15 Iconic Movies That Shaped the Millennial Generation

As destroyers of everything and consumers of endless pieces of avocado toast, Millennials have suffered through a lot, but at least they have great taste in movies.

The age cohort, born roughly between 1981 and 1996, is the most studied in American history. Whether by attitude or style, Millennials have carved a unique path through the digital landscape, confounding older generations by not wanting to do just about anything Boomers and Gen Xers were passionate about.

Some of the movies this generation loves most are packed with clever, quirky, quotable comedy. Others bend genres while celebrating found families and delivering a heady mix of bittersweetness and idealism. Sometimes there’s an anti-establishment attitude or an animatronic velociraptor, and sometimes there’s both.

Here are 15 movies that Millennials love.

The Princess Bride (1987)
The Sandlot (1993)
Jurassic Park (1993)
Scream (1996)
Mulan (1998)
The Big Lebowski (1998)
The Matrix (1999)
The Mummy (1999)
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Mean Girls (2004)
Garden State (2004)
Superbad (2007)
Inception (2010)

The Princess Bride (1987)

When William Goldman asked his daughters what they wanted him to write a story about, one said a princess, and the other said a bride. With the title settled, Goldman wrote one of the most beloved adventure stories of the last 50 years and worked alongside director Rob Reiner to adapt it into a film that audience fell in twu wuv with.

The film is bursting with iconic moments and lines, and stars Robin Wright as Buttercup, the clever beauty tragically betrothed to the evil Prince Humperdinck (Chris Sarandon). Cary Elwes co-stars as Westley, the handsome stableboy who must risk fighting to the pain to rescue her. André the Giant puts on a charisma masterclass, and Mandy Patinkin utters the most memorable revenge mic drop of all time, boosting this swashbuckling fantasy love story from something great into something timeless.

The Sandlot (1993)

Movies of the 1980s and 1990s tended to glow with mid-century nostalgia, throwing back to a simpler time when the biggest concerns for kids were scraped knees and getting home before the streetlights turned on. In other words, a complete fantasy. But fantasies are lovely to live in for a couple of hours, especially when they revel in the romanticism of forming friendships that last for-ev-veerrr around a baseball diamond like in this kid-friendly sports classic.

Scott Smalls (Tom Guiry) is the new kid in town, taken under the wing of a motley crew of baseball lovers led by pro-bound Benjamin Franklin Rodriguez (Mike Vitar). The summer is filled with lifeguard-vexing hijinks at the pool, a vomitous lesson about chewing tobacco before riding a rollercoaster (the production used licorice and bacon bits), and the perils of trying to rescue a Babe Ruth signature ball from a monstrous dog.

Jurassic Park (1993)

After finishing Hook in late 1991, Steven Spielberg wanted his dream project, Schindler’s List, to be his next film, and he was fantastically close to getting his wish. MCA/Universal President Sid Scheinberg just wanted him to make a dinosaur picture first.

Steven Spielberg’s imaginative adaptation of Michael Crichton’s novel gave us the wonder and gut-ripping danger of dinosaurs in all their glory. John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) spares no expense (except on his IT department) building a theme park for all the formerly extinct dinos, bringing paleontologist Alan Grant (Sam Neill), paleobotanist Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), and chaos theorist Ian Malcolm (a shirtless Jeff Goldblum) to test it all out.

Unfortunately, Hammond also invites his grandchildren, who experience the sheer terror of escaping the park once the sharp teeth and claws come out. Spielberg survived malfunctioning T. Rexes and the worst hurricane to ever hit Hawaii to roll cameras on Schindler’s List so that both could be released in 1993. An astonishing filmmaking achievement.

Scream (1996)

Wes Craven’s smart slasher represents a break in the timeline between the grisly, sometimes schlocky incipient days of the genre and the post-Scream tableau of meta slashers, which recognized how deeply the audience had absorbed all the horror tropes and needed something fresh.

Somehow, the film and resulting franchise manage to send up slasher movies just as much as delivering on the dark promise of them, defying expectations from the very first kill. As the small town of Woodsboro, California, is haunted by the teen-killing Ghostface, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) becomes a serious target, bringing up past trauma about her mother’s murder and challenging her to figure out who’s killing all her classmates before she ends up joining them.

Oddly enough, Wes Craven initially turned down the project, only deciding to direct after Drew Barrymore signed to star. Then, Barrymore backed out and suggested she play a different role, creating perhaps the most iconic fake-out in horror history.

Mulan (1998)

What do you think of when you picture an ancient Chinese folk heroine pretending to be a man to fight the Huns? That’s right: Donny Osmond singing about climbing a big pole to retrieve an arrow in 1998’s Mulan.

After working through several iterations of the character (including one which saw Mulan romancing an army captain), Disney directors Barry Cook and Tony Bancroft found the character’s spark by making her strong, independent, and dedicated to helping her father. Thus, when Attila the Hun threatens Han China and men are conscripted into military service, Mulan (Ming-Na Wen) cuts her hair and takes her aging father’s place, discovering her own talents and bravery while restoring her family’s honor.

The Big Lebowski (1998)

Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski (Jeff Bridges) is just trying to smoke a little weed, do some bowling, and enjoy how his area rug really ties the room together. But his happy life is disrupted when thugs mistake him for the millionaire husband of a woman running up debts all over town and then demand payment.

In film-noir fashion, The Dude is drawn into an underworld scheme of deception, toe-cutting, and big cash, but the plot doesn’t really matter all that much. What matters is The Dude’s aimless drifting through the outlandish criminal schemes, driven by his trigger-temper Vietnam vet pal Walter (John Goodman), chill friend Donny (Steve Buscemi), and guided by the wisdom of The Stranger (Sam Elliott). Initially a box office bomb (it debuted in sixth place with a sad $5.5 million), the film has achieved cult status thanks to its wonderfully bizarre tone, murderer’s row of acting talent, and a slew of quotable lines appropriate for all occasions.

The Matrix (1999)

Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves) lives a bland existence as an office worker, making side money by hacking, when he’s hunted down by a notorious criminal named Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), who reveals that Anderson has been living in a computer simulation run by machines who use his body as battery power. That’s the bad news. The good news is that he can learn kung fu in about four seconds with the right floppy disc.

The Wachowskis’ groundbreaking sci-fi action flick delivered big on the philosophy and the front kicks, requiring its cast to train daily for months on end to get the fight choreography down (even while Reeves endured spinal surgery). It helped popularize bullet-time filming, making us cheer for the breathless thrills of Neo’s impossible speed while questioning our own tenuous reality. It’s not like you can disprove that we’re living inside a teenager in 2099’s computer science homework.

The Mummy (1999)

Director Stephen Sommers made a blockbuster by giving a musty old monster a contemporary spin with an Indiana Jones-like vibe—and by hiring two of the sexiest actors on the planet at the time. Rachel Weisz stars as a librarian with a box and map that purport to lead to a lost city, teaming with American adventurer Rick O’Connell (Brendan Fraser) to seek it out and duke it out on an epic scale with the long-dead Priest Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo).

After over a decade in development hell, The Mummy finally took flight by shedding its horror DNA in favor of blending romance, comedy, thrills, and a lot of fun in the desert. In fact, Fraser wasn’t sure what kind of movie he was making, telling EW in 2019, “We didn’t know whether we were making a horror movie, we didn’t know if this was an action picture, we didn’t know if it was a romance picture. All of the above? None of the above? We didn’t know. We. Did. Not. Know.”

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

Few films or film franchises loom as large as Peter Jackson’s expansive journey through Middle-earth. Adapting J.R.R. Tolkien’s peerless fantasy work was a gargantuan undertaking that required years of planning by Jackson and producing partner Phillippa Boyens. It also required profound commitments by the cast, meticulous design, and a studio willing to make an unprecedented gamble on blockbusting success.

The bet paid off. Fellowship of the Ring kicked off a $3 billion franchise that’s beloved by fans, hailed by critics, and festooned with all kinds of awards. While the books have thrilled audiences for decades, the sheer scale of spectacle and heart has made Frodo’s found family fantasy a favorite bit of escapism for Millennials.

In the initial adventure, the hobbit Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) is compelled to leave the only home he’s ever known when he comes into possession of the One Ring, sought by the dark lord Sauron, who wants it to return to power. Eventually, Frodo takes a prominent place among a fellowship formed to travel to Mordor to destroy the ring, led by the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and the ranger Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen).

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)

The Harry Potter books were formative for ’90s kids. Chris Columbus’s film adaptation landed at exactly the right time to cement that love for Harry, Ron, and Hermione in place for a lifetime. The wonder-filled world revolves around Harry, a clever, put-upon boy who learns he’s a wizard destined to study at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Once there, he’s dropped into the fantastical deep end of three-headed dogs, spells that turn rats into tail-wagging tea cups, and a secret prize the dark lord and his henchman would kill Harry to get.

The magic is carried on the shoulders of Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint, who grew up as Harry, Hermione, and Ron alongside most Millennials. Considering their audition process, it seems fated they were meant to play the roles. Radcliffe happened to be sitting in a theater behind producer David Heyman, who convinced the boy’s parents to let him try out; Watson filmed herself in her school’s gymnasium, never believing she had a shot; and Grint made a video pretending to be his female drama teacher before rapping about wanting to be Ron.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

What if there were a way to dull the pain of lost love by removing all memories of the person who crushed your heart? Artist Pierre Bismuth came up with the idea of delivering notes to people saying that they’d been erased from the memory of someone they thought they knew. Eternal Sunshine writer/director Michel Gondry was entranced by the concept and used it to craft an original, deeply humane exploration of all the complications that connection and erasure manifest.

In the film, Joel (Jim Carrey) decides to undergo the procedure for memory removal after learning that his ex-girlfriend Clementine (Kate Winslet) has already removed him from her mind. As the technician Stan (Mark Ruffalo) and his girlfriend Mary (Kirsten Dunst) oversee Joel’s memory removal, Joel re-experiences his relationship with Clementine in reverse, making him question whether he wants her gone at all.

Mean Girls (2004)

Tina Fey wrote the script for Mean Girls based on the self-help book Queen Bees & Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends & Other Realities of Adolescence, blending all the horrors of adolescence into a relatable, seminal touchstone of pre-social media minefields.

Lindsay Lohan stars as Cady, a new student who knows little of American high school culture, having grown up homeschooled in Africa. Despite quickly falling in with outcasts Janis (Lizzy Caplan) and Damian (Daniel Franzese), Cady gets invited to join the ultra-popular Plastics, led by the dictatorial Regina George (Rachel McAdams). The shift requires Cady to rethink her friendships and priorities, ultimately leading to an entire school inflamed by gossip.

The movie was such a hit that it was developed into a musical targeted at aging Millennial audiences and re-adapted as a movie musical just in time for Millennials to take their children to see it. It’s not hard to understand why. The film made a big impact by treating teenage problems seriously. Yes, Amy Poehler taught Kevin G. how to rap, but the movie also became an honest showcase of high school life, including a broad array of experiences. “This was a natural and true representation of a gay teenager—a character we laughed with instead of at,” Daniel Franzese told IndieWire of his character Damien, who he credits with giving him the courage to come out as gay in 2014.

Garden State (2004)

Several generations may feel listless at various times, but Millennials have felt at sea their entire lives. Few films captured the quarter-life crisis as well as Zach Braff’s sadly funny exploration. Braff wrote, directed, and starred in this angsty film as Andrew Largeman, a depressed aspiring actor who returns home when his mother dies. Medicated nearly his entire life, Andrew is detached but sees some hope in finding joy on this plane of existence after meeting compulsive liar Sam (Natalie Portman) and reconnecting with old school friend Mark (Peter Sarsgaard). Braff famously sent around a mix CD with every script. The finished film’s soundtrack is a stellar who’s who of 2000s indie, including Colin Hay, The Shins, Bonnie Somerville, and the legendary Nick Drake.

Superbad (2007)

Greg Mottola’s coming-of-age comedy turns the standard plot of boys worrying about their virginity status into a madcap chaos machine. Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse star as teens looking for the perfect high school graduation party—and the chance to impress their crushes (played by Martha MacIsaac and Emma Stone).

Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg wrote the movie when they were teenagers, adapting a lot of their own experiences into the wild night these boys endure in the film. Plus, Mottola utilized the improvisational skills of the actors to keep the camera rolling for hours in order to capture the funniest ideas. The result is an uproarious high school comedy that uses all that shock and bluster to disguise a heartfelt story of two boys who are struggling to deal with the fact that they’re going to miss each other.

Inception (2010)

Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a thief of ideas. Alongside his team, he infiltrates the dreams of powerful people to steal their plans and schemes, mainly sticking to corporate espionage. Sadly, he’s unable to return home to his children in the United States because of his outlaw status. When he and his mission partner Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) are offered the deal of a lifetime to implant an idea into someone’s mind instead of taking one, he assembles a team to achieve the near-impossible. At the same time, the memory of his wife (Marion Cotillard) threatens to disrupt every layer of dreaming he creates.

When you think about it, the bulk of Inception takes place while a group of people are peacefully asleep on an airplane, so it’s lucky that writer/director Christopher Nolan decided to show us what was happening inside all of their minds during the globe-trotting reverse heist. Supremely inventive and stunning with its visual impossibilities, the film is an epic of lost love and time, and the stark consequences of losing grip on what’s true. It’s also a testament to what can happen when a crew builds a rotating hotel hallway because they need a rotating hotel hallway.

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