Top 20 Best Harrison Ford Films

The birth of the archaeologist with the fedora and whip. When Tom Selleck was locked into his Magnum P.I. contract, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg switched to Ford at the very last minute -- and the rest is film history. His dry charisma, that legendary improvised scene where he wearily shoots a swordsman in Cairo, and his fearless physical commitment make Raiders the greatest adventure epic ever made.

The darkest and best Star Wars film elevates Han Solo to solitary heights. Ford plays the smuggler with a perfect balance of arrogance, loyalty, and underlying tenderness. The sparks between him and Carrie Fisher fly off the screen, capped by his brilliant timeless ad-lib ("I know") moments before being frozen in carbonite.

Ridley Scott's neo-noir masterpiece was a commercial disappointment at the time but grew into one of the most influential sci-fi films of all time. Ford plays Rick Deckard, a weary bounty hunter hunting rogue androids in a rainy, dystopian Los Angeles. His laconic, melancholic performance gives the film a philosophical soul: who is really more human here, the hunter or the prey?

"I didn't kill my wife!" / "I don't care!" The clash between Ford as the wrongfully condemned vascular surgeon Richard Kimble and Tommy Lee Jones as the relentless US Marshal Gerard is 130 minutes of nail-biting tension. Ford excels here at what he does better than anyone: playing a desperate, ordinary man who must go through hell to prove his innocence. A masterclass in pure suspense.

This is where the world's love affair with Harrison Ford began. He was actually working as a carpenter, reading audition lines for George Lucas, until Lucas realized the cocky, sarcastic pilot of the Millennium Falcon was standing right in front of him. Han Solo gave Lucas's fairy-tale space myth much-needed grounding, humor, and rock 'n' roll.

His only Best Actor Oscar nomination -- and thoroughly deserved. As police detective John Book, Ford must go into hiding within a devoutly religious Amish community in Pennsylvania to protect a young boy witness. Director Peter Weir brings out an unprecedented gentle, restrained side in Ford. The famous barn-raising scene and the dance scene to Sam Cooke on the radio are pure movie magic.

After the pitch-black Temple of Doom, Spielberg returned to the lighter adventure tone, enriched by the ultimate casting choice: Sean Connery as Indy's father Henry Jones Sr. The chemistry between Ford and Connery is pure gold; their bickering father-son dynamic delivers as much comedy as spectacle in the quest for the Holy Grail.

Returning to a legendary role decades later rarely turns out this breathtaking. Director Denis Villeneuve crafted a visually stunning sequel in which Ford doesn't appear until the final act. His performance as a lonely, guilt-ridden Deckard in an abandoned Las Vegas is raw, tender, and lived-in. Ford effortlessly proved he had only grown as an actor with age.

One of the boldest and most atypical roles of Ford's career. Reunited with director Peter Weir, he plays Allie Fox, a brilliant but manic inventor disgusted by American consumerism who drags his family into the Central American jungle. Ford's gradual descent into megalomania and tyranny reveals a dark, dangerous side that Hollywood rarely let him explore.

Darker, bloodier, and scarier than the original -- so bizarrely intense in fact that it forced Spielberg and Lucas to help create the PG-13 rating. But watch the iconic mine cart chase or the rope bridge scene and you'll see Ford at the absolute peak of his physical prowess. His grim determination on that swaying bridge is priceless.

"Chewie, we're home." When Ford stepped back aboard the Millennium Falcon after 32 years, millions of moviegoers held their breath. Rather than a comfortable reunion, Ford gave the older Han Solo a palpable weight of regret, broken dreams, and fatherly love. His tragic confrontation on the bridge with Kylo Ren still gives chills.

Although Ford lobbied at the time to have Han Solo die a heroic death, he still delivered a crowd-pleasing performance. From his spectacular rescue from Jabba the Hutt's palace to the frantic speeder bike chases through the forests of Endor, Han Solo remains the indispensable glue holding the rebel fleet together.

The ultimate 90s action thriller. Gary Oldman hijacks the presidential plane but fails to account for one detail: the President of the United States is played by Harrison Ford. Not a frightened politician hiding in a bunker, but a war veteran who singlehandedly takes out the terrorists from the cargo hold. His legendary one-liner "Get off my plane!" remains one of the best crowd-cheering moments of the decade.

In this stylish courtroom thriller from Alan J. Pakula, Ford plays a successful prosecutor suddenly charged with the brutal murder of his mistress and colleague. Ford keeps the audience guessing for two hours by keeping his character deliberately mysterious and morally ambiguous. Is he an innocent victim of a political conspiracy, or a cold-blooded killer?

His second outing as Tom Clancy's CIA analyst Jack Ryan is immediately the strongest in the franchise. Confronted with a secret, illegal White House war against a Colombian drug cartel, Ryan refuses to abandon his moral compass. The scene where he stands face to face with the sitting President of the United States and calmly says, "I'm sorry, Mr. President. I don't dance," is Ford at his absolute best.

Ford took over the role from Alec Baldwin and immediately made Jack Ryan more mature and vulnerable. After accidentally foiling a terrorist attack on the British royal family in London, his own family becomes the target of a vengeful IRA cell led by Sean Bean. The climax on a stormy night by the coast is gripping and tense.

Roman Polanski plunges Ford into a Hitchcockian mystery on the streets of Paris. As an American cardiologist whose wife suddenly vanishes without a trace from their hotel room, Ford wanders through the French underworld without speaking the language. A feverish, claustrophobic thriller showcasing Ford's masterful ability to convey panic and disorientation.

A rare chance to see Ford NOT as the sympathetic hero. In Robert Zemeckis's homage to Alfred Hitchcock, he plays opposite Michelle Pfeiffer as a respected scientist whose remote lakeside home seems to be haunted. The film brilliantly plays on the trustworthy image Ford had built over decades, only to ruthlessly subvert it with an ice-cold twist.

A delightful rom-com in which Ford showed he also has a strong sense of self-deprecating humor. As charming Wall Street investment banker Jack Trainer, he forms an alliance with secretary Tess McGill (Melanie Griffith). Ford visibly enjoys playing a man genuinely impressed by the smart woman beside him, complete with awkward office situations and disarming charm.

His very first collaboration with George Lucas and his official breakthrough. Wearing a cowboy hat and driving a black '55 Chevy, the young Ford immediately steals the show as the cocky street racer Bob Falfa in this nostalgic ode to early-60s California youth culture. Without this small role, there might never have been a Han Solo or an Indiana Jones.