When I first saw Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, I didn't see actually see Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. I read a picture book in school, a sort of summary of the movie intended, I think, for kids too young to actually see the movie. When I saw the photos of Han Solo in India and then in a temple of Kali, it was like getting an imprint of somebody else's memories of a lost world and forbidden knowledge and ancient civilisations. That was my introduction to Adventure movies, but it took 20 years for me to understand and identify the Adventure genre, and to realise that I'm a fan of the genre. Having watched several movies that I think can be classified as Adventure movies, I have some thoughts on just what makes an Adventure movie an Adventure movie.
Here are the Adventure movies I'm using as models:
There are probably lots of movies missing from my list, like Romancing the Stone (1984) and all the Indiana Jones movies.. My list of models isn't an exhaustive list of all Adventure movies, just the movies I've thought about in context of defining the Adventure genre.
An Adventure movie usually requires the heroes to travel to exotic locations. The ultimate destination is usually an entirely fictional location, like the temple of doom in Gunga Din, the prehistoric reserve of the Lost World, or the very centre of the planet in Journey to the Centre of the Earth. Along the way, however, there are often "real" (well, as real as anything is in a fictional tale) locations, like India, the Amazon rainforest, Iceland, China, and so on.
The goal of an Adventure movie is treasure, and it's often for personal gain, at least initially, rather than for historical preservation. There might be a conceit that an expedition is also for preservation, but not so deep down, the heroes embark on the mission for a very personal reason. The reason might be wealth, fame, reputation, or maybe to find a long-lost predecessor, but often the MacGuffin (sometimes the very thing for which the film is titled) is just the secondary mission.
If it was common knowledge where the MacGuffin was located, there wouldn't be enough adventure to fill out an Adventure movie. There are usually two kinds of blockades: Missing information and resistance.
Resistance might be a secret group of protectors, as in The Mummy and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, or a competing adventurer as in the Tomb Raider movies, or just forces of nature as in Lost World and King Kong. That's a kind of puzzle, even if the solution is usually brute force.
Missing information, as in National Treasure and The Mummy and Journey to the Centre of the Earth, requires the adventurers to piece together clues or to follow a trail. Sometimes the puzzles are thought exercises, deductions, and leaps of faith, and sometimes they're physical devices that must be opened.
Most, but not all, Adventure movies are set in the early 1900s. Many Adventure movies exist largely as a callback to Jules Verne, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Edgar Rice Burroughs. One (Lost World) literally features footage of Arthur Conan Doyle himself!
I think all Adventure movies are, by design, concerned with history, whether the events in the movie are modern or not. The treasure in an Adventure film is almost always an artefact of the past, so many of the puzzle pieces that stand between the heroes and the MacGuffin are also historical.
An Adventure movie generally self-identifies as an Adventure movie. It may or may not use the exact term "Adventure movie" but you know one when you see one. For example, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York largely qualifies as an Adventure movie based on my criteria, but it doesn't claim to be an Adventure movie and of course isn't one.
Traditionally, movies we think of as Adventure movies today weren't Adventure movies, but action movies or even horror movies. The concept of an Adventure genre didn't really come about until, I think, Indiana Jones reminded the world of films like Lost World and Gunga Din.
Today, Adventure movies are made by picking the most exciting scenes of past action and swashbuckling movies, and framing them into new stories. Most of them are, by varying degrees, thankfully revisionist, and made for fun, and to evoke the romance of a world that never was. They tell stories that make you believe it's possible to step out of your own front door, refer to a map in the back of your favourite fantasy novel, and venture out to find your very own treasure.
Lead photo by Anika De Klerk on Unsplash