For those who don’t know, Movie Reddit is described as “an inclusive place for discussions and news about films with major releases.” In other words, movie buffs from across the globe share their love for some of the best and worst films ever made and share official trailers, fan art, discuss new studio releases and more.
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Over the years, movies have become the lifeblood of entertainment. They have brought people in social settings together (or occasionally torn them apart and started an online civil war) through discussions about topics on character arcs, the easter egg hidden where only the most eagle-eyed fans will catch it, their favourite performances and the debate over which Jurassic Park film was the best.
Movie Reddit has become one of the best places to discuss such things. It’s an almost lawless social media platform with topics and subreddits dedicated to video games (such as Call of Duty), good youtube channels, board games, DIY culture, movie news and even cats. Even movies have their own subreddit dedicated to people discussing their favourite movie or arguing with the most upvoted comment if their favourite isn’t on the list. Movie lovers have quickly formed one of the favourite communities on the social network, which allows film exploration of people’s hot new top 10 films in an exciting and entertaining way.
Let’s look at some of the films Movie Reddit followers have deemed good (or movies they would watch a second time). Warning spoilers follow.
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1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
The film was inspired by several of Arthur C. Clarke’s short stories, including The Sentinel. It was written and produced by Stanley Kubrick and explored the themes of artificial intelligence, human evolution, technology and the possibility of extraterrestrial life.
It follows the voyage of Discovery One, a spacecraft on its way to Jupiter with five astronauts, three of which are in suspended animation, and a sentient supercomputer known as HAL (voiced by Douglas Rain). They are on a mission to investigate an alien monolith. Unfortunately, along the way, HAL begins to break down, and this results in the death of most of the crew until Dr David Bowman (played by Keir Dullea) finally manages to disconnect the computer.
Dr Bowman completes the mission on his own, finding the monolith. He is sucked through a vortex and goes through several stages of ageing before transforming into a foetus that is left floating in a transparent orb above Earth.
The film has been praised for its ambiguous imagery (that leaves audiences to come to their own conclusions about the film), pioneering visual effects, and scientifically accurate depiction of space flight based on factual information. The consensus of the movie on Rotten Tomatoes is that it is “one of the most influential of all sci-fi films – and one of the most controversial – Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 is a delicate, poetic meditation of the ingenuity – and folly – of mankind.”
We have to agree with Movie Reddit on this one, it’s one of the best films of all time.
2. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
The Shawshank Redemption was written and directed by Frank Darabont, who based it on Stephen King’s novel Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. Despite critical acclaim, it was a major box-office disappointment when it was first released.
It follows the main character Andy Dufresne (played by Tim Robbins), a banker sentenced to two consecutive life sentences after being convicted for the murder of his wife and her lover, despite being innocent. He is sent to Shawshank State Prison and befriends Ellis “Red” Redding (played by Morgan Freeman), who gives him a rock hammer and a poster of Rita Hayworth.
His mostly depressing life in prison takes a bit of a turn when he assists the captain of the guard, Byron Hadley (played by Clancy Brown), legally avoiding paying tax on his inheritance. The warden (played by Bob Gunton) meets with him and decides to have him use his financial expertise to help manage the financial matters of those running Shawshank and other prisons. He agrees, operating under the name Randall Stephens.
Another prisoner (played by Gil Bellows) comes in and befriends Andy and Red before telling them that his previous cellmate was responsible for the murders for which Andy was convicted. He goes to the warden with the information, but he doesn’t listen and has Andy shot when he brings up the money laundering and threatened if he doesn’t continue with it.
After getting out of prison, Andy asks Red to retrieve a package from a specific location. Red becomes concerned for his friend when he starts talking about living in Zihuatanejo and learns that he had asked another inmate for rope.
Andy is not seen in his cell the following day, and, in his frustration, the warden accidentally reveals a tunnel that had been dug over the last 19 years when he throws a rock through Andy’s movie posters. The banker had managed to escape the previous night, withdrawn a substantial amount of money and sent the evidence of corruption and laundering to a local newspaper. Hadley is brought into custody, and the warden commits suicide to avoid being arrested.
Red is finally given parole after serving 40 years and decides to look for the package for which Andy had asked. Instead, he finds money and a letter, and the two friends reunite on a beach in Zihuatanejo.
Again, Movie Reddit is completely right. This film is fantastic.
3. Fight Club (1999)
David Fincher directed this film and based it on the novel of the same name that Chuck Palahniuk wrote. It was deemed one of the most controversial films of the 1990s and became a cult classic.
It follows the story of an unnamed narrator (played by Edward Norton) who has chronic insomnia and attends a support group to cure it. During one of these meetings, he meets Marla Singer (played by Helena Bonham Carter).
While flying home from a business trip, he meets Tyler Durden (played by Brad Pitt), a soap salesman who informs him he’s trapped by consumerism. He later moves in with Tyler after his home explodes, and the two of them start fighting in bar parking lots and attracting the attention of other men. This leads to the formation of Fight Club.
Marla overdoses on pills; the narrator ignores her calls, but Tyler saves her, and the two begin a relationship.
The narrator soon quits his unfulfilling job and blackmails his boss into financially supporting Fight Club; meanwhile, Tyler has been using Fight Club to recruit people to Project Mayhem. The narrator complains about being left out, and Tyler reveals that he blew up the apartment.
The narrator decides to stop Project Mayhem and learns that it has spread throughout the country and that he and Tyler are the same person. After learning Tyler’s plan to erase debt through the destruction of several buildings, he tries to warn people about what’s happening, but no one believes him, and members of Project Mayhem threaten him.
He manages to escape and tries to disarm the explosive, but Tyler intercepts him and holds him at gunpoint. It takes the narrator a second to realise he is holding the gun and shoots himself in the mouth, making Tyler disappear. Marla finds him found but alive, and he tells her that she met him “at a very strange time” in his life while the two hold hands and watch the buildings around them explode.
4. Nomadland (2020)
Chloe Zhao’s Nomadland is based on the nonfiction book written by Jessica Bruder, Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century. The film follows the story of Fern (played by Frances McDormand), a woman who loses her job and is forced to sell her belonging and live in a van as she travels across the country looking for work. In winter, she works a seasonal job at an Amazon fulfilment centre, but otherwise, she struggles to find any work. Eventually, she meets a community of nomads, and they teach her self-sufficiency and basic survival skills.
Down the road, she makes friends with fellow nomad Swankie (played by Charlene Swankie), who suffers from cancer and plans to spend the bit of time she has left making good memories. She teaches her the benefits of being prepared on the road, and they go their separate ways.
She then re-meets Dave (played by David Strathairn), and they work together at several jobs. When his son finds Dave to tell him that he has a grandchild, Fern encourages him to go but declines the offer to go with him.
Her van breaks down, and she visits her sister in California, who gives her the money to fix the van and praises her independence. Once the van is fixed, Fern decides to drive up to see Dave and his family and learns he plans to stay with them permanently. After he admits his feelings and offers to let her stay with him, she leaves for the ocean before returning to her seasonal job.
She meets up with the nomad community, who honour Swankie’s life by tossing stones into a campfire, and opens up to Bob Wells (played by himself) about her past. He tells her about his philosophy on how goodbyes are never final in the nomad community, as they will always see each other again “down the road”.
Fern decides to go home to dispose of the last few belongings she had kept in a storage unit before returning to her life as a nomad.
The film features the real-life story of several people who play themselves in the movie.
This is a surprising choice. Personally, I wouldn’t have imagined this making Movie Reddit’s list of best movies of all time.
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5. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
The reboot and fourth instalment of the Mad Max film series was directed, co-written and co-produced by George Miller and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film is considered one of the greatest movies of all time and became one of the best films of the 2010s. The release date for a prequel has already been announced, with George Miller returning as the director and writer.
The film is set in a post-apocalyptic desert wasteland following the collapse of society and war over resources. It follows Max Rockaransky (played by Tom Hardy), a “blood bag” for a War Boy named Nux (played by Nicholas Hoult), haunted by the memory of the people he couldn’t protect. He and Imperator Furiosa (played by Charlize Theron), a lieutenant, join forces against Immortan Joe (played by Hugh Keays-Byrne), a tyrannical leader who doesn’t care about the lower-class people he rules over, and his army.
Together with Joe’s five runaway wives and eventually Nux, who realises the error of his ways, the eight travel across the ruined land, hoping to find the “Green Place” that Furiosa remembers from her childhood. Along the way, they get into several intense vehicle battles.
They soon learn that the Green Place is now an uninhabitable swampland and decide to travel across a salt flat before Max catches up to them and convinces them to take over Joe’s Citadel, which will have more than enough food and water for them once they take Joe out.
Furiosa kills Joe, and Nux sacrifices himself so their group can win the war. Max transfuses some of his blood to save Furiosa’s life, and the two exchange a look after their victory before Max disappears into the crowd.
6. Sorry We Missed You (2019)
Ken Loach directed the film with a script written by Paul Lavery. It follows the story of Ricky Turner (played by Kris Hitchen) and his family, who have been struggling with debt since the 2008 financial crash.
He is hired as a self-employed delivery driver to run a franchise under the employment of Maloney (played by Rose Brewster), an employer who doesn’t take kindly to mistakes. He convinces his wife (played by Debbie Honeywood) to let him sell the family car so he can get a van for his deliveries.
The family quickly starts to fall apart. Ricky, who is fined for every mistake he makes, and his wife, who is upset that she can’t spend as much time as she used to with her clients and finds work much more demanding, are stressed.
Their son Seb (played by Rhys Stone) is on a rebellious streak and has gotten into the habit of skipping school and getting into trouble with his graffiti. After a fight, he angrily tags their family portraits and gets hit by Seb during an argument after Ricky blames him for taking the keys to his van. Seb’s younger sister Liza Jane (played by Katie Proctor in her first role), tearfully reveals that she hid them, blaming Ricky’s job for the family’s problems.
Ricky returns to work and is robbed an assaulted while making deliveries, losing his barcode scanner to the assailants. While at the hospital, Maloney calls to tell him he will receive a hefty fine for what happened.
Seb rejoins the family, but an injured and desperate Ricky returns to work in tears as the family begs him not to leave.
Ken Loach’s Sorry We Missed You was praised for the use of non-professional actors in the film. Everyone’s acting is brilliant, specifically Debbie Honeywood’s performance as Abby Turner.
This might be a controversial choice by Movie Reddit, especially since films like The Godfather are missing from the list.
7. Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Quentin Tarantino directed, wrote and starred in this crime film. It follows eight gangsters, most of which go by aliases, as they arrange a diamond heist. They are successful, but things quickly fall apart for the group.
Mr Orange (played by Tim Roth) was shot and is bleeding in the back of Mr White’s (played by Harvey Keitel) car as they drive to one of Joe Cabot’s (played by Lawrence Tierney), where Mr Pink (played by Steve Buscemi) is waiting. Pink hid the diamonds close to the rendezvous point.
The two arrive, and Pink tells them that he thinks the job was a set-up. White updates him on the state of everyone else: Mr Brown (played by Quentin Tarantino) is dead, and Mr Blue (played by Edward Bunker and Mr Blonde (played by Michael Madsen) are missing.
While Pink and White argue about whether they should get medical attention for Orange, Blonde arrives with Marvin Nash (played by Kirk Blatz), a police officer he kidnapped. The audience learns that Blonde met up with Joe and his son Eddie (played by Chris Penn) at the end of his prison sentence, and they recruited him for the heist after he told them that he was ready for real work.
White and Pink are beating Nash for information when Eddie arrives and calls them to retrieve the diamonds and ditch the getaway vehicles, leaving Blonde in charge of Nash and Orange. Blonde resumes the torture and is shot by Orange after he cuts Nash’s ear off, revealing himself as a police officer.
Joe arrives and is followed by Eddie, Pink and White. Orange tries to defend his choice by claiming the Blonde was planning to kill them and take the diamonds for himself, but Eddie kills Nash and accuses Orange of lying as Blonde was loyal to Joe/
Joe lets the group know that the police killed Blue and he’s about to execute Orange, who he suspects is a traitor, when White steps in and defends Orange, holding Joe at gunpoint. Eddie aims at White, and all three men fire. Eddie and Joe are dead, while White and Orange are wounded.
Pink flees with the diamonds but is quickly caught, and Orange confesses to White that he is a police officer. As the police storm the warehouse, White presses his gun to Orange’s head. Guns fire, and White Collapses.
It’s not very surprising to see this Tarantino film make the top of Movie Reddit’s list.
8. Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars is one of the most popular series in the world and follows the story of the Rebel Alliance fighting for freedom against the empire. The great story was created by George Lucas and directed by Irvin Kershner.
After destroying the Death Star, the Rebels have taken up residence on the ice planet Hoth where Luke Skywalker (played by Mark Hamill) briefly disappears. Han Solo (played by Harrison Ford), who has been irritating Princess Leia (played by Carrie Fisher), rescues him.
The Empire attacks their base, and Han, Leia, C-3Po, and Chewbacca (played by Peter Mayhew) escape aboard the Millennium Falcon. Darth Vader (played by David Prowse and voiced by James Earl Jones) sends Boba Fett and several other bounty hunters after the Falcon. The crew aboard the Falcon expertly evades the Imperial fleet, and they travel to the Cloud City, which is governed by Lando Calrissian (played by Billy Dee Williams) and Darth Vader, catches up with them.
Meanwhile, Luke flies with R2-D2 to Dagobah, where Yoda trains and teaches him to resist negative emotions and the call of the dark side. While training, he feels the pain of Leia and Han and abandons their training to rescue them against the wishes of Obi-Wan and Yoda.
Han is frozen in carbonite and given to Boba Fett to take to Jabba the Hutt. Lando then frees Leia and Chewbacca, and the group escapes on the Falcon after Chewie almost kills Lando for what happened.
Luke arrives and fights Vader, losing his hand and learning that Vader is actually his father. To avoid further confrontation, he drops down the airshaft and catches an antenna, where the Falcon finds him after Leia feels him calling out to her through the Force.
R2-D2 successfully activates the hyperdrive, allowing the crew aboard the Falcon to escape. Luke gets a robotic prosthetic limb, and he, Leia and the two droids watch Lando and Chewbacca fly off in search of Han.
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Do you agree with Movie Reddit’s list of best movies?
The 8 Best Flims Ever, According to Movie Reddit Written by Hannah Lieberum for Fortress of Solitude
