# AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills

Part of the AFI 100 Years… series, AFI's 100 Years…100 Thrills is a list of the top 100 most exciting movies in American cinema. The list was unveiled by the American Film Institute on June 12, 2001, during a CBS special hosted by Harrison Ford.
Nine Alfred Hitchcock films made the list, making him the most represented director.

## List of films

| # | Film | Director | Year |
| 1 | Psycho | Alfred Hitchcock | 1960 |
| 2 | Jaws | Steven Spielberg | 1975 |
| 3 | The Exorcist | William Friedkin | 1973 |
| 4 | North by Northwest | Alfred Hitchcock | 1959 |
| 5 | The Silence of the Lambs | Jonathan Demme | 1991 |
| 6 | Alien | Ridley Scott | 1979 |
| 7 | The Birds | Alfred Hitchcock | 1963 |
| 8 | The French Connection | William Friedkin | 1971 |
| 9 | Rosemary's Baby | Roman Polanski | 1968 |
| 10 | Raiders of the Lost Ark | Steven Spielberg | 1981 |
| 11 | The Godfather | Francis Ford Coppola | 1972 |
| 12 | King Kong | Merian C. Cooper | 1933 |
| 13 | Bonnie and Clyde | Arthur Penn | 1967 |
| 14 | Rear Window | Alfred Hitchcock | 1954 |
| 15 | Deliverance | John Boorman | 1972 |
| 16 | Chinatown | Roman Polanski | 1974 |
| 17 | The Manchurian Candidate | John Frankenheimer | 1962 |
| 18 | Vertigo | Alfred Hitchcock | 1958 |
| 19 | The Great Escape | John Sturges | 1963 |
| 20 | High Noon | Fred Zinnemann | 1952 |
| 21 | A Clockwork Orange | Stanley Kubrick | 1971 |
| 22 | Taxi Driver | Martin Scorsese | 1976 |
| 23 | Lawrence of Arabia | David Lean | 1962 |
| 24 | Double Indemnity | Billy Wilder | 1944 |
| 25 | Titanic | James Cameron | 1997 |
| 26 | The Maltese Falcon | John Huston | 1941 |
| 27 | Star Wars | George Lucas | 1977 |
| 28 | Fatal Attraction | Adrian Lyne | 1987 |
| 29 | The Shining | Stanley Kubrick | 1980 |
| 30 | The Deer Hunter | Michael Cimino | 1978 |
| 31 | Close Encounters of the Third Kind | Steven Spielberg | 1977 |
| 32 | Strangers on a Train | Alfred Hitchcock | 1951 |
| 33 | The Fugitive | Andrew Davis | 1993 |
| 34 | The Night of the Hunter | Charles Laughton | 1955 |
| 35 | Jurassic Park | Steven Spielberg | 1993 |
| 36 | Bullitt | Peter Yates | 1968 |
| 37 | Casablanca | Michael Curtiz | 1942 |
| 38 | Notorious | Alfred Hitchcock | 1946 |
| 39 | Die Hard | John McTiernan | 1988 |
| 40 | 2001: A Space Odyssey | Stanley Kubrick | 1968 |
| 41 | Dirty Harry | Don Siegel | 1971 |
| 42 | The Terminator | James Cameron | 1984 |
| 43 | The Wizard of Oz | Victor Fleming | 1939 |
| 44 | E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial | Steven Spielberg | 1982 |
| 45 | Saving Private Ryan | Steven Spielberg | 1998 |
| 46 | Carrie | Brian De Palma | 1976 |
| 47 | Invasion of the Body Snatchers | Don Siegel | 1956 |
| 48 | Dial M for Murder | Alfred Hitchcock | 1954 |
| 49 | Ben-Hur | William Wyler | 1959 |
| 50 | Marathon Man | John Schlesinger | 1976 |
| 51 | Raging Bull | Martin Scorsese | 1980 |
| 52 | Rocky | John G. Avildsen | 1976 |
| 53 | Pulp Fiction | Quentin Tarantino | 1994 |
| 54 | Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid | George Roy Hill | 1969 |
| 55 | Wait Until Dark | Terence Young | 1967 |
| 56 | Frankenstein | James Whale | 1931 |
| 57 | All the President's Men | Alan J. Pakula | 1976 |
| 58 | The Bridge on the River Kwai | David Lean | 1957 |
| 59 | Planet of the Apes | Franklin J. Schaffner | 1968 |
| 60 | The Sixth Sense | M. Night Shyamalan | 1999 |
| 61 | Cape Fear | J. Lee Thompson | 1962 |
| 62 | Spartacus | Stanley Kubrick | 1960 |
| 63 | What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? | Robert Aldrich | 1962 |
| 64 | Touch of Evil | Orson Welles | 1958 |
| 65 | The Dirty Dozen | Robert Aldrich | 1967 |
| 66 | The Matrix | The Wachowskis | 1999 |
| 67 | The Treasure of the Sierra Madre | John Huston | 1948 |
| 68 | Halloween | John Carpenter | 1978 |
| 69 | The Wild Bunch | Sam Peckinpah | 1969 |
| 70 | Dog Day Afternoon | Sidney Lumet | 1975 |
| 71 | Goldfinger | Guy Hamilton | 1964 |
| 72 | Platoon | Oliver Stone | 1986 |
| 73 | Laura | Otto Preminger | 1944 |
| 74 | Blade Runner | Ridley Scott | 1982 |
| 75 | The Third Man | Carol Reed | 1949 |
| 76 | Thelma & Louise | Ridley Scott | 1991 |
| 77 | Terminator 2: Judgment Day | James Cameron | 1991 |
| 78 | Gaslight | George Cukor | 1944 |
| 79 | The Magnificent Seven | John Sturges | 1960 |
| 80 | Rebecca | Alfred Hitchcock | 1940 |
| 81 | The Omen | Richard Donner | 1976 |
| 82 | The Day the Earth Stood Still | Robert Wise | 1951 |
| 83 | The Phantom of the Opera | Rupert Julian | 1925 |
| 84 | Poltergeist | Tobe Hooper | 1982 |
| 85 | Dracula | Tod Browning | 1931 |
| 86 | The Picture of Dorian Gray | Albert Lewin | 1945 |
| 87 | The Thing from Another World | Christian Nyby | 1951 |
| 88 | 12 Angry Men | Sidney Lumet | 1957 |
| 89 | The Guns of Navarone | J. Lee Thompson | 1961 |
| 90 | The Poseidon Adventure | Ronald Neame | 1972 |
| 91 | Braveheart | Mel Gibson | 1995 |
| 92 | Body Heat | Lawrence Kasdan | 1981 |
| 93 | Night of the Living Dead | George A. Romero | 1968 |
| 94 | The China Syndrome | James Bridges | 1979 |
| 95 | Full Metal Jacket | Stanley Kubrick | 1987 |
| 96 | Blue Velvet | David Lynch | 1986 |
| 97 | Safety Last! | Fred C. Newmeyer Sam Taylor | 1923 |
| 98 | Blood Simple | Joel Coen Ethan Coen | 1984 |
| 99 | Speed | Jan de Bont | 1994 |
| 100 | The Adventures of Robin Hood | Michael Curtiz | 1938 |

## Criteria

* Feature-Length Fiction Film: The film must be in narrative format, typically more than 60 minutes long.
* American Film: The film must be in the English language with significant creative and/or financial production elements from the United States.
* Thrills: Regardless of genre, the total adrenaline-inducing impact of a film’s artistry and craft must create an experience that engages our bodies as well as our minds.
* Legacy: Films whose "thrills" have enlivened and enriched America’s film heritage while continuing to inspire contemporary artists and audiences.