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. 1
   Lawrence of Arabia

   David Lean's 1962 epic, whose Jordanian and Moroccan horizons set the standard for every desert shot since.
   1000pts
2. 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. 3
   Three Kings

   David O. Russell's 1999 Gulf War film, whose bleached Iraqi desert was shot in Arizona and California.
   773pts
4. 4
   Mad Max: Fury Road

   George Miller's 2015 chase across the Namib Desert, filmed almost entirely in-camera.
   735pts
5. 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. 6
   No Country for Old Men

   The Coen brothers' 2007 West Texas scrubland, where a hunter finds money in a dry riverbed.
   483pts
7. 7
   Gerry

   Gus Van Sant's 2002 film of two men lost in Death Valley, told almost without dialogue.
   483pts
8. 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. 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. 10
    Zabriskie Point

    Michelangelo Antonioni's 1970 Death Valley film, ending with an explosion in slow motion.
    483pts
11. 11
    The Wages of Fear

    Henri-Georges Clouzot's 1953 thriller of nitroglycerine hauled across Central American badlands.
    483pts
12. 12
    Blade Runner 2049

    Villeneuve's orange-drowned Las Vegas, a city buried in dust and lit like a memory.
    381pts
13. 13
    Sahara

    Zoltan Korda's 1943 war film, a lone tank crew and a well in the Libyan desert.
    381pts
14. 14
    Star Wars

    Tatooine, built in the Tunisian desert in 1977 and still the most recognisable sand in cinema.
    260pts
15. 15
    The Searchers

    John Ford's 1956 Western, shot in Monument Valley, the landscape he made synonymous with the American West.
    260pts
16. 16
    The English Patient

    Anthony Minghella's 1996 film, where the Sahara is both a love affair and a grave.
    0pts

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