15 of the best movie trilogies you need to see in your lifetime
Gabbi Shaw
- Trilogies have been part of storytelling for decades; they have a clear beginning, middle, and end.
- While most make hundreds of millions of dollars, not all cinematic trilogies are created equal.
In 2024, sequels, prequels, remakes, reboots, and legacy sequels are ubiquitous. Trilogies, however, are a little more special.
Some of these trilogies were perhaps turned into three movies because of the potential for billions at the box office — the "Guardians of the Galaxy" trilogy, for example, made $2.4 billion worldwide — but many of these stories simply couldn't be told in just one film.
Imagine "Lord of the Rings" ending after "Fellowship" or "Star Wars" with no "Empire Strikes Back" or "Return of the Jedi." It'd be a tragedy for any cinema buff.
Here are some of the best trilogies in Hollywood history, and where to stream them.
The "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, released from 2001 to 2003, told a sprawling tale of good versus evil set in a fictional world called Middle Earth.
Based upon J. R. R. Tolkien's series of books, there hadn't (and still hasn't) been anything quite like director Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. All three were filmed back-to-back in New Zealand, letting the actors and the creative team fully immerse themselves in the fantasy world.
And what a world Middle Earth is. It contains beautiful landscapes, compelling heroes and villains in Frodo, Gandalf, Saruman, and Gollum, and an inspiring story of the little guy triumphing over the strongest evil force in the world.
Any trilogy with extended cuts that are 4 hours long and that people genuinely love watching deserves its place on this list. Plus, all three were nominated for best picture at the Oscars, with the third and final installment, "The Return of the King," winning the top prize in 2004.
The "Lord of the Rings" trilogy is available to stream on Max.
"Back to the Future" starred Michael J. Fox as the time-traveling teen Marty McFly in the 1985 original and its two sequels in 1989 and 1990.
The "Back to the Future" trilogy, which is celebrated every October 21 as the day Marty travels in time, was a full-blown phenomenon in the '80s and '90s.
The films made an A-list movie star out of Fox, introduced Christopher Lloyd, who plays Marty's best friend and disgraced nuclear physicist Doc Brown, to a new generation, and made everyone long for flying skateboards and sneakers that tied themselves.
While we're still not at the level of technology we saw in "Back to the Future 2," the appeal of the story of Marty trying to simultaneously improve his parents' lives, save Doc from an untimely death, and ultimately return home from the Wild West, remains timeless.
So much so that a musical adaptation of the first film is currently on Broadway.
The "Back to the Future" trilogy is available to stream on Peacock.
"The Naked Gun" was such a huge success upon its 1988 release that two more sequels following the lovably dimwitted cop Sgt. Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) were commissioned in 1991 and 1994.
After the mega-success of "Airplane!" in 1980, Nielsen once again spoofed a well-known profession with "The Naked Gun": a detective. Without "Naked Gun" and its sequels we might not have gotten "Reno 911," "Brooklyn Nine-Nine," or even the "Austin Powers" movies.
Sgt. Drebin is so enduring that 34 years later, none other than Liam Neeson was tapped to star in a "Naked Gun" reboot, which was reported in October 2022 by Deadline.
The "Naked Gun" trilogy is available to stream on Max.
Clint Eastwood starred in the "Man with No Name" trilogy, consisting of 1964's "A Fistful of Dollars," 1965's "For a Few Dollars More," and 1966's "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly."
Fun fact: This trilogy was actually crafted after the movies were released.
These Spaghetti Westerns were first released in Italy. Once United Artists picked up the distribution rights, the studio decided to package them together as one trilogy starring Eastwood as the titular man with no name (even though his characters do have different names in each).
However, these three movies changed Hollywood forever, as they introduced Eastwood to the movie-going masses, a move that affected the next 60 years (and counting) of cinema.
Director Sergio Leone's aesthetic has influenced countless movies and TV shows, including hits like "The Mandalorian." And, of course, Ennio Morricone's theme for "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" is still one of the most recognizable pieces of music of all time.
The "Man with No Name" trilogy is streaming on Max.
There's an argument to be made that Christopher Nolan's "Dark Knight" trilogy, released from 2005 to 2012, is the best superhero trilogy of all time.
When Christian Bale took over as the Caped Crusader in 2005, it wasn't a given that the film would be a huge success, never mind that its sequel would become the first superhero to have an actor win an Academy Award (Heath Ledger, posthumously, for his performance as the Joker in "The Dark Knight").
Arguably, "The Dark Knight" (and the two films it's sandwiched between) changed the comic-book/superhero genre forever, paving the way for what it's become today — the most important genre at the box office — as well as the grittier and darker aesthetic many films adopted after.
Even if everyone isn't 100% satisfied with the trilogy's conclusion, "The Dark Knight Rises" was a huge box-office success and, 12 years later, is now one of the more impressive franchise-ending films.
"The Dark Knight" trilogy is available to stream on Max. "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight" are also on Hulu.
Its other competition would be director Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man" trilogy, released from 2002 to 2007.
If "Batman Begins" and its two sequels were more a realistic, grittier adaptation of a comic book, 2002's "Spider-Man" and its two sequels were ripped directly from the pages of Stan Lee's and Steve Ditko's comics in the '60s. Tobey Maguire looked eerily like a classic drawing of Peter Parker.
Even if "Spider-Man 3" didn't live up to the hype of the first two, "Spider-Man" and "Spider-Man 2" are some of the best comic-book movies of all time.
The "Spider-Man" trilogy is available to stream on Disney+.
"Guardians of the Galaxy," which wrapped up in 2023, is up there too.
The lone MCU trilogy to make its way on this list is the "Guardians of the Galaxy" trilogy. Expectations were low when the first "Guardians" film was released in 2014. Star-Lord, Gamora, Rocket Raccoon, Drax, and Groot were by no means beloved characters, and director James Gunn had never helmed a production of this magnitude before.
Thankfully, it was a breath of fresh air. The soundtrack was amazing, the characters were lovable and hilarious, and the look was so different from the rest of the primarily grounded Marvel Cinematic Universe.
"Vol. 2" followed in 2017, adding the wonderful Mantis and officially welcoming Nebula to the team.
Gunn made it clear that "Vol. 3," which was released in 2023, would be his final outing with this iteration of the Guardians, and they all had fittingly bittersweet endings.
The "Guardians" trilogy is available to stream on Disney+.
But arguably the most significant trilogy in pop-culture history remains George Lucas' original "Star Wars" trilogy: 1977's "A New Hope," 1980's "The Empire Strikes Back," and 1983's "Return of the Jedi."
Decades after its release, we're still getting new "Star Wars" content, between the multitude of Disney+ shows, multiple cartoons, and two more sequel trilogies (neither of which lived up to the hype of the original space opera).
But even though we're still living in a sprawling, extended "Star Wars" universe, the first trilogy tells a relatively simple story that anyone can relate to: A small-town boy pines to explore the world, only to find out that life is much more complicated (and wonderful) when you leave your bubble.
Just add in some of fiction's most charming characters (Han Solo, Princess Leia, Obi-Wan Kenobi) and an iconically terrifying villain (Darth Vader), and you have three of the most influential, beloved movies ever.
The "Star Wars" trilogy is available to stream on Disney+.
George A. Romero kicked off a zombie craze that we're still living in when he released the original "Night of the Living Dead" trilogy from 1968 to 1985.
There were horror movies before this trilogy, but nothing had come along quite like "Night of the Living Dead" upon its release in 1968.
The first film, which focuses on a small group of strangers riding out a zombie apocalypse in an abandoned cabin, is not just considered the first modern zombie movie — you're welcome, "Walking Dead" fans — but also one of the best horror films and one of the most influential movies of all time.
The next two follow-ups, also directed by Romero, an indie film legend, continued the series.
While there are more also directed by Romero, they came 20+ years after the third film in 1985, and aren't held in quite the same esteem.
"Night of the Living Dead" and "Day of the Dead" are available to stream across various platforms, while "Dawn of the Dead" is available to rent on Prime Video.
"The Godfather," "The Godfather Part II," and "The Godfather Part III" were each nominated for best picture at the Academy Awards in 1973, 1975, and 1991, respectively.
Not many trilogies can boast a three-for-three best picture nomination statistic (perhaps the only other trilogy might be the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy). But only "The Godfather" trilogy can claim two best picture wins, for its first two films.
The Italian-American mafia story has one of the greatest casts ever assembled — Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton, James Caan, Robert Duvall, and Andy García, to name a few — and kick-started a mob/organized craze in pop culture that we're still living in today, from "Scarface" to "Goodfellas" to "The Sopranos" to "Mob Wives."
The "Godfather" trilogy is available to stream on Paramount+. Note that the version of the third film is the newly recut version by Coppola re-titled "The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone."
The original "Indiana Jones" trilogy, 1981's "Raiders of the Lost Ark," 1984's "Temple of Doom," and 1989's "The Last Crusade," remain exciting adventure films decades later.
After the success of "Star Wars," Harrison Ford again teamed up with its creator George Lucas and none other than Steven Spielberg to bring one of the most iconic heroes to the big screen: Indiana Jones, an archaeology professor who also has the combat skills of a super-soldier.
The first three "Indy" movies are '80s classics — the less we speak of 2008's "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" the better, and 2023's "Dial of Destiny" is good, but not entirely necessary.
The "Indiana Jones" trilogy and its two sequels are available to stream on Disney+.
The sole animated trilogy on this list, the "How to Train Your Dragon" trilogy, proved that Disney didn't have a monopoly on beautifully told stories from 2010 to 2019.
"How to Train Your Dragon," released by DreamWorks Animation, focused on the story of Hiccup, an awkward teenager who discovers that dragons, long-feared by his entire community as raging beasts, aren't what they seem.
As Hiccup (spoiler) loses his leg at the climax of the film, he is seen using a prosthetic in the next two films, making him a landmark in disability and amputee representation, as reported by the Washington Post.
Additionally, the score for this trilogy is so awe-inspiring that it became a meme on TikTok.
"How to Train Your Dragon" is streaming on Prime Video, "How to Dragon Your Dragon 2" is streaming on Netflix and Peacock, and "How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World" is streaming on FXNOW.
The "Before" trilogy (1995's "Before Sunrise," 2004's "Before Sunset," and 2013's "Before Midnight") checks in on the same couple every nine years.
The story of Jesse and Céline began in 1995 when the two strangers met on a train to Budapest, and decided to roam around the city of Vienna to kill time. They bonded over their shared love of music and their similar outlook on life.
Much of the film's dialogue was co-written by the stars, making actors Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy's conversations all the more relatable and watchable.
In an interesting turn of events, the actors reunited nine years later for "Before Sunset" and nine years after that for "Before Midnight" to check in on the couple to see how love realistically evolves over two decades.
The "Before" trilogy is available to rent or purchase on Amazon.
Sam Raimi has another trilogy on this list: the "Evil Dead" trilogy, consisting of "The Evil Dead" in 1981, "Evil Dead II" in 1987, and "Army of Darkness" in 1992.
The "Evil Dead" movies, or the "Ash Gets Punished Over Thousands of Years" trilogy, are cited as some of the most influential horror/comedy films of all time by outlets like Screen Rant. They were shepherded by director Raimi and star Bruce Campbell.
Another zombie trilogy, "Evil Dead" and its two sequels (well, one sequel and one remake/reboot) flawlessly balanced the black comedy and the horror staples of the genre, paving the way for "Shaun of the Dead," "Ready or Not," "Scream," or even "Get Out."
"The Evil Dead" is streaming on AMC+, while "Evil Dead II" and "Army of Darkness" are available to rent or purchase on Amazon.
"The Vengeance Trilogy" isn't a trilogy with connecting characters, but rather is connected via themes of revenge and retribution.
South Korean director Park Chan-wook didn't initially consider 2002's "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance," 2003's "Oldboy," and 2005's "Lady Vengeance" a trilogy, but it's clear that each film deals with similar themes. All are films focusing on a character who is hell-bent on getting revenge on those who have wronged them — although, in the case of "Oldboy," it's unclear who's actually getting revenge.
Be warned: These movies are not for the faint of heart. But they are thought-provoking, disturbing, and well-acted.
"Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance" and "Lady Vengeance" are available to stream on Tubi, and "Oldboy" is on Netflix.
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