These are the 5 best movies based on TV shows

much of the cast of 'Star Trek III: The Search for Spock' lined up their maroon uniforms — The third installment of the first wave of 'Star Trek' movies has become a beloved favorite

(Image credit: Sunset Boulevard / Getty Images)

All television shows must come to an end — except, perhaps, "The Simpsons," which completed its 36th season in 2025 with no end in sight. But studios, lured by the promise of a built-in audience, have produced films based on both short-lived, obscure series with cult followings as well as blockbuster hits that ran for years. Out of the hundreds of such films, only a handful managed to stay true to the essence of the source material while still offering viewers an original, compelling vision.

'Monty Python's Life of Brian' (1979)

The enduring influence of the pioneering British sketch comedy series "Monty Python's Flying Circus" (1969-1974) on popular culture can't be overstated. The series also led to several films, the best of which was "Monty Python's Life of Brian," which depicted the life and times of an ordinary man who happened to have been born in a stall adjacent to Jesus Christ. Most of the film follows Brian as an adult as he falls in with a fictional anti-Roman terrorist group called the People's Front of Judea and unwittingly becomes the savior of Christian extremists. The movie is the "foulest-spoken biblical epic ever made," characterized by a "nonstop orgy of assaults, not on anyone's virtue, but on the funny bone," said The New York Times.

Its predecessor, "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan," is the more beloved of the six films built around the main cast of the original "Star Trek" television series, but "The Search For Spock" is the most emotionally rich movie. After Spock's (Leonard Nimoy, who also directed) poignant death at the end of the second film, Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) discovers that his friend has been resurrected in the form of a child on a distant planet. Along with the ship's doctor, Leonard "Bones" McCoy (DeForest Kelley), Kirk steals the decommissioned Starship Enterprise to find and rescue his friend. Nimoy's direction helps "capture the essence of the series more than any of the other cinematic efforts," making the film the "most faithful (and therefore the most enjoyable) of the first half dozen excursions," said Slant Magazine.

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After David Lynch's critically acclaimed surrealist whodunnit "Twin Peaks" was canceled on a cliffhanger after two seasons, he directed a prequel that hit theaters in August 1992. The reception was brutal. "It's not the worst movie ever made; it just seems to be," said The New York Times. But even before he directed a well-received 2017 revival that finally brought closure to the narrative, "Fire Walk With Me" had been reappraised. The prequel added depth to Laura Palmer, the murdered teenager at the center of the show's story, who is "reintroduced as alone, afraid and emotionally broken," said The Guardian. The film should now be considered "not just an artistic triumph in its own right" but also the "key to the entire Twin Peaks universe."

Joss Whedon's short-lived space western series "Firefly" did poorly in ratings during its run but slowly became a cult classic after it was canceled, much like "Star Trek." Backed by a small but enthusiastic fan base, Universal Pictures greenlit a feature-length film hoping to capitalize on unexpectedly robust sales of the show's DVD set. "Serenity" takes place following the events of the show's last episode, and involves the cargo-smuggling crew picking up a psychic assassin named River Tam (Summer Glau) who is on the run from the interplanetary Alliance with a dangerous secret. Despite the difficulties in bringing a little-known television series to the screen, "Serenity" is "witty and harrowing, clever and weighty," said The Atlantic.

Superstar Tom Cruise has been headlining these set-piece-heavy action films for so long — close to 30 years — that most people might not know that they are all based on a '60s-era television series about the espionage adventures of a fictional, covert organization called the Impossible Mission Force. The eighth (and allegedly last) installment of the long-running movie franchise was released in May 2025, but the sixth film in the series, 2018's "Mission: Impossible - Fallout," is widely considered the best. It follows Cruise's agent Ethan Hunt as he tries to stop a nuclear terrorist attack spearheaded by a shadowy organization known as The Apostles. The movie is "suspenseful, thrilling, funny and absurdly grandiose in equal measure," said Den of Geek.

David Faris is a professor of political science at Roosevelt University and the author of "It's Time to Fight Dirty: How Democrats Can Build a Lasting Majority in American Politics." He's a frequent contributor to Newsweek and Slate, and his work has appeared in The Washington Post, The New Republic and The Nation, among others.

The 5 best movies based on TV shows

'Monty Python's Life of Brian' (1979)

'Star Trek III: The Search for Spock' (1984)

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'Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me' (1992)

'Serenity' (2005)

'Mission: Impossible - Fallout' (2018)