Harrison Ford: His 5 Best (And 5 Worst) Films According To IMDB

Typically, a well-known and successful film actor has one role in particular that their name is associated with almost exclusively, then a smattering of other roles that fall to the wayside. Harrison Ford is a bit of an exception to the rule, attaining two incredibly successful parts that have followed him throughout his career, as well as a variety of other high profile characters.

We’ve used IMDb to rank the five best films Harrison Ford has had a major role in and compared them to the five considered to be the worst.

10 Worst: Firewall (5.8)

Despite ending up as a modest success at the box office, Firewall was met with pretty much universally negative reviews. Harrison Ford plays a banker being forced to steal $100 million by a group of criminals, with this plot ending up lackluster and clichéd and the attempts at twists bordering on impossibility. Even Ford is unable to bring anything worthy of enjoyment to proceedings.

9 Best: Star Wars Episode VI: Return Of The Jedi (8.3)

It might be considered the worst film from the original Star Wars trilogy, but it’s almost impossible to call it a bad film. The completion of Skywalker Saga until Disney got their hands on the property and recently showed Harrison Ford’s final franchise appearance in The Rise of Skywalker.

Han Solo and Chewie were on hand to help save the day, all the while, everyone’s favorite smuggler was dropping just about the most arrogant version of charm a human can manage. He finally ended up with Leia, but the fact that they’d eventually split up was always in the back of everyone’s mind.

8 Worst: Six Days Seven Nights (5.8)

Six Days Seven Nights can be lauded for avoiding the CGI that was becoming so prominent in the late 1990s by filming aircraft stunt work for real, with Ford himself flying the aircraft in the film. However, that is about where the praise stops. The adventure element isn’t adventurous enough, and the comedy isn’t comedic enough. The film ended up completely forgettable across the board.

7 Best: Raiders Of The Lost Ark (8.4)

Harrison Ford starred as the titular main character across the entire Indiana Jones franchise, kicking off with Raiders Of The Lost Ark back in 1981. It was slap bang in the middle of the original Star Wars trilogy, and a lot of people forget that Raiders was actually conceived by George Lucas, as well. Impressive!

The charm of Han Solo was transported into the adventurous personality of Jones, except, instead of lightsabers and the Empire, this role saw Harrison Ford surrounded by archaeology and Nazis.

6 Worst: Paranoia (5.7)

As is the case with the tail-end of the career of many Hollywood legends, the 2010s is full of misguided adventures for Harrison Ford. The 2013 thriller Paranoia suggests that it could be brilliant, combining the talents of Gary Oldman and Harrison Ford, but it just doesn’t work. For a “thriller,” the thrills are hard to come by, and the cliché plot and lack of excitement is probably what contributed to its poor critical response and massive box office loss.

5 Best: Apocalypse Now (8.4)

For a while, George Lucas was attached to the creation of Apocalypse Now as well as Indiana Jones and Star Wars—certainly a busy few years for him. As such, Harrison Ford’s character is named Colonel G. Lucas.

He might not be the most central role in a film that otherwise stars Marlon Brando and Martin Sheen, but he does have a position of power, providing Sheen’s Captain Willard with his orders.

4 Worst: Hollywood Homicide (5.3)

Despite being written based on the real-life experiences of writer Ron Shelton, Hollywood Homicide just didn’t work. It’s another one of those films you can just sort of tell isn’t going to have the impact it wants to have, and even the DVD cover looks about as classic early-2000s as anything possibly could. Its cinema release was very much overshadowed by Finding Nemo, while the fact it is described as a comedy was put under scrutiny, considering it isn’t funny.

3 BEST: Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (8.6)

The first Star Wars film was the first time we ever saw Mr. Han Solo on screen. He was mysterious, elusive, arrogant, charming, and brave. The first encounters we had with the character showed us exactly what he was about.

Jabba The Hutt wanted him dead or alive, spawning the greatest debate in Star Wars history: who shot first? Bounty hunter Greedo was sent to deliver the smuggler to Hutt, but Han was able to shoot him from across the table. For some reason, George Lucas decided to change the motivations of the character entirely and confuse his audience by constantly changing who shot who in later edits.

2 Worst: Random Hearts (5.2)

In 1999, Harrison Ford took on the starring role in Random Hearts, a romantic drama that showed him in a rather contrasting light in comparison to Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Based on a 1984 book, the film actually has a pretty interesting premise. A congresswoman and a police officer end up becoming close through the revelation that their spouses, who had both just died in a plane crash, were having an affair. Unfortunately, fifteen years of development hell led to nothing more than terrible reviews, citing a slow, boring plot that even Ford’s performance could do nothing to save.

1 Best: Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (8.7)

The middle entry into the original Star Wars trilogy is often considered the best of the franchise, and the IMDb average agrees, coming in at an impressive 8.7. By this point in the story, Han has remained on the side of the Rebel Alliance, fighting against the continued threat of the Empire.

We are introduced to Han’s friend Lando Calrissian, revealing where the Millennium Falcon came from in the process, before Han is frozen in carbonite and the film ends without telling us what happened to him.