There are few things in the world of movies as fun as a good, exciting adventure film. These tell stories that take audiences on journeys across far-away settings, searching for important objects or simply exploring the unknown. While there are many thrilling adventure subgenres, few are as entertaining as the urban adventure movie. These set their narratives in sprawling metropolitan areas and other urban environments, where characters engage in adventures while tackling the challenges of city life.

Over the years, as the world has become increasingly urbanized, these kinds of adventure films have reflected how metropolitan daily life has evolved. Whether they’re allegorical stories for the whole family like Zootopia, or adrenaline-pumping action adventures like Inception, the best urban adventure movies always find ways to do creative things with the quotidian and make it look fun.

10 ‘Zootopia’ (2016)

Directed by Byron Howard and Rich Moore

With Zootopia, Disney proved that it still had plenty of fresh ideas left in the tank to delight modern audiences with. Set in a city of anthropomorphic animals, one of the coolest movie worlds in many years, it follows a rookie bunny cop and a cynical con artist fox, who have to set aside their differences and work together to uncover a complex political conspiracy.

WIth enough charming animation and funny jokes to keep the children entertained, but also plenty of throwbacks to classic genres like film noir and mob films to have adults smiling, Zootopia hooks audiences, so that it can tell a simple but powerful story about prejudice and social differences. Its depiction of themes like corruption and discrimination is surprisingly compelling for a Disney film, and the embodiment of what can make the urban adventure subgenre so fun.

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9 ‘Big Trouble in Little China’ (1986)

Directed by John Carpenter

Even though John Carpenter is better known for his groundbreaking work in horror, he’s one of those auteurs who has explored all sorts of genres. In Big Trouble in Little China, he explored the urban adventure genre and mixed it with elements of comedy and action. It’s the story of a trucker and his sidekick, facing an ancient sorcerer in a supernatural battle beneath Chinatown.

Every bit as amusing as it is exciting, the film’s non-stop energy and quintessentially ’80s-y charm have earned it a spot in the pantheon of the most beloved cult classics of its decade. For those who enjoy funny action, it hardly gets better than this; a visually engaging, action-packed tribute to kung fu movies that has only gotten better with age.

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8 ‘Speed’ (1994)

Directed by Jan de Bont

This 2024, a handful of incredible movies are turning 30 years old. One such film is the action classic Speed, about a young police officer who has to stop a bomb from exploding on board a bus by keeping its speed above 50 miles per hour. It’s a simple premise, but director Jan de Bont and stars Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock are able to make use of that tautness to create an exhilarating ride that never lets up.

Often, action flicks have to sacrifice intelligent scripts for the sake of being fun, or vice versa. Not Speed. Cleverly written and directed, but also terribly entertaining from start to finish, it’s a thriller that looks great, sounds great, and makes one feel great. As the bus that the characters are driving rushes through the city, so to do viewers’ hearts keep racing.

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7 ‘Die Hard: With a Vengeance’ (1995)

Directed by John McTiernan

It’s not controversial to call the original Die Hard one of the best action movies ever made. While none of its sequels really live up to its by quality, there’s one that comes particularly close (which happens to be the only one also made by the original’s director, John McTiernan): Die Hard: With a Vengeance, the third installment in the franchise, where hero John McClane joins a Harlem store owner called Zeus to stop a dangerous German terrorist from robbing the Federal Reserve Building.

While the first Die Hard was an action-fest constrained to a single large location, With a Vengeance is an urban adventure through and through (as well as an incredible buddy comedy). As McClane and Zeus move through the city trying to find the villain, while also having to follow his “Simon Says” game, audiences are treated to watching one of the action genre’s most legendary heroes exploring New York in order to save the day.

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6 ‘Spider-Man 2’ (2004)

Directed by Sam Raimi

Who would have expected Sam Raimi, an iconic director of campy B-movie cult classics, to go on to direct one of the best superhero movie trilogies ever? While there’s something to appreciate in each of his Spider-Man films, Spider-Man 2 is generally praised as the best. In it, Peter Parker is assailed by personal troubles as he battles a former brilliant scientist.

Spider-Man 2 is far and away one of the best interpretations of the Wall-Crawler ever seen in media; a smart deconstruction of the character and everything that makes him a hero. It has plenty of the street-level New York action that makes Spidey such an endearing and relatable character to general audiences, while also sprinkling in some more epic set pieces that never fail to wow.

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5 ‘Inception’ (2010)

Directed by Christopher Nolan

Ask a group of people what their favorite Christopher Nolan movie is, and you’re bound to get plenty of different answers. One of the ones that will inevitably come up most often, however, is Inception. A mind-bending sci-fi epic with impressive visual effects, it’s an adventure epic about a thief who uses dream-sharing technology to steal corporate secrets, but his tragic past threatens his team’s most recent project.

By far one of the most creative heist movies ever made, Inception cleverly uses its highly novel sci-fi concepts to amplify a story about dreams, guilt, and time. The way Nolan uses urban environments to create mindblowing action sequences bordering on visual surrealism is incredible, proving why he’s one of the most successful directors working today.

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4 ‘Monsters, Inc.’ (2001)

Directed by Pete Docter

Pete Docter is perhaps Pixar’s best and most prolific filmmaker, but even the greats have to start somewhere. For him, it was the outstanding Monsters, Inc., where monsters have to scare children in order to power their city with the energy let off by their screams. However, after a child enters the monsters’ world, friends Mike and Sulley realize that things might not be what they seem.

Monsters, Inc. is one of Pixar’s funniest and most entertaining movies, but also has surprisingly nuanced depictions of themes like friendship, courage, and corporate corruption. The real-world parallelisms that it’s able to achieve thanks to its richly constructed city of Monstropolis are the kind of magic that only early Pixar could have possibly been able to create.

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3 ‘Mission: Impossible — Fallout’ (2018)

Directed by Christopher McQuarrie

The Mission: Impossible franchise has been delighting action cinema fans since the ’90s, and it’s one of those rare movie franchises that only keep getting better. Mission: Impossible — Fallout isn’t only the peak of the series, but perhaps one of the greatest action films ever made. Picking up where predecessor Rogue Nation left off, it sees Ethan Hunt and his team racing against time after a mission goes awfully wrong.

Fallout has some incredible character building and an enthralling story, as well as some of the most thrilling set pieces in the franchise. The globe-trotting that the M:I movies are known for is more fun than ever here, and the pacing is absolutely perfect despite the nearly two-and-a-half hour runtime. Simply put, Fallout is the perfect modern action film, with enough urban adventure to satisfy any fan.

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2 ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ (2018)

Directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman

The world was taken by storm when Sony Animation, not exactly one of the strongest animation studios in the industry, released in 2018 one of the best animated films of all time: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, where teen Miles Morales becomes the Spider-Man of his universe and has to join five other Spider-People from other dimensions to stop a reality-altering threat.

Into the Spider-Verse has everything that anyone could expect from a modern superhero movie: Multiversal creativity, a group of smartly written characters, and an action-packed story with rousing themes of self-improvement and maturity. With lots of the New York action that fans of the Wall-Crawler expect from any of his movies, but with some of the most stunning animation the medium has ever seen, this is definitely one of the best-ever depictions of Spidey.

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1 ‘The Incredibles’ (2004)

Directed by Brad Bird

There are many superlatives that one could apply to Brad Bird‘s magnum opus, The Incredibles. It’s Pixar’s best film, perhaps the best superhero movie of all time, and arguably the best urban adventure film ever made. With fascinating characters, complex themes, and animation that has aged perfectly, it tells the story of a family of undercover superheroes trying to lead a quiet life in the city, who are forced into action to save the world.

This is far from your typical animated family film. While it has plenty of exciting action and funny moments for the little ones of the family, grown-ups are bound to be engrossed in the nuanced story touching on themes like suburban family life, midlife crises and their effects on a marriage, and the strength that comes with celebrating one’s identity. It’s a surprisingly mature story for a Pixar film, and one that works wonderfully in conjunction with all the explosive urban action filling the screen.

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KEEP READING:The Best Adventure Movies of All Time, Ranked According to IMDb