I just watched Midnight Run the other night for the first time in a long time. Is it me or were there A LOT of "on the road" movies in the '80s? Especially the late '80s. They run the gamut from comedy to drama to kids films, from award winners to cheesy shit to cult classics. Off the top of my head:

Midnight Run
Rainman
The Wizard
Pee Wee's Big Adventure
Something Wild
Lost in America
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
Vacation
Starman
Fandango
The Sure Thing

...and of course Paris, Texas which I suspect may have kicked off the cycle.

In contrast the only '90s example I can think of is Wild at Heart.

Anyone care to name some more, or discuss. What was the cause of this?

More 80's

Stranger Than Paradise
The Blues Brothers

90's

Wild at Heart
My Own Private Idaho
Thelma and Louise
The Living End
Kalifornia
True Romance
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
The Chase
Dumb and Dumber
The Getaway
Love and a .45
Natural Born Killers
Boys on the Side
To Wong Foo
Beavis and Butt-Head Do America
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
The Straight Story

While they aren't driving, Stand By Me is pretty much a road movie.

Ones off the top of my head I can think of have been mentioned, but this one from 1997 (I know, not 80's) comes to mind. I found it to be pretty neat and unusual for a road movie. When I finished watching it, I felt something was off by it. It was well done, but it was't until years later when I bought the DVD and watched it again when I realized that there is no music anywhere in the movie.

Kind of remember watching Breaking the Rules (1992) many many years ago,okay maybe 20.

I can't think of anything from the 80's right now but here's one from the early 90's.

Judgement Night.

Am I just perceiving a glut of road films in the '80s? Were there always a lot of road films?

Bob Hope and Bing Crosby would like to have a word with you.

Some More from the 80's:

Smokey and the Bandit II (1980)
Coast to Coast (1980)
Back Roads (1981)
Bustin' Loose (1981)
The Cannonball Run (1981)
Honkytonk Man (1982)
Smokey and the Bandit Part 3 (1983)
Cannonball Run II (1984)
The Legend of Billie Jean (1985)
Follow That Bird (1985)
The Hitcher (1986)
Crossroads (1986)
The Color of Money (1986)
Wisdom (1986)
Million Dollar Mystery (1987)
Dudes (1987)
Three for the Road (1987)
Speed Zone (a.k.a. Cannonball Fever) (1989)
Think Big (1989)
Homer and Eddie (1989)


And Some from the 90's:

Coupe de Ville (1990)
Motorama (1991)
Dutch (1991)
Rubin & Ed (1991)
A Perfect World (1993)
Josh and S.A.M. (1993)
Tommy Boy (1995)
Mad Love (1995)
Flirting with Disaster (1996)
Kingpin (1996)
Larger Than Life (1996)
My Fellow Americans (1996)
Michael (1996)
Overnight Delivery (1998)
The Odd Couple II (1998)
Smoke Signals (1998)
The Pass (1998)
Forces of Nature (1999)

Glad you mentioned Smoke Signals. That's one really great movie. (with one bad wig!)

Already posted but I did enjoyed Crossroads starring Ralph Macchio.

I still haven't seen Midnight run. I'm not a big fan of the road movie though. I dunno why. Something about it bores me. Though I have seen and liked a few already mentioned.

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Yet not one mention of Ishtar in this thread.

(The '80s movie Ishtar was so much like a Bob Hope & Bing Crosby "Road" movie that it should have been titled "The Road to Ishtar")

Of the road movies mentioned in this thread that I've seen, the only ones I'd want to see again are PEE WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE, PARIS TEXAS and the Hope and Crosby "Road to..." movies.

My favorite Road Movie of the last 20 years is Takeshi Kitano's KIKUJIRO (1999). It's very funny and quite a change of pace from Kitano's other movies. Not my first Japanese road movie, but certainly more memorable than the others I've seen. (Not sure which others I've seen offhand.)

I haven't seen it in years, but I remember being very entertained by Midnight Run, and I wasn't expecting to be.

Highway 61 (1991).

Kiss or Kill is one of my fave cult movies. Quirky, funny and tense with a brilliant cop duo!

The ones I can remember are Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), Down by Law (1986), Drugstore Cowboy (1989) and The Sure Thing (1985).

Wasn't Willow a "road movie" of some sorts?

Was there ever a sci-fi road movie, i.e. traveling from planet to planet?

The closest I can think of is the anime series, "Cowboy Bebop," which had lots of road movie elements (including the music).

Yes, road movies were a staple of grindhouses -- Easy Rider, Vanishing Point, Race with the Devil, Two Lane Blacktop, Deathrace 2000. That's what Tarantino was paying homage to in Death Proof.

Then came Smokey and the Bandit, which became a surprise hit (second highest grossing movie of 1977, behind only Star Wars) and heralded a shift to watered down, mainstream road films like Convoy and Cannonball Run.

Isn't Alien a movie about a bunch of guys who pick up a hitchhiker?

And there are tons of apocalyptic road movies, like Damnation Alley, the Mad Max series, and The Road.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? Interstellar kind of is.

So would that make the Lord of the Rings trilogy the ultimate road movie?

I think you'd really like Midnight Run. I rewatched it about a year ago and I holds up surprisingly well (with the exception of some outdated technology which plays in integral part of the finale). It's also one of those great 80s flicks that drops the "F" bomb every other word!