'Old' Movies Every Young Person Needs To Watch In Their Lifetime

Voting Rules
Vote up the best "old" movies that came out in the '80s and '90s - the ones you think everyone simply MUST watch.

If you're a younger millennial, you've probably heard your older friends and coworkers say things like "Hey, you guys!" or "Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?" or "He can't see without his glasses!" and knew that they were quoting some old movie that you've never seen (something like The Goonies, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, or My Girl). These films may have been released before you were born, but to be culturally literate, you should probably go back and watch them. This classics list is not about old old black and white movies, it's about '80s and '90s beloved masterpieces. They're the cinematic treasures that made the careers of your favorite current day actors.

You can see some of your favorite actors when they were just starting in these old movies that young people should watch. Love Christian Bale, but you've never seen Newsies? Go watch it! (fun Christian Bale fact: he hates this movie). Admire Meryl Streep? Make sure you check out Death Becomes Her. She looks so youthful!

If you ever find yourself asking, "What old movies should I watch?" just work your way down this list and knock them out, one at a time. 

Photo: Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY)
Ranked by
  • Back To The Future
    1
    16,118 votes
    Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Crispin Glover
    In this 1980s sci-fi classic, small-town California teen Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) is thrown back into the '50s when an experiment by his eccentric scientist friend Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) ...more
  • Ghostbusters
    2
    12,975 votes
    Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis
    After the members of a team of scientists (Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray) lose their cushy positions at a university in New York City, they decide to become "ghostbusters" to wage a ...more
  • Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
    3
    13,571 votes
    Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman
    Dr. Indiana Jones, a renowned archeologist and expert in the occult, is hired by the U.S. Government to find the ark of the covenant, which is believed to still hold the Ten Commandments. ...more
  • Home Alone
    4
    14,270 votes
    Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern
    When bratty 8-year-old Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) acts out the night before a family trip to Paris, his mother (Catherine O'Hara) makes him sleep in the attic. After the McCallisters ...more
  • Jurassic Park
    5
    9,900 votes
    Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum
    In Steven Spielberg's massive blockbuster, paleontologists Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) and mathematician Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) are among a select group chosen to tour ...more
  • The Shawshank Redemption
    6
    14,280 votes
    Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Bob Gunton
    Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) is sentenced to two consecutive life terms in prison for the murders of his wife and her lover and is sentenced to a tough prison. However, only Andy knows he didn't ...more