Best screenplays every written
This list is based on the movie and not the screenplay. Because you can't actually make a list of screenplays on this site. So I selected the best written movies even though hypothetically a movie could be filmed without any screenplay. That's just not possible in reality.
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- DirectorRobert ZemeckisStarsMichael J. FoxChristopher LloydLea ThompsonMarty McFly, a 17-year-old high school student, is accidentally sent 30 years into the past in a time-traveling DeLorean invented by his close friend, the maverick scientist Doc Brown.Entertaining from beginning to end and not a scene or prop is used without advancing the plot. Perfect.
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsHumphrey BogartIngrid BergmanPaul HenreidA cynical expatriate American cafe owner struggles to decide whether or not to help his former lover and her fugitive husband escape the Nazis in French Morocco.So many characters whose storylines are all intertwined. Must have taken ages to write.
- DirectorJohn McTiernanStarsBruce WillisAlan RickmanBonnie BedeliaA New York City police officer tries to save his estranged wife and several others taken hostage by terrorists during a Christmas party at the Nakatomi Plaza in Los Angeles.W...T...F... I don't understand this screenplay. No one does. You need the layout of the building in front of you to understand the basics. Which means this deserves a top 3 easily as the screenplay looks like a huge awful mess but the movie is amazing. Clearly they knew what they were doing. I just don't know how.
- DirectorChristopher NolanStarsChristian BaleHugh JackmanScarlett JohanssonAfter a tragic accident, two stage magicians in 1890s London engage in a battle to create the ultimate illusion while sacrificing everything they have to outwit each other.So damn many elements to one single story that it's amazing. Usually I see 3-5 elements or characters make up a story. Here you have so many things going on that the twists don't stop coming.
- DirectorChristopher NolanStarsLeonardo DiCaprioJoseph Gordon-LevittElliot PageA thief who steals corporate secrets through the use of dream-sharing technology is given the inverse task of planting an idea into the mind of a C.E.O., but his tragic past may doom the project and his team to disaster.Took about 10 years to write. I would have guessed it would take even longer to write down. Think about it this way. There are many movies from the 60's and before that that are considered some of the best movies ever made. But none of them look even remotely like Inception. Had Inception been released in 1965 is would have been considered 10 times better that the best movie ever made.
- DirectorSimon WincerStarsTom BurlinsonJudy MorrisMartin VaughanThe true story of a New Zealand racehorse that became a champion, with the help of a local stable-boy.A super horse wins all its races. Impossible to write a screenplay about this story without the races becoming boring and predictable? Well, let's see if this can be done. Wow! But how? How?
- DirectorJohn SturgesStarsYul BrynnerSteve McQueenCharles BronsonSeven gunfighters are hired by Mexican peasants to liberate their village from oppressive bandits.Wow, just wow. Deserves to stand on the shelf among greats such as Plato and Socrates.
- DirectorJohn HustonStarsHumphrey BogartWalter HustonTim HoltTwo down-on-their-luck Americans searching for work in 1920s Mexico convince an old prospector to help them mine for gold in the Sierra Madre Mountains.To the point and ruthless. Very ruthless. Many here are greedy and evil and the protagonist turns evil himself. This kind of character change has never been done as well as here. Usually we just see the good guy point the pistol at the other good guy. As to mean "syke, I was evil all along". It's easier to write.
- DirectorJordan PeeleStarsDaniel KaluuyaAllison WilliamsBradley WhitfordA young African-American visits his white girlfriend's parents for the weekend, where his simmering uneasiness about their reception of him eventually reaches a boiling point.Damn... what a smash hit this year. So many interesting things in this story that it just requires a rewatch. Which under 1% of all movies do. Also, the final script is not online... double *beep*. Another thing. I have seen maybe 7 long video reviews and analysis of this movie online. All popular videos and all pointing out specific cool things in the script. Combined they probably explained about 20 really cool small details in the movie. But I myself have found 5 more. And I have only watched it one time. This probably means that there could be 30-40 small hints and details in the movie that are somehow illuminating the idea in the movie. That's 1 cool small extra detail every third minute. That's just crazy.
- DirectorRichard DonnerStarsMel GibsonJodie FosterJames GarnerBret Maverick, needing money for a poker tournament, faces various comic mishaps and challenges, including a charming woman thief.Hmmmm... does this belong here? I guess it does. But why? Possibly because it's a great example of how to write an adventure without loosing a beat. This one not only has great action, but a great love story and exiting card plays. I have seen romance movies becoming hugely popular on romance alone. Or action movies becoming cult classics just based on the action alone. This one has everything. And everything is well written.
- DirectorJim AbrahamsDavid ZuckerJerry ZuckerStarsVal KilmerOmar SharifJeremy KempAn American rock and roll singer is invited to a cultural festival in East Germany in order to distract from a plot to destroy NATO submarines, but he accidentally becomes involved in a resistance plot to rescue an imprisoned scientist.This blows my mind. Not only does is surpass all other comedies as a screenplay, but it joins the best written movies of all time. Is that possible for a silly comedy? Well, go ahead and watch it. Tell me how many scenes are clever and not just funny.
- DirectorPaul VerhoevenStarsArnold SchwarzeneggerSharon StoneMichael IronsideWhen a man goes in to have virtual vacation memories of the planet Mars implanted in his mind, an unexpected and harrowing series of events forces him to go to the planet for real - or is he?This is just a magnificent script. Some stuff that's hard to write is time travel, explanatory flashbacks, multiple personalities, multiple worlds and many characters. This movies has most of these things. That's pretty incredible. You try and include most of these things in your script and it will probably become an incoherent mess. At best it will be understandable.
- DirectorAlan J. PakulaStarsDustin HoffmanRobert RedfordJack Warden"The Washington Post" reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncover the details of the Watergate scandal that leads to President Richard Nixon's resignation.Intellectual script that does not force-feed you the plot and details. Amazingly well written. The story unfolds slowly. You are just allowed to follow the detectives around. They are not there for you. They are there to unfold the story. You are just a fly on their wall.
- DirectorDavid LeanStarsPeter O'TooleAlec GuinnessAnthony QuinnThe story of T.E. Lawrence, the English officer who successfully united and led the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes during World War I in order to fight the Turks.Such a great and big story that it's one of the best scripts ever written. Amazingly epic.
- DirectorHarold RamisStarsBill MurrayAndie MacDowellChris ElliottA narcissistic, self-centered weatherman finds himself in a time loop on Groundhog Day.Repeating the same day. My god, I tried to write a script based on this concept. It's hard as hell. Making a good movie on this concept is something only a handful of people in the world can do. That's why you don't see a ton of them.
- DirectorJames CameronStarsArnold SchwarzeneggerLinda HamiltonEdward FurlongA cyborg, identical to the one who failed to kill Sarah Connor, must now protect her ten year old son John from an even more advanced and powerful cyborg.Everything fits together. All scenes progress the plot and we want to join the next scene. Very few movies use this many locations this well as part of the natural plot.
- DirectorTom McCarthyStarsMark RuffaloMichael KeatonRachel McAdamsThe true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese, shaking the entire Catholic Church to its core.Wow. Amazing screenplay. A detective story that does not really require action to be exiting. This is really hard to do.
- DirectorPeter WeirStarsRussell CrowePaul BettanyBilly BoydDuring the Napoleonic Wars, a brash British captain pushes his ship and crew to their limits in pursuit of a formidable French war vessel around South America.Yes! Yes! Every time this movie is mentioned everyone just need to tell everyone else how much they loved the movie. It mixes science, history and war. Even doing one of these topics well is extremely hard. Doing all 3 well is close to impossible.
- DirectorDavid FincherStarsJesse EisenbergAndrew GarfieldJustin TimberlakeAs Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg creates the social networking site that would become known as Facebook, he is sued by the twins who claimed he stole their idea and by the co-founder who was later squeezed out of the business.Another script that's exiting because of the dialogue. Usually the dialogue needs a ton of action to remain exiting. To be fair, they do speak the lines fairly fast in the movie. Which does put it higher on this list. The Social Network without the producers pushing David Fincher to make it shorter would not be The Social Network. They clearly knew how to make a good movie.
- DirectorMartin ScorseseStarsRobert De NiroRay LiottaJoe PesciThe story of Henry Hill and his life in the mafia, covering his relationship with his wife Karen and his mob partners Jimmy Conway and Tommy DeVito.Real events are really hard to write about. You need to follow most of the movie rules and tropes as always but you also need to tell the true story. It's really hard not to "adapt" the story into a movie format where the protagonist needs to fight evil and then win. But this script remains well grounded in all the different areas it needs to be grounded in.
- DirectorBarry SonnenfeldStarsTommy Lee JonesWill SmithLinda FiorentinoJames, an NYC cop, is hired by Agent K of a secret government agency that monitors extraterrestrial life on Earth. Together, they must recover an item that has been stolen by an intergalactic villain.A bit like Terminator 2 in that all the locations could as well have been one room. That's how much they belong together in the plot. When the actors move from their office to a shop, or a shop to an apartment you just kinda feel like it's all in the same building.
- DirectorMartin ScorseseStarsRobert De NiroSharon StoneJoe PesciIn Las Vegas, two best friends - a casino executive and a mafia enforcer - compete for a gambling empire and a fast-living, fast-loving socialite.Another epic. Really hard to write. I couldn't write this kind of movie.
- DirectorTerry GilliamStarsBruce WillisMadeleine StoweBrad PittIn a future world devastated by disease, a convict is sent back in time to gather information about the man-made virus that wiped out most of the human population on the planet.Time travel done well and with multiple twists. That's so hard to do that if you do this your movie will gain a top 50 spot among the best scripts of all time.
- DirectorJohn McTiernanStarsBruce WillisJeremy IronsSamuel L. JacksonJohn McClane and a Harlem store owner are targeted by German terrorist Simon in New York City, where he plans to rob the Federal Reserve Building.The guessing game mixed with the action makes this an intellectual movie as well as an action packed and exiting movie. No movie has done this the same way since then. And more than 20 years have passed. Maybe Inception? But it's more serious and philosophical. You ask yourself why no movie looks like Back to the Future or Die Hard 1 and 3? It's because these movies are extremely hard to write. Movies are more expensive than ever. And we are making movies with this kind of budget many times a year. Most of them are forgotten after 5 years. Because their plot sucks.
- DirectorRon HowardStarsRussell CroweEd HarrisJennifer ConnellyA mathematical genius, John Nash made an astonishing discovery early in his career and stood on the brink of international acclaim. But the handsome and arrogant Nash soon found himself on a harrowing journey of self-discovery.Great and simple script. Again they take the real story and adapt it into a movie. The gist remains but we all know this is not really what happened. His illusions in real life were voices not visions. But this is a movie. Visions work better as illusions. And the story needed to be changed around. We need to understand and feel his suffering. Not just hear it.