Portals on the Screen: The Best Worlds in Cinema

Creating or adapting imagined worlds has been a long-standing storytelling tradition in Hollywood since the beginning. Whether it’s an alien planet or a hidden world of magic, these cinematic contributions to worldbuilding give audiences something to gawk at. With a focus on the remoteness, strangeness, or magical quality of a setting, each setting shown in this list has earned its spot as one of the greatest worlds in cinema.

Whether a whimsical jaunt, an epic adventure, or a dystopian narrative, we explore these worlds through a medium that celebrates losing oneself in the visual details. Here is a list of some of our favorite worlds in cinema! 

Scripts from this Article

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope

The Nightmare Before Christmas

The Matrix

The Wizard Of Oz

Hellboy

Shrek

Monsters, Inc.

Dune (2021)

Pan’s Labyrinth

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001)

Harry Potter was the first character to bring the audience into the Wizarding World in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Since then, we’ve never been able to forget it. A whole magical society tucked in secretly behind the folds of the modern world, the Wizarding World is an inventive and enchanting place adapted from the novels, captivating audiences for decades as one of the most iconic cinematic settings ever!

Read More: Bound for the Screen: 13 Great Book-to-Movie Adaptations

Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope (1977)

First on Tattooine and then to every planet since, Star Wars has whisked audiences away with that opening crawl and the attention to detail that brought the Galaxy into being. Whether in space, in the clouds, or on the forest moon of Endor, the Lucasfilm franchise has continually built its timeless look and feel that’s globally well-known today.

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

With the sensibilities of James and the Giant Peach director Henry Selick comes a haunting stop-motion animated realm filled with things that go bump in the night. Of course, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town gets a taste of a whole new world when he stumbles into Christmas Town in The Nightmare Before Christmas, soon deciding he wants that world’s patented charm for himself.

The Matrix (1999)

The wool over your eyes is the Matrix, but there’s a real world where people are farmed for their energy as machines use the artificial world as an opium for the masses. The story you see in The Matrix happens mainly in the mind as a result—but these worlds and the dire situation of humanity are a long-lasting feature of the franchise. 

The Wizard of Oz (1939)

Magical worlds do not always have to be hidden. In some cases, they are a fantasy land or even a product of a head injury. In The Wizard of Oz, both might be true. That said, from its inception in L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Land of Oz has elicited wonder and awe enough that this story has been reimagined in many different flavors.

Read More: 101 Character Tropes All Screenwriters Should Know

Hellboy (2004)

Straight from the Dark Horse Comics series, Guillermo del Toro couldn’t resist using his worldbuilding magic on something like Hellboy. As with each of his stories, the world we know overlaps with another—the world of the supernatural and paranormal. Del Toro’s two Hellboy films beautifully present this carefully crafted universe, first authored by Mike Mignola. 

Shrek (2001)

One of the most intriguing and clever takes on those fantasy epics is the story of Shrek, an ogre whose own book is a humble beginning to the hero of the Swamp we know today. From Duloc to the Kingdom of Far Far Away, this world offers its comic twists on all the fairy tales of yore.

Monsters, Inc. (2001)

Imagine a city of monsters, all shapes and kinds, whose electricity comes from the screams of children in another dimension. That is the world of Monsters, Inc., and Monstropolis itself sees a change once Mike and Sully question how that world works.

Dune (2021)

A previous iteration of the movie adaptation of Frank Herbert’s famous novel failed miserably. However, Denis Villeneuve’s Dune recaptures the vast, brutal desert planet of Arrakis, or Dune, and the worlds across the Known Universe ruled by the Padishah Emperor transported us into a new galaxy. From the Fremen’s mysterious customs to the Shai-Hulud of the Deep Desert, this world is full of promise, detail, and surprises to those who haven’t yet read the series.

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

In the middle of the Spanish Civil War, a young girl accidentally winds up in a stone labyrinth and encounters the oddities of the underworld. The titular labyrinth in Pan’s Labyrinth acts as a portal between that world and this one, brings Ofelia closer to realizing her destiny as it unfolds in another fantastical setting created by Guillermo del Toro.

The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

Peter Jackson’s legendary adaptations of The Lord of the Rings series have an amazing amount of depth, breadth, and fill that only comes from a respect for the source material. From the master worldbuilder J.R.R. Tolkien, Middle-earth represents a mythology and creation story for his homeland. As the tastemaker of tropes like elves and wizards, as we know them today, millions of storytellers consider Middle-earth to be the most important fictional world to ever grace the silver screen.

Read More: The Most Epic Journeys in Film and TV

Honorable Mentions

From the Spirit Realm of Spirited Away and the alien planet of Pandora in Avatar to the Sword Coast as shown in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, there are numerous other worlds in cinema stories that shine.

For example, the titular world of the Chronicles of Narnia has made a lasting impact, with several adaptations throughout the years.

On the other hand, we also have impactful stories that blatantly show a future version of Earth. Some are like the world Planet of the Apes, a realm so alien that its true origin shocks audiences. Other stories show a setting transformed clearly by human action, such as the titular setting of Waterworld, the utterly transformed urban landscapes of Blade Runner 2049, or Mad Max: Fury Road’s own Wasteland.

When thinking about creating a world, ask yourself, “Where does it come from? Is this a fantasy world or a different version of ours?” These questions will change how you move forward in presenting your world.

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Creating a world comes with the need to share it, and some do that through the written word, such as Tolkien, Herbert, or Mignola. Others spawn out of an image or concept, like the worlds of Miyazaki or del Toro. However, the best worlds in cinema are larger than life or thoroughly developed, making these worlds feel real. 

Whether it is a smaller world like Monstropolis or a vast magical realm next to the normal world, take some time to find out what makes it different, what makes it matter, and what makes it feel real. Those things are the reason the listed worlds in cinema have stayed with us, no matter how old their cinematic debut.