The 10 movies JJ Abrams couldn’t live without

June 29, 20253 Mins Read

(Credits: Far Out / Joi Ito)

Mon 30 June 2025 2:30, UK

JJ Abrams is one of the most successful filmmakers of the past 25 years, whether he’s a household name or not. He might have risen to prominence when he was the co-creator of the hit TV series Lost in the early 2000s, but he was writing and producing hits long before then, including Armageddon and that Harrison Ford amnesia melodrama Regarding Henry. He even helped develop the animation behind Shrek.

After Lost, Abrams became inextricably linked to science fiction and action franchises. He directed the Star Trek reboots, kick-started the new era of Star Wars movies, and got involved with the DC cinematic universe. That does not mean, however, that the only films he likes are big-budget fantasy and action movies. When asked to provide his list of favourite films to Rotten Tomatoes in 2009, the results were surprising.

Only one of them falls into science fiction territory (Star Wars, not surprisingly), and only one other falls into action territory (Jaws). Otherwise, he went for romantic Hollywood classics, starting with the beloved 1940 comedy Philadelphia Story, in which Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant play a divorced couple who fall back in love against their better judgment, and Tootsie, Sydney Pollack’s feel-good comedy about a male actor who dresses as a woman in order to find work.

The most surprising of the bunch is Rear Window, Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller about a man confined to his apartment after an injury who witnesses a murder in a neighbouring apartment. The fact that Abrams loves it is no wonder. It is, after all, one of the greatest films ever made. However, it was the praise he reserved for it that was unexpected. “When Grace Kelly goes to kiss Jimmy Stewart that first time it,” he said, “[It] was just one of those things where it is the best special effect in the history of time.”

This comment is pretty telling from someone known for big-budget special effects in science fiction movies. Sometimes, the greatest impact in cinema is the magical chemistry between co-stars, the sort of energy that can’t be fabricated or outdone, even with cutting-edge technology. Stewart and Kelly had it in spades, and it helped make the film a true thriller even without its murder plot.

For anyone who might have been hoping to get some sci-fi recommendations from a man who is clearly an expert, fear not. Abrams provided his top five list to Entertainment Weekly in 2011, and they run the gamut from enigmatic masterpieces (2001: A Space Odyssey and Blade Runner) to box office hits (Aliens and Close Encounters of the Third Kind). He also has a soft spot for David Cronenberg’s body horror classic The Fly, saying that the director “made fringe science sexy” and put a “beautiful and tragic and funny and crackling” love story at its core.

All in all, his top ten list is a great cinematic primer for anyone interested in tackling some of the dazzling highlights of the past 75 years in Hollywood cinema. You won’t find any quiet indies or thought-provoking dramas, but in terms of pure spectacle, these films deliver.