“I don’t mean what is the best 80’s movie, or the most popular 80’s movie, but what is the movie that most encapsulates everything about the decade. I’m talking the aesthetics, the politics, the cultural trends, developments in the film industry, the music. I’m talking about a movie that could not exist in any other decade. Something that you could hand to someone who’s never seen a movie and say this is the 1980s embodied in one film.”
The top 10 contenders, in alphabetical order.
- Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo 1984
- Flashdance 1983
- Invasion 1985 Chuck Norrissssss
- Purple Rain 1984
- Rocky IV 1985
- Scarface 1983
- The Secret of My Success 1987
- Staying Alive 1983
- Thrashin’ 1986
- Top Gun 1986
Winner
Rocky IV
Tron
The Breakfast Club. I always find it weird when people say it’s not realistic. That’s how teens were back then!
…how do people say it’s not realistic?..
“High school kids don’t act like that.”
Well, they acted exactly like that in my day.
Using words, i assume.
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Obviously.
Honorable mention to Back to the Future. Also, where’s Goonies?
Weird Science 1985
I skimmed his video, but don’t recall him giving any mention to weird science. I think it’s a solid contender. Very 80s.
But by the metrics he decided to whimsically select on what makes up the 80’s, it didn’t have enough montages or Russians or wealth/business stuff to get a high mark.
While I agree that Rocky 4 is extremely 80’s, I disagree with his 80"s metrics.
Big trouble in little China.
Repo man 1984 (Henry Dean Stanton & Emilio Estavez’ most iconic movie)
Suburbia 1983 (most punk bands in a movie, ever, at the time?)
And there’s Top Secret (1984), Val Kilmer’s first movie, made by the Airplane! ZAZ team.
“Look at those assholes, ordinary fucking people. I hate 'em.” That quote hits deep.
Lacking Short Circuit (86) and Real Genius (85), two of the most iconic 80s scifi films. They just don’t make them casually bigoted like those anymore!
Real Genius is such a great movie too!
It’s “Back to the Future”. Even though most of it was set in the 50’s.
The Karate Kid should make the list.
Fully concur. Not only is it still a great movie, but it was very popular, and finished what Bruce Lee started, popularizing Eastern martial arts in the United States.
I would argue that Goonies had a decent bit of it. It really scratches my nostalgia itch not just for the movie itself, but for things from my childhood. That springy workout thing, kids on bikes, the cars, etc. all just do it for me.
Breakfast Club also came to mind, but I haven’t seen it in long enough to know for sure if it ticks the boxes.
I definitely agree with Flashdance being up there and Rocky.
For me it was Indiana Jones or Star Wars … as a kid in the 80s, these two movies completely occupied our imaginations for most of the decade.
Honourable mention for me is … Commando … with Schwarzenegger … (every time we had a game pretending for war or shooting each other with toy guns, I did or someone in our group would mimic the suit up scene getting ready for battle)
I re-watched Commando last year. Forgettable except for that scene which I remembered almost exactly from the first time I saw it.
Forgettable?
There are so many fun scenes in Commando.
Please don’t disturb my friend, he is dead tired.
Bennett: “John, I’m not going to shoot you between the eyes! I’m going to shoot you between the balls!”
Stick around.
Let of some steam, Bennet.
If Matrix was here, he’d laugh too.
Remember when I said I was gonna kill you last? I lied.
The 80s started out like Vacation and ended like Wall Street
Rocky IV was my immediate thought before opening the thread. Not one but two training montages. Cold War tensions. High tech training machines. It’s the best
Xanadu Valley Girl St Elmo’s Fire
Dune (1984) and Over The Top (1987) are both strong contenders for me.
Lynch’s Dune, for sure. Doesn’t get much more 80s.
