The 15 Best Dad Movies Of All Time

By Jonathan Klotz
| Updated 20 seconds ago

It’s not a particular genre like science fiction, fantasy, or drama, but there’s no denying the power of a great dad movie. Dad movies are perfect for men of a certain age, but what exactly makes a movie a dad movie, is up for debate. After going through countless films, I think Dad movies are about competent men excelling through their devotion to duty, personal ethics, a particular set of skills, and overcoming the odds.

That and movies where you can fall asleep in the middle and still enjoy the third act. Dads love a good nap!

These are the 15 best Dad movies of all time. 

15. Rudy

Al Bundy once scored 4 touchdowns in a single game to win the city championship for Polk High against their rival, Andrew Johnson High. A lot of Dads out there think they can still go, one last time, and win the game. No movie gives hope to the underdog like Rudy. 

Starring Sean Astin before he carried Frodo into Mordor, Rudy is the true story of Daniel “Rudy” Ruttiger, the undersized football player who lacks the grades to make into Notre Dame. By devoting himself to his goal, Rudy earns the grades he needs, and walks onto the Fighting Irish. Even then, he never makes it to the field. 

Until the very last play, of his very last game as a Senior. 

The beauty of Rudy is that it’s not really a football movie. You can know nothing about the gridiron and still lose your mind cheering by the end of the film. Pursuing a dream with everything in you, letting nothing stand in your way, that’s universal. 

14. Ocean’s 11

Sauve, sophisticated, and able to outsmart everyone, George Clooney’s Danny Ocean is what every Dad sees when they look at themselves in the mirror. As a gentleman thief, Clooney drips cool in every single shot. Add to that the rest of the crew, and what guy hasn’t wanted to knock off a Vegas casino with the boys? 

It’s the crew, including Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Bernice Mac, Elliot Gould, and Dan Cheadle, that turns Ocean’s 11 into a full-on Dad movie. 

They may be thieves, explosives experts, pickpockets, and con artists, but they look out for each other. It’s unconventional, but it’s a bond of brotherhood and male friendship that every Dad wants to have with the boys. That and heist movies are fun, and Ocean’s 11 is such a breezy, light watch that it’s impossible to not enjoy yourself. Ocean’s 12 was a step back, and Ocean’s 13 was a return to form, but nothing beats the first film. 

13. The Blues Brothers

It started with a harmonica and a dream. Dan Aykroyd turned his love of blues music into The Blues Brothers, a Saturday Night Live sketch with John Belushi, and then, in 1980, they took to the big screen with the greatest movie about getting the band back together. On a mission from God to save an orphanage, Jake and Elwood Blues tear up the state of Illinois, resulting in an unforgettable chase through a mall and the largest pile-up in movie history. 

It’s fun, it’s frenetic, and along with a love for history, most Dads start to appreciate the blues as they get older. The Blues Brothers has a killer soundtrack and cameos from classic blues musicians, and then soul singers Aretha Franklin and James Brown, among many, many other cameos. Steven Spielberg, Carrie Fisher, Paul Reubens, Joe Walsh, John Candy; it’s a who’s who of the late 70s and early 80s. 

Teaching your kids to appreciate The Blues Brothers is a rite of passage. 

12. Major League

 “Just a bit outside.” “He leads the league in most offensive categories, including nosehair.” 

As Dads, we love running movie quotes into the ground. Combined with baseball and a team of underdogs, Major League is a perfect summer movie for Dads. Bob Uecker’s commentary alone is worth rewatching it for the 50th time. Chances are, there’s a new throwaway joke or visual gag you’ll pick up on.

Charlie Sheen as “Wild Thing” Ricky Vaughn is the role he was born to play, while Major League is a reminder of why he became an A-list star in the first place. And if you don’t start stomping your feet and singing Wild Thing during the playoff game against the most hated team in baseball, the New York Yankees, then you are clinically dead. 

Major League is nearly 40 years old, and the comedy still holds up. It’s better than a lot of today’s comedies; even if the Cleveland Indians no longer exist, it’s a timeless dad movie you can throw on and endlessly quote all Summer long. 

11. The Fugitive

In the 90s, Harrison Ford achieved peak Dad movie. Air Force One, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, it was an incredible run. The best of the best, though, is 1993’s The Fugitive. 

As the wrongfully accused Dr. Richard Kimble, Ford’s charismatic swagger takes a backseat to his frantic escape from the clutches of Tommy Lee Jones U.S. Marshal Sam Gerard. The sewer-drain standoff between the two is so good, it helped win Jones an Oscar. 

The Fugitive is one of the leanest movies ever made. There’s no extra padding anywhere. It’s a man on the run from the feds, trying to solve his wife’s murder. That’s it. It’s two hours long, but feels shorter. The moment the prison bus breakout happens, The Fugitive hits the gas and doesn’t let up. 

Like Taken, every Dad has people in their life that if something happened to them, they’d risk everything. Dr. Kimble goes headfirst down a waterfall, hunts down his wife’s killer, uncovers a conspiracy, and does it all while avoiding the U.S. Marshals. When we tell our families that nothing would stop us, we like to think we’d be Dr. Richard Kimble and that we’d look as cool as Harrison Ford. 

10. The Great Escape

There was some discussion here at Giant Freakin Robot about which Steve McQueen movie to include. The Magnificent Seven? The Thomas Crown Affair? Bullitt? The best of them is The Great Escape, the 1963 war epic about Allied Prisoners of War escaping from behind German lines. 

Loosely based on the true story of a British breakout during World War 2, The Great Escape is so good; even if you’ve never seen it, you’ve seen movies and shows that have taken bits and pieces of it. Dads love history, and World War 2 history is so popular that the History Channel existed for years on nothing but shows about the war. 

The Great Escape combines the setting with award-winning performances, and Steve McQueen doing Steve McQueen things, this time on a motorcycle, to become one of the best dad movies of all time. The cast list is a who’s who of the era’s greatest male stars, including Charles Bronson, James Garner, Donald Pleasance, Richard Attenborough, and The Man From U.N.C.L.E., David McCallum. 

The Great Escape isn’t the easiest watch on this list, but it’s filled with men doing the right thing and continuing to fight. They never lose hope. 

9. Braveheart

Dads love history. Dads love epic battle scenes. Even if it plays a little fast and loose with the real history of William Wallace, Braveheart is fun. Alright, that may be a strange way to describe a movie where the hero is eviscerated, but you will get goose bumps at Mel Gibson’s battle cry, “They may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom!” 

Dads want to protect their family. That’s the basis for a lot of these Dad movies: to William Wallace, every Scot was part of his family. He waged war for his country, and he re-shaped the history of England through sheer force of will. Even while being tortured to death, he refuses to back down on his principles, refuses to submit to England, and how can you not get moved by that scene?

What you don’t know about Braveheart is that it got a legacy sequel, Robert the Bruce, with Angus Macfadyen reprising his role as….Robert the Bruce. It was barely released outside of England, lacks the over-the-top bombast of Braveheart, and you’re better off re-watching Mel Gibson’s Best Picture-winning historical epic for the 20th time. 

8. Kevin Costner

Trying to find the greatest Dad movie out of Kevin Costner’s filmography is impossible. Is it Dances with Wolves? Tin Cup? Field of Dreams? The Bodyguard? Bull Durham? The Untouchables? Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves? The hill I’ll die on is that Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is an incredible movie and I’m not the strange one for loving it.

That’s not even counting Horizon: An American Saga or all of his work on Yellowstone. There’s something about Costner’s acting style that makes him the perfect middle-aged (or uh, older) man. He’s able to be stoic, but emotionally vulnerable, strong but tender. Kevin Costner is America’s Dad. 

That said, he was unable to act with a British accent (I’ll admit Mel Brooks was right), but Costner is singlehandedly working to bring back the Western. There’s nothing more American, and few genres are more beloved by Dads than the Western. Once he finishes his Horizon Saga, it might be the greatest modern Western. 

Until then, pick a random movie from his IMDb (except The Postman), kick back, and relax in the presence of the ultimate Dad. 

7. Goodfellas

In 1990, The Godfather Part 3 was overshadowed by another Mafia movie, Goodfellas.  It was more frenetic, with a focus on one Wise Guy who breaks with the family: Ray Liotta’s Henry Hill. You could argue that Joe Pesci steals the film as Tommy DeVito, who’s funny like a clown, but it’s all about the rise and fall of Henry Hill’s cocaine empire before he becomes a stool pigeon. 

There’s something about the world of the Mafia that’s appealing to Dads. Is it the freedom to do, mostly, what they want? Is it the brotherhood of Made Men? Is it that a life of organized crime seems more exciting than going to the office each day to pick up that phone and make sales calls? Whatever the reason, you can’t deny their success.

Goodfellas has aged as well as The Godfather, and there’s even a large chunk of the audience that thinks it’s better. It’s not, but they can think that. What it does contain is the greatest shot in movie history; so good, it’s referred to as “The Copa Shot.” Henry Hill walking his girl, Karen through the Copacabana is a two and half minute long tracking shot that took an unimaginable amount of skill and coordination to pull off. 

It looks amazing, and it sums up everything great about Goodfellas: Ray Liotta’s performance as Henry Hill, the extravagant Mafia lifestyle, power, and freedom. 

6. The Hunt For Red October

If a Dad doesn’t have a pile of Tom Clancy books in the house, is he really a Dad? 

Tom Clancy novels are engineered in a lab to appeal to Dads. CIA Analyst Jack Ryan is highly competent, dedicated to his job, and knows more than his bosses. It’s middle-aged escapism, and you know what? It’s awesome. 

The first novel, The Hunt for Red October, is also the best movie, starring Adam Baldwin as Jack Ryan and Sean Connery as the renegade Russian Captain Marko. It’s filled with men sacrificing everything for honor and doing what they know is right for their country, even as their country is trying to stop them. 

Submarine movies are few and far between. The Hunt for Red October perfected the military sub-genre…get it?…..it’s a sub-genre of military movies but also….they are on a sub. I thought it was funny. 

Jack Ryan movies have stopped, but the character lives on through Amazon Prime’s Jack Ryan series starring John Krasinski, the latest actor to take up the mantle. Maybe someday we’ll finally get a Jack Ryan as President movie. Or Rainbow Six. Now that would be fun. 

As for The Hunt for Red October, it’s 42 years old, which is also the age of its target audience. It’s been considered a classic since the day it was released. Which is impressive, since it’s all subplot. Get it? Subplot? Alright, fine, next entry. 

5. Top Gun

It’s impossible to talk about the greatest Dad movies without taking the HIGHWAY TO THE DANGER ZONE. 

Top Gun turned Tom Cruise into a star, made the Navy cool, redefined action movies, and forever changed how Hollywood filmed planes. 

The opening five minutes set the mood, from the orchestral Top Gun theme right into Kenny Loggins ’ DANGER ZONE over footage of planes taking off and landing on an aircraft carrier. If you ever get the chance to see it in the theater, you have to. The 1986 blockbuster is still one of the best-looking films ever. 

Part of what makes a film a great Dad movie is seeing competent men doing their jobs better than anyone else, proving their doubters wrong, and looking awesome in the process. Tom Cruise’s Maverick does all of that, while also piloting the cutting-edge F14-A Tomcat at speeds we can barely imagine. 

Top Gun is a great example of how men make friends. Maverick and Ice Man despise each other, but not really, because when the chips are down, they are on the same team working for the same goal. How many men made a lifelong friend on the playground by getting into a fight? That’s how we operate. 

Top Gun: Maverick is another great Dad movie, but nothing will ever capture the feeling of the original. 

4. Gladiator

“My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the armies of the North, general of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.”

That has to be one of the greatest movie quotes of all time. Russel Crowe goes hard in his delivery, and thanks to his Oscar-winning performance, Gladiator is an all-time great movie. In the year 2000, it had been decades since swords and sandals epics were considered blockbusters. Gladiator changed that. 

Everything that makes a great Dad movie is here: a skilled, talented father out for revenge over the death of his family, an entire civilization that wants him to fail, and he wins them over with his never-give-up attitude. Russell Crowe understood the assignment. He refused to do a love scene with Lucilla, knowing that it would undercut the mission to avenge his wife if he slept with another woman. 

That’s green flag behavior and more evidence that Gladiator is one of the best Dad movies of all time.

The sequel…not so much. Maybe we’ll come around on it in a few years, but it’s hard to top Maximus Decimus Meridius mission for vengeance, in this life or the next.

3. Die Hard

It’s the greatest action movie of all time. It single-handedly redefined the entire genre, and it turned Bruce Willis into a movie star. Die Hard is one of the 80s greatest Dad movies. Willis’ John McLane isn’t a special forces operative; he’s not a secret agent trained to kill; he’s a New York City cop who finds himself in the middle of a hostage situation. 

Using nothing but his wits and a never-say-die attitude, he turns the tables on Hans Gruber, saves the day, and maybe wins back his ex-wife. It helps that it’s filled with great quotes you can annoy your family with for days after watching the movie. 

The first two sequels are also great films, Die Hard With A Vengeance, the third film, includes Samuel L. Jackson. The chemistry between Jackson and Willis is electric. The only thing holding it back from being on this list is, well, Die Hard. The original is a nearly perfect movie. 

Die Hard only misses out on our top spot because the next two films are peak “Dadcore.” 

2. The Godfather

The Godfather is one of the greatest Dad movies of all time.

Wait, I have to actually explain why The Godfather is so good? Seriously? Who hasn’t seen Francis Ford Coppola’s epic saga of the Corleone crime family? 

The Godfather is so good it forever changed how the Mafia is viewed, forever changed crime movies, and without The Godfather, we never would have been able to endlessly quote Goodfellas and The Sopranos. 

Al Pacino, Marlon Brando, James Caan, Robert Duvall, all of them turn in all-time classic performances. These men didn’t break the mold for Mafia crime movies; they created the mold. Dads love Mafia movies. These men, this film, it’s responsible for all of them. 

Dads also love quotes, “Take the gun, leave the cannoli.”

A man who doesn’t spend time with his family can’t be a real man,” and of course, 

“I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse.” 

The Godfather gave us the greatest lines in the history of movies. The Godfather is over 50 years old, and no Mafia movie since has been able to replace it. You’ve got Goodfellas, you’ve got Scarface, Casino, The Irishman, all great, but nothing beats the original. 

1. Master and Commander: Far Side Of The World

Historical? Check. Men fulfilling a duty to God and country? Check. Men forming bonds under fire in the worst situations? Check. Skilled and talented men proving their worth time and time again? Check. A dumb dad joke in the middle of the film? Check. 

Russell Crowe? Also check. 

Master and Commander: Far Side of the World is the greatest Dad movie of all time. 

The 2003 naval epic completed Russell Crowe’s trifecta, starting with Gladiator, then A Beautiful Mind, and ending onboard the British warship Surprise, off the coast of 19th-century Brazil. Tasked with protecting British shipping lanes, the Surprise needs to hunt down the French privateer, Acheron, before it cripples the war against Napoleon. 

There aren’t enough movies being made about sailing ships. Master and Commander did it better than any movie before or since, with an eye for historical detail that will forever delight every history buff Dad. Life on a ship was harsh, brutal, and the sequence where the Surprise is stuck in the middle of the ocean due to a lack of wind, is the type of truly depressing historical detail that Hollywood usually leaves out. 

The friendship that forms between Crowe’s Jack Aubrey and Paul Bettany’s Stephen Maturin in Master and Commander is the ideal male friendship. They begin a little rough with each other; we question if they even like the other man, but over time, they form the type of bond that’s only forged in fire. And dad jokes. 

“The lesser of two weevils” is the type of stupid pun that comes out of nowhere, but you’ll laugh right along with Maturin as Aubrey relaxes a little in the middle of mutiny, storms, and a crafty French opponent. For the Dads upset we never got a sequel to Master and Commander, don’t worry, it’s based on the novels by Patrick O’Brien. Pick those up, and you’ll be able to experience the whole history of Aubrey and Maturin against the backdrop of naval warfare in the 19th Century. 

In a just world, Master and Commander would be on the 20th movie in a franchise by now.