These Movies Turn 50 This Year

These Movies Turn 50 This Year — 2026 Edition

This is a yearly tradition here at Life After Gateway — to highlight the movies that turn forty years old, and also those that turn fifty.

Last week, I posted those that turned forty. You can find that article here. Today, I’m putting the spotlight on those films that are fifty years old in 2026, and in the process, highlighting our collective old age.

Read about the movies that turned 40 last year, here.

Read about the movies that turned 50 last year, here.

Here is the list. Below that, find some observations and thoughts by yours truly. You’ll notice there are fewer movies here than in my recent list of those from 1986. It’s likely for two reasons: First, I was much younger, and therefore don’t have a large knowledge base of movies from that year. And second, perhaps, movies grew in popularity in the 1980s, and production (and popularity) of films simply increased. More films were being made and released, also on video, in the 1980s.

I have noted that there were more dramas in the 1970s, while in the 1980s there were far more action films produced.

Find my observations below the list:

Movies from 1976

A Star is Born
Alien Attack
All the President’s Men
Assault on Precinct 13
At the Earth’s Core
Cannonball!
Carrie
Family Plot
Futureworld
King Kong
Logan’s Run
Marathon Man
Murder by Death
Midway
Network
Rocky
Silver Streak
Stay Hungry
Taxi Driver
The Bad News Bears
The Eagle Has Landed
The Enforcer
The Man Who Fell to Earth
The Omen
The Outlaw Josey Wales
The Pink Panther Strikes Again
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution
The Shaggy D.A.
The Shootist
The Town That Dreaded Sundown
Voyage of the Damned

Observations

The movie with the highest IMDB rating is Taxi Driver, at 8.2 with one million ratings. Rocky and Network are tied for second place, both with an 8.1 rating.
Alien Attack is actually two episodes of Space: 1999 spliced together and released theatrically. The two episodes were Breakaway and War Games.
There are only two sequels in this list. The massive explosion of sequels didn’t occur until the 1980s.
There are a few films in the list that have been remade: A Star is Born, Assault On Precinct 13, Cannonball!, Carrie, King Kong, Midway.
Voyage of the Damned is an historical film about the seagoing vessel St. Louis. I have not seen the movie, but the story is well known to historians: there were more than 900 German-Jewish refugees on board, searching for a country to take them in just before WWII. Several nations turned them away — including Canada — and the ship eventually returned to Europe. Some of the passengers (estimated at more than 200) were later sent to camps and killed during the holocaust. It was a horrible tragedy, and a history lesson often taught in high schools.
The Eagle Has Landed is a WWII adventure film based on the book by Jack Higgins. The plot involves a German mission to assassinate Winston Churchill. The stellar cast includes Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland, Donald Pleasence, Robert Duvall, and Treat Williams, among others.

Assault on Precinct 13 is John Carpenter’s suspense thriller about a “last stand” by both police and criminals when a local gang assault a decommissioned and closing police precinct. It wasn’t a hit in the States, but it gained a favourable review in the United Kingdom, which, according to Carpenter, helped the movie (and his reputation) immensely. His next project cemented his place in film history: Halloween (1978).
I have not seen The Seven-Per-Cent-Solution, but I looked it up while writing this article, and the story took me by storm. Nicholas Meyer, director/writer of Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan wrote the novel and screenplay, and it is now on my “must watch” list. Google this film … it looks incredible. It features Sherlock Holmes, Moriarty, and Sigmund Freud … wow.
Rocky. What needs to be said?
Futureworld is a sequel to Westworld, the movie directed by Michael Crichton and starring Yul Brynner. It did not involve Crichton in any way.

Logan’s Run is a classic SF film from the 1970s. In this society, people are killed upon reaching the age of thirty; the reasoning in the novel is to maintain an equilibrium with resource availability and the population. Logan (Michael York) works as a hunter who catches those who decide to run before being killed. But when he himself has to submit to death, he decides to become a “Runner.” It is a famous SF novel by writers William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson. (In the novel, citizens are killed at the age of twenty-one.)
Marathon Man stars Dustin Hoffman as a man on the run from a sadistic Nazi war criminal who tortures using dental techniques. I distinctly remember, as a child, watching those torture scenes. Laurence Olivier portrayed the Nazi, trying to locate stolen diamonds. There is an anecdote about this film that is somewhat famous: Hoffman, to portray his character, stopped sleeping for three days and looked absolutely horrendous. One day on set, Olivier noticed his appearance, asked him what was wrong, and Hoffman explained. Apparently, Laurier exclaimed: “My dear boy, why don’t you just try acting???”
Midway, about the pivotal WWII battle in the Pacific Ocean that turned the tide of the war against Japan, was recently remade in 2019 starring Woody Harrelson, Dennis Quaid, Ed Skrein, Luke Evans, Aaron Eckhart, Mandy Moore, and Nick Jonas.
The Pink Panther Strikes Again is the fifth film in the Panther series.
Stay Hungry features Arnold Schwarzenegger in one of his first movie roles.

The Enforcer is the third “Dirty Harry” film; the first two were Dirty Harry (1971) and Magnum Force (1973). These movies were gargantuan hits in the 1970s and I remember the adults gushing over them. In this one, Harry is constantly in trouble for excessive use of violence in dealing with criminals. At the end, he uses a rocket launcher to kill the villain — in the abandoned Alcatraz prison. Audiences loved it. There were only two more “Dirty Harry” films: Sudden Impact (1983) and The Dead Pool (1988).
Murder by Death is a satire of Agatha Christie films and follows the well-established formula. In this film, the guests at the country estate are actually renowned detectives themselves. Neil Simon wrote the film.
Family Plot is Alfred Hitchcock’s final film, starring Bruce Dern and Karen Black.
Cannonball! is about the coast-to-coast car race that Cannonball Run (1981) made famous as a comedy, starring Burt Reynolds. Cannonball! from 1976 starred David Carradine. A quick Google search tells me that the actual race took place five times, starting in Manhattan and ending in Redondo Beach in California.

Carrie is based on Stephen King’s first novel. The movie stars Sissy Spacek. If you are familiar with King, you know the story about the book’s genesis: he threw out the first pages, disappointed and morose about his writing. His wife retrieved them from the garbage and encouraged him to continue the story. The rest is history. Carrie has telekinetic powers and suffered bullying in school and torment at home. During prom, following a sick prank, she snaps on her peers. Brian De Palma directed the film. It was remade in 2013, starring Chloe Grace Moretz, and there is also a miniseries currently in development at Amazon.

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A Blanket of Steel by Timothy S. Johnston and from Fitzhenry & Whiteside, LTD. is the recipient of the 2024 GLOBAL Thriller Award GRAND PRIZE and the 2024 CYGNUS Award First in Category.

— Timothy S. Johnston, 28 January 2026

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A BLANKET OF STEEL is out now!

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A Blanket of Steel from Timothy S. Johnston and Fitzhenry & Whiteside, Ltd.

Book Cover & Jacket Copy:

AN UNSTOPPABLE THREAT!

A mysterious assassin has murdered Cliff Sim, Chief Security Officer of the underwater colony, Trieste. Cliff was a mountain of a man, highly trained, and impossible to defeat in combat. And yet …

Someone brutally beat him and left his broken body in a secret Chinese facility at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.

And included a calling card for Truman McClusky, Mayor of Trieste.

Taunting him.

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But the assassin could be anyone …

Watch your back, Mac.

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The other books in The Rise of Oceania series by Timothy S Johnston:

The War Beneath 9781771484718
The Savage Deeps 9781771485067
Fatal Depth 9781554555574
An Island of Light 9781554555819
The Shadow of War 9781554556007