Best Desert Movies

The desert is a vast biome with many different kinds of creatures living beneath the sands, but with a very simple landscape of sand and dangerous plants. Nothing forgives in the desert. These movies show us the power of the desert, whether it's through harsh weather or lack of food and water.

There are different kinds of deserts, like the ones in the American West versus the ones in the Middle East and Africa. While some of these movies are fantasy and works of fiction, the desert is still a worthy adversary to create conflict and hardship for everyone.

There are many American Western's I didn't account for, mainly because I wanted to make this list more on dune style deserts than the ones like in Utah, Arizona, Nevada, The Midwest, etc.

Dune Movies

A world created by Frank Herbert, Dune is about a planet called Arrakis and the abundant wealth within the sands. The harsh planet is inhabited by the Fremen people, but are oppressed by the Harkonnens who are running a business for thee abundance within the sands called, Spice. However, due to a political plot the Atreides come into "ownership" of Arrakis and the Spice production. Through politics and the magic of a domineering group called the Bene Gesserit, events of a prophecy are coming and Paul Atreides must fight for Arrakis and its people.

These series have two new installments, but have two previously made shows that are also good cinema if you consider when they were made.

Holes

One of my favorite on this list. A boy with the name of Stanley Yelnats, a last name that is his first name spelled backwards has a family curse because of his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealin' great great grandfather. Because of the curse, Stanley happens upon a pair of famous shoes from the falling from the sky. As it happens, his father is trying to get the perfect combination of clean smelling feet, so Stanley brings the shoes home causing a series of events where he now has to spend the entire summer at a camp for boys.

This camp happens to be a hard labor camp, where the boys have to dig holes everyday despite the weather. Why are these kids digging holes? The warden's answer- "Because it builds character." Is that true? Stanley tries to get to the bottom of it with the help of a new friend within the camp.

Sahara

Two self-proclaimed treasure hunters who are wanting to find some history within the Sahara are taken by a women working to help heal sick people within certain parts of Africa. However, she begins to discover there is a bigger secret why these people are getting sick. The two men are thrust into this adventure and decide to help her, hopefully learning about their own bounty along the way. It is a pretty typically Matthew McConaughey movie, but Steve Zahn is always hilarious to watch.

Four Feathers

A great Heath Ledger movie where we see his range as a soldier who chooses not to go to war, even though back then it was an honor to go fight for your country. Heath's character and his friends had no idea the horrors of war and what they could do to man, so with his choosing not to go was considered abandonment. So his friends gave him four white feathers to signify his choice.

After his life got uprooted due to his decision, he had nowhere to turn. Until he learned about thee horrors of war and the fates his friends would have, he went to Africa to help them. He faced more hardships than one man usually goes through, but he wanted to show his friends that he did have courage, but fighting a war for someone else was not his path.

This is truly an aspiring movie and one I enjoy, especially because it has Heath Ledger in it! Ha!

The Mummy Movies

We are thrust into the world of Egypt and the wonders of the Egyptian culture. There is a lot we don't know about the mythologies of Egypt and a scholar, along with her brother find an unlikely ally in a brutish explorer to help them find the ancient societies they are looking for. Many are looking for the ruins and the trio try to make it there first. The one thing they didn't count on was an ancient Mummy coming back to life and take his rightful place as ruler of the world once more.

I do not believe the third movie exists and only acknowledge the first two.

Mad Max Movies

The only movies I haven't seen on this list and one of my biggest regrets. I have seen one of the newer ones, but I have yet to see the older ones with Mel Gibson and his character. A societal collapse, due to many issues led to an apocalyptic world covered in sand. With cool car chases, amazing special effects, and great actors the main objective-- to find water.

The Scorpion King

A spin off of The Mummy movies, The Scorpion King tells the story of an Akkadian who becomes involved in a war with an evil ruler who is trying to take over the land and destroy the nomadic people. The Akkadian is a strong warrior with amazing skills to combat the evil ruler. However, he falls for the sorceress that is one of the ruler's people. Done with his cruelty, the sorceress decides to trust the Akkadian and take down the ruler. Set 5,000 years before it's original series, this movies doesn't involve any of the characters involved with the original. This is one of Dwayne Johnson's first movies.

The Way Back

Probably the saddest movie on this list that talks about the story of escapees of a concentration camp. We watch the group go through all the hardships you could think of when traveling with only a handful of supplies and the clothes on youur back. Those who had to endure concentration camps went through a lot and then those who escaped had to go through so much for freedom. The real stories of survivors sound like utter horror, and imagining their escape and journey to freedom is what this story is about. With an amazing cast, we get to see examples of these real stories. This story is about a survivor of a Siberian camp and the book that he wrote about his struggles.

Hidalgo

Another story based on the life a real man, we see Frank Hopkins (Viggo Mostensen) and his horse Hidalgo go to the otherside of the world to race the hardest horse race in the world. Men and horses die in this racenand with a certain time to complete the long mileage in this race, Frank and his horse need to fiigure out the best strategy in a strange, new land. With unlikely allies, Frank learns how to survive the rough terrain.