Every decade since the dawn of motion pictures has given us a particular year which defines it. A year when the lines to the box office stretch around the corner, past the street over; a year when the cultural zeitgeist is permanently changed, where new conversations can change how we watch films and how we make them. 

The 80s were a game-changing decade for cinema and its wider effect on culture, on media and entertainment. Where the idea of “Pop Culture” was more than just an idea, it was branding, it was everywhere in neon and bright patterns, t-shirts and cereal boxes, music and posters, with the movie theatre becoming the church where worshippers spent their free time watching the holy silver screen, pumping future nostalgia out like gospel.

On the other side, the artistry of filmmaking was not slowing down; revolutions in new ideas, perspectives, and thematic approaches continued, evolving genres and becoming warped mirrors of society with directors like David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, & Michael Mann. 

1986 is a year that sits firmly in the conversation of years that left their mark on mainstream culture, with homages to the movies of that year still being paid today, 40 years on.

Movies like Aliens, the sequel which seamlessly combined action, horror and science fiction, and made James Cameron an established face of the business. Movies like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, a classic comedy which has been referenced countless times for its hilarity and escapist comedy, that every young person can relate to. Movies like Blue Velvet, one of the underrated classics of cult hero director David Lynch, where his take on the thriller movie shakes you to your core and still glues your eyes to the screen.

And who can discuss ’86 without “the blockbuster”, the summer phenomenon of 1986, the action hit which made Tom Cruise a movie star and the picture which was so successful that it allegedly increased Navy recruitment by 500% (Aaron Hunt, GQ).

That movie, of course, is the legendary, red, white and blue, Top Gun. 40 years on in 2026, we can look back and give a retrospective on how that year truly holds up, but also celebrate its legacy as a point in time to which any nerd of film can only wish to travel back. 

Starting with Aliens, the highly anticipated sequel to Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi landmark Alien. After a seven year wait, Ripley’s saga returned to widespread acclaim from both fans and critics, cementing the franchise as a major force in science fiction. Like the decade that produced it, Aliens was juiced to the gills with more sweaty action and thrills, with James Cameron confidently taking the helm.

What makes the movie so fun to watch today is its ageless methods, spawning a gut feeling of something lurking over your shoulder, the click of a Xenomorph just around the corner.

In his 1986 review, film critic Roger Ebert described the film as leaving him with “knots in [his] stomach”, praising its ability to sustain tension throughout its final hour. Decades later, that intensity remains intact, with the film’s special effects continuing to impress and its pacing keeping audiences engaged.

He highlights how Sigourney Weaver as Ripley is exactly the character needed for this movie, she is courageous, she is sympathetic and most importantly, she’s a badass where she is “the thread that holds everything together.” Cameron allows her to be the perfect protagonist, handing Weaver the keys and letting her take full control of the character. Their collaboration is, in my opinion, even stronger than Ridley Scott’s original — a bold claim, perhaps, but one that Aliens makes difficult to argue against.

When you look at Aliens now, what does sci-fi offer which can match the significance of this film?

Let’s take Disclosure Day, 2026’s answer to the sci-fi blockbuster, directed by another legacy filmmaker who helped reinvent the genre: Steven Spielberg. While the similarities between Aliens and Disclosure Day largely end with both films exploring extraterrestrial forces and their impact on human protagonists, they reveal a shift in how blockbusters of this scale are approached. 

A major criticism of modern Hollywood sci-fi is that many big-budget films rely on the idea of the unknown as their selling point rather than the execution of that idea. 

Disclosure Day arguably falls into this trap, using its cosmic mystery as a looming presence, a government conspiracy and a backdrop for some pretty shoddy action sequences, rather than exploring how this discovery transforms its characters, who are, quite frankly, completely forgettable compared to the sci-fi action heroes of before.

Aliens works because of Ripley and the Xenomorphs, not because of some grandiose mystery which has, as a consequence, restricted your own ideas. 

One of the best comedies to come from the 80s is undoubtedly Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, a movie which became an instant classic for the youth of the 80s. Matthew Broderick plays a charismatic jock chalked full of charm and wit, and you can’t help but root for his antics. Or, on the flip side, see him as a conniving kid whom you just want to see get his comeuppance. But either way, viewers are seated and engaged with belly-laugh moments such as the “Twist and Shout” scene, leaving us grinning from ear to ear.

Comedy was already a high-grossing genre in the 80s, with ‘86 itself already having a healthy myriad of classics such as Big Trouble In Little China and Crocodile Dundee but Ferris Bueller is by far on top of that totem pole.

With John Hughes, who had directed The Breakfast Club the previous year, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off carries the same spiritual core: a celebration of the hopes, fears and joys of youth. Bueller’s day-long escapade provides a joyride of laughs, while still holding onto the sentimental value that defines Hughes’ best work.

In the 2020s, a conversation has emerged around whether coming-of-age comedies can be revived, with many questioning if the stoner comedies and low-budget coming-of-age flicks that younger audiences could relate to can return to their glory days.

The problem I see is that the industry has lost creatives like the late and great John Hughes, or directors like Richard Linklater and the Coen Brothers in their comedy heydays.

Skip forward 40 years, and studios now find themselves in the age of streaming. Short form content and high budget productions don’t see a place for another movie like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, instead wanting immediate financial gratification producing films which can appeal more broadly.

The fact, however, is that they are wrong. Movies like Bottoms (2023) and Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022), comedies made on a shoestring budgets, have become cult classics amongst young, Gen Z moviegoers across the world, with stories taking place in high school and college.

In 2026, it can be seen again with a movie that, although it was clowned for its meme-worthy marketing, Pizza Movie was a return to the much-missed stoner comedy, a comedy for college kids and young adults, which was unapologetically itself, something that is needed in an industry pushing content and comedy by committee.

40 years on, the legacy and want for something as fun as Ferris Bueller’s Day Off still exist, but can its successors truly break through the industry? 

In fact, some would argue we’ve lost far too many talented and creatively gifted directors today, directors who were reaching their peaks or just entering the scene in 1986. Take David Lynch, who in 1986 directed Blue Velvet, a controversial yet hypnotisingly thrilling film showing a twisted, demented & exploitative side of American suburbia littered within the criminal underworld.

For Lynch, this was by no means anything unexpected, with his previous works such as The Elephant Man and Eraserhead leaving nothing on the line in what Lynch wanted to say and do in twisting the knife into emotions of love and desire. 

2026 has been a renaissance for horror fans, and undoubtedly the industry has noticed, and how could they not? Curry Barker’s Obsession, an original horror-thriller, has been one of the greatest financial successes in cinematic history, grossing nearly $500M at the time of writing, with a sub-million-dollar budget, not to mention its success as an independent production.

And Obsession isn’t the only horror making waves at the box office. Backrooms, directed by 21-year-old director Kane Parsons has proved to be immensely profitable catered, like Obsession, towards a Gen Z audience.

There is clearly a desire amongst younger audiences to watch original horror and thrillers again made by truly creative filmmakers. None other than Sir Christopher Nolan has lauded Parsons for his visionary directorial debut in Backrooms, comparing him to David Lynch, refuting the premise that young people are too braindead to enjoy complex cinema. He quotes how “Backrooms are like David Lynch at his most obscure. And yet young people can’t get enough of them.”

For years, so many film fans have desired for someone to stop holding their hand and feeding them the same spoon which has become sour, made up of poor and rehashed ideas. Gen-Z want clever, innovative cinema led by new producers amongst them and after 40 years wanting someone to live up to the name of David Lynch, the state of cinema is in a much more freeing place. 

Lastly, how can we wrap up discussion of 1986 without circling back to Top Gun, an all-American, kick-ass movie made at the height of American exceptionalism. Top Gun, directed by Tony Scott, Paramount Studios’ ace, fully embraces the feeling of freedom felt by the American people in the 80s, where fighter jets and beach volleyball encompass the parts of one of the best-constructed action movies of all time, sending an already made man in Tom Cruise to superstardom.

Top Gun’s success is a reflection of its time; although critics were originally mixed upon its release, it was still praised for its technical qualities, with a masterclass in camera work and photographic effects which put you in the jet seat alongside Maverick.

It is no wonder it was released during the height of Navy popularity amongst the American general public, especially during the U.S. military’s presence in the Mediterranean. Becoming the highest-grossing movie of ’86, Top Gun, amongst cinephiles, is looked back on not for its writing or its ensemble performances but rather for being a technical marvel and pinnacle for the action genre. 

After 36 years of wait, patient fans were rewarded with the long-awaited sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, a worthy successor that not only paid homage to its original but laid the groundwork for its own glory, being the movie which truly saved the movie theatre after the pandemic, grossing over $1.5B at the box office, a testament to how movie theatres can withstand through thick and thin.

In 2026, people still buzz about Maverick and how Tom Cruise, the youthful face which the globe fawned over, still manages to maintain relevancy as a leading action hero, truly, the last movie star.

In a world where American exceptionalist fetishism is something a lot of young fans roll their eyes at, there is no doubt that when given the stage to show off something techically marvelous, you can’t help but head to your nearest theatre because some things are meant to be seen on the big screen, to make you fall in love and remember why we go and pay tribute to the silver screen.

Even after 40 years, what fans truly want is to feel connected to what we are watching and not be thrown slop for us to consume. Fans want originality, and the 80s, especially ’86, was a testament to that inventiveness, technically and conceptually.

2026 is shaping up to be one of the better years of this decade, and if we want to continue that trajectory, we must keep supporting the movies that spark the feeling of the works of before. 

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