A beautiful creation is sometimes born by mixing two movie genres that wouldn't appear to fit together. No one thought combining horror and comedy would work, but then Abbot and Costello met Zombieland franchises.
Futuristic technology, time travel, space; these are the things associated with Western genre is known for cowboys, shootouts, horses, and America's rustic and rural 19th century. So the two genres shouldn't naturally work together, and yet they've combined to produce several great movies!
Young Ones (2014)
Set in a post-apocalyptic future America where water has become a scarcity, Young Ones follows a farmer named Ernest Holm (Michael Shannon), who lives with his son Jerome (Kodi Smit-Mhee) and daughter Mary (Elle Fanning).
When Mary's boyfriend (Nicholas Hoult) hatches a plan to steal the family's land and precious water supply, a series of tense events is set in motion with tragic consequences. With a much more Western feel than traditional post-apocalyptic stories, the movie is extremely visually striking, and the unique structure shifts between main characters throughout the story.
Outland (1981)
Westerns typically don't take place on a moon of Jupiter, but Outland isn't your typical Western. This action thriller follows federal marshal William O'Niel (Sean Connery), who discovers a drug-smuggling conspiracy in the Io-based mining colony he oversees.
O'Niel learns how truly massive the conspiracy is when he gets no help from any other authorities or workers upon trying to confront the dangerous group behind the drug ring. He soon finds himself alone, awaiting a climactic showdown with violent killers in this futuristic sci-fi remake of the classic Western High Noon (1952).
The Dark Tower (2017)
There are about six different genres that someone could categorize Stephen King, the movie was unfortunately panned by most critics and didn't perform particularly well at the box office.
The story follows a young boy (Tom Taylor) whose recurring visions of a tower (which keeps the universe together) being destroyed results in him teaming up with the tower's protector - the last Gunslinger (Idris Elba) - in an epic battle against his evil nemesis - the Man in Black (Matthew McConaughey).
The Burrowers (2008)
When a family of settlers in an 1879 Western town mysteriously disappears, a motley crew of characters forms a posse and sets out to find and save the missing people. At first, they suspect the abductions to be the work of hostile Native Americans, but as more bodies pile up, a horrifying truth reveals itself.
The posse learns about a species of underground monsters called the "Burrowers," which poison victims before burying and devouring them, prompting the posse to team up with a local tribe to try and hunt down the Burrowers before they all fall victim.
Wild Wild West (1999)
The Matrix (1999) to star as gunslinger James West, a decision he'd go on to call one of the worst of his career.
Based on the popular 1960s television series of the same name, Wild Wild West sees the war hero West team up with the gadget-inventing US Marshal Artemis Gordon (Kevin Kline) to protect President Grant (also Kline) from being assassinated by the evil steampunk Confederate scientist Dr. Arliss Loveless (Kenneth Branagh), who seeks revenge for losing the Civil War.
Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind, Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich).
The movie follows the young titular hero, who after befriending future Wookiee co-pilot Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo), s a gang of intergalactic smugglers. When the gang's robbery goes wrong, Han and Chewy plan a new job involving the notorious Kessel Run to make up for it, but not before getting the famous Millennium Falcon ship from its suave owner - Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover).
Trigun: Badlands Rumble (2010)
Anime fans will enjoy this feature-length installment of the 1998 Trigun television series. Currently streaming on Hulu, the action-comedy show follows Vash the Stampede - an infamous gunslinging outlaw with a $60 billion bounty out on him on the planet Gunsmoke.
Badlands Rumble sees Vash (along with tons of other competing bounty hunters) head to Mecca City to try and hunt down the legendary thief Gasback, who has a $300 million price on his head thanks to his huge robbery 20 years ago, which Vash also played a role in.
Back To The Future Part III (1990)
Fans of the Back to the Future franchise were delighted when the ending of Part II revealed that Dr. Brown (Christopher Lloyd) had traveled back in time to 1885, prompting Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) to travel there to save his friend from being murdered.
After reuniting in the Wild West, Doc and Marty quickly resume their usual entertaining antics, with Marty adopting the moniker "Clint Eastwood" and meeting his ancestors, Doc finding love, and a mounting showdown with Biff Tannen's ancestor - Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson).
Westworld (1973)
If not for its reprisal as the critically-acclaimed Westworld might have faded into film obscurity as a forgotten classic, but thankfully the show's massive popularity has brought attention back to the original movie.
The movie introduces the impressively immersive Wild West theme park, along with Medieval World and Roman World, but when computer systems start to malfunction, the lifelike androids that populate the parks become dangerous killing machines. Fans of the show will appreciate the movie, and fans of the movie will crave the show if they don't already watch.
Cowboys & Aliens (2011)
In between making Cowboys & Aliens.
Produced by Steven Spielberg, the story follows a group of quarreling cowboys and Native Americans, who find their world turned upside down in 1873 when a spaceship full of monstrous aliens bent on world domination arrives near their Arizona town. Led by a mysterious gunslinger (Daniel Craig), the people must set aside differences and unite to overcome tremendous odds and save the planet.
