10 Michael Douglas Movies You Need to (Re)Watch

Certain words are thrown around about actors’ prestige that often aren’t that applicable. When it comes to Michael Douglas, though, there isn’t much hyperbole you can throw around that wouldn’t be true.

Bonus: Ant-Man (2015) and its sequels

This feels necessary to highlight just because it boosted Douglas back into the scene for a new generation, and showed just how diverse and illuminating he can still be as an actor.

10. Basic Instinct (1992)

A gripping thriller that goes beyond the erotica and that one scene involving Sharon Stone (you know the one). Antics aside, the movie plays out a high stakes love affair between a police detective, Nick Curran (Douglas), and a murder suspect, Catherine Tramell (Stone). Catherine’s famous boyfriend ends up dead, and she is the lone suspect, since she wrote a novel that highly resembles what happened in the murder. Catherine has a new novel in the works about a man who is killed when falling for the wrong woman, and it starts to resemble what is happening in his own real life. Nick ends up killing two innocent people while undercover, and though he is absolved, he ends up going to therapy and, naturally, has an affair with his therapist, Beth (Jeane Tripplehorn). Nick’s psychological state begins deteriorating, and eventually Catherine starts to play both Nick and Beth, who as it so happened, had a love affair with Catherine when they were in college.

9. Falling Down (1993)

This is literally the story of a man who is down on his luck and is just trying to make it through one really, really, really hectic day in order to make it to his daughter’s birthday party, with the events of the day dragging him down farther and farther, hence the perfect title. Douglas plays William Foster, who at the start seems like a peaceful and honest man. As unrelated events pile up and start to intertwine, Foster is pushed way beyond his personal breaking point, and the chaos that ensues is tragic and stunning. It’s a wild ride, and Douglas is the embodiment of a person who sincerely and brutally snaps amid the frustrations of the modern world.

8. The China Syndrome (1979)

Probably one of his lesser-known films in modern times, this disaster thriller has plenty in common with the issues of today. Jack Lemmon and Jane Fonda team up with Douglas to give terrific performances that can strike fear into the audience as things play out a little too close to what we can imagine happening in real life.

Fonda — a news reporter with Douglas as her cameraman — witnesses a cover-up of a nuclear disaster and is faced with the powers-that-be trying to silence them and even eliminate them.

7. Fatal Attraction (1987)

Another iconic role and film for Douglas, the memorable scenes and lines from this movie have carried on while maybe not enough people have gone back and watched this excellent thriller. Released the same year as Wall Street, Douglas gets to be the one in power in one film and the one who is nearly rendered powerless in the other. Glenn Close plays Alex Forrest, who falls in love and becomes extremely obsessed with Douglas’s character, Dan Gallagher, after an illicit affair. Gallagher is married, and wants to simply move on and forget about his transgressions. Forrest stalks him and his family incessantly, leading to a riveting conclusion that ends — as you may have guessed — fatally for one of them.

6. The American President (1995)

Douglas plays the president of the United States of America in a very Rob Reiner romantic comedy/drama. It portrays the president as we would like to see a man in this highest office to be. Playing President Andrew Shepherd — a widower (can you see an unmarried president being elected, in the 1990’s no less?) — his character falls for a lobbyist played masterfully by Annette Bening, and tries to juggle romance while running for re-election. Martin Sheen and Michael J. Fox shine in supporting roles as well, which sets them up neatly for political shows to come — The West Wing and Spin City, respectively. It’s high-stakes fun, albeit unrealistic.

5. The War of the Roses (1989)

A bit offbeat and full of humor and love, the film and fallout of a seemingly perfect marriage are still hilarious today. Douglas and c-star Kathleen Turner fight over the division of their assets and possessions in a timultuous divorce, with trying to one-up the other one with sheer vulgarity and ruthlessness. The story is narrated by and includes Danny DeVito as attorney Gavin d’Amato.

4. Behind the Candelabra (2013)

A rare movie role not intended for the big screen — this passed-over HBO movie focusing on Douglas as Liberace with Matt Damon in a strong supporting role — is worth finding and watching. Douglas even took home an Emmy for Best Actor for his portrayal of Liberace. Though Douglas gained a bigger prominence in Hollywood for his TV role on The Streets of San Francisco from 1972-1976, he became more of a movie actor after that (think a precursor to Bruce Willis or George Clooney).

This biographical drama directed by Steven Soderbergh follows the last 10 years of Liberace’s life. Damon plays a younger man, Scott Thorson, who comes to be someone Liberace is enamored with and eventually Thorson becomes his assistant. Things deteriorate as Thorson gets heavily involved in drugs while Liberace continues to seek out younger men as Thorson ages, leading to a falling out and lawsuit.

3. Wonder Boys (2000)

This movie kind of came out of nowhere to be a sleeper hit with each of its three stars taking on pretty different roles than we’d known them for before. Though it came out the same year as Traffic, which got all the kudos and awards, Wonder Boys was a much better ride and a little less, um, soapboxy.

Wonder Boys, based on the stellar novel by Michael Chabon, is about novelist and teacher Grady Tripp (played by Douglas), and the adventures he has with naive student, James Leer (Tobey Maguire) and his editor, Terry Crabtree (Robert Downey, Jr.). Tripp has struggled writing a follow-up to his first successful novel, and copes a lot of the time by getting high and feeling sorry for himself. Things take a turn with Maguire and Downey, Jr., and you won’t believe what happens with Tripp’s manuscript.

2. The Game (1997)

The David Fincher thriller that still resonates in today’s culture. Douglas’ passionate portrayal of a man, Nicholas Van Orton, being manipulated and feeling boxed in by powers outside of his control and sight is simply splendid. The movie follows Van Orton as he is taken through a psychological mind trip sparked by a birthday present from his brother, Conrad – an equally fantastic performance by Sean Penn. Throughout, the audience — and Van Orton — is unable to discern what is real and what is a game, and what are the real stakes.

1. Wall Street (1987)

Maybe still his most well-known role, Douglas was on another plane of acting throughout this rambunctious film. Perfectly portraying those people in power who embody the absolute worst in human greed, he somehow kept audiences enamored with the character and even empathizing with him all while hating his guts. The portrayal of Gordon Gekko stretches into our current culture, and though there was an attempt to reboot the movie for a sequel that just couldn’t measure up to the original, it did nothing to tarnish Douglas or the role of Gekko. Douglas won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the original Wall Street, and he was even nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor for the sequel, 2010’s Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.

A quick synopsis of the first film: A new junior stockbroker, Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) joins the firm Gekko works at, and is intent on making it big. He starts out wanting to do things the right way, but becomes obsessed with impressing Gekko and making money, leading to unscrupulous behavior and illegal insider info and illicit trading. Fox is placed in a tough spot in deciding whether to turn on his role model and mentor, or to keep going down a dark path.