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Best Movies of 1996

The highest-rated films released in 1996, ranked by TMDB user score among titles with at least 500 votes.

📊 A century of movies in numbers 95 titlesavg ★ 6.59 avg 109 min Drama Comedy Thriller Action

Most watched in 1996

Independence Day1996 · ★ 6.9 · 2h 25m

Trainspotting1996 · ★ 8.0 · 1h 34m

Mission: Impossible1996 · ★ 7.0 · 1h 51m

Fargo1996 · ★ 7.8 · 1h 38m

Scream1996 · ★ 7.4 · 1h 52m

From Dusk Till Dawn1996 · ★ 7.1 · 1h 48m

← 1995 All years 1997 →

#1 Trainspotting (1996) · ★ 8.0 · 10,711 votes · 1h 34m · drama, crime
Heroin addict Mark Renton stumbles through bad ideas and sobriety attempts with his unreliable friends --Sick Boy, Begbie, Spud and Tommy. He also has an underage girlfriend, Diane…
#2 Fargo (1996) · ★ 7.8 · 9,412 votes · 1h 38m · thriller, drama, crime
Jerry, a small-town Minnesota car salesman is bursting at the seams with debt... but he's got a plan. He's going to hire two thugs to kidnap his wife in a scheme to collect a hefty…
#3 Primal Fear (1996) · ★ 7.7 · 4,188 votes · 2h 10m · thriller, drama, crime
Defense attorney Martin Vail takes on jobs for money and prestige rather than any sense of the greater good. His latest case involves an altar boy, accused of brutally murdering th…
#4 Sleepers (1996) · ★ 7.6 · 4,045 votes · 2h 27m · thriller, drama, crime
Two gangsters seek revenge on the state jail worker who during their stay at a youth prison sexually abused them. A sensational court hearing takes place to charge him for the crim…
#5 A Close Shave (1996) · ★ 7.6 · 977 votes · 0h 30m · comedy, animation, family
Wallace's whirlwind romance with the proprietor of the local wool shop puts his head in a spin, and Gromit is framed for sheep-rustling in a fiendish criminal plot.…
#6 Secrets & Lies (1996) · ★ 7.6 · 755 votes · 2h 22m · drama
After her adoptive mother dies, Hortense, a successful black optometrist, seeks out her birth mother. She's shocked when her research leads her to Cynthia, a working class white wo…
#7 Breaking the Waves (1996) · ★ 7.5 · 1,143 votes · 2h 39m · romance, drama
In a small, conservative Scottish village, an oilman is paralyzed in an accident. His wife, who prayed for his return, feels guilty; even more, when he urges her to have sex with a…
#8 Thesis (1996) · ★ 7.5 · 980 votes · 2h 5m · thriller, horror
While working on a thesis about audiovisual violence, film student Ángela finds a snuff video where a girl is tortured until death. Soon she discovers that she was a former student…
#9 Sling Blade (1996) · ★ 7.5 · 872 votes · 2h 15m · drama
Karl Childers, a mentally disabled man, has been in the custody of the state mental hospital since the age of 12 for killing his mother and her lover. Although thoroughly instituti…
#10 Scream (1996) · ★ 7.4 · 8,254 votes · 1h 52m · horror, crime, mystery
A year after the murder of her mother, a teenage girl is terrorized by a masked killer who targets her and her friends by using scary movies as part of a deadly game.…
#11 A Time to Kill (1996) · ★ 7.4 · 3,100 votes · 2h 29m · thriller, drama, crime
A young lawyer defends a black man accused of murdering two white men who raped his 10-year-old daughter, sparking a rebirth of the KKK.…
#12 Shine (1996) · ★ 7.4 · 730 votes · 1h 45m · drama
Pianist David Helfgott, driven by his father and teachers, has a breakdown. Years later he returns to the piano, to popular if not critical acclaim.…
#13 Star Trek: First Contact (1996) · ★ 7.3 · 2,041 votes · 1h 51m · action, adventure, thriller
The Borg, a relentless race of cyborgs, are on a direct course for Earth. Violating orders to stay away from the battle, Captain Picard and the crew of the newly-commissioned USS E…
#14 Hamlet (1996) · ★ 7.3 · 528 votes · 4h 2m · drama
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, returns home to find his father murdered and his mother now marrying the murderer... his uncle. Meanwhile, war is brewing.…
#15 The Rock (1996) · ★ 7.2 · 5,353 votes · 2h 17m · action, adventure, thriller
When vengeful General Francis X. Hummel seizes control of Alcatraz Island and threatens to launch missiles loaded with deadly chemical weapons into San Francisco, only a young FBI…
#16 Matilda (1996) · ★ 7.2 · 4,975 votes · 1h 38m · comedy, fantasy, family
Matilda Wormwood is an brilliant and intelligent little girl. Unfortunately, her parents, Harry and Zinnia, fail to see that fact. As time passes, she finally starts school and has…
#17 Bound (1996) · ★ 7.2 · 1,155 votes · 1h 45m · thriller, drama, crime
Corky, a tough female ex-convict working on an apartment renovation in a Chicago building, meets a couple living next door, Caesar, a paranoid mobster, and Violet, his seductive gi…
#18 From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) · ★ 7.1 · 6,727 votes · 1h 48m · action, thriller, horror
After kidnapping a father and his two kids, the Gecko brothers head south to a seedy Mexican bar to hide out in safety, unaware of its notorious clientele.…
#19 The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) · ★ 7.1 · 5,487 votes · 1h 31m · drama, animation, family
Isolated in the bell tower of Notre Dame, Quasimodo longs to experience the world beyond the cathedral walls, despite the wishes of his stern guardian, the Judge of Paris Claude Fr…
#20 The English Patient (1996) · ★ 7.1 · 2,473 votes · 2h 42m · romance, drama, war
In the 1930s, Count Almásy is a Hungarian map maker employed by the Royal Geographical Society to chart the vast expanses of the Sahara Desert along with several other prominent ex…
#21 Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood (1996) · ★ 7.1 · 1,577 votes · 1h 29m · comedy, crime
When Ashtray moves to South Central L.A. to live with his father (who appears to be the same age he is) and grandmother (who likes to talk tough and smoke reefer), he falls in with…
#22 Welcome to the Dollhouse (1996) · ★ 7.1 · 517 votes · 1h 28m · comedy, drama
An unattractive 7th grader struggles to cope with suburban life as the middle child with inattentive parents and bullies at school.…
#23 Mission: Impossible (1996) · ★ 7.0 · 10,310 votes · 1h 51m · action, adventure, thriller
When Ethan Hunt, the leader of a crack espionage team whose perilous operation has gone awry with no explanation, discovers that a mole has penetrated the CIA, he's surprised to le…
#24 Jerry Maguire (1996) · ★ 7.0 · 3,895 votes · 2h 19m · comedy, romance, drama
Jerry Maguire used to be a typical sports agent: willing to do just about anything he could to get the biggest possible contracts for his clients, plus a nice commission for himsel…
#25 The Frighteners (1996) · ★ 7.0 · 1,833 votes · 1h 50m · comedy, horror
Once an architect, Frank Bannister now passes himself off as an exorcist of evil spirits. To bolster his facade, he claims his "special" gift is the result of a car accident that k…
#26 The Birdcage (1996) · ★ 7.0 · 1,426 votes · 1h 59m · comedy, romance
A gay cabaret owner and his drag queen partner agree to put up a false heterosexual front so that their son can introduce them to his fiancée's conservative parents.…
#27 The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996) · ★ 7.0 · 1,300 votes · 2h 10m · drama
Larry Flynt is the hedonistically obnoxious, but indomitable, publisher of Hustler magazine. The film recounts his struggle to make an honest living publishing his girlie magazine…
#28 Pusher (1996) · ★ 7.0 · 922 votes · 1h 50m · action, drama, crime
A drug pusher grows increasingly desperate after a botched deal leaves him with a large debt to a ruthless drug lord.…
#29 The Substitute (1996) · ★ 7.0 · 609 votes · 1h 54m · action, thriller, drama
When an inner-city Miami schoolteacher gets her knee broken after standing up to the school's gang leader, her mercenary combat specialist boyfriend goes undercover as a substitute…
#30 Fly Away Home (1996) · ★ 7.0 · 528 votes · 1h 47m · adventure, drama, family
Amy is only 13 years old when her mother is killed. She goes to Canada to live with her father, an eccentric inventor whom she barely knows. Amy is miserable in her new life... unt…
#31 Independence Day (1996) · ★ 6.9 · 10,756 votes · 2h 25m · action, adventure, science-fiction
Strange phenomena surface around the globe. The skies ignite. Terror races through the world's major cities. As these extraordinary events unfold, it becomes increasingly clear tha…
#32 That Thing You Do! (1996) · ★ 6.9 · 949 votes · 1h 48m · comedy, romance, drama
A Pennsylvania band scores a hit in 1964 and rides the star-making machinery as long as it can, with lots of help from its manager. But behind the scenes, the group’s sudden fame t…
#33 The Cyclone (1996) · ★ 6.9 · 782 votes · 1h 35m · comedy, romance
The everyday life of accountant Levante, his family and the other people of a small town in the Tuscan countryside is taken by storm by the serendipitous arrival of five gorgeous S…
#34 Michael Collins (1996) · ★ 6.9 · 537 votes · 2h 12m · thriller, drama, history
Michael Collins plays a crucial role in the establishment of the Irish Free State in the 1920s, but becomes vilified by those hoping to create a completely independent Irish republ…
#35 Space Jam (1996) · ★ 6.8 · 6,576 votes · 1h 27m · comedy, fantasy, adventure
With their freedom on the line, the Looney Tunes seek the help of NBA superstar Michael Jordan to win a basketball game against a team of moronic aliens.…
#36 Romeo + Juliet (1996) · ★ 6.8 · 5,447 votes · 2h 0m · romance, drama
In this contemporary take on William Shakespeare's classic tragedy, the Montagues and Capulets have moved their ongoing feud to the sweltering suburb of Verona Beach, where Romeo a…
#37 The Craft (1996) · ★ 6.8 · 2,138 votes · 1h 41m · fantasy, drama, horror
A Catholic school newcomer falls in with a clique of teen witches who wield their powers against all who dare to cross them -- be they teachers, rivals or meddlesome parents.…
#38 The Ghost and the Darkness (1996) · ★ 6.8 · 1,154 votes · 1h 49m · action, adventure, thriller
Sir Robert Beaumont is behind schedule on a railroad in Africa. Enlisting noted engineer John Henry Patterson to right the ship, Beaumont expects results. Everything seems great un…
#39 Swingers (1996) · ★ 6.8 · 835 votes · 1h 36m · comedy, drama
After 6 years together, Mike's girlfriend leaves him, so he travels to LA to be a star. Six months on, he's still not doing very well— so a few of his friends try to reconnect him…
#40 Happy Gilmore (1996) · ★ 6.7 · 3,477 votes · 1h 32m · comedy
Failed hockey player-turned-golf whiz Happy Gilmore — whose unconventional approach and antics on the green courts the ire of rival Shooter McGavin — is determined to win a PGA tou…