The 15 best movie trilogies to watch

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

Director: Peter Jackson 

The one trilogy to rule them all. JRR Tolkien purists might nitpick some inaccuracies but Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings is a definitive journey to Middle-earth. The Fellowship of the Ring was a crash course to the Tolkien-verse, establishing the detailed lore around the mystical rings. The next two movies amped up the action with sprawling battle sequences, emotional character arcs, and the best VFX the 2000s could offer. Jackson tried to replicate this magic with the Hobbit trilogy, but The Lord of the Rings reigns supreme.

The Godfather (1972)
The Godfather: Part II (1974)
The Godfather: Part III (1990)

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

A crime epic charting the many generations of a Sicilian mafia family, The Godfather is ambitious enough as a standalone adaptation of Mario Puzo’s novel. But then The Godfather Part II set a new standard for sequels, tracing the early years of Don Vito Corleone (Robert De Niro as a younger Marlon Brando) while charting out the rise of Al Pacino’s Michael Corleone. Released roughly two decades later, Coppola’s coda The Godfather Part III paled in comparison, while still offering a fitting end to Michael’s murky moral journey. 

Pather Panchali (1955)
Aparajito (1956) 
The World of Apu (1959)

Director: Satyajit Ray 

Achieving the pinnacle of Indian socio-realist cinema, Satyajit Ray’s trilogy is a coming-of-age saga of a young Bengali man (played by four actors across the three movies). The protagonist’s poverty-stricken childhood, solitary teenage, and his dreams of becoming a writer, are touched upon in this human odyssey. Ray’s masterful black-and-white trilogy proves how sometimes, the best movie trilogies just need a heartfelt and honest look at everyday life. No big-budget theatrics required.

Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977)
Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983)

Directors: George Lucas, Irvin Kershner, Richard Marquand

Despite what prequel-heads will tell you, the original Star Wars trilogy is the franchise’s high-water mark – by several parsecs. George Lucas’s boisterous opener A New Hope took an unsuspecting world by storm, before passing the lightsaber on to the edgier, darker The Empire Strikes Back, with its shocking plot twists and deeper look at the ‘dark side’. Then came Return of the Jedi and a return to optimism and derring-do. If only the rest of the Star Wars universe could be this consistent.

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

Director: Steven Spielberg 

Glossing over the wildly inferior fourth and fifth instalments,  Indiana Jones fans still regard the first three movies as a complete trilogy of its own (much like how Spielberg originally intended). Raiders of the Lost Ark introduces audiences to the archaeologist-cum-whip cracking adventurer in a face-off against Nazis for the biblical Ark of the Covenant. The more violent Temple of Doom put Indy in serious trouble against a shamanic cult. And then came The Last Crusade with Sean Connery as Indy’s dad in a quest for the Holy Grail – which for many, is the franchise highpoint. Artefact hunting has never been this cool.

Three Colours: Blue (1993)
Three Colours: White (1994)
Three Colours: Red (1994)

Director: Krzysztof Kieślowski

Making up the shades of France’s tricolour, Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Three Colours trilogy tackles the three ideals of the French Republic: liberty, equality, fraternity. The characters in each movie exist in the same universe but each story is driven by specific emotions and the people affected by them. Blue draws tears with Juliette Binoche’s grounded portrayal of a woman grieving the loss of her family; White lightens the mood with a Polish immigrant’s comedy of errors; and Red completes the trio with a model and a retired judge’s friendship brimming with both cynicism and hope.

Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance (2002)
Oldboy (2003)
Lady Vengeance (2005)

Director: Park Chan-wook 

Park Chan-wook is one of South Korea’s greatest exports and the Vengeance trilogy kicked off his rise. Oldboy is the most popular, boasting a bloody hallway fight scene for the ages and a deeply uncomfortable twist. But even its thematic companion pieces, Lady Vengeance and Sympathy for Mr Vengeance, evoke the same reckless quest for revenge that made it so effective. Look out for Parasite star Song Kang-ho in those two as well.

Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Dawn of the Dead (1978)
Day of the Dead (1985)

Director: George A Romero

Before zombies overwhelmed Hollywood pitch meetings, George A Romero and his ragtag crew were making their black-and-white survival horror Night of the Living Dead on a shoestring – and it’s still a seminal exercise in indie filmmaking. Romero directed more thematically connected sequels later, but it’s Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead that constitute the best zombie trilogy there is. Despite the practical special effects and creative bloodshed (chocolate syrup in the case of Night), the true horror in this trilogy is also evoked with the worst of human nature. Forget the undead, the real terror is racism (Night), consumerism (Dawn), and nuclear warfare (Day).

Before Sunrise (1995)
Before Sunset (2004)
Before Midnight (2013)

Director: Richard Linklater 

Richard Linklater shot Boyhood over 12 years to capture the growth of his adolescent hero. But his biggest feat might be converting the conversations of two will-they/won’t-they lovers into cinematic gold. Starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, each Before movie takes place across picturesque European towns with the protagonists musing about love, life, death, poetry, divorce, and any literally any other topic of discussion. With18 years between the first and last films, Linklater’s actors age naturally, lending a Boyhood-like realism to the romance. The result may be the most authentic romantic trilogy of all time. 

The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959)
Road to Eternity (1959) 
A Soldier's Prayer (1961)

Director: Masaki Kobayashi 

Masaki Kobayashi’s World War II trilogy is not an easy watch. Over nine or so hours, the great Japanese filmmaker rains indignities and traumas upon his upstanding hero, Kaji (Tatsuya Nakadai), as he first runs a Manchurian labour camp and then is sent to serve in the Imperial Army. A trio of films that feel like key touchpoints for everything from Schindler’s List to Full Metal Jacket, Kobayashi’s moving work explores this man’s dogged efforts to rise above the degradation of war and retain his humanity. It’s closest kin on this list is Krzysztof Kieślowski’s equally philosophical Three Colours films – here, though, all the colours are black.

A Fistful of Dollars (1964)
For a Few Dollars More (1965)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)

Director: Sergio Leone

Sergio Leone never intended for his trio of spaghetti westerns to form a trilogy. But such was the success of Clint Eastwood’s grimacing, poncho-wearing Man with No Name over three movies, US distributor United Artists marketed them as one anyway. It’s fascinating how the stakes increase with each progressive chapter. Adapting Akira Kurosawa’s samurai masterpiece Yojimbo, A Fistful of Dollars started out as a simple face-off between local bandits and a mysterious stranger. The subsequent two films got bigger scope and runtime, with Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach providing Eastwood’s gunslinger with worthy adversaries in the truly epic The Good, The Bad And The Ugly.

The Bourne Identity (2002)
The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)

Directors: Doug Liman, Paul Greengrass

The Bourne Identity turned Matt Damon into an action star, putting him in the shoes of amnesiac CIA killing machine Jason Bourne. The hand-to-hand combat and adrenalised chase sequences got even more thrilling when Paul Greengrass took over directing duties for The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum. The three films introduced shakycam into the action mainstream, for better or worse, but here the handheld is nothing but propulsive.

Batman Begins (2005)
The Dark Knight (2008)
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Director: Christopher Nolan

After Joel Schumacher turned Batman into a caricature, Christopher Nolan redefined the DC character and the entire superhero genre with his Dark Knight trilogy. Batman Begins humanises the Caped Crusader and made a star out of Christian Bale. But it was with The Dark Knight that the trilogy peaked, thanks to an unforgettable performance by the late Heath Ledger as the nihilistic Joker. For the first time, a villain could overshadow the costumed superhero. It’s not on a par with its predecessors but The Dark Knight Rises works well enough to wrap up Nolan’s vigilante saga and center it on the dark megalopolis that is Gotham City. 

Shaun of the Dead (2004)
Hot Fuzz (2007)
The World's End (2013)

Director: Edgar Wright

Shaun of the Dead turns an everyday slacker into a zombie apocalypse hero; Hot Fuzz has a London police officer solving murders in the English countryside; and The World’s End embarks on the most epic pub crawl of all time. The three movies don’t seem to have much in common, aside from Simon Pegg and Nick Frost and those ice-cream cameos – but they’re all sugar-rush celebrations of pop culture and of blokes growing up messily and reluctantly. The trilogy was born when Wright and his cast were given free Strawberry Cornettos at the Shaun of the Dead premiere party, a grateful gesture for featuring the cone in the movie. Wright repaid the favour by featuring Cornettos in the next two films as well. 

Back to the Future (1985)
Back to the Future Part II (1989)
Back to the Future Part III (1990)

Director: Robert Zemeckis

Writing and rewriting the rules of time travel in Hollywood, Back to the Future made a household name out of Michael J Fox and immortalised the DeLorean as an uber-cool ride. Christopher Lloyd’s eccentric Doc Brown was a perfect companion to Fox’s Marty McFly as the duo travels to the booming ’50s, then towards a hoverboard-riding future, and finally to the Old West of 1855. And yet it never comes off as gimmicky. There’s much debate on whether the second or third movie weakens the series but the impact of Zemeckis’s trilogy can be felt even today, with references in everything from Avengers: Endgame to Rick and Morty.