Harrison Ford Movies Ranked Worst To Best

Harrison Ford has been one of the most widely recognized faces in Hollywood for decades. And for good reason: he's racked up billions of dollars in box office grosses and nearly 100 screen credits, including leading roles in two of the most beloved (and lucrative) film franchises in cinematic history. With all that big-screen glory under his belt, it's only natural to want to take a look at Ford's filmography and figure out how all of his movies stack up. That's what we're here to find out, but first some ground rules: this list includes every major Ford film with the exception of voice acting, bit parts, and cameos. So as good as Apocalypse Now is, it won't be on this list, and neither will 1967's Luv, although we're sure Ford made a very convincing irate motorist. Without further ado, here's every Harrison Ford movie ranked from worst to best.

All the star power in the world couldn't stop Paranoia from putting audiences to sleep, although it had enough marquee stars to give it a shot. Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman, and Liam Hemsworth all put in admirable efforts, but with such an inane script, there's only so much anyone could do. The only thing about this movie that will make you paranoid is when you start to wonder whether you'll ever get back the time you spent watching Paranoia. Spoiler alert: you won't.

A drama about two parents who will do anything to cure their children of a rare genetic disease sounds like a ready-made tearjerker, and unfortunately, that's exactly what Extraordinary Measures became—a cookie-cutter melodrama that chucks soapy tragedy at the viewer like a barrage of weepy ninja stars and leaves them in strategic locations on the floor, hoping you'll slip and twist an ankle. Extraordinary Measures exists in a world where subtlety is kids dying in hospital beds and "acting" boils down to a sticky syrup of sad shouting. If you look closely, you can actually see Harrison Ford thinking about what he'll buy with his paycheck.

With a muddled plot, troublesome dialogue, and lackluster directing, what could have been a fun movie never quite managed to find its groove. Unfortunately, the main outlaw here is Harrison Ford, whose tired acting suggests he'd woken up too many mornings in the drunk tank before saddling up for production. Cowboys & Aliens is worth a watch for Paul Dano's performance, but not even the draw of cowboys literally fighting aliens can carry this blockbuster flop.

Hey, remember that cowboy comedy Harrison Ford starred in with Gene Wilder? No? Well, it happened. Directed by Robert Aldrich, The Frisco Kid follows a rabbi (Wilder) who heads into the American West and teams up with a bank robber (Ford); together, they get into silly adventures. It's basically Blazing Saddles with a different stereotype, and although most of the movie is painfully dated today, it's worth a watch if only to peek into the chaotic world of '70s-era social satire.

A million jokes have been made about that nuclear-proof fridge, but look: ignore that part of the movie. Ignore the refrigerator, the ancient aliens thingy, Shia LaBeouf's Tarzan whatever, that waterfall car-boat claptrap, all the unnecessary CGI, and did we mention the refrigerator?—ignore those, and the fourth installment in the Indy franchise comes out to be a decent action adventure for kids. For kids—which is really what the Indy series has always been about. Did anyone really believe two adults and a Goonie could parachute out of a plane in an inflatable life raft? No, if Crystal Skull committed any sin, it's that it strips away the added layers that allow adults to fall in love with Indy movies along with their kids. An Indy for a new generation isn't necessarily a bad Indy. Maybe it should have been a better Indy. But if any of us bothered to spend less time watching Indiana Jones and more time having kids, those kids would have loved it.

Early in his Hollywood career, just a year after A New Hope, Ford starred in the World War II epic Force 10 from Navarone, a sequel to the popular 1961 hit The Guns of Navarone. Despite a gap of 17 years between the two films, Force 10 earned mostly favorable reviews from critics. Although few people were blown away by the film, the young Ford gives a solid performance and holds his own alongside heavyweight Robert Shaw.

Harrison Ford was made for adventure comedy, so the script for Six Days Seven Nights probably felt like money in the bank—a grizzled-but-handsome loner gets stranded on a tropical island with a beautiful-but-snooty New York editor who's never seen a banana outside a 12th Avenue Fairway Market. They hate each other, they fight, they bicker, but then they learn to get along and work together and fall in love, and also pirates attack. On another island, Ross from Friends has a dance seizure. It's a time-tested formula.

So why didn't it work? For all the solid acting and luscious set pieces, Six Days Seven Nights was simply too married to its own "co-stars that hate each other and then don't" formula to take any real risks, although it's worth a watch for Ford's cynical, present-day rendition of Han Solo and to take the edge off a Sunday morning hangover.

Somewhere between directing the best movie ever (Point Break) and directing a movie that won a jillion Oscars (The Hurt Locker), Kathryn Bigelow signed on to helm K-19: The Widowmaker. Set in the early '60s, K-19 follows a Soviet crew trapped aboard a damaged nuclear submarine. While it certainly isn't the best film of Bigelow's career, K:19 resonates under a strong hand that makes the most out of a story that probably would have sunk completely under a different director. There's just enough grit and humanity in the performances that it's possible to ignore those Russian accents and enjoy K-19 as a decent wartime thriller.

Fun, upbeat, and ultimately fairly forgettable, Working Girl follows a young secretary, played by Melanie Griffith, who pretends to be a Wall Street executive when her boss breaks her leg on a skiing trip. The star of the show is easily Griffith, whose energy and charisma carry the movie effortlessly. Her chemistry with Ford is believable enough, making Working Girl a solid rainy day watch for rom-com fans.

Regarding Henry forces Ford to step out of his wheelhouse of charming, capable men of action to play a snooty scumbag of a lawyer who becomes a convalescent gunshot victim with brain damage. He handles both sides of the role admirably, but it's the supporting cast that brings this film together. Annette Bening is a powerhouse of subtlety as Ford's long-suffering wife, and Kamian Allen does a fantastic job—in what turned out to be her only film—portraying Ford's daughter. It's an emotional ride, but if it has a downside, it's that much of the film only seems to want to make sure you feel. Still, the scene of Ford's daughter teaching him to read again is worth the price of admission.

On the surface, Presumed Innocent is a slow-burn courtroom thriller, but the core of the movie is a study of humanity that presents its characters as multi-dimensional, real human beings. In other words, you never know what to expect from anyone, and therein lies the film's saving grace: a depth of conflict and gray morality that raises Presumed Innocent over most legal thrillers. Even if sitting in a courtroom for most of a movie doesn't get your heart racing, it's still a provocative study of human nature anchored by superb performances from Ford and the supporting cast.

This psychological thriller got the bum's rush from critics when it was released, and in many ways, that was warranted. The pacing is relentlessly slow, and the finale is cheesy enough to give you blisters on your groaning muscles. But what raises What Lies Beneath above the level of a watery grave is director of photography Don Burgess' camera work, which single-handedly carries the film from start to finish. From the long, gorgeous tracking shots to the subtle framing tricks that reveal exactly what the audience needs to see—when they need to see it—What Lies Beneath is a case study in suspense cinematography. If only the rest of the movie was half as good.

The second time was the charm for Harrison Ford's turn as Jack Ryan. Clear and Present Danger takes everything great about Patriot Games, polishes it, and makes it bigger. Admittedly, the internal conspiracy angle may go a little too far in this one, but it is a CIA-centric political thriller, so that's always going to be a...ahem...clear and present danger. And while the cast does a remarkable job, the real heroes here are the screenwriters, who took a Tom Clancy book thick enough to bludgeon a bear and condensed it into a tight two-hour movie.

While roles like Indiana Jones, Deckard, and Han Solo may have launched Ford to fame, it was movies like Witness that cemented him as a leading actor in serious dramas. A massively entertaining thriller with a unique story, pitch-perfect acting, and brisk direction at the hands of Peter Weir, Witness is nothing less than top-notch storytelling, straight and gimmick-free. This is also the film that landed Ford his only Oscar nomination.

One of the best Americana films ever made, American Graffiti follows several teenagers as they cruise around their hometown one night before heading off to college. It's a tagline you'll see often, and it'll never convey exactly how great this movie is. It's charming, nostalgic, and, above all, real. Ford returned briefly in the 1979 sequel, More American Graffiti, which was so far removed from the quintessential original that it barely bears mentioning. But there it is.

More than 30 years after Return of the Jedi, Star Wars finally returned to form with The Force Awakens, bringing back the old crew with a slew of new characters designed to propel the franchise into the future. The Force Awakens hit all the right notes, with high-stakes action juxtaposed by quieter moments of reflection, and if it had any downside, it's that it hit every note a little too perfectly. Director J.J. Abrams knows a thing or seven about story development, and he's excelled in his career by doing just this thing: knowing exactly when to inject emotion. The Force Awakens bit us right in the feels with calculated teeth, and God help us, we liked being used.

This movie is great in so many ways that it's impossible to list them all here. Highlights include Sean Connery, punching Nazis off a zeppelin, fighting tanks on horseback, Austrians saying goodbye, and the all-time best line ever, "He chose...poorly." But for all that, The Last Crusade does have its weaknesses. It's got its goofier moments, and while Indy's backstory is gripping cinema when you're 12, in hindsight it isn't really all that necessary. The silver lining in that cloud, though, is one of the best scene transitions in cinema. So, yeah, there aren't a whole lot of negative oats to throw at this horse. Let's move on.

Denis Villeneuve's highly anticipated sequel to Ridley Scott's 1982 classic definitely delivered on its promises. Blade Runner 2049 is a masterful display of direction and lighting, making the high-tech dystopia look downright gorgeous. And in true show-don't-tell filmmaking style, the movie plays light with the dialogue, opting to suck audiences in through experience rather than leaden exposition. Harrison Ford's grizzled Rick Deckard brings a roughneck quality to his scenes that perfectly counters the oily-smooth look of the rest of the movie, and Ryan Gosling does a fantastic job of picking up the torch as the film's protagonist. In every technical way, Blade Runner 2049 is perfect. Sure, it's a little short on heart, but let's not forget: it's literally a movie about a bunch of robots.

An exceedingly small number of trilogies can call the second installment the best, but Empire Strikes Back is, for many, the prototypical Star Wars film. It's the one that took the heroes introduced in A New Hope and gave them a genuinely epic storyline full of moral decisions and burgeoning romance and AT-ATs stomping around and getting leg-lassoed. It's got more of the good stuff — more Han, more Leia, more battles, and more emotional impact. More importantly, Empire has one of the most epic climaxes in movie history. You may think differently, but for our money, this is the best Star Wars film.