Treasure + history + adventure + action = awesome

February 18, 2012 5:07 AM

Indiana Jones, Romancing the Stone, National Treasure, The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec and even Tomb Raider and Sahara. I love all these movies. Recommend me more of the same, please!
posted by slimepuppy to media & arts (35 answers total)

If you missed Tintin in the theaters over Christmas, you'll want to see it when it comes out on home video. It is decidedly of this ilk and quite well done.
posted by briank at 5:17 AM on February 18, 2012 [2 favorites]

Goonies, maybe?
posted by backwards guitar at 5:47 AM on February 18, 2012

Kind of bad, but "Fool's Gold."
posted by raccoon409 at 5:51 AM on February 18, 2012 [1 favorite]

The Librarian and sequels, with Noah Wylie. Kind-of a sillier Indiana Jones, but well-executed and great fun. Made-for-TV by TNT; available on DVD. Currently there are 3 of them.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 5:57 AM on February 18, 2012 [4 favorites]

2nding Tintin. As far as I'm concerned, that movie was Steven Spielberg's apology for Indy 4. Really top-notch action/adventure.
posted by Aznable at 6:03 AM on February 18, 2012

The Mummy
posted by mkultra at 6:10 AM on February 18, 2012 [7 favorites]

Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold - cheesie but better than Sahara
posted by sammyo at 6:18 AM on February 18, 2012 [1 favorite]

Oh wait, that was a sequel see King Solomon's Mines first.
posted by sammyo at 6:21 AM on February 18, 2012

I haven't seen it since it was in the theater so don't remember a lot about it, but High Road to China (1983) might fit the bill. Seconding Goonies for sure and will reluctantly admit to having somewhat enjoyed Fools Gold, at least while trapped on an airplane.
posted by usonian at 6:24 AM on February 18, 2012

I'm going to go in a slightly different direction and say that if you like video games and have a PS3: the Uncharted series. Really plays like a movie, and the plot is really similar to these.
posted by supercres at 6:28 AM on February 18, 2012 [2 favorites]

There's a page on Wikipedia listing movies in the "treasure hunt" genre here.
posted by empyrean at 6:28 AM on February 18, 2012

There have been several film adaptations of H. Rider Haggard's 1885 book King Solomon's Mines and subsequent Allan Quatermain series, which is disputably the progenitor of this genre (the early films were certainly the inspiration for Indiana Jones).
posted by hot soup girl at 6:31 AM on February 18, 2012

If you knock out the "treasure" requirement of your equation above, you might consider Lawrence of Arabia. Admittedly, though, it's a distinct type of film from the ones you've listed.
posted by Johnny Assay at 6:59 AM on February 18, 2012 [2 favorites]

How about The Man Who Would Be King? It has each of the criteria from the formula in your title, but not as directly centered around a treasure hunt (although arguably it's still a quest movie).
posted by RichardP at 7:22 AM on February 18, 2012

The Mummy trilogy is worth watching. The first one is actually legitimately good, and the second and third have at least some of that charm if nothing else. Prince of Persia had that old-world dusty adventure feel with ancient artifacts and the like.
posted by Think_Long at 7:38 AM on February 18, 2012

The Castle of Cagliostro and Castle In The Sky both might float your boat.
posted by Artw at 7:47 AM on February 18, 2012

Thanks for the suggestions so far! I've seen/read everything Tintin related. Lawrence of Arabia and The Man Who Would be King are both good movies but not exactly in the same vein. I'm also a huge fan of the Uncharted series for obvious reason.

The Mummy is definitely in this series! I've seen all of them too and rate the first one quite highly. And of course Goonies is a classic, I can't believe I forgot to mention it!

The Librarian and the Quatermain adaptations I will definitely look for. And yeah, I will end up watching Fool's Gold in spite of myself. I gave up feeling shame when I got Sahara on blu-ray.
posted by slimepuppy at 7:50 AM on February 18, 2012 [1 favorite]

Artw, ah, excellent! I've seen Castle in the Sky but never Cagliostro.
posted by slimepuppy at 7:51 AM on February 18, 2012

Jewel of the Nile
The Librarian: Quest for the Spear
The Rundown

Not the same type of movie exactly since they don't include a treasure hunt, but for some reason I want to suggest: Rabbit-Proof Fence and The Cookoo because they are both movies with the journey theme, drama with some comedy in there too.

There's also Lawrence of Arabia and Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Maybe you'd even like The Mask of Zorro, and if you liked National Treasure maybe Gone in Sixty Seconds for Nicholas Cage hunting after a different kind of treasure?
posted by belau at 7:51 AM on February 18, 2012

There was a pretty bad Chuck Norris and Lou Gosset Jr movie called "Firewalker" that came out in the mid 80s that fits this genre.
posted by MoonOrb at 7:56 AM on February 18, 2012

The Fifth Element is an Indiana Jones movie in space. Bruce Willis can do the hangdog, worried look that Ford does so well.
posted by bonehead at 7:58 AM on February 18, 2012 [4 favorites]

A bit cheesy, but the Doc Savage movie has a lot of what you are looking for.

Have you seen African Queen? No treasure, but it seems like a thematic fit. You probably want to watch anything with Bogart in anyway.
posted by Artw at 8:02 AM on February 18, 2012 [2 favorites]

Secret of the Incas
posted by yeolcoatl at 8:30 AM on February 18, 2012

Seconding High Road to China and also recommending the television series Tales of The Gold Monkey.
posted by KingEdRa at 8:47 AM on February 18, 2012 [1 favorite]

Keep an eye on B movies - that genre loves the treasure-hunting/archaeologist storyline. My personal favorite is The Curse of King Tut's Tomb with Casper Van Dien. It is amazingly trashy and unintentionally hilarious - in fact, according to IMDB the man who plays the evil nemesis, "later described the film as "an absolutely ghastly pile of tosh" and claimed that he only took the role because he had never been to India before." High praise, no?
posted by AthenaPolias at 8:55 AM on February 18, 2012 [1 favorite]

Young Sherlock Holmes
posted by TheRedArmy at 10:05 AM on February 18, 2012 [2 favorites]

Congo is in this vein (big budget B-movie), and I'll go ahead and suggest The Ninth Gate as a possibility.
posted by steef at 11:32 AM on February 18, 2012

National Treasure and National Treasure 2: Treasurier.
posted by Lieber Frau at 2:09 PM on February 18, 2012

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Also, I recommend the SciFi channel's series Stargate SGI. It was produced for ten years; there's a lot to watch, and the character development over time I think is fairly good. Later episodes are more serial; earlier ones more self-contained.
posted by drhydro at 3:02 PM on February 18, 2012

If you're okay with a few subtitles: The Good the Bad and the Weird
posted by Locobot at 7:12 PM on February 18, 2012

The Golden Child (with Eddie Murphy).
posted by jabberjaw at 12:12 AM on February 19, 2012

It's a little different, but have you tried Dr. Who?

I've been watching a lot of the Doctor recently, and he's really just Indiana Jones in space, except with technology instead of mysticism, and evil robot space Nazis, instead of evil earth Nazis.

It's got pretty adventure ladies, explosions, getting out of jams, impending doom (lots), and a fantastic action hero.

The new seasons are on netflix. My favorite Doctor is David Tennant, but it's worth it to start with Christopher Eccleston.
posted by justalisteningman at 5:46 PM on February 19, 2012

Young Indiana Jones Chronicles if you haven't thought of it already.
posted by nathan_teske at 10:51 PM on February 19, 2012

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow!
posted by deborah at 2:32 PM on February 20, 2012

These are some great recommendations!

The Tomb Raider series had a lot of similar elements. And Amazon kicked back Sorcerer's Apprentice when I entered Tomb Raider - although cheesey, Nic Cage is in it too.
posted by briar0rose at 9:07 AM on March 7, 2012