Though it may seem cliché today, Blade Runner offered one of the earliest contemporary visions of a dark, dystopic future. Drawing on the film noir tradition of the 40s, the work offers a gritty futuristic view of the streets of Los Angeles where technology may have advanced, but people are as ill-intentioned as ever.

• Mad Max
• They Live
• Fifth Element

Alfred Hitchcock was one of the first to inject glamour and wit into the formerly dark world of cinematic espionage. In the elegant spy thriller North By Northwest, Cary Grant plays a handsome advertising executive mistaken for a spy by a group of foreign agents. Stuck in a multinational sting operation, this innocent bystander races across some of the most breathtaking scenery in cinematic memory, all the while trying to determine why he is being pursued.

• Dave
• The Last King of Scotland

Ridley Scott’s sci-fi horror film Alien introduced audiences to a crew of work-weary astronauts headed home to Earth. When a mysterious distress signal diverts their mission to an obscure planet where a vicious pod creature manages to sneak itself on board, the infectious thrill-ride really begins. Sigourney Weaver plays the level-headed Ripley, who is forced into a terrifying game of cat and mouse as the alien picks off crewmates one by one.

• Invasion of the Body Snatchers
• The Faculty

When it comes to cop comedies, you can bet on finding the proverbial loose cannon. Lethal Weapon recreates the buddy cop film by introducing the straight-laced officer (Danny Glover), and the loose cannon (Mel Gibson). Shadowed by loss and lacking any fear of death, Gibson’s character runs-amok in an equally loose plot that allows the pair to break all the rules.

• Dirty Harry
• Death Wish

Knocked Up stars Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl as an oddly matched couple who stick together after a one-night stand leads to impending parenthood. From the moment they meet, it's clear that Rogen's character Ben is playing way out of his league. While they have little in common, the diametrically-opposed pair attempts to make their relationship work with sweetly unexpected results.

• Can't Buy Me Love
• Weird Science

Directed by Academy Award-winning director Oliver Stone, Natural Born Killers was loosely inspired by a true-life teenage couple’s two-week murder spree. Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis find common ground as homicidal lovers that flee the law and attempt to mediate their outlandish childhoods through interstate carnage.

• Benny & Joon
• Harold and Maude
• Sid and Nancy

With Kevin Smith’s Clerks, the heart of the film lies with protagonist Dante Hicks, but deadpan sidekick Randal captures the spotlight. Add in the ultimate dynamic duo of Jay (played by Smith himself) and Silent Bob, and you get a study in sidekick styles from humble silence to incessant banter.

• A Fish Called Wanda
• Every Which Way But Loose
• Short Circuit