The greatest films about searching for hidden treasure

Treasure is right in the title of this one, so let’s start here. Yes, “National Treasure” is quite silly. Nicolas Cage stars in it, and it involves a whole bunch of convoluted conspiracy. A map on the back of the Declaration of Independence is involved. The ultimate goal for both our heroes and the villains, though, is a massive treasure that belonged to the Freemasons. Of course it did. Like we said, convoluted conspiracy.

Every Indiana Jones movie would qualify, but “Raiders of the Lost Ark” was the first, and it is the best. It’s a great movie, the best treasure hunting movie, and one of the best action movies. Indiana Jones is always on a quest for treasures, relics, and antiquities. In this film, the hunt is on for the Ark of the Covenant, which Indiana needs to get to before the Nazis.

In the third Indiana Jones movie, “The Last Crusade,” he and his father are searching for the Holy Grail. Before that, though, King Arthur and company went on a quest for the Grail. Along the way, they met witches, knights, rude Frenchmen, and killer rabbits. The absurdist British comedy troupe Monty Python delivered a beloved comedy take on the King Arthur myth, a film still considered a favorite comedy of many.

“The Lord of the Rings” is about a journey of getting rid of something precious, namely the One Ring to rule them all. In J.R.R. Tolkien’s previous book, though, instead of destroying a ring, the search is for a treasure. Now, one book was turned into a trilogy, which was unnecessary, so it takes a while, but Bilbo and the dwarves are en route to reclaim a mountain and a treasure from the dragon Smaug.

Arguably the most famous story about looking for a treasure is “Treasure Island,” based on a book written by Robert Louis Stevenson. That book has been adapted several times over the years. The best version? “Muppet Treasure Island,” of course. After all, in addition to all the Muppets, Tim Curry is along for the ride as Long John Silver. Yo ho!

“Tomb Raider” was a popular video game series. It focused on Lara Croft, a treasure hunter with improbable body dimensions. When the games were first adapted into a movie, naturally Angelina Jolie was cast. Jolie starred in two movies as Lara Croft…but they aren’t good. Then, many years later, Alicia Vikander stepped into the role in “Tomb Raider.” To our surprise, the movie turned out to actually be a good adventure film.

Speaking of adventure and adaptation, Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson are both big fans of the “Tintin” comics, stories about a boy adventurer and writer that are super popular in Europe. Spielberg and Jackson wanted to bring the Tintin magic to America. The idea was that Spielberg would direct the first Tintin film, produced by Jackson, and then Jackson would direct the sequel. Well, while “The Adventures of Tintin” was critically praised and was successful at the box office, it didn’t hit as expected. Jackson hasn’t said he’s never going to make his Tintin movie, but right now it seems unlikely.

All these decades later, “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” remains one of the defining films about a search for treasure. An obsessive search, in this case. Two drifters, one played by Humphrey Bogart, meet a grizzled prospector played by Walter Huston. The image of the “crazy old prospector” that has permeated through pop culture essentially comes from Huston’s performance. All three men head into the mountains in Mexico in a quest for gold, but the landscape and greed threaten to rob the men of their sanity and their lives.

Sure, if the subtitle to this movie wasn’t “The Legend of Curly’s Gold,” it would be 20-percent worse. Fortunately, it does have that title. “City Slickers” proved a surprise hit, and Jack Palance even won Best Supporting Actor for playing Curly. That led to the desire for a sequel, but they needed a premise, and they needed to work around the fact Curly, well, died in the first movie. Enter Palace as Curly’s never-before-mentioned twin brother, and then everybody is off on a search for hidden treasure!

Epics were common in an earlier era of Hollywood, but epic comedies? Those were less common, but “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” is definitely that. The film is packed with famous faces, many of them comedy icons of the era. A bunch of different groups on a road trip all stop to try and help a man who has crashed his car. As that man dies, he mentions $350,000 buried under a “big W,” and do recall that is $350,000 in 1963 money. All the groups take off in a quest to be the first to find this treasure.

How do you make a romantic comedy work in the 2020s? Well, you may have to add globetrotting and a hidden treasure into the mix. Sandra Bullock plays an archaeologist-turned-successful romance novelist on a begrudging book tour with the dimwitted cover model for her series, played by Channing Tatum. A billionaire kidnaps Bullock because he believes her archaeology research means she can help find a hidden treasure, and then Tatum tries to rescue her.  It’s a fun film with a good cast, and you just have to go along for the ride.

Sergio Leone closed out his iconic “Dollars” trilogy with “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.” Once again, Clint Eastwood stars in this spaghetti western as “The Man with No Name,” one-third of our main trio. The group is rounded out by Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach. Set during the Civil War, our trio is all on the search for a hidden Confederate gold reserve, but this is a world of gunfights, ghost towns, and violence. Of the three films in the trilogy, this one is comfortably the best.

More Bogart! Also, more John Huston, who also directed “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.” “The Maltese Falcon” is one of the definitive film noirs, and it is unusual as far as treasure hunts go in that it takes place within the city of San Francisco. Sure, there are no pirates, but there are private eyes, double crosses, femme fatales, and so much classic noir action. It is, indeed, the stuff that dreams are made of.

Before there was “The Lost City,” there was “Romancing the Stone.” It’s also a movie about a romance novelist who finds themselves in the desert, this time played by Kathleen Turner. She joins forces with Michael Douglas to search for Turner’s sister and a treasure. It’s one of the quintessential action-romcoms, and it basically made director Robert Zemeckis’ career. He used “Romancing the Stone” to get the opportunity to make his dream project, a little film called “Back to the Future.”

The Persian Gulf War did not yield the cinema of, say, World War II or Vietnam, but there are movies set in and around that clash. That includes “Three Kings.” It was apparently not an easy shoot, and David O. Russell directed so that it tracks, but the end result is gripping, intense, and occasionally even funny. As the war ends, four soldiers find some gold, and their desire to keep it leads to things spiraling out in the desert.

Among the sequels to “Shrek,” and this is technically both a spinoff and a sequel, there is a contingent that considers “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” to be the best of the bunch. Well, in addition to being a hit, it was critically acclaimed, and moviegoers seemed to enjoy it. Puss in Boots and his team are in a race against others to find the fallen Wishing Star to get its last wish, which is quite the treasure in the fairytale world.

Yes, this favorite of Millennials is about, you know, a mummy. However, why and how do Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, and the rest awaken Imhotep? Well, they are excavating Egyptian ruins in search of treasure. Some want historical treasure; others want treasures worth money. They all end up having to deal with a mummy.

Fine. We’ll end with “The Goonies,” but we’re going to have our cake and eat it too! “The Goonies” is beloved by generations. It’s not very good, though. We mean, it’s fine, but it’s overrated to be sure. However, it is one of the quintessential movies about a treasure hunt. It’s also, undeniably, very popular. We may not enjoy it like its legion of fans, but if we’re talking treasure hunt movies, we know you want to see “The Goonies” included.