A few years ago, a video started circulating online of a cougar stalking and chasing a guy for six whole minutes on a Utah hiking trail. It’s just a regular cougar, but it’s damned terrifying how absolutely tenacious the little guy is in pursuing its prey. Like all the other big cats, the thing is a natural-born killer, a hunter at heart. That’s why they tend to make such fascinating subjects of nature specials and fictional films alike.
If you think about it, big cats and cinema go way back, with the MGM lion preceding motion pictures since 1924. There have actually been at least eight different lions since the company’s inception. It’s hard not to love these big cats, especially considering all they share with their smaller, domesticated relatives, and their portrayal in film ranges from charming little creatures to ferocious killers, to musically-adept Shakespearean figures à la The Lion King.
Beast, a preposterous-but-fun survival flick starring Idris Elba, is the most recent installment in a long line of big cat movies. Like the critically-acclaimed Prey, Beast focuses on the concept of the hunter versus the hunted, pitting Elba against an intimidating-as-hell lion hellbent on killing some humans. If you enjoyed it — or if you’re itching for some more big cat action — don’t worry: we’ve tamed a pride’s worth of the best “big cat” movies for your enjoyment.
Roar (1981)
Dubbed “the most dangerous movie ever made”, the 1981 film Roar is essentially the holy grail of big cat movies. Forget CGI and special effects: those are real lions, tigers, and other big-pawed felines, and those are real injuries they’re inflicting on those humans. What’s even more astounding is that zero animals were hurt during the production (70 humans were, though), a fact that reinforces the film’s general message to protect African wildlife from development and poaching. For much of the film, the cats sprint about, tackling their human costars and swiping their baseball mitt-sized paws across their faces. In other moments, lions nestle their heads in for a pet, and lay about in contended laziness.
The plot revolves around an American naturalist (Noel Marshall) whose wife (Tippi Hedren) and daughter (Melanie Griffith) come to stay at his Tanzanian nature preserve. Considering the heavy reliance on animal actors (there are dozens of cats, who do exactly as cats do), this plot quickly disassembles into nothing but bare bones. It’s kind of like a nature documentary injected with the idiotic boldness of the type of Jackass skits where the guys pit themselves against ferocious animals simply because they’ve got the guts to do it. Still, at its core, Roar is a jaw-dropping love letter to big cats everywhere, a portrait of how they can switch from saccharine sweetness to unpredictable savagery in a blink of an eye.
Burning Bright (2010)
One of the most outright outlandish selections from this list, Burning Bright is a low-budget horror flick that manages to squeeze a whole lot of fun from a simple premise. When a shady stepfather (Garret Dillahunt) buys a tiger in order to transform his home into a safari park (!!!), things predictably go awry for him and his stepchildren (Briana Evigan and Charlie Tahan). Of course, the hurricane that’s tearing across the state further complicates things, essentially imprisoning the makeshift family in a home with the so-called “evil” tiger. Of course, the black market tiger dealer (a Meatloaf cameo!) promises that the tiger (who is consequently christened Lucifer) is much meaner, nastier, and more sadistic than he looks.
Sure, there are times when the effects are a bit jarring, or when the plot and dialogue run thin, but when it comes down to it, this movie remains entertaining as hell. Look! The tiger’s in the kitchen! Look again — now he’s in the bedroom! Almost a decade later, Crawl would copy this film’s success by swapping a tiger for an alligator, but Burning Bright is a no holds bar survival film about the never-ending protective love of an older sibling.
The Big Cat (1949)
Although it may look aesthetically like a throwaway episode of Bonanza, The Big Cat is a man-against-nature film that's too often overlooked. During the Great Depression, a city slicker (Lon McCallister) returns to his mother’s hometown after her death, only to be met mostly with bullying by the locals. When a rogue cougar comes down from the hills to sink his teeth into some of the farmers’ cattle, the city boy finds his chance to prove himself to all who doubt him.
At the center, though, is the titular big cat, a handsome little cougar who’s never really doing anything wrong. He may not be the most fearsome of cinema’s big cats, but he is really cute. Some of the subplots feel a little dead-ended and cumbersome, but the end result is a piece of campy '40s-’50s cinema that attempts to make a grandiose statement about humankind in times of economic emergency. Director Phil Karlson claims that the film was meant to answer John Ford’s The Grapes of Wrath. It might not be Steinbeck, but hey, Steinbeck didn’t have a killer cougar, so let's award some extra points to The Big Cat.
Day of the Animals (1977)
Day of the Animals begins with text that states the dangers that aerosol cans pose to the ozone layer and soon descends into wildlife insanity. Although it doesn't make much sense (the depleted ozone layer leads to violent psychosis in any creature living at high altitudes), it's hard not to admire the movie's intention to spread environmentalism via awareness of a serious and very fixable problem. It may be a bit of cheating, considering that this isn't just a big cat movie — it also features killer bears, hawks, German shepherds, and so on — but there are plenty of mountain lions on show. And they're mean!
There's also a frequently shirtless (and furious) Leslie Nielson from his pre-comedy days. It's all awfully goofy and similar to The Birds, but that's part of the fun. As fate would have it, in 1978 the U.S. banned the use of chlorofluorocarbon in aerosol propellants. Is Day of the Animals, which came out only the year prior, directly responsible for this landmark ecological leap? Let's just say yes. It's a nice thought to have.
Two Brothers (2004)
Two Indochinese tigers (Kumal and Aangha) search for the home they were taken from in Two Brothers. If you're looking for a lot of close-ups of adorable tiger cubs, you've finally found the film for you. Yes, the two core protagonists are tigers, and yes, we get to spend the whole movie with them. Before the brothers even get a chance to set out on their own, poachers force them to separate. At times, the film's plot feels like an opera of epic proportions (at some point the two are acquired by a bratty prince who tries to pit them against each other in deadly battle), but its silliness hardly feels like a burden. It's all too thrilling to care.
A lesser film might overstep by adding dialogue and giving the cats human voices to express their emotions. Two Brothers withholds from this indulgence. We don't need to be told what they're thinking — it's pretty clear by the way that they act. Really, it's amazing how believable it all is, what with these nonprofessional cat actors and all. When the cats hurt, so do we, and when everything comes to its emotional climax it quickly becomes too tender to bear.
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, and Nissa the lion cub all co-star in this 1938 comedy about two lovers whose relationship is complicated when one acquires a lion named Baby. Any singular attempt at a synopsis would be an insult to Bringing Up Baby, for its screwball tone takes it all over the map. As infectious dialogue is rattled back and forth between actors, an unpredictably twisty plot unravels without concern for traditional logic. Although Grant and Hepburn take the spotlight (their chemistry is magnetic), little Baby shines whenever she appears.
Bringing Up Baby takes the risk of implementing a real-life leopard into a comedy into an already zany script, but it works. Baby prances around, disobedient and only half-tamed, further stoking the flames of chaos that burn steadily. Even if she isn't the biggest of big cats on this list, she's one of the cutest, and also the only one with a promising comedy résumé. In a late scene in which another leopard is mistaken for Baby (don't ask, just watch the film), Grant and Hepburn absolutely soar as comedic performers, even if bits of their legitimate terror are peeking through.
The Velvet Queen (2021)
Way, way up on the serene plateau of the Tibetan Highlands lives a queen. She is elusive, majestic, and few have ever had the great fortune of laying eyes on her. Her royal majesty is the subject of the immaculately gorgeous documentary, The Velvet Queen. Vincent Munier, a nature photographer renowned for his work, sets out to discover this beautiful creature, hoping to at long last document the beast. Few movies can muster cinematography as arresting as The Velvet Queen, and the wide-screen scope truly feels like a window into uncharted territory.
Even though the cat in question is the intention and focus of the film, she shares screen time with the flora and fauna with which she shares her space. The camera glides over lush, uninhabited landscapes in one moment, then grounds itself to watch a herd of yak grazing across the foot of a mountain in another. Sylvian Tesson, Munier's friend and an award-winning nonfiction writer, provides a lyrical narration to the film, with the words oozing over the breathtaking footage amidst the ethereal score from Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. The Velvet Queen is a seminal work for cat lovers and nature enthusiasts everywhere, a serene celebration of the natural world's limitless beauty.
Duma (2005)
In South Africa, Duma, a young cheetah, is orphaned by a pride of lions, and a little boy named Xan (Alexander Michaeletos) takes him in as a kind of foster sibling. The two become close friends, but as Duma ages into adulthood, it's all too clear that he must be set free to live the life that he's meant to. Of course, you know where this is going: Duma's journey towards freedom and safety is plagued with obstacles, and for just short of two hours, the boy and his feline companion must set out into the world and learn to say goodbye.
There's so much great cat footage here! Look at him go, tearing across the desert, motorcyle in pursuit. Duma also has no shortage of its tear-jerking dramatic scenes, but these are often cut with endearing, comical gags (Duma watches Xan impatiently as the boy sits in his classroom) and other indelible moments that are too precious to forget. Have you ever seen a cheetah in a motorcyle sidecar? It's time, trust me.
The Jungle Book (2016)
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It might be hard for traditionalists to believe, but Jon Favreau's live-action (and CGI) version of The Jungle Book is pretty damn good. Less a remake of the animated musical version from 1967 as it is a readapting of Rudyard Kipling's original work, the 2016 film version follows Mowgli (Neel Sethi) and his bear buddy Balloo (Bill Murray) as they explore the jungle while evading the cruel tiger Shere Khan (Idris Elba). The movie is jammed with beautiful visuals, and the CGI work is so crisp and realistic that immerses you deep into the world that it builds.
The Jungle Book is good enough to captivate skeptical fans of the animated tale, and it's fresh enough to pique the curiosity of young newcomers. Elba commands a presence as his villanous big cat, a grounded performance supported an absolutely stacked cast list, including Scarlett Johansson, Lupita Nyong'o, Giancarlo Esposito, Ben Kingsley, and many more. A thrilling visual spectacle with a heart, this film is a winning combination that's well worth your time.