Best Movies Set in Arizona

Every state is known for something. As you work your way through the list, don’t miss the best movies set in Arizona. While you’re at it, check out the best books set in Arizona, too.

Arizona, a southwestern U.S. state, is best known for the Grand Canyon, the mile-deep chasm carved by the Colorado River. Flagstaff, a ponderosa pine–covered mountain town, is a major gateway to the Grand Canyon.

Other natural sites include Saguaro National Park, protecting the cactus-filled Sonoran Desert landscape. Tucson is the University of Arizona territory and is home to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.

In this post:

Best Movies Set in Arizona

Raising Arizona

Amazon Prime Video (Video on Demand)
Nicolas Cage, Holly Hunter, Trey Wilson (Actors)

Raising Arizona

Year: 1987

Vowing to go straight, a recidivist convenience store bandit H.I. (Nicolas Cage) proposes marriage to police department photographer Ed (Holly Hunter), whom he’s come to know quite well after so many trips to jail. All is wedded bliss for the unlikely couple until they discover she’s unable to get pregnant.

Turned down by every adoption agency in town thanks to H.I.’s rowdy past, it does not take long before they realize the only solution–kidnap one of the town’s celebrated “Arizona Quintuplets” and hit the road!

But the road is never smooth, and soon H.I.’s convict friends, his greedy boss, and a ruthless motorcycle-riding bounty hunter become involved in the scheme to possess the famous baby.

3:10 To Yuma (2007)

Amazon Prime Video (Video on Demand)
Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Peter Fonda (Actors)

3:10 to Yuma

Year: 2007

An update of 1957 Western, 3:10 to Yuma pairs two of today’s finest actors, Academy Award winner Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, as an infamous outlaw and the struggling rancher who volunteers to deliver him to justice.

Tombstone

Amazon Prime Video (Video on Demand)
Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, Michael Biehn (Actors)

Tombstone

Year: 1993

Wyatt Earp (Kurt Russell) and his brothers, Morgan (Bill Paxton) and Virgil (Sam Elliott), have left their gunslinger ways behind them to settle down and start a business in the town of Tombstone, Ariz.

While they aren’t looking to find trouble, trouble soon finds them when they become targets of the ruthless Cowboy gang. Now, together with Wyatt’s best friend, Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer), the brothers pick up their guns once more to restore order to a lawless land.

Cowboys & Aliens

Amazon Prime Video (Video on Demand)
Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig, Sam Rockwell (Actors)

Cowboys & Aliens

Year: 2011

Bearing a mysterious metal shackle on his wrist, an amnesiac gunslinger (Daniel Craig) wanders into a frontier town called Absolution. He quickly finds that strangers are unwelcome, and no one does anything without the approval of tyrannical Col. Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford).

But when Absolution faces a threat from beyond Earth, the stranger finds that he is its only hope of salvation. He unites townspeople, outlaws, and Apache warriors against the alien forces in an epic battle for survival.

U-Turn

Amazon Prime Video (Video on Demand)
Nick Nolte, Jennifer Lopez, Sean Penn (Actors)

U Turn

Year: 1997

RELATED: Best Movies Set in Florida

A drifter chooses to stop in the wrong town when his beloved Mustang develops engine trouble. Things seem to pick up when sultry Grace McKenna asks him home to help fix her curtains – until her husband Jake finds out.

Jake then asks Cooper to kill Grace, but she has her own plans for Jake. Cooper, caught in the middle, had better choose the right side or he risks losing his life.