The 20 Best Movies With Tom Hanks You Need to Watch
June 12, 2025
You may know Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump. But did you know he’s been in over 70 movies since coming to fame in the 1980s? With so many Tom Hanks movies, choosing the absolute best might feel daunting. But don’t worry, we’ve done the work for you. Check out our list of the top 20 Tom Hanks films you need to watch — or rewatch.
Cast Away (2000)
“Who knows what the tide could bring?” This adventure movie with Tom Hanks is a poignant, sad, but often humorous tale of survival and introspection. And it reminds us how life’s trajectory can veer wildly off-course in an instant.
A FedEx airplane crashes into the Pacific with employee Chuck Noland (Hanks) among those onboard. Chuck’s lifeboat washes ashore on a deserted island along with some FedEx packages. As the dire situation toys with Chuck’s physical and mental stamina, he — and we — can only wonder if he will ever see his fiancée again and return to his old life.
Watch: Cast Away*
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Toy Story (1995)
When Toy Story came out in 1995, it broke ground as the first full-length animated feature film that was completely digitally generated. While Tom Hanks doesn’t physically appear in Pixar’s Toy Story, his voice brings cowboy doll Woody to life in all the franchise’s movies, as well as other films in which Woody appears.
The original Toy Story and its sequels follow the antics of a group of toys belonging to a boy named Andy. The toys, who come to life when humans aren’t around, each have their own distinct personalities. Amid adventures and shenanigans, the toys band together to face down challenges. Other movies in the franchise include Toy Story 2 (1999), Toy Story 3 (2010), and Toy Story 4 (2019).
Watch: Toy Story*
*Toy Story is available with the Disney+, Hulu Bundle Basic/Premium. Access content from each service separately.
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Sully (2016)
Based on a true story, Sully recounts the daring landing and rescue of a commercial flight with 155 passengers and crew members on board. When his airplane’s engines are damaged during takeoff from New York City, pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger (Hanks), lands the plane in the Hudson River. Nicknamed “the miracle on the Hudson,” the event plunges Sully into a dichotomy: celebration from the public alongside scrutiny from the government.
Watch: Sully*
*Sully requires the Disney+, Hulu, Max Bundle or the Max Add-on. Access content from each service separately. Content, feature, and device compatibility vary by service. ©2024 Disney and its related entities. Max ©2024 Home Box Office, Inc.
Big (1988)
Directed by Penny Marshall, this charming comedy stars Tom Hanks as tween boy-turned-adult, Josh Baskin. It’s often considered one of the best movies of the ‘80s.
At a local carnival, Baskin tells Zoltar — an animatronic fortune-teller — his ultimate wish: to be “big.” Baskin goes to sleep and wakes up as himself, but inhabiting an adult body.
As Baskin cosplays as a grown-up, he works at a toy company and experiences adulthood through the optics of youth. Ultimately, Baskin’s wish does a 180 as he pines for childhood’s simplicity and happiness again. Big is also a great family movie pick.
Watch: Big
Cloud Atlas (2012)
Directed by the duo behind The Matrix (1999), this sci-fi film threads together numerous storylines that take place over hundreds of years — and even on different planets. Characters in earlier plotlines seem to be reincarnated or otherwise connected to characters in later plotlines.
As part of an ensemble cast, Tom Hanks plays several characters in the film, handily demonstrating his acting prowess. His main character is Zachry, a man living in Hawaii several hundred years in the future. Other roles include a doctor, a hotel manager, a gangster, and a scientist.
Watch: Cloud Atlas*
*Cloud Atlas requires Paramount+ with SHOWTIME® on Hulu add-on subscription.
A Man Called Otto (2022)
In this comedy-drama, Tom Hanks perfects the art of grumpiness, playing a crotchety old man named Otto. When Otto’s wife, Sonya, passes away, he’s forced into retirement. The despondent Otto prepares to commit suicide, but sunny new neighbors interrupt his plans.
The story weaves through multiple foiled suicide attempts and flashbacks to Sonya (with Hanks’ son, Truman, playing the younger Otto). All the while, interactions with various neighbors coax Otto’s kind heart from his curmudgeonly demeanor.
Watch: A Man Called Otto
Road to Perdition (2002)
Based on a series of graphic novels from DC Comics, Road to Perdition is a crime drama set in the American midwest during the Great Depression.
Tom Hanks stars as Mike Sullivan, dutiful thug of an Irish mobster, John Rooney (Paul Newman). After Sullivan’s oldest son, Michael, witnesses a murder, Sullivan and Michael go on the lam and plot their revenge. Road to Perdition is an excellent pick for anyone who likes the rough-and-tumble nature of gangster movies.
Watch: Road to Perdition*
*Road to Perdition requires Paramount+ with SHOWTIME® on Hulu add-on subscription.
Volunteers (1985)
Tom Hanks stars as Lawrence Bourne III, a privileged, old-boy preppy (he’s got the accent down) who just graduated from college. But whatever cushy post-grad arrangement Bourne III expects, it disappears when his father refuses to pay his gambling debt of $28,000.
To elude creditors, Bourne III flees to Thailand by taking his roommate’s place in the Peace Corp. The movie also stars John Candy and Rita Wilson, who later married Hanks.
Watch: Volunteers*
*Volunteers requires the Disney+, Hulu, Max Bundle or the Max Add-on. Access content from each service separately. Content, feature, and device compatibility vary by service. ©2024 Disney and its related entities. Max ©2024 Home Box Office, Inc.
That Thing You Do! (1996)
Tom Hanks wrote and directed this comedic musical drama about a 1960s one-hit-wonder rock band, The Oneders (later becoming The Wonders).
As the working-class bandmembers land a record deal, experience success, and go on tour, they (rock ‘n’) roll with the punches the business throws at them. Eventually, their lives and relationships progress beyond the band.
Though Hanks doesn’t star in the film, he does appear as a supporting actor, along with Liv Tyler.
Watch: That Thing You Do!
Splash (1984)
Tom Hanks was mostly known for his television work when director Ron Howard hand-picked him to be the leading man in this fantasy rom-com. Although not his first movie, it’s often considered the one that kicked Hanks’ Hollywood career into gear.
In 1964, a young boy named Allen Bauer jumps into the ocean near Cape Code, Massachusetts. While submerged, Bauer, who can’t swim, encounters a young mermaid who helps him breathe underwater until he’s rescued.
Two decades later, the now-adult Bauer (Hanks) falls in love with a woman (Daryl Hannah) who lives a double life as a mermaid named Madison. An unscrupulous scientist attempts to capture Madison. Ultimately, Bauer must choose between life with her underwater, and life on land without her.
Watch: Splash*
*Splash is available with the Disney+, Hulu Bundle Basic/Premium. Access content from each service separately.
The Da Vinci Code (2006)
This mystery-thriller, the first in a three-part binge-worthy franchise, is based on Dan Brown’s best-selling novel of the same name.
When a curator is found dead in the Louvre with symbols carved on his body, French cryptographer Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou) enlists the help of American professor symbologist Robert Langdon (Hanks) to solve the whodunnit. Along the way, they discover the victim — who is also Sophie’s grandfather — was a member of a 2,000-year-old secret society responsible for safeguarding the Holy Grail.
Watch: The Da Vinci Code
Angels & Demons (2009)
In this sequel to The Da Vinci Code, Hanks reprises his role as professor Robert Langdon, an expert in symbols and their meanings. When the Pope passes away, someone kidnaps four cardinals who are the top candidates to succeed him. With scientist Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer), Langdon is called upon to rescue the cardinals and save the Vatican from destruction. On their quest, the duo sift through mind-twisting clues, dodge threats, and discover a shocking secret.
Watch: Angels & Demons
Inferno (2016)
Inferno is the third and final movie in The Da Vinci Code franchise. Robert Langdon (Hanks) wakes up with amnesia in an Italian hospital, where he’s treated by Dr. Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones). After an attempt to kill Langdon, he and Dr. Brooks work to unravel the past. With the help of Dante’s narrative poem, Inferno, the duo rushes against the clock to foil an evil geneticist from releasing a deadly virus.
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Directed by Steven Spielberg, the Word War II epic Saving Private Ryan is etched into the American film canon as one of the greatest movies ever, in any genre.
Set in 1944, the film plunges viewers into the Allied troops’ harrowing, chaotic invasion at Omaha Beach in Normandy, France. The bloody operation takes the lives of many soldiers, including three of four Ryan brothers serving in the U.S. Army. The fourth brother, Private James Ryan (Matt Damon), goes missing in action.
Military brass assigns Captain John Miller (Hanks) the unimaginably dangerous task of rescuing Private Ryan. As Captain Miller takes his troops behind enemy lines, filmgoers experience heart-poundingly realistic battles and the type of intense brotherhood that only wartime can produce.
Apollo 13 (1995)
“Houston, we have a problem.” This suspense-fueled docudrama chronicles the true story of the spacecraft Apollo 13’s mission in 1970.
Three astronauts — Commander Jim Lovell (Hanks), Jack Swigert (Kevin Bacon), and Fred Haise (Bill Paxton) — suit up and launch into space. What begins as an attempted moon landing quickly devolves into a rescue mission after an explosion aboard the Apollo 13 saps the spacecraft’s oxygen and electricity. With the astronauts in grave danger, NASA scientists at mission control decide “failure is not an option” and take daring, brilliant measures to return the astronauts alive and well.
A League of Their Own (1992)
Tom Hanks joins a cast of celebrated stars — including Geena Davis, Rosie O’Donnell, and Madonna — in this fictional sports comedy-drama about the real-life All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). During World War II, the AAGPBL was created as a substitute for Major League Baseball (MLB) due to the many players and staff fighting the war.
Hanks plays Jimmy Dugan, a former baseball player deemed unfit to serve in the military, but fine to coach and manage the Rockford Peaches baseball team. At first cynical about women playing baseball, Dugan bonds with the players, who demonstrate immense grit and heart.
Catch Me if You Can (2002)
This crime-drama, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks, is based on disputed claims Frank Abagnale Jr. puts forth in his autobiography of the same name.
In the film, Frank (DiCaprio) pulls off a series of scams, posing as a Pan Am pilot, a doctor, and a prosecutor. The scams earn him millions of dollars, but also the attention of FBI agent Carl Hanratty (Hanks), who attempts a daunting trifecta: outwit Frank, catch him, and throw him in jail.
Sleepless In Seattle (1993)
Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan star in this rom-com directed by Nora Ephron. Recently widowed architect Sam (Hanks) and his young son, Jonah, move to Seattle for a fresh start. When Sam speaks about his deceased wife on a national talk-radio program, he’s flooded with letters from women who listened to the show. Reporter Annie Reed (Ryan) is among those who writes. While Jonah is rooting for her and Sam to meet, life has other plans.
Forrest Gump (1994)
This uplifting, beloved tale showcases a mere sliver of Tom Hanks’ wide acting range. Hanks stars as the title character, an Alabama boy (later man) with an intellectual disability.
Propelled by his optimism and kind heart, Forrest weaves through seminal moments in American history with his childhood love, Jenny, as his everpresent north star. Forrest Gump earned several awards, including Hanks’ Academy AwardⓇ for best actor.
Philadelphia (1993)
Inspired by a true story, Philadelphia follows a young lawyer, Andrew Beckett (Hanks), who works at a prominent law firm in Philadelphia. Beckett receives an HIV diagnosis, which he tries to hide along with his homosexuality.
Eventually, a colleague finds out and exposes Beckett to the firm’s leadership. When Beckett is fired from the firm, he files a discrimination lawsuit. He enlists a former adversary (Denzel Washington) to help him face one of the firm’s fiercest litigators in court.
