These Are The 15 Best Film Posters Of All Time
Movie posters are strategically made to get audiences interested in seeing the picture they're promoting.
There have been many creative and eye-popping designs for film posters over the years, and a lot of them have become just as iconic as the films themselves. No matter how much they've told us about their respective movies, these posters made us want to line up and buy a ticket. These are the 15 Best Film Posters of All Time.
15.Jurassic Park
It's a simple but effective poster that best fits one of the biggest cinematic blockbusters in history. Somehow, the T. rex skeleton tells you precisely what you're going to see, but it still leaves you wondering what the film has in store for you. And that tagline alone makes it feel like this is the movie to end all movies, as all of history has led to this one motion picture.
14.Get Out
Jordan Peele is a master of making horror movies and telling the audience almost nothing about their story. This poster does the same, as it makes people more interested in unraveling the mystery. Here, we only get Daniel Kaluuya's character screaming in a chair, which is pretty much everyone in the audience being frightened by this film. But the division of black and white in the poster's design communicates the film's study of race relations in American society.
13.The Graduate
This poster oozes sexual anxiety with Benjamin staring at Mrs. Robinson's leg and the tagline saying he's "worried about his future." The audience can understand the protagonist's concern over his attraction to this older woman, making them want to sit down and see this cinema classic.
12.The Social Network
The poster creatively puts Mark Zuckerberg's head on what looks like a Facebook page on a computer browser, but the film's famous tagline really takes the cake. The way the text hovers over his face and takes up most of the image emphasizes the heavy struggle the young CEO endured as his company rose to success, making the film all the more enticing.
11.The Shining
Graphic designer Saul Bass went through about 300 different designs before director Stanley Kubrick picked this one. This threatening, pointillist face seems to be staring right at you, possibly referencing how Jack presses his face against the door during the famous ax scene. However you look at this poster, it still conveys the sense of dread and madness boiling throughout this horror masterpiece.
10.Pulp Fiction
If you're a cinephile, chances are you have this poster on your bedroom wall. True to the film's title, the promotional poster of Uma Thurman's character laying on a bed resembles a cover of a pulp magazine. It's a memorable and loving tribute to those magazines that clearly influenced Quentin Tarantino's magnum opus.
9.Back to the Future
With the flaming tire tracks and glowing DeLorean, this eye-catching poster captures the wonder and excitement of Robert Zemeckis's time-traveling classic. As Marty checks the time on his watch, we can sense the urgency in this film as our hero races against the clock to get back to his own time.
8.Star Wars
Yes, the designer overdid it with the He-Man-esque depiction of Luke and Leia, but this poster still captures the epic scope of George Lucas's groundbreaking space opera. With Luke's shining lightsaber, Vader's massive head, and the wave of starfighters flying toward the Death Star, we get the sense that we're about to witness a grand adventure that must be seen on the big screen.
7.The Silence of the Lambs
With the death's-head hawkmoth resting on Clarice's mouth, you get the impression that the story of this film is a dark secret that you have to find out, just as Clarice must learn the truth from Hannibal Lecter. But if you look closer, you'll see that the skull on the moth isn't a skull at all. It's actually a famous image from Salvador Dalí of seven women forming a skull, which really fits with the film's examination of sexism and sexual violence toward women in our society.
6.E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Behind the shot of Elliott flying on his bike in front of the moon, this poster is one of the most memorable images of Steven Spielberg's sci-fi masterpiece. Invoking Michelangelo's "The Creation of Adam," this image is a marvelous display of a young boy's first encounter with this magical little alien.
5.The Exorcist
In a film filled with grotesque and horrifying images, the shot of Father Merrin arriving at the MacNeil house is arguably the most iconic. Inspired by René Magritte's painting, The Empire of Light, the film's mysterious poster captures The Exorcist's eerie and gothic atmosphere, setting the stage for the epic struggle between good and evil.
4.The Godfather
This poster depicts the tragedy and majesty of what many believe to be the greatest film of all time. While the title being a marionette represents the control that the don exerts over his criminal empire, it seems to also symbolize how both Vito and Michael Corleone were puppets of fate, with the latter inheriting the legacy of crime that he tried to avoid.
3.Apocalypse Now
Apocalypse Now is a film that sticks with you long after it's over, and this poster does the same with its truly unforgettable imagery. Marlon Brando's Kurtz looks like he's crying as the choppers fly past the sunset, capturing the film's grim and unrelenting depiction of the Vietnam War. Also, the way his "tears" form the shining Do Lung Bridge emphasizes the movie's psychedelic nature, making it a great lead-in into Willard's trip into the heart of darkness.
2.Alien
While there weren't any eggs like the one seen here in the actual movie, the poster is still effective in intriguing its audience. With the green crack glowing over the now-iconic tagline, you already understand the kind of alien horror that this film will throw at you, but it'll still make you want to see it for yourself.
1.Jaws
Who could forget the image of a giant shark swimming up toward a woman swimming in the ocean? Though Jaws doesn't show the shark until late in the film, the poster leaves little to the imagination, displaying just how frightening the movie's aquatic predator really is. This succeeded in catching the audience's attention, as Jaws became one of the most successful and influential movies in all of cinema.
