Best Movies To Watch on the 4th of July

Tom Cruise in ‘Top Gun.’ Photo: Paramount Pictures.

It’s the 4th of July!

Once you are done with your barbecue and fireworks, there is no better way to celebrate than by relaxing and watching a movie with your friends and family.

Moviefone has compiled a list of the best films to watch on the 4th of July which includes movies that take place on or around Independence Day, or just celebrate the United States growth and history as a country.

Let’s begin!

Related Article: 30 New and Classic Movies to Watch on New Year’s Day

Tom Cruise in ‘Days of Thunder’. Photo: Paramount Pictures.

Talented but unproven stock car driver Cole Trickle (Tom Cruise) gets a break and with the guidance of veteran Harry Hogge (Robert Duvall) turns heads on the track. The young hotshot develops a rivalry with a fellow racer (Michael Rooker) that threatens his career when the two smash their cars. But with the help of his doctor (Nicole Kidman), Cole just might overcome his injuries– and his fear.

“You can’t outrun the thunder.”

Release Date: Jun 27, 1990

Run Time: 1 hr 47 min

Budget: $60,000,000

When CIA Analyst Jack Ryan (Harrison Ford) interferes with an IRA assassination, a renegade faction targets Jack and his family as revenge.

“Not for honor. Not for country. For his wife and child.”

Release Date: Jun 4, 1992

Run Time: 1 hr 57 min

Budget: $45,000,000

The true story of technical troubles that scuttle the Apollo 13 lunar mission in 1970, risking the lives of astronaut Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks) and his crew, with the failed journey turning into a thrilling saga of heroism. Drifting more than 200,000 miles from Earth, the astronauts work furiously with the ground crew to avert tragedy.

“”Houston, we have a problem.””

Release Date: Jun 30, 1995

Run Time: 2 hr 20 min

Budget: $52,000,000

Widowed U.S. president Andrew Shepherd (Michael Douglas), one of the world’s most powerful men, can have anything he wants — and what he covets most is Sydney Ellen Wade (Annette Bening), a Washington lobbyist. But Shepherd’s attempts at courting her spark wild rumors and decimate his approval ratings.

“Why can’t the most powerful man in the world have the one thing he wants most?”

Release Date: Nov 17, 1995

Run Time: 1 hr 53 min

Budget: $62,000,000

The extraordinary tale of Harriet Tubman’s (Cynthia Erivo) escape from slavery and transformation into one of America’s greatest heroes. Her courage, ingenuity and tenacity freed hundreds of slaves and changed the course of history.

Release Date: Nov 1, 2019

Run Time: 2 hr 5 min

Budget: $17,000,000

Kirsten Dunst in ‘Civil War.’ Photo: A24.

In the near future, a group of war journalists attempt to survive while reporting the truth as the United States stands on the brink of civil war.

“Welcome to the frontline.”

Release Date: Apr 26, 2024

Run Time: 1 hr 49 min

Budget: $50,000,000

Wounded Civil War soldier, John Dunbar (Kevin Costner) tries to commit suicide—and becomes a hero instead. As a reward, he’s assigned to his dream post, a remote junction on the Western frontier, and soon makes unlikely friends with the local Sioux tribe.

“Inside everyone is a frontier waiting to be discovered.”

Release Date: Nov 21, 1990

Run Time: 3 hr 1 min

Budget: $22,000,000

13. ‘Glory’ (1989)

Robert Gould Shaw (Matthew Broaderick) leads the US Civil War’s first all-black volunteer company, fighting prejudices of both his own Union army and the Confederates.

“Their innocence. Their heritage. Their lives.”

Release Date: Feb 16, 1990

Run Time: 2 hr 2 min

Budget: $18,000,000

As America’s stock of athletic young men is depleted during World War II, a professional all-female baseball league springs up in the Midwest, funded by publicity-hungry candy maker Walter Harvey (Garry Marshall). Competitive sisters Dottie Hinson (Genna Davis) and Kit Keller (Lori Petty) spar with each other, scout Ernie Capadino (Jon Lovitz) and grumpy has-been coach Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks) on their way to fame.

“Once in a lifetime you get a chance to do something different.”

Release Date: Jul 1, 1992

Run Time: 2 hr 8 min

Budget: $40,000,000

The revealing story of the 16th US President’s tumultuous final months in office. In a nation divided by war and the strong winds of change, Lincoln (Daniel Day-Lewis) pursues a course of action designed to end the war, unite the country and abolish slavery. With the moral courage and fierce determination to succeed, his choices during this critical moment will change the fate of generations to come.

“The hours that changed history.”

Release Date: Nov 16, 2012

Run Time: 2 hr 30 min

Budget: $65,000,000

Ryan Gosling in ‘Project Hail Mary’. Photo: Amazon MGM Studios.

Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling), a school-teacher-turned-astronaut, wakes up from a coma, alone, on a space station with no memory of who he is or his mission. His memory returns in bursts and he pieces together that he was sent to the Tau Ceti solar system, 12 light-years from Earth, to reverse the impact of a space event that had already hurled our planet into the early stages of an Ice Age. As details of the mission unravel, Grace must call on all of his scientific training and sheer ingenuity, but he might not have to do it alone…

“Believe in the Hail Mary.”

Release Date: Mar 20, 2026

Run Time: 2 hr 36 min

Budget: $200,000,000

The biography of Ron Kovic (Tom Cruise). Paralyzed in the Vietnam war, he becomes an anti-war and pro-human rights political activist after feeling betrayed by the country he fought for.

“A true story of innocence lost and courage found.”

Release Date: Jan 5, 1990

Run Time: 2 hr 25 min

Budget: $14,000,000

A man with a low IQ (Tom Hanks) has accomplished great things in his life and been present during significant historic events—in each case, far exceeding what anyone imagined he could do. But despite all he has achieved, his one true love (Robin Wright) eludes him.

“The world will never be the same once you’ve seen it through the eyes of Forrest Gump.”

Release Date: Jul 6, 1994

Run Time: 2 hr 22 min

Budget: $55,000,000

In war-torn colonial America, in the midst of a bloody battle between British, the French and Native American allies, the aristocratic daughter of a British Colonel and her party are captured by a group of Huron warriors. Fortunately, a group of three Mohican trappers comes to their rescue.

“An epic adventure and passionate romance unfold against the panorama of a frontier wilderness ravaged by war.”

Release Date: Sep 25, 1992

Run Time: 1 hr 52 min

Budget: $40,000,000

Modern treasure hunters, led by archaeologist Ben Gates (Nicolas Cage), search for a chest of riches rumored to have been stashed away by George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin during the Revolutionary War. The chest’s whereabouts may lie in secret clues embedded in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, and Gates is in a race to find the gold before his enemies do.

“In order to break the code, one man will have to break all the rules.”

Release Date: Nov 19, 2004

Run Time: 2 hr 11 min

Budget: $100,000,000

Bruce Willis in ‘Live Free or Die Hard’. Photo: 20th Century Fox.

John McClane (Bruce Willis) is back and badder than ever, and this time he’s working for Homeland Security. He calls on the services of a young hacker in his bid to stop a ring of Internet terrorists intent on taking control of America’s computer infrastructure.

“The choice will be clear.”

Release Date: Jun 27, 2007

Run Time: 2 hr 8 min

Budget: $110,000,000

4. ‘Jaws’ (1975)

When an insatiable great white shark terrorizes the townspeople of Amity Island, the police chief (Roy Scheider), an oceanographer (Richard Dreyfuss) and a grizzled shark hunter (Robert Shaw) seek to destroy the blood-thirsty beast.

“The terrifying motion picture from the terrifying No. 1 best seller.”

Release Date: Jun 20, 1975

Run Time: 2 hr 4 min

Budget: $7,000,000

For Lieutenant Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell (Tom Cruise) and his friend and co-pilot Nick ‘Goose’ Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards), being accepted into an elite training school for fighter pilots is a dream come true. But a tragedy, as well as personal demons, will threaten Pete’s dreams of becoming an ace pilot.

“Up there with the best of the best.”

Release Date: May 16, 1986

Run Time: 1 hr 50 min

Budget: $15,000,000

As U.S. troops storm the beaches of Normandy, three brothers lie dead on the battlefield, with a fourth (Matt Damon) trapped behind enemy lines. Ranger captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) and seven men (Edward Burns, Tom Sizemore, Jeremy Davies, Vin Diesel, Adam Goldberg, Barry Pepper and Giovanni Ribisi) are tasked with penetrating German-held territory and bringing the boy home.

Release Date: Jul 24, 1998

Run Time: 2 hr 49 min

Budget: $70,000,000

Bill Pullman in ‘Independence Day’. Photo: 20th Century Fox.

On July 2, a giant alien mothership enters orbit around Earth and deploys several dozen saucer-shaped ‘destroyer’ spacecraft that quickly lay waste to major cities around the planet. On July 3, the United States conducts a coordinated counterattack that fails. On July 4, a plan is devised to gain access to the interior of the alien mothership in space, in order to plant a nuclear missile. The movie stars Jeff Goldblum, Will Smith, and Bill Pullman.