Swashbuckling heroes. Exotic locations. Daring quests. Unimaginable treasures hidden in the deep, dark, dusty confine of an ancient temple or a damp, drippy cave. Pirates. Dinosaurs. Aliens. Aliens with braids. Directed (or produced) by Steven Spielberg or James Cameron or Rob Reiner or Robert Zemeckis. Ancient gods. Quippy one-liners. Whips and fedoras. Spectacular stunts and set pieces, always! Nazis, sometimes.

Like a rugged archaeologist looking for the entrance of a long-lost tomb, you’ll know an adventure movie when you see it. They’re thrilling globetrotting affairs for the whole family; the films that we all grew up on, passed down from generation to generation like museum-worthy heirlooms.

These are not cerebral affairs that pose existential questions about the nature of man, nor heavy-handed dramas dealing with everyday woes that leave us a bit depressed. Escapism is the game, for when all we need is a quick return flight to a faraway land, preferably one replete with glistening doubloons and cast in the shade of palm trees … or starring blue, lowkey hot extraterrestrials with a hair kink.

So, fancy an adventure? Here we’ve ranked ten of the best adventure movies ever made, for when all you want is to be teleported into a globetrotting, nostalgic caper, like the big kid you really are. In the timeless words of Samuel L. Jackson in one of the movies on this list: “Hold onto your butts.”

10. Conan the Barbarian (1982)

In which Arnie at his swole-est wore little but a loincloth, lifted his skyscraper-sized sword to the sky, and travelled across a mysterious land seeking revenge for the murder of his parents. One of the defining romps of the ’80s, our favourite Austrian weightlifter morphed from muscleman to movie star with Conan. Two years later, he was hunting down Linda Hamilton in the smoky streets of L.A.

9. King Kong (2005)