The 16 Best Desert Settings in Movie History

Sand as a character, not a backdrop. Wadi Rum, the Namib, Monument Valley and Death Valley all show up more than once in film history.

1

Lawrence of Arabia

David Lean's 1962 epic, whose Jordanian and Moroccan horizons set the standard for every desert shot since.

1000pts

2

Dune

Denis Villeneuve's Arrakis, shot in Wadi Rum and Abu Dhabi, where the sand itself is the antagonist and the treasure.

992pts

3

Three Kings

David O. Russell's 1999 Gulf War film, whose bleached Iraqi desert was shot in Arizona and California.

773pts

4

Mad Max: Fury Road

George Miller's 2015 chase across the Namib Desert, filmed almost entirely in-camera.

735pts

5

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Sergio Leone's 1966 Spaghetti Western, whose Almería badlands became the visual language of the Western.

714pts

6

No Country for Old Men

The Coen brothers' 2007 West Texas scrubland, where a hunter finds money in a dry riverbed.

483pts

7

Gerry

Gus Van Sant's 2002 film of two men lost in Death Valley, told almost without dialogue.

483pts

8

Paris, Texas

Wim Wenders's 1984 opening, a man walking out of the Big Bend desert with no memory of who he is.

483pts

9

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark

The 1981 Tanis dig sequence, shot in Tunisia, where an entire city is buried under sand.

483pts

10

Zabriskie Point

Michelangelo Antonioni's 1970 Death Valley film, ending with an explosion in slow motion.

483pts

11

The Wages of Fear

Henri-Georges Clouzot's 1953 thriller of nitroglycerine hauled across Central American badlands.

483pts

12

Blade Runner 2049

Villeneuve's orange-drowned Las Vegas, a city buried in dust and lit like a memory.

381pts

13

Sahara

Zoltan Korda's 1943 war film, a lone tank crew and a well in the Libyan desert.

381pts

14

Star Wars

Tatooine, built in the Tunisian desert in 1977 and still the most recognisable sand in cinema.

260pts

15

The Searchers

John Ford's 1956 Western, shot in Monument Valley, the landscape he made synonymous with the American West.

260pts

16

The English Patient

Anthony Minghella's 1996 film, where the Sahara is both a love affair and a grave.

114pts