8 of the Best Road Trip Movies to Watch this Summer

With summer now here, we’ve reached the time of year when many American families pack up their cars to go on vacation. Truckers and other road warriors will likely notice the difference too, as highways are engulfed with SUVs filled to the brim with suitcases, camping equipment, mountain bikes, and less-than-impressed teenagers riding in the back seats.

The concept of “the road” is a uniquely American ideal. That is rooted in our heritage largely due to the United States’ expansive network of highways and interstates that link the east coast to Appalachia, to the plains, the Rockies, and finally the west coast again. In short, we have plenty of room filled with beautiful sites along the way — and we’ve been celebrating it in film for the last 75+ years. While the content of the movies vary, one thing remains consistent and true in each of these stories: our unending love of the American road system.

To help us remember the funny, scary, and dramatic moments captured on video, we’ve complied a list of some of the most popular road trip movies:

1. The Blues Brothers: “Jake Blues, just out from prison, puts together his old band to save the Catholic home where he and brother Elwood were raised.”
2. It Happened One Night: “A spoiled heiress running away from her family is helped by a man who is actually a reporter in need of a story.”
3. The Muppet Movie: “Kermit and his new found friends trek across America to find success in Hollywood, but a frog-legs merchant is after Kermit.”
4. National Lampoon’s Vacation: “The Griswold family’s cross-country drive to the Walley World theme park proves to be much more arduous than they ever anticipated.”
5. Rain Man: “Selfish yuppie Charlie Babbitt’s father left a fortune to his savant brother Raymond and a pittance to Charlie; they travel cross-country.”
6. Midnight Run: “An accountant is chased by bounty hunters, the FBI, and the Mafia after jumping bail.”
7. Mad Max Fury Road: “A woman rebels against a tyrannical ruler in postapocalyptic Australia in search for her home-land with the help of a group of female prisoners, a psychotic worshipper, and a drifter named Max.”
8. Motorcycle Diaries: “The dramatization of a motorcycle road trip Che Guevara went on in his youth that showed him his life’s calling.”