We all know what kinds of movies the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences likes to nominate for Best Picture: period pieces, based on a true story, socially relevant and full of frilly costumes. And most of the time that’s true, but every once in a while over the course of the last 88 years the Academy has surprised us by nominating films that are… well, “badass.”
So-called genre entertainments often earn awards for their technical craftspersonship but nominations in the Best Picture category are rare. Not unheard of, but rare. So this year’s awesome nomination for Mad Max: Fury Road reminds us that when the time is right, and with the most is just unbelievably rad, the Oscars sometimes sit up and take notice.
Related: Mad Max and The Revenant Rule the Oscar Nominations
We’ve scoured the Academy’s 88 year history to bring you the 25 kick-ass action movies, scary-ass horror movies, and other hardcore genre films that unexpectedly became Best Picture nominees. There are other films that arguably qualify, like E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, but Spielberg’s beloved family film isn’t so much “badass” as wonderful family entertainment. (That’s our story and we’re sticking to it.)
Take a look at all the Best Picture nominees that put hair on our chests, and always remember to stay shiny and chrome!
The 25 Badass Best Picture Nominees:
Top Photo: LucasFilm
William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and watch him on the weekly YouTube series Most Craved and What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
25 Badass Best Picture Nominees
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Captain Blood
Lost To: Mutiny on the Bounty
Action star Err0l Flynn headlines this rollicking swashbuckler about a doctor who goes rogue and becomes a pirate.
Photo: Warner Bros.
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The Adventures of Robin Hood
Lost To: You Can't Take It With You
Errol Flynn re-teamed with his Captain Blood director Michael Curtiz for this iconic adventure that defined the folk hero Robin Hood for decades.
Photo: Warner Bros.
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King Solomon's Mines
Lost To: All About Eve
H. Rider Haggard's classic novel became an acclaimed adventure starring the great Stewart Granger as Allan Quatermain, who has to escort Deborah Kerr into the heart of Africa to find her lost husband and an ancient treasure.
Photo: MGM
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The Guns of Navarone
Lost To: West Side Story
One of the great "men on a mission" movies stars Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn and David Niven as soldiers who embark on an impossible mission to take out powerful Nazi weapons that were threatening the Allied Navy.
Photo: Columbia Pictures
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A Clockwork Orange
Lost To: The French Connection
Vicious, twisted and violent, Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Anthony Burgess's novel - about a teenaged criminal who undergoes psychological conditioning to "cure" his antisocial urges - is one of the few X-rated films to ever be nominated for Best Picture.
Photo: Warner Bros.
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Deliverance
Lost To: The Godfather
John Boorman's thriller sends Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty and Ronny Cox into the wilderness and challenges their masculinity at every turn. The "squeal like a pig" sequence is just as disturbing as ever.
Photo: Warner Bros.
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The Exorcist
Lost To: The Sting
William Friedkin's impressive adaptation of William Peter Blatty's novel - about a child with a mysterious ailment that may be supernatural in origin, challenging contemporary secular beliefs - is still one of the biggest blockbusters of all time. The Exorcist is so scary that some people believed the actual celluloid was haunted.
Photo: Warner Bros.
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The Towering Inferno
Lost To: The Godfather Part II
The highest-grossing film of 1974 was an all-star disaster epic from Irwin Allen, who put Paul Newman, Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire, O.J. Simpson (yes, really) and a heck of a lot more big name stars in a skyscraper and set the building ablaze.
Photo: 20th Century Fox
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Jaws
Lost To: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
The film that changed blockbusters forever and put Steven Spielberg on the map. A Great White terrorizes a popular vacation spot, and only a crazed shark hunter, a nerdy scientist and a local sheriff (who is afraid of the water) can save the tourists.
Photo: Universal Pictures
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Star Wars
Lost To: Annie Hall
George Lucas's original blockbuster was a massive, critically-acclaimed sensation that changed popular culture and still influences practically every big budget movie being made today. But Annie Hall was good too.
Photo: LucasFilm
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Raiders of the Lost Ark
Lost To: Chariots of Fire
George Lucas and Steven Spielberg teamed up to revitalized the old school adventure genre, creating a new action movie icon and cementing Harrison Ford's movie status. Raiders of the Lost Ark is still considered one of the best action movies ever made... maybe even THE best.
Photo: LucasFilm
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Witness
Lost To: Out of Africa
Harrison Ford goes undercover in Amish country to protect a young boy who witnessed a murder. Much of Peter Weir's film is a drama about Ford's culture shock and ill-fated romance with Kelly McGillis, but Witness concludes in classic, badass thriller fashion.
Photo: Paramount Pictures
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Fatal Attraction
Lost To: The Last Emperor
The quintessential erotic thriller stars Michael Douglas as a businessman who has an affair with Glenn Close, only to discover that she's dangerously deranged. Adrian Lyne's nightmare scenario for philanderers is one of the scariest films ever nominated Best Picture.
Photo: Paramount Pictures
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The Silence of the Lambs
Lost To: Nothing! It won!
A horror movies serial killers who eat human flesh and wear it as clothing, respectively, didn't just win Best Picture, it also won Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay. Only two other films have ever pulled off that particular feat. The Silence of the Lambs is just that good.
Photo: Orion Pictures
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The Fugitive
Lost To: Schindler's List
Harrison Ford - who obviously has good taste in thrillers - stars in this classy remake of the popular television series, about a doctor who has been framed for his wife's murder. Ford runs from the incomparable Tommy Lee Jones, leading his pursuer directly to the conspirators responsible, and even the Academy had to admit it was an exceptional piece of entertainment.
Photo: Warner Bros.
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The Sixth Sense
Lost To: American Beauty
Before M. Night Shyamalan fell out of favor with critics and audiences alike, he blew everyone away with a smart, character driven horror movie about a little boy who is psychologically scarred by his ability to see ghosts. An iconic ending and great, Oscar-nominated performances still make The Sixth Sense a classic.
Photo: Buena Vista Pictures
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Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Lost To: Gladiator
The kung fu genre, long ignored by American critics and the Oscars alike, finally got some mainstream attention in America with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The sweeping romance, filled with high-flying wuxia action, won four Academy Awards but lost Best Picture to...
Photo: Sony Pictures Classics
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Gladiator
Lost To: Nothing! Another winner!
Ridley Scott transformed the often-ridiculed "sword and sandal" genre into a Best Picture winner with Gladiator, a huge action epic with just enough melodrama to be taken seriously by the Academy. Russell Crowe also won Best Actor, but most people agree it was actually a belated award for The Insider, which earned Crowe his first Best Actor nomination the year before.
Photo: Dreamworks Pictures
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The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Lost To: A Beautiful Mind and Chicago. Then it won!
Peter Jackson's groundbreaking, ambitious and popular adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's beloved fantasy novels earned three Best Picture nominations over the course of three years, but the Academy snubbed it for the top award until the last possible minute. It compensated for the oversight by giving the third film, The Return of the King, an astounding eleven Oscars, for every category in which the film was nominated.
Photo: New Line Cinema
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Avatar
Lost To: The Hurt Locker
James Cameron's sci-fi saga was the biggest blockbuster in history, and the Academy had to admit it was a giant leap forward in visual effects and 3D technology.
Photo: 20th Century Fox
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District 9
Lost To: The Hurt Locker
Neill Blomkamp's debut feature was a dark and pointed political allegory about South Africa, told through the unusual story of space alien immigrants being segregated from human society. District 9 was nominated for four Academy Awards, but went home empty-handed.
Photo: TriStar Pictures
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Black Swan
Lost To: The King's Speech
Darren Aronofsky's biggest Oscar contender to date is a surreal psychological thriller about a ballerina who loses her mind in a desperate grab for glory. Hallucinatory photography and an Oscar-winning performance by Natalie Portman elevated Black Swan above the rest of the horror genre... if only in the Academy's eyes.
Photo: Fox Searchlight Pictures
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Django Unchained
Lost To: Argo
Quentin Tarantino tackles the serious subject of slavery by transforming it into a cathartic revenge fantasy, about a slave (Jamie Foxx) who becomes a bounty hunter in order to save his wife. The action is outlandish, but given the context it seems completely justified... so long as Django is the one who's dishing it out.
Photo: The Weinstein Company
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Gravity
Lost To: Twelve Years a Slave
An innovative disaster story if ever there was one, Gravity is the story of an inexperienced astronaut who becomes untethered when a debris storm destroys her vessel. Alfonso Cuaron's acclaimed visual effects spectacular follows her seemingly impossible journey to survive, if only for survival's sake.
Photo: Warner Bros.
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Mad Max: Fury Road
Lost To: ???
It seems unlikely that George Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road will win the Best Picture Oscar, but a few short months ago it seemed even more unlikely that it would be nominated. Fortunately, his high-octane post-apocalyptic thrill ride is so exceptionally crafted, and unexpectedly dense with feminist themes, that the Academy saw fit to nominate the film for its highest honor. What a lovely day indeed!
Photo: Warner Bros.
