Withnail's flamboyantly gay uncle, Monty, they encounter the unpleasant side of the English countryside: tedium, terrifying locals and torrential rain.

Two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, glide through the streets of Berlin, observing the bustling population, providing invisible rays of hope to the distressed but never interacting with them. When Damiel falls in love with lonely trapeze artist Marion, the angel longs to experience life in the physical world, and finds — with some words of wisdom from actor Peter Falk — that it might be possible for him to take human form.
Wim Wenders crafts a shimmering, monochrome poem about the yearning for human vulnerability in a divided Berlin. Through its ethereal cinematography and contemplative pace, the film transforms the act of looking into a spiritual exercise, capturing the beauty of the mundane from a perspective that is both celestial and deeply grounded.
A married man's one-night stand comes back to haunt him when that lover begins to stalk him and his family.

A French housekeeper with a mysterious past brings quiet revolution in the form of one exquisite meal to a circle of starkly pious villagers in late 19th century Denmark.
This Danish masterpiece is a sublime celebration of the senses, arguing that true artistry can bridge the gap between rigid piety and earthly pleasure. Gabriel Axel directs with a quiet, observant grace that culminates in one of cinema’s most profound and spiritually nourishing communal experiences.
In a violent, near-apocalyptic Detroit, evil corporation Omni Consumer Products wins a contract from the city government to privatize the police force. To test their crime-eradicating cyborgs, the company leads street cop Alex Murphy into an armed confrontation with crime lord Boddicker so they can use his body to support their untested RoboCop prototype. But when RoboCop learns of the company's nefarious plans, he turns on his masters.
Paul Verhoeven crafts a blistering, hyper-violent satire that uses the skeleton of a sci-fi actioner to dismantle American corporate greed and the privatization of authority. It remains a marvel of practical effects and transgressive wit, masquerading as a blockbuster while operating as a high-concept critique of Reagan-era excess.
37-year-old Italian-American widow Loretta Castorini believes she is unlucky in love, and so accepts a marriage proposal from her boyfriend Johnny, even though she doesn't love him. When she meets his estranged younger brother Ronny, an emotional and passionate man, she finds herself drawn to him. She tries to resist, but Ronny, who blames his brother for the loss of his hand, has no scruples about aggressively pursuing her while Johnny is out of the country. As Loretta falls for Ronny, she learns that she's not the only one in her family with a secret romance.
When a childless couple—an ex-con and an ex-cop—take one of a wealthy family’s quintuplets to raise as their own, their lives grow more complicated than anticipated.

An irritable marketing executive, Neal Page, is heading home to Chicago for Thanksgiving when a number of delays force him to travel with a well meaning but overbearing shower curtain ring salesman, Del Griffith.
John Candy trades his usual slapstick for a soul-baring vulnerability, anchoring the film with a desperate, motor-mouthed optimism that masks a profound loneliness. It is the definitive proof of his dramatic range, transforming a potentially grating sidekick into the most human and heartbreaking character of his career. Steve Martin provides the perfect acidic foil, but Candy’s ability to find the dignity in a bumbling salesman remains the movie’s true heartbeat.
A veteran cop and an unstable detective become partners who must put their differences aside in order to bring down a heroin-smuggling ring run by ex-Special Forces.
Mel Gibson delivers a masterclass in controlled instability, balancing bug-eyed mania with a soulful, suicidal exhaustion that redefined the action hero archetype. By weaponizing his frantic energy and piercing gaze, he transformed Martin Riggs into a volatile icon and bridged the gap between serious actor and global superstar. His ability to pivot from slapstick physical comedy to raw, grieving vulnerability remains the definitive blueprint for the genre.
Jamie Graham, a privileged English boy, is living in Shanghai when the Japanese invade and force all foreigners into prison camps. Jamie is captured with an American sailor, who looks out for him while they are in the camp together. Even though he is separated from his parents and in a hostile environment, Jamie maintains his dignity and youthful spirit, providing a beacon of hope for the others held captive with him.
Steven Spielberg captures the haunting intersection of childhood wonder and the brutal machinery of war through a performance of startling maturity by young Christian Bale. The film subverts typical survival tropes to deliver a hallucinogenic, visually arresting portrait of psychological fracture amidst the chaos of occupied China.
A team of elite commandos on a secret mission in a Central American jungle come to find themselves hunted by an extraterrestrial warrior.
John McTiernan brilliantly subverts the invincibility of the eighties action hero by introducing a primal, technologically superior antagonist that turns hunters into prey. It is a masterclass in suspense and creature design, stripping away the bravado of its muscular cast to reveal a raw, visceral struggle for survival.
A dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the Emperors of China, from his lofty birth and brief reign in the Forbidden City, the object of worship by half a billion people; through his abdication, his decline and dissolute lifestyle; his exploitation by the invading Japanese, and finally to his obscure existence as just another peasant worker in the People's Republic.
Bernardo Bertolucci achieves a staggering sense of scale, transforming the Forbidden City into a gilded cage where history exerts its crushing weight upon a single, shrinking soul. It is a rare masterpiece that marries opulent production design with a profound, poetic meditation on the obsolescence of tradition.
A young and impatient stockbroker is willing to do anything to get to the top, including trading on illegal inside information taken through a ruthless and greedy corporate raider, whom takes the youth under his wing.
Michael Douglas captures the seductive rot of the Reagan era with a performance of predatory, slick-backed precision. By turning Gordon Gekko into a shark in a tailored suit, Douglas shed his everyman image and redefined the archetypal screen villain for a generation of capitalists. He commands the screen with a clipped, aggressive cadence that transformed a cold-blooded corporate raider into an enduring cultural icon.

A disk jockey goes to Vietnam to work for the Armed Forces Radio Service. While he becomes popular among the troops, his superiors disapprove of his humor.
Robin Williams delivers a performance of volcanic energy, using humor as a subversive weapon against the rigid absurdity of military bureaucracy. The film succeeds by balancing his manic improvisational genius with a sobering look at the cultural disconnect and escalating tragedy of the conflict in Southeast Asia.
In this enchantingly cracked fairy tale, the beautiful Princess Buttercup and the dashing Westley must overcome staggering odds to find happiness amid six-fingered swordsmen, murderous princes, Sicilians and rodents of unusual size. But even death can't stop these true lovebirds from triumphing.
Rob Reiner achieves a near-impossible tonal alchemy, blending sincere romanticism with a sophisticated, meta-fictional wit that revitalizes the fairy tale format. It is a rare gem of genre-blending that remains eternally sharp, defying saccharine conventions through its impeccable comedic timing and genuine heart.
Elliot Ness, an ambitious prohibition agent, is determined to take down Al Capone. In order to achieve this goal, he forms a group given the nickname “The Untouchables”.
Brian De Palma revitalizes the gangster genre with a kinetic, operatic style that turns Prohibition-era Chicago into a mythic battleground of moral absolutes. Bolstered by David Mamet’s sharp dialogue and Ennio Morricone’s pulsating score, the film elevates the police procedural into a masterclass of tension and visual panache.
A pragmatic U.S. Marine observes the dehumanizing effects the U.S.-Vietnam War has on his fellow recruits from their brutal boot camp training to the bloody street fighting in Hue.
Stanley Kubrick dissects the dehumanizing assembly line of combat with a cold, clinical precision that strips away any lingering cinematic illusions of glory. The film’s bifurcated structure serves as a jarring exploration of how the military apparatus systematically erodes the human psyche until only the killer remains.
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