The 8 Greatest Historical Adventure Movies of the 21st Century, Ranked

Published Oct 2, 2026, 7:36 AM EDT

Daniel is a 27-year-old List Writer for Collider living in the south suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. As an avid film buff, he watches and analyzes many films and TV shows, especially in the horror genre, and regularly attends movie screenings.

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History and adventure can combine to create the greatest entertainment cinema has ever seen. Since as long as filmmaking itself, these two genres have crossed paths to make something truly epic. We are blessed today with these combined efforts, which have enthralled audiences for much of the 20th century. Without this pairing, we wouldn't have Lawrence of Arabia, Braveheart, or The Man Who Would Be King.

Though the 20th century is full of epic wonder, it's the 21st century that has seen historical adventures flourish and become top contenders for the greatest of all time. It has become a new age for this special subgenre, with 26 years of compelling highlights that have become staples of modern pop culture. Let's look at the eight best historical adventures so far that turned this century into a new golden age for both genres. Though some of those mentioned below aren't the most recognized or universally praised, they still made an impact and showed that there's one hell of an audience for these types of movies.

8 'The Patriot' (2000)

Image via Sony Pictures Releasing

Let's kick things off with an explosive bang, a historical adventure blockbuster that's fun, rewatchable, and crowd-pleasing all the way through. Roland Emmerich, the directing mind behind some of our favorite disaster flicks, broke away from his familiar genre to create 2000's The Patriot, an action-packed epic with a thrilling retelling of history, but not the most accurate depiction of the events. It stars Mel Gibson playing a French and Indian War veteran turned farmer who takes up arms to fight the British during the American Revolution after a ruthless cavalry officer kills his son.

The story is simple and easy; most of the characters are enjoyable, the action sequences are absolutely flawless, and John Williams' underrated score perfectly captures the feel of a Revolutionary War-type adventure story. That said, it's far from being considered a perfect movie, as many critics still to this day complain about how loosely told and almost offensive it portrays real history. Not to mention, there's a controversial scene where British soldiers commit WWII-inspired war crimes, which heavily oversimplifies one side of the conflict. But while it's certainly not for everyone, it's garnered a considerable following over the years and is still enjoyed by many audiences today. It really is a lot of fun, so long as you don't take it too seriously.

7 'The Lost City of Z' (2016)

Image via Bleecker Street

One of the most riveting adventures in recent memory that you probably haven't heard of was The Lost City of Z, a 2016 historical drama released by Amazon Studios. Detailing one of the most fascinating yet forgotten expeditions of the 20th century, it retells the unique journey of British explorer Percy Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam), who went missing on his second failed expedition in the Amazon rainforest, searching for a lost city deep within the remote jungle.

It's a classic tale of hubris ultimately resulting in tragedy, as it follows one man's obsession and stubbornness in his quest for knowledge getting the better of him in an unfamiliar wilderness. The Lost City of Z is quite fascinating, dramatic, and expertly told, thanks to the sharp writing and brilliant performances from Hunnam and his supporting cast, including co-stars Robert Pattinson and Tom Holland. Now, it's not the most thrilling or deep historical adventure movie out there, as it's slower-paced and not as groundbreaking as others in the genre. However, it still tells a simple but effective story that offers a decent bit of history about a doomed journey most of us probably never knew about.

6 'Apocalypto' (2006)

Image via Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

From starring in an historical adventure to directing one, Mel Gibson returns here with 2006's Apocalypto, a big-budgeted, Hollywood-style blockbuster epic that explores the fascinating history of Mesoamerican culture, albeit with a very loose grasp on authenticity. Set sometime around the 15th century during the Mayan civilization's decline, a lone hunter is kidnapped from his tribe and makes a journey through a land ravaged by disease and death while he's forced to survive as a prisoner.

Apocalypto is packed with riveting visuals, high-production values, and incredible make-up and costumes created to mostly capture what it may have looked like back then. But, as mentioned before, it has been criticized as being highly inaccurate for both the time period and culture, as the screenwriters seemed to have mixed up the eras and included events, such as the Spanish conquest, that never took place around this time. Not to mention, they've mixed up the human sacrifice rituals, as the ones depicted in the film appear more Aztec than Mayan. Yes, while Apocalypto is a history buff's worst nightmare, it's still a thrilling epic that doesn't require much thought to enjoy.

5 'The Northman' (2022)

Image via Universal Pictures.

From horror filmmaking legend Robert Eggers comes a break from his usual work: The Northman, an incredible dark fantasy adventure action flick that takes us deep into the exciting world of Viking culture. A film rich with Eggers' impeccable directing charm and penchant for shooting in stunning locations, this unique journey combines jaw-dropping visuals with commanding acting, following Alexander Skarsgård as a Viking prince traveling through the Middle Ages on a quest to avenge his father.

Loosely based on the legend of Amleth from Gesta Danorum by Saxo Grammaticus, The Northman provides a stellar and thrilling adventure unlike anything audiences have ever experienced before. Taking a part of history that's rarely covered in cinema, the Viking Age, and turning it into a mainstream Hollywood film proved to be a good idea, as it was critically praised for its performances and remarkable costume and set designs. While it underperformed at the box office, The Northman has become a considerably popular adventure film in recent years, and it's likely to be a classic as time goes on.

Collider Exclusive · Action Hero Quiz Which Action Hero Would Be
Your Perfect Partner? Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt

Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn't work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back.

🎖️Rambo

🍸James Bond

🏺Indiana Jones

🔧John McClane

🎭Ethan Hunt

FIND YOUR PARTNER →

01

You're dropped into a dangerous situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner? The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you.

ASomeone who already has three contingency plans running and is calmly working through all of them. BSomeone who reads the terrain instinctively and knows exactly how to use it against the enemy. CSomeone who keeps their nerve and their sense of humour when everything is falling apart. DSomeone who knows the history of wherever we are and what we're walking into. ESomeone with the right contact, the right cover identity, and the right exit already arranged.

NEXT QUESTION →

02

You have to get somewhere dangerous, fast. How do you travel? How you get there is half the mission.

AOn foot through terrain no one else would attempt — I move where vehicles can't follow. BOn a motorcycle, a cargo plane, or anything else that gets me there before I think too hard about it. CIn something that belongs to someone else — borrowed, stolen, or improvised under fire. DFirst class, with a cover identity and a gadget that does something I won't explain until it's needed. EBy whatever means are available — I've driven, flown, and once arrived by camel. The destination matters, not the method.

NEXT QUESTION →

03

You're pinned down and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do? This is when you find out what someone is really made of.

ADisappears into the environment, flanks them silently, and ends it before I've reloaded. BCracks a one-liner, grabs a fire extinguisher or a chair, and improvises something that somehow works. CProduces a gadget specifically designed for this exact scenario and uses it with infuriating precision. DPulls out a whip, a pistol, and an archaeological insight that somehow gets us out alive. ENeutralises the threat with maximum efficiency and minimum words — they were already three moves ahead.

NEXT QUESTION →

04

The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest? Who someone is when the pressure drops is who they actually are.

AA bar with terrible lighting, cold beer, and absolutely no questions about feelings. BThe finest restaurant in the city, a bottle of something expensive, and a conversation that is equal parts brilliant and exhausting. CA local dig site, a museum after hours, or a long story about why that particular artefact matters to human civilisation. DPizza. Bad TV. Falling asleep halfway through a movie neither of you were watching anyway. EA debrief that turns into three hours of contingency planning that somehow becomes the most fun you've had all week.

NEXT QUESTION →

05

How do you prefer your partner to communicate mid-mission? Good communication is the difference between partners and a liability.

APrecise and minimal — tell me what I need to know and nothing else. Every word has a cost. BDeadpan and dry — keeping it light keeps me sharp, even when everything is on fire. CEnthusiastic and slightly chaotic — but always with useful information buried somewhere in the noise. DCalm and controlled through an earpiece, with a plan that covers every variable I haven't thought of yet. EBarely at all — silence is a language and they speak it fluently.

NEXT QUESTION →

06

Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced, and has the upper hand. How should your partner approach them? The approach to the enemy defines the partnership.

AInfiltrate their inner circle, learn everything, and dismantle them from inside out before they know we're there. BStudy the historical pattern — every villain of this type has a weakness written somewhere in the past. CGet them talking. The more they monologue, the more time I have to figure out how to beat them. DGo through them. Directly. With as much force as the terrain allows. EFind the one thing they haven't accounted for — there's always one thing — and make sure we're holding it.

NEXT QUESTION →

07

Things go badly wrong and you're captured. What do you trust your partner to do? Who someone is when you need them most is the only thing that matters.

ACome in alone, quietly, and get me out before anyone knows they were there. BHave already been working on the extraction since the moment I disappeared — the plan is already running. CCome in loud, come in fast, and worry about the collateral damage later — I'd do the same for them. DUse every resource, every contact, and bend every rule until I'm out — they don't leave people behind. ECharm their way in somehow, bluff through the hard part, and still manage to look good doing it.

NEXT QUESTION →

08

What does your ideal partner bring to the table that you couldn't replace? A great partner fills the gap you didn't know you had.

ATechnology that shouldn't exist yet and the training to use it under any conditions. BSurvival instinct so refined it borders on supernatural — and the scars to prove it's been tested. CKnowledge of history, language, and culture that makes them invaluable in places where force is useless. DThe ability to walk into any room in the world and immediately become the most trusted person in it. EStubbornness that refuses to accept a situation is hopeless — and the improvisational skill to back it up.

NEXT QUESTION →

09

Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with? No one comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together.

AA partner who never fully switches off — always watching exits, always calculating threats, even at dinner. BA partner who gets the job done brilliantly but has the emotional availability of a locked filing cabinet. CA partner who makes everything ten times more complicated than it needs to be — but who always comes through. DA partner who gets personally attached to every relic, ruin, and artefact we encounter, which slows everything down. EA partner who was not built for this and knows it — but shows up anyway, every time, without being asked.

NEXT QUESTION →

10

It's the final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now? The last question is the most honest one.

AOne line. Absolutely dry. Delivered like the world isn't ending. Then we move. BNothing said at all — just a look that means we both already know what has to happen. CA plan I don't fully understand that somehow accounts for everything, delivered in thirty seconds flat. DA piece of historical context that reframes the entire situation and tells us exactly what to do next. ESomeone who steps forward instead of back — because that's who they've always been.

REVEAL MY PARTNER →

Your Partner Has Been Assigned Your Perfect Partner Is…

Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.

Rambo

Your partner doesn't talk much, doesn't need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you've finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You'll never need to ask if he has your back. You'll just know.

James Bond

Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it'll take you a moment to remember what's actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You'll never be bored. You'll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.

Indiana Jones

Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar's eye and a brawler's instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn't matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you'll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.

John McClane

Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren't so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.

Ethan Hunt

Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you've finished reading the briefing, and the plan he's settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn't exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

Image via Sony Pictures Classics/Columbia TriStar Film

The turn of the 21st century saw the rise of a new age of action adventures from the East, and cinema was forever changed. From Academy Award-winning filmmaker Ang Lee comes his grand Martial Arts epic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, a remarkable tale that perfectly mixes action, drama, romance, and history into a two-hour unforgettable masterpiece. Starring Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh and Chow Yun-Fat, it follows two skilled warriors in 18th-century Imperial China who go on a quest to take back a rare sword from a mysterious thief.

It's important to note just how impactful Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon truly was. Not only was it revolutionary with fight choreography and impressive stunt wire work, but it effectively pushed Martial Arts into the mainstream, becoming a massive critical and financial success in the process. Today, it's widely hailed as one of the greatest of its genre, an undeniable classic that changed Western audiences' view of these types of movies. It's an absolute landmark that defined the adventure genre early in this century.

3 'The Revenant' (2015)

From acclaimed director Alejandro G. Iñárritu comes one of the most visually stunning, perfectly shot, and intensely dramatic adventure epics in modern cinema, The Revenant. Loosely based on an incredible frontier survival story, it stars Leonardo DiCaprio in his first Oscar-winning role as outdoorsman and tracker Hugh Glass. After a vicious bear attack, Glass is badly injured and then left for dead in the wilderness by his cutthroat companion, John S. Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy), who also killed his son. Near death but still kicking, Glass struggles to overcome all odds as he slowly journeys back to civilization to get his revenge.

Though its story is mostly fictional, The Revenant still perfectly captures the experience of early 1800s frontier life. Right from its chaotic opening fight sequence, you feel how cold, unforgiving, and bleak it must have been for these travelers of this time. It's raw, intense, and greatly told thanks to Iñárritu's exceptional direction, the compelling performances, and the gorgeous outdoor settings. It's widely praised as a masterpiece now, considered one of the most acclaimed adventures in recent memory, and showing no signs of being forgotten any time soon.

2 'Gladiator' (2000)

Image via Universal Pictures

Epic battles, flawless visuals, tense gladiatorial fights, and powerhouse performances are just a few things to praise about Gladiator, Sir Ridly Scott's grand Best Picture-winning historical adventure flick that is in every way a masterpiece. It is a film that only gets better with age, one that fans of action and history will really enjoy. In his career-defining role, Russell Crowe shines as Roman general Maximus Decimus Meridius, who fights his way to the top of the Colosseum's gladiator fights to get his revenge on the despicable Emperor Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) for selling him into slavery and murdering his family.

Gladiator is a near three-hour-long journey full of bloody violence and epic drama, anchored by Crowe's and Phoenix's remarkable acting talents. Winner of five major Academy Awards, including the mentioned Best Picture and an acting win for Crowe, Gladiator is arguably the most acclaimed adventure film of the 21st century, a testament to its greatness and rewatchability.

1 'Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World' (2003)

Image via Universal Pictures

Taking the top spot goes to one of the most striking and historically accurate adventure movies of all time: Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. This 2003 war epic is a history lovers' delight, a visually grand and unforgettable tale that perfectly captures the experience of Napoleonic era naval combat. Set in the early 19th century during Great Britain's war with France and Napoleon Bonaparte, it sees Russel Crowe as Jack Aubrey, captain of the H.M.S. Surprise, who leads his crew on a dangerous mission to hunt down and destroy a formidable French vessel somewhere off the coast of South America.

Master and Commander delivers an exciting mix of history and adventure all in one film. The story is effective, the characters are rootable and easy to follow, and Crowe delivers another commanding performance, playing a determined and strict captain who's capable of leading his men through this difficult journey. It also greatly captures the experience of being on a 19th-century British Royal Navy vessel, showing the cramped conditions and harsh discipline that come with being a sailor. It's very authentic to the time period while also telling a compelling and thrilling story that general audiences can get behind. Overall, Master and Commander tops this list for its top-notch story and its remarkable approach to talking about history.