Camper Vans have made many great appearances in movies, from comedies to thrillers and even sci-fi. The rolling homes make for perfect settings to establish characters, create roadside humor, or give the plot a number of locations to travel to. Here are 8 great camper van movie moments that you’ll want to hitch a ride with.
We Are The Millers (2013)
David Clark (Jason Sudeikis) is small-time drug dealer who gets forced to drive an incredibly large RV to Mexico to smuggle a ‘smidge’ of marijuana across the US border. To do it, he hires a stripper named Rose (Jennifer Aniston) to play his loving wife, a wacky teenager named Kenny (Will Poulter) as his son and a runaway thief named Casey (Emma Roberts) as his daughter, hoping to fool customs into thinking they are a happy family on vacation. Turns out that ‘smidge’ is two tons of packed grass and the bad guys dealers stuff it into every available concealed spot on the camper. When Clark and his gang come to the border on their way back, they do their best to play like dumb tourist returning from Mexico, but a drug-sniffing German Shepard catches wind. Looks like it’s all over but the prison time, but since this is a raucous comedy, you can be sure that’s not the case.
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) learns that the island of dinosaurs he escaped from in Jurassic Park is not the only place where the prehistoric creatures are living. Informed that his current girlfriend Dr. Sarah Harding (Julianne Moore) is on that island doing research, he mounts a rescue operation to get her out. With a few other experts to assist, they arrive at the island with a set of sophisticated camper vans to house them while taking up the search. Once they secure Harding, Nick Van Owen (Vince Vaughn), a photojournalists, brings back an injured baby T-rex and puts it in one of the vans, accidentally luring the infant’s parents to the scene. With all but one of the team trapped inside, the two massive dinosaurs attempt to devour the captors of their baby, sending the vans teetering over the edge of a sheer cliff. It’s a heart-pounding camper van moment with teeth.
Paul (2011)
Best friends Graeme Willy (Simon Pegg) and Clive Gollings (Nick Frost) head to the United States to visit Comic-Con, taking a side trip to check out the famous fabled UFO sites of the American Southwest, only finding that maybe things aren’t so fabled when they meet Paul (voiced and motion-captured by Seth Rogen), a real alien on Earth. Tracked by the Secret Service, they join forces to get the little ET back to his mothership with plenty of misadventures. Filled with the usual bits of off-base humor both Pegg and Frost are known for, the best RV moment comes when Paul takes the wheel while being pursued by Agent Haggard (Bill Hader), and cross a large bridge over a deep chasm. Haggard loses control in a bombastic way. Full of dry wit and adult themes, this is road-trip movie with a twist.
The Incredibles (2005)
A family of superheroes works together to foil the devious plans of a nasty villain with plans for world domination. Led by Mr. Incredible (Craig T. Neslon) and his wife Elastigirl (Holly Hunter), the team are trapped on Syndrome’s (Jason Lee) island lair, but use a security RV to escape. With Elastigirl’s stretching power, she latches on to rocket drone and uses her body as a harness to carry the van and her family back to Metroville to try and stop Syndrome and his evil plan. Having to time their landing just right, they line their way up with a main street and zoom in at top speed with wheels spinning, combining powers to make it to safety and take on their nemesis. A super-powered RV moment.
RV (2006)
Bob Munro (Robin Williams) has a good job but a strange family and when he embarrasses his boss at company picnic, loses his vacation trip to Hawaii and instead is told he must attend a conference in Colorado or be fired. To conceal this fact, he rents a massive RV and tells the family they are going to the Rockies. A host of (sometimes nasty) misadventures follow. At one point, Bob drives the camper van on a forested trail meant for 4-wheel drive vehicles. In the process, he lodges the RV on a large precarious boulder so that both the front and back wheels are not touching the ground. To get it moving, he climbs out and wriggles his way to the front bumper and uses his weight to rock it free, except he’s still clinging to the windshield. He’s off for a free ride through the trees in epic slapstick fashion.
Lost in America (1985)
Thirty-somethings David (Albert Brooks) and Linda (Julia Hagerty) quit their big money corporate jobs and buy a Winnebago to travel across the United States. Things look good for the former yuppies as they shed their shackles and live the new dream. First stop is Las Vegas to renew their vows in a cheap wedding chapel. Thrilled to be on the road, nearing the Las Vegas city limits, David calls it a historic moment while Linda makes grilled-cheese sandwiches in the microwave (with browning element). It’s all good until once in Las Vegas, the casino lures Linda to the roulette wheel and she squanders the prized ‘nest egg’ forcing the couple to abandon their “Easy Rider” ways and take up low-paying jobs in middle America.
Stripes (1981)
John Winger (Bill Murray) and his best friend Russell Ziskey (Harold Ramis) join the Army and after a rather rough boot camp experience, end up assigned to Italy where they are put in charge of guarding the top secret EM-50 Urban Assault Vehicle, a heavily modified RV. The boys steal the van for a day trip to visit their girlfriends in neighboring Germany, but when their superior sends a squad to try and find the missing vehicle, the men get trapped in Soviet controlled Czechoslovakia. Hearing the news over the RV’s radio, Winger, Ziskey and their girlfriends cross the border and stage a daring rescue using the full power of the military vehicle. A classic RV comedy moment.
Spaceballs (1987)
When nefarious President Skroob (Mel Brooks) of Planet Spaceball requires more air for his home world, he plans to kidnap the Princess of neighboring Druidia and force them to give up their own air. Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga), on the day of her arranged marriage, decides to runaway though and takes off into space, forcing her father King Roland (Dick Van Patten) to hire Lone Starr (Bill Pullman) and his best friend Barf (John Candy), a half-man/half-dog creature, to find her. The two travel space in a hopped-up Winnebago with space jets, and in one scene are about to be captured by the evil (and inept) Lord Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis) and go into hyper-active drive, only have Helmet and his ship pursue in “Ludicrous Speed”. Yup, they’ve gone to plaid.