It’s the classic good versus evil. The inherent evilness of adults is thwarted by innocent and resilient kids. Battles between kids and adults have been a staple of movies for decades, but some fights rise about the rest. Here’s the list of some of our favorites.
The Goonies vs. The Fratellis - The Goonies
In The Goonies, the gang of kids known as the Goonies, played by Sean Astin, Ke Huy Quan, Josh Brolin, et al… are up against a two-front fight against the grown-ups. Some developers want to buy their houses to expand their country club, but the more acute battle is against the bumbling crime family known as the Fratellis. Once they defeat the Fratellis, including the brothers played by Joe Pantoliano and Robert Davi, and find One-Eyed Willy’s gold, paying off the developers to win that fight is easy. The Goonies never say die!
Elliott vs. The G-Men - E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
One of Steven Spielberg’s greatest gifts as a filmmaker is keeping a child-like feeling of innocence and wonder about the movies. Surprisingly, there are only a few of his movies where the kids are actually the heroes. The most iconic of which is, of course, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. It feels a little trope-y these days, but it set the standard for those tropes, so we’ll let it pass. E.T. is also amazingly well-paced and enjoyable every time you watch it. In the end, it's those innocent kids played by Drew Barrymore, Henry Thomas (as Elliott), and Robert MacNaughton that bring down the mostly faceless government bad guys.
Parzival vs. IOI - Ready Player One
Decades after E.T., Steven Spielberg was back making a film that put kids against grownups, this time set in a video game, about a teenager triumphing over the bad guys in Ready Player One. Parzival (Tye Sheridan) is our computer-generated hero (and the kid behind the avatar Wade Watts). Together with his band of merry avatars, Parzival takes on the evil IOI corporation and its CEO, Nolan Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn) in a battle for the soul of the Meta-verse…er…the OASIS.
The Wolverines vs. The Communists - Red Dawn
In director John Milius’ Cold War fever dream Red Dawn, a group of high school students take on an army of Cubans. The plot may be absurd, but the movie will always be a Gen X classic. Released at the height of the Cold War in the eighties, it taps into the psyche of teens who fantasize about what it would be like to form a militia with their high school buddies. Okay, maybe that’s not a popular dream, but it still makes for one hell of a movie. Especially with the all-star cast that includes Jennifer Grey, Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen, C. Thomas Howell, and Lea Thompson as the Wolverines.
The Students vs. The Terrorists - Toy Soldiers
Much like Red Dawn, Toy Soldiers imagines what it would be like if a group of terrorists took control of an American boarding school. When the adults that are supposed to take on these situations fail to act, it’s up to the boys, led by Sean Astin and helped out by adult Lou Gossett, Jr., to take the terrorists out. Come to think of it, there sure were quite a few movies like this in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s.
Doug Masters vs. The Bilya Ait Force - Iron Eagle
Okay, now it’s getting ridiculous. In yet another movie about teenage boys taking on large militaries, Iron Eagle pushes believability to the end of its rope. Doug Masters is a high school pilot who wants to join the U.S. Air Force like his dad, but gets bad news when he is rejected from the Academy. But he gets a chance to prove himself when his dad is shot down by the fictional “Bilya” and Masters, played by Jason Gedrick and his mentor Chappy (Lou Gossett, Jr. again) are forced by the military’s inaction to steal a couple of fighter planes and rescue his father themselves. Yeah, it makes no sense on the surface, but it’s still a classic.
Kevin McAllister vs. The Wet Bandits - Home Alone
No list like this could be complete without the all-time winner in this category. What else can be said about Home Alone that hasn’t already been said a million times? Let’s be real, the plot, with young Kevin McAllister (Macaulay Culkin) being left behind as the rest of the family goes overseas, is almost as silly as the military movies on this list. It’s of no matter how we get there though, the movie is a stone-cold classic because of the dozens of ways Kevin thwarts the Wet Bandits, Harry (Joe Pesci) and Marv (Daniel Stern), even if it’s all slightly homicidal and way more violent than it seems at first.
The Emerson Brothers vs. The Vampires - The Lost Boys
The Lost Boys is a little different, because it’s really a vampire movie, obviously, and vampires are generally centuries old in the movies. Still, it’s a couple of brothers, the Emersons, played by Jason Patric and the late Corey Haim, who are left to battle it out with the undead. In the end, it’s Grandpa that saves the day when he kills the head vampire, Max.
Katniss Everdeen vs. The Capitol - The Hunger Games
The Hunger Games series may be the grandest of all the battles that teenagers fight in these movies and Katniss takes on society itself, in addition to President Snow. The war is won by many more than just Katniss in the end, but it’s her defiance during the 74th Hunger Games that sparks the revolution.
The Cortz’s vs. Fegan Floop - Spy Kids
This is about as classic as it gets. Two kids, unaware that their parents are spies, are sprung into action when their mom and dad are kidnapped by the evil Feegan Floop. Spy Kids is stylish and fun and has held up remarkably well, which explains how it launched a very successful franchise, with a fifth installment set for release later this year on Netflix.
The Students vs. Alien Teachers - The Faculty
One of the weirdest movies of the ‘90s was The Faculty. Starring Fast & Furious mainstay Jordanna Brewster in her first feature film, the movie follows a group of students who discover the faculty of their high school are really aliens… or are they? There are enough twists and turns to make the movie fun, but really, it’s about watching the all-star cast, which in addition to Brewster includes Salma Hayek, Piper Laurie, Josh Hartnett, Famke Janssen, Clea DuVall, Usher, Bebe Neuwirth, Elijah Wood, and Jon Stewart. Yes, that Jon Stewart.
Miles Morales vs. Kingpin - Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
The appeal of Spider-Man has always been that he’s just a regular high school kid-turned-superhero. Nothing amps up that appeal quite like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and wow does it work. Miles feels way younger than his fellow Spider-Mans in the MCU, so when he leads the gaggle of Spider-persons in victory over Kingpin and his henchman, it feels like the kids won again.
The Lost Boys vs. The Pirates - Peter Pan
The classic tale that just might be the origin story for the idea of kids battling the adults to the death is, no doubt, Peter Pan. There have been a whole lot of Peter Pan-based movies in history, from Hook to Neverland but for most people, their introduction, if not through the original book, is Disney’s animated film from 1953. So much of the mythos of the character and his fellow Lost Boys come from it, and it, like most pit Peter against the dastardly Captain Hook, and we all know who’s going to come out on top.
Stanley And Hector vs. The Warden - Holes
Holes is a very underappreciated movie. Not only was it the breakout film for Shia LaBeouf, who plays Stanley Yelnats, but there are also amazing performances by Jon Voight and Sigourney Weaver. Weaver plays the baddie, the warden of a weird prison for kids called Camp Green Lake, which is neither green nor a lake. And in addition to LaBeouf, there are several other kids among the cast, including Khleo Thomas, who plays Hector "Zero" Zeroni. It’s a classic tale of an adult authority figure lying about what goes on, while the kids are left to prove they are in the right, which, of course, they do in the end.
Harry Potter vs. Voldemort - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
This is really a shout-out to the whole Harry Potter series, but Order of the Phoenix fits the best of any one individual film. We finally get to see Harry confront He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. It’s hardly the only time Harry and the rest of the Hogwarts student body take on adults, but it is the worst of them all, and of course, like always, the kids outsmart him and win in the end.
Order of the Phoenix also has several of the Hogwarts students going up against Dolores Umbridge, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Extra credit here goes to Harry and the other students who joined Dumbledore's Army, and to Fred and George Weasley, who defied the professor and her rules with their grand exit from the school.
Looking at this list, it sure seems like this trope is in danger of dying out, and that would be a tragedy if it did. Just reading down the films, you immediately see how different they all are, despite seeming very similar at their core. So here’s to many more decades of the younger generation defeating the older, a tale that we’ll never tire of.
