For a few decades now, Harrison Ford has been one of the biggest movie stars in the world. There aren’t many actors who can make icons out of as many films roles as Ford has. And not only that, he’s proven that he’s the only one who can play them.
When Alden Ehrenreich attempted to portray a young Han Solo, it just felt like a pale imitation of Ford’s far superior, far more memorable performance. Ford said recently that he wouldn’t want anyone else to play Indiana Jones, and it’s easy to see why — Harrison Ford is Indiana Jones. Here are Harrison Ford’s 10 Best Movies (According To Rotten Tomatoes).
Updated on October 28th, 2022, by Colin McCormick: The recent announcement that Harrison Ford will join the cast of Captain America: New World Order is some of the most exciting casting news for the MCU in quite some time. Ford already has so many iconic roles to his name as well as plenty of other critically acclaimed movies throughout his career. With this new Marvel role on the horizon, fans may be interested in checking out or revisiting even more of Harrison Ford's nest movies.
15 Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom (1984) - 83%
- Available on Paramount+
Fans might not remember that the second Indiana Jones adventure was actually technically a prequel. Taking place before the events of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom finds Indy and his partners in India where they face off with a deadly and ancient power.
The movie was seen as a step down from the previous installment and it is hard to overlook some of the offensive cultural depictions. However, it is still a solid Indy adventure and one that is surprisingly dark compared to the others.
14 Working Girl (1988) - 85%
- Available to rent on Apple TV
Given the iconic action and adventure roles he is known for, it is fun to see Ford in a grounded rom-com role for a change. Working Girl stars Melanie Griffith as a secretary looking to make a move in her career. When her boss is absent due to an accident, she takes the opportunity to step into her position. Ford plays a fellow professional she begins a romance with.
The movie is a funny, romantic, and entertaining look at the professional world of the 1980s. Griffith is endlessly charming and it is a lesser-known Ford movie that allows him to show his comedic side.
13 Presumed Innocent (1990) - 86%
- Available to rent on Apple TV
It seems like there are a number of great movies that find Ford playing someone accused of a murder he didn't commit. Presumed Innocent is the tense legal thriller that sees Ford playing a lawyer who finds himself on trial when the woman he was having an affair with is killed.
It is a riveting mystery with another dynamic leader performance from Ford at the center of it, anchoring the story. It will have audiences guessing about the truth right up until the credits start to roll.
12 Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade (1989) - 88%
- Available on Paramount+
Though it didn't end up being the end of the franchise, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade felt like a fitting final chapter. This adventure sees Indy joining his scholarly father (Sean Connery) in the search of the Holy Grail while taking on the Nazis once again.
The action is as thrilling and fun as the original and the addition of Connery as the elder Jones is perfect. It makes for a fitting entry in the series that some feel matches the original.
11 Blade Runner 2049 (2017) - 88%
- Available on HBO Max and Tubi
More recent years have seen Ford returning to several of his most famous roles, including in the hugely acclaimed legacy sequel Blade Runner 2049. Ryan Gosling plays a replicant working as a blade runner in the future. But after making a startling discovery, he sets out on a quest for answers, leading him to Rick Deckard.
Director Denis Villeneuve was praised for capturing the style and feel of the original while also expanding on the story in some interesting ways. It earned a handful of major award nominations and Ford's performance was praised.
10 Blade Runner (1982) - 89%
- Available to rent on Apple TV
This movie has gone through many different incarnations, with the initial theatrical release coming with a voiceover narration shoehorned in at the behest of the studio. Director Ridley Scott wasn’t pleased with this version, so he recut it to follow his original vision.
Since then, Scott has recut Blade Runner every few years, adding a few seconds of footage here or there to ever-so-slightly change the pacing of the film. The truth is, pretty much every cut of the film is a cinematic masterwork. It’s the definitive neo-noir, set in a futuristic Los Angeles where sentient androids have ingratiated themselves into our society.
9 Witness (1985) - 93%
- Available on Showtime and DIRECTV
The crime thriller Witness is about a young Amish boy who becomes a target after witnessing the murder of an undercover cop. Ford plays John Book, a detective who is assigned to protect him, and together, they uncover a dark conspiracy within the police force.
The premise might sound like more of a fish-out-of-water comedy as Book is forced to go into hiding, living in the Amish community, but the script is clever and sharp while Ford delivers one of his finest performances which earned him his first Oscar nomination.
8 Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977) - 93%
- Available on Disney+
Han Solo’s character arc carries across the whole Star Wars trilogy, but the most important stage is in A New Hope. Chronologically, this isn’t the first Star Wars movie, but it was the first one unleashed upon an unsuspecting moviegoing public.
Han starts the movie as a roguish pirate who only cares about his paycheck and doesn’t have a stake in the political skirmish between the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire. But over the course of the story, he learns to do the right thing and triumphantly returns to shoot the TIE fighters on Luke’s tail, allowing him to blow up the Death Star and save the day.
7 Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015) - 93%
- Available on Disney+
In the past few years, Star Wars fans have soured on The Force Awakens, seeing it as a veiled rip-off of A New Hope. But just because it follows the same basic plot structure as A New Hope, doesn't mean it should be dismissed entirely. Fans seem to have forgotten how giddy they got when Han Solo stepped onto the Millennium Falcon and said, “Chewie...we’re home.”
It was also a pretty great movie in its own right, introducing the internal conflicts of its new cast of characters while staying true to the old ones.
6 Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980) - 94%
- Available on Disney+
It’s hardly surprising that The Empire Strikes Back has the highest Rotten Tomatoes score of any Star Wars movie because it’s long been considered by fans to be the best entry in the saga.
It goes for a darker tone than A New Hope as well as delivering perhaps the saddest ending in a Star Wars movie. But something about Empire’s dense blend of trippy visuals, violent set pieces, and downer ending puts it head and shoulders above all of its imitators.
5 Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1981) - 96%
- Available on Paramount+
The first Indiana Jones movie is darn close to cinematic perfection. With its masterfully crafted action set pieces, air-tight, unconventional seven-act story structure, and one of the great movie heroes of all time, Raiders of the Lost Ark is a landmark of filmmaking.
Raiders is filled with iconography that makes it one of the most memorable films ever made. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas wanted to pay homage the adventure serials of the ‘30s while giving America its own James Bond, and somehow, they succeeded.
4 American Graffiti (1973) - 96%
- Available on Showtime and DIRECTV
George Lucas might be best known for creating the Star Wars and Indiana Jones genre franchises, but before all that, he wrote and directed a much more intimate, small-scale, personal coming-of-age comedy. American Graffiti is about a bunch of baby boomers growing up in Modesto in the early ‘60s.
The plot concerns some high school students who are enjoying the final days of their teenage years together before they have to go off to college and enter adult life. It was the movie that made Harrison Ford’s career.
3 The Fugitive (1993) - 96%
- Available on Hulu
This cat-and-mouse thriller about a doctor who goes on the run after being wrongfully accused of murdering his wife and the U.S. Marshal who is tasked with hunting him down was based on the TV show of the same name. However, the movie’s screenplay was a lot tighter and more focused than the series ever was.
David Twohy and Jeb Stuart developed the relationship between Harrison Ford’s Dr. Richard Kimble and Tommy Lee Jones’ Samuel Gerard (a role that won Jones an Oscar) into something special. Andrew Davis’ deft direction elevates what could’ve been a typical Hollywood actioner into a riveting moviegoing experience.
2 The Conversation (1974) - 97%
- Available on Prime Video, Paramount+, Epix and DIRECTV
Throughout the 1970s, Hollywood reacted to the earth-shattering Watergate scandal with a string of paranoid political thrillers. Seen by many as the greatest of these was Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation, which stars Gene Hackman as a surveillance expert who hears something he wasn’t supposed to and finds himself getting hunted down by the government.
Ford only has a small role, but with the attention to detail in this movie, every little piece goes towards constructing a spectacular whole. It also features a shocking twist that has gone under the radar.
1 Apocalypse Now (1979) - 98%
- Available to rent on Apple TV
Martin Sheen and Marlon Brando are the true stars of Apocalypse Now, with the former portraying a drug-addled soldier in Vietnam and the latter portraying the dark side he’s trying to stave off. Harrison Ford only has a minor role, but as one of the U.S. Army officials that recruits Sheen to head up the river to find Brando, he’s integral.
The scene in which Ford appears is one of the most well-written scenes in the whole movie, which is why it’s remained mostly untouched in the many, many, many re-edits that Francis Ford Coppola has done to his film.