The 32 greatest movies about siblings

What are siblings but the co-stars of your family life? The relationships between brothers and sisters are inherently rich narratives, so it's no wonder that there are plenty of great movies about siblings that put these familial bonds center stage. Whether the siblings are best friends, rivals, or more commonly something in the middle, there's plenty for a great movie of any genre to explore.

These are the 32 greatest movies about siblings—an inherently kind of vague category, to be fair. Plenty of films have siblings and have great sibling relationships in them; they just might not be primarily about siblings. Take Gone Girl, for instance. Ben Affleck's Nick Dunne and his sister Margo, played by Carrie Coon, have a really fun and interesting relationship. It's just not primarily what the movie is focused on. The following 32 movies, though, are very much about siblings. (And don't worry—Carrie Coon will show up later for a different film.)

32. Polite Society

Year: 2023
Director: Nida Manzoor

Priya Kansara and Ritu Arya star as Ria and Lena Khan, two close-knit British-Pakistani sisters living in London in Nida Manzoor's directorial debut. Ria wants to be a professional stuntwoman, much to the chagrin of her rather traditional parents. However, when Lena's new fiancee turns out to be a villain, Ria must put her martial arts training to use and save her sister from a terrible fate in this charming, good-spirited (if a smidge uneven) action-comedy.

31. Ambulance

Year: 2021
Director: Michael Bay

Michael Bay's explosive vehicular tour through Los Angeles stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Marine vet Will Sharpe who turns to his adoptive brother, Jake Gyllenhaal's manic criminal Danny, because he needs money to pay for his wife's surgery. What starts as a "simple" bank robbery soon ends with the brothers driving through LA inside a stolen ambulance with a paramedic hostage (Eiza González) inside. Ambulance is about the bonds and limitations of family, but more important than that, it's about sick drone shots and cool car chases.

30. Spy Kids

Year: 2001
Director: Robert Rodriguez

Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara star as the two children of super spy parents who find themselves in the family business doing spycraft once mom and dad get captured in Robert Rodriguez's truly, wonderfully bizarre James Bond riff. A family-friendly action romp, Spy Kids may be best remembered by Millennials for Alan Cumming's weird performance as children's TV host and supervillain Fegan Floop, but it's also a pretty deft depiction of how siblings work together.

29. Black Widow

Year: 2021
Director: Cate Shortland

Natasha Romanoff, a.k.a. Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) finally got a solo film and it's a pretty good one to boot. The 2021 movie explores Natasha's past as a highly trained KGB assassin who grew up in deep cover with her "family," including Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova. Although the two were only siblings for the purposes of helping the Russian spies fit into the United States, the bonds they formed were very real—as was the hurt when Natasha left Yelena behind.

28. The Triplets of Belleville

Year: 2003
Director: Sylvain Chomet

The titular Triplets of Belleville are really supporting players in this lovely, dialogue-free movie from French animator Sylvain Chomet. The main plot has a tenacious grandmother tracking down the criminals who kidnapped her grandson, an aspiring professional cyclist. While on their trail, she encounters the Triplettes, three sisters who were a popular variety act in their youth, and the trio decide to help out. It's full of clever visual comedy and the joy of seeing three old ladies work as a dynamite team—and The Triplets of Belleville happens to be one of the greatest movies about music ever made, too.

27. Jumanji

Year: 1995
Director: Joe Johnston

Kirsten Dunst and Bradley Pierce play siblings Judy and Peter Shepherd in this '90s classic. After the deaths of their parents in an accident, Judy and Peter pretty much only have each other as they move into a new house with their aunt—and they need to rely on each other even more once why play a mysterious board game and unleash the wilds of the jungle (and also Robin Williams) into suburbia. Jumanji is a terrifically fun and funny action adventure, one that also nails all of its character dynamics, which are just as important to Jumanji's success as all of the stampeding rhinos and elephants.

26. Twins

Year: 1988
Director: Ivan Reitman

A beloved '80s buddy comedy with a fun genre-leaning premise, Twins stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito. Despite their very obvious physical differences, the two men are in fact fraternal twins—the unexpected result of a genetics experiment intended to create the perfect man. A wacky movie that follows the brothers as they realize their relationship and must fight against the shadowy scientific conspiracy that created them, Twins is a pretty on-the-nose movie about how similar siblings can be even when they don't see it.

25. Frozen

Year: 2013
Directors: Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee

There's a case to be made that Elsa and Anna are two of pop culture's most famous sisters, that's how big of a sensation Disney's Frozen was. The animated musical—which features breakout songs like "Let It Go"—is about the siblings rekindling their relationship after Elsa (Idina Menzel) spent most of their childhood in isolation after she accidentally injured Anna (Kristen Bell) with her ice powers. When those powers trigger a blizzard that covers the kingdom with a dangerous amount of snow, it's up to Anna to show how the love between siblings is indeed "true love" that will save the day.

24. The Blues Brothers

Year: 1980
Director: John Landis

Possibly the best movie to come out of a Saturday Night Live sketch follows John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd as two brothers who are on "a mission from God" to save the Roman Catholic orphanage where they grew up. To do so, they've got to get their old band back together and raise the necessary funds. Although it features legendary musicians like James Brown, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, and Aretha Franklin in supporting parts, Blue Brothers is most fondly remembered for the dynamic between Belushi and Aykroyd's cool blood brothers.

23. Sisters

Year: 1973
Director: Brian De Palma

Margot Kidder, best known for playing Lois Lane in the original Superman movies, plays twins Danielle and Dominique in this Brian De Palma thriller. Danielle is a successful model, but her happy life is threatened when her sister Dominique—her conjoined twin prior to an operation separating them—commits murder. Suspenseful, sleazy and boasting some wild camera techniques (just as you'd hope from a De Palma movie), Sisters is a twisty, turny thrill.

22. Thor

Year: 2011
Director: Kenneth Branagh

The relationship between Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) is probably the single most important relationship in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, one that sustained multiple sequels, a couple of Avengers movies, and even a TV spin-off. It all began in 2011's Thor, which introduced fans to the God of Thunder and his ambitious trickster brother. Loki is bad, certainly, but the movie makes it clear how much these two siblings love each other despite all the pain Loki feels and the evil he gets up to; a relationship that makes Loki one of the best supervillains because of how developed he feels.

21. Encanto

Year: 2021
Directors: Jared Bush and Byron Howard

Though Encanto, which boasts several all-time Lin-Manuel Miranda songs, is really about a magical family, the relationships between siblings are especially important. Mirabel Madrigal (Stephanie Beatriz), the only member of the family without a special ability, has a strained relationship with her "perfect" sister Isabela (Diane Guerrero), one that they have to mend. Despite Isabela's ability to magically summon blooming flowers, it's a realistic depiction of the way siblings can resent each other—and still come together.

20. The Prince of Egypt

Year: 1998
Director: Brenda Chapman, Steve Hickner, and Simon Wells

DreamWorks Animation's astounding animated Biblical epic tells the story of Moses (Val Kilmer), with special focus on his relationship with his adoptive brother, Rameses (Ralph Fiennes), the eventual pharaoh of Egypt. Featuring breathtaking animation and soaring musical numbers, The Prince of Egypt digs into the personal relationship between two of the Bible's most famous figures, showing them as family before they became foes—and how painful that is for both of them.

19. Hell or High Water

Year: 2016
Director: David Mackenzie

This Taylor Sheridan-penned neo-Western follows brothers Toby and Tanner Parker (Chris Pine and Ben Foster) as they embark on a series of bank robberies in West Texas with the hopes of stealing enough money that they'll be able to prevent their ranch from being foreclosed to the very bank they're robbing. Jeff Bridges and Gil Birmingham play two Texas rangers trying to catch them. It's an exciting, smart caper that gets a lot of mileage out of how different the two Parker boys' temperaments are even as they work together towards this common—possibly noble—goal.

18. Dead Ringers

Year: 1988
Director: David Cronenberg

Jeremy Irons stars in dual roles as Identical twins Elliot and Beverly Mantle, in David Cronenberg's disturbing medical thriller. The twins are gynecologists who share more than they should with each other, to the point where they date the same women while pretending to be the same twin. But, when Beverly, the more passive twin, starts having his own feelings, it forms a rift between the two siblings that soon leads to something even more disturbing.

17. Pride and Prejudice

Year: 2005
Director: Joe Wright

Jane Austen, one of the best authors to ever write about siblings, received a fantastic adaptation of her iconic 1813 novel in the mid-'00s with Joe Wright's take on Pride and Prejudice. Although the romance between Matthew Macfadyen's Mr. Darcy and Keira Knightley's Elizabeth Bennet understandably takes center stage, the relationship between Elizabeth and her siblings—Mary, Kitty, and Lydia—is wonderfully depicted as well, giving their bonds and bickerings a sense of immediacy that more posh and proper adaptations of the Regency sometimes flatten.

16. Rain Man

Year: 1988
Director: Barry Levinson

Tom Cruise stars as confident hothead Charlie Babbitt, who discovers upon his father's death that he's not getting any money in the will. Instead, that's going to Raymond (Dustin Hoffman), the autistic savant older brother that Charlie didn't know he had. What begins as resentment morphs into Charlie using his brother's recall abilities to clean up in Vegas—and, eventually, that morphs into true sibling love and understanding. Rain Main certainly cleaned up at the Oscars, winning Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, and Actor, with Hoffman getting the honor.

15. Nope

Year: 2022
Director: Jordan Peele

In Jordan Peele's third film, the taciturn, hardworking OJ and his more exuberant sister Em (Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer, respectively) run their late father's ranch where they handle horses for film productions. When they begin to suspect that there's a UFO—or at least something—lurking in the clouds, the pair need to put their heads together for a shot at making it big. And, failing that, staying safe. Nope is a wild ride, and the brother-sister at the heart of it gives the movie some nice emotional grounding and comic relief that helps balance all the unbelievable action.

14. The Darjeeling Limited

Year: 2007
Director: Wes Anderson

Although there are definitely some key sibling dynamics in The Royal Tenenbaums, Wes Anderson's best depiction of siblings comes in his 2007 movie The Darjeeling Limited, one of the director's less-loved films. Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, and Jason Schwartzman star as three somewhat estranged brothers who reunite on a trip through India a year after their father's funeral in the hopes of fixing their relationship (and their various spiritual problems.) Sometimes, self-discovery means reconnecting with the siblings who have been right there alongside you this whole time.

13. The Parent Trap

Year: 1998
Director: Nancy Meyers

The Parent Trap, a remake of the 1961 film of the same name, stars Lindsay Lohan in her breakout role as Hallie Parker and Annie James, identical twins who were separated at birth and only learn of the other's existence when they're sent to the same summer camp. After learning that they're related, the pair endeavor to get their parents back together by switching places. It's a classic family comedy and a great display of siblings working together and doing hijinks.

12. Atonement

Year: 2008
Director: Joe Wright

Siblings don't always get along—they sometimes resent and misunderstand each other. Joe Wright's adaptation of Ian McEwan's 2001 novel is a moving, tragic exploration of the fallout from such a sibling misunderstanding. Saoirse Ronan plays Briony Tallis, a 13-year-old who misinterprets the relationship her elder sister Cecilia (Keira Knightley) has with Robbie (James McAvoy), the housekeeper's son. This sets into motion a tragic series of events that drastically shapes all three of their lives—all because of a tiff between young siblings.

11. Days of Heaven

Year: 1978
Director: Terrence Malick

Quite possibly the most visually beautiful movie ever made (and it should be, considering the lengths Terrence Malick went to shoot basically the entire thing during golden hour), Days of Heaven features a real sibling relationship and a fake one. After accidentally killing a man, Bill (Richard Gere) goes with his girlfriend Abby (Brooke Adams) and her kid sister to a farm in need of seasonal labor. Once there, Bill sees that the farm's rich owner (Sam Shepard), who appears to be dying of some illness, has taken a liking to Abby. Bill and Abby pose as siblings so that Abby can try to get in position to inherit the farmer's wealth, all while her real young sister watches this strange world of grownups in this eden-like existence. It's a complex, philosophical film.

10. The Virgin Suicides

Year: 1999
Director: Sofia Coppola

Kirsten Dunst leads as one of five sisters who live a very sheltered, restrictive life because of their strict Catholic parents (James Woods and Kathleen Turner). As the five Lisbon sisters yearn for more—and the boys of the small Michigan town where they live yearn for them—discovery and death follow. Sofia Coppola's directorial debut, The Virgin Suicides is a unique, at times dreamlike and depressing exploration of how family, though important, perhaps can't be everything.

9. Sinners

Year: 2025
Director: Ryan Coogler

Identical twins Smoke and Stack (both played by Michael B. Jordan) return to their home in the 1930s Mississippi Delta after gaining some ill-gotten wealth up north in Chicago. The brothers want to open up a juke joint, and opening night goes well until a vampire arrives and bloodshed ensues. Sinners is an electrifying, genre-blending movie, and Jordan is exceptional as the twins, distinguishing them and making their different temperaments clear even while showing how they—like many twins—complete each other.

8. Ginger Snaps

Year: 2000
Director: John Fawcett

One of the more clever riffs on werewolf lore, the Canadian horror flick Ginger Snaps stars Emily Perkins and Katharine Isabelle as Brigitte and Ginger Fitzgerald, two goth teenage sisters who are very close to one another and unpopular with the rest of their peers. When Ginger is attacked by a creature that's been eating up neighborhood dogs, she starts turning into a lupine beast every month in a great metaphor for puberty and how the experience can test even the closest siblings.

7. Wolf Children

Year: 2012
Director: Mamoru Hosoda

The relationship between a mother and her children might be the primary focus of Mamoru Hosoda's moving anime film, which follows Hana as she moves to the countryside in an attempt to safely and secretly raise her werewolf children after their father's sudden death. However, the relationship between the kids, Yuki and Ame, is also essential. The two children make very different decisions to embrace or reject their wolf nature as they grow up, leading to fights, supporting one another, and a look at how a sibling relationship evolves as you mature that few other films can match.

6. Onward

Year: 2020
Director: Dan Scanlon

Released into theaters just as the COVID-19 pandemic shut everything down, Onward is one of Pixar's more forgotten films, in part because at first blush the premise seems oddly generic. Two brothers (Tom Holland and Chris Pratt) in a fantasy land that's basically the mundane modern day despite the magic set off on a quest to bring their father back to life? You think you can see the plot beats coming from a mile away only for Onward to cast its great spell. It's not a movie about a father-son relationship, but instead the relationship between the two brothers and the genuine love and support they showed each other growing up.

5. His Three Daughters

Year: 2024
Director: Azazel Jacobs

The father in His Three Daughters goes unseen until the very end of this moving, stagelike drama. Instead, he's secluded in a room of his New York apartment in hospice care as he reaches the end of his life, and his three estranged daughters—played fantastically by Carrie Coon, Natasha Lyonne, and Elizabeth Olsen—are all there trying to work through their complicated feelings and relationships with one another. It's a raw, moving look at a difficult part of any siblings' lives, and it features one of the more devastating, but sweet and beautiful, endings of a film in recent memory.

4. Rachel Getting Married

Year: 2008
Director: Jonathan Demme

Anne Hathaway plays Kym Buchman, a troubled young woman who is released from rehab so that she can attend her sister's wedding in Jonathan Demme's deeply humanistic 2008 film. While Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt) is seemingly the member of the family that has it all together compared to Kym, who is admittedly a bit of a mess, the real story is much more nuanced and complicated by their family past. As Kym threatens to make herself the spotlight of her sister's big day—intentionally and unintentionally show—Demme paints a touching portrait of family, growth, and the potential for healing.

3. Step Brothers

Year: 2008
Director: Adam McKay

One of—if not the best—comedies of the '00s, Step Brothers stars Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly as two grown-up manchildren who become stepbrothers when their parents get married. At first, the pair resent each other deeply, but when they bond and become best friends, they get into all sorts of absurd, dumb trouble. Step Brothers is hilarious and not trying to be much deeper than a very silly time at the movies, though there is definitely something to its depiction of how siblings can be bitter enemies and bestest friends. (Though, typically the behavior Brennan and Dale display in the movie is seen in children, not 40-year-olds.)

2. My Neighbor Totoro

Year: 1988
Director: Hayao Miyazaki

Few films capture childhood as well as Hayao Miyazaki's masterpiece My Neighbor Totoro, and fewer still capture the dynamic between young siblings as perfectly. The beloved anime film follows sisters Satsuki and Mei as they move to a house in the country to be closer to the hospital where their mother is a patient. In the woods nearby live friendly spirits, like the big affable title character. Totoro and Co. feature surprisingly little of the film, though. Instead, a lot of it just follows Satsuki and Mei (who are roughly 10 and 4 years old, respectively) run around as they explore their new home. They're playmates, Mei learns from Satsuki, Satsuki protects Mei—but they don't always get along. Sometimes, they get into petty arguments that feel huge when you're a little kid. Ultimately, the love is very, very real, and My Neighbor Totoro is a balm for anybody who ever grew up with a sibling in the house.

1. Little Women

Year: 2019
Director: Greta Gerwig

Who else but the March Sisters could take the top spot on this list? Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, and Eliza Scanlen play Jo, Meg, Amy, and Beth, respectively, in Greta Gerwig's acclaimed adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's seminal novel. Following the sisters as they grow up in 19th Century Massachusetts, Little Women is a perfect and warm depiction of how important siblings can be to one another—for better, worse, and ultimately, for better.