Our best summer film picks | 10 extremely hot movies to watch during the UK heatwave

Matt Maynard • 19 Jul 2022 Features

It’s really, really hot. Let’s help you choose a film.

We’re not complaining, but It’s really hot. So here are some great films where it’s also really hot to fully embrace just how hot it is at the moment. Did we mention it’s hot? 

So get inside out of the blistering heat, sit in the cool of your living room and whack one of these films on the telly. 

Falling Down (1993)

Have you ever been so hot and bothered that anything and everything just aggravates the hell out of you?

Well that’s exactly what happens to William Foster (played by Michael Douglas), whose air conditioning breaks on a scorcher of a day while stuck in traffic. It’s so hot he decides he’d be better off leaving his car in the middle of the traffic jam and walking home with his briefcase. 

A man so close to the edge he’s basically falling off (or down), Foster encounters minor inconvenience after minor inconvenience and rapidly loses his mind, so far to the point that not even knife-wielding maniacs can phase him. 

From fast-food restaurants who have stopped their breakfast menus, to impatient people waiting in line to use the payphone, it’s safe to say there is no problem trivial enough that won’t make William Foster overreact. 

Sunshine (2007)

It doesn’t get much hotter than Danny Boyle’s 2007 science fiction epic, Sunshine. 

It’s the year 2057 and a team of astronauts are hurtling towards the dying Sun in an expertly-designed spacecraft, tasked with dropping a nuclear bomb the size of Manhattan Island - made up of the Earth’s remaining fissile material - into the centre of the Sun. 

Of course, no space movie is complete without a long list of obstacles and perils to overcome, and Sunshine is certainly no exception. It will have you on the edge of your seat from the moment you press play until the second it ends - it certainly isn’t for the faint hearted.  

A rather exceptional cast helps elevate this movie’s prominence in the Sci-Fi movie space, with the likes of Cillian Murphy, Chris Evans, Rose Byrne, Michelle Yeoh and Mark Strong starring in arguably some of their best roles. 

Django Unchained (2012)

Tarantino’s spaghetti western has been criticised by some as being too important a topic to be turned into satirical cinema, but what better way to do such moral horror justice than a revenge story as gory and as brutal as Django Unchained? 

Django is rescued by the renowned dentist and bounty hunter, Dr. King Schultz, for his knowledge on three brothers he has been tasked with killing. Under the guidance of Schultz, Django becomes a formidable gunfighter and bounty hunter himself. Together they spend the winter hunting criminals and splitting bounties to save enough money to buy Broomhilda, Django’s wife-turned-slave, who is being kept by Calvin J. Candie, the owner of the Candyland plantation. 

Christoph Waltz’s thrives on bringing the excellent Dr. Schultz to life in the sweltering Texas sun. In fact, Waltz is so good he won an Oscar for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, the second time he has won the same award for starring in a Quentin Tarantino movie (Inglourious Basterds being the first). 

Django Unchained is currently available to watch on Sky Cinema. 

Holes (2003)

This silly, but undeniably fantastic, family film sees Shia LaBeouf play Stanley Yelnats IV who is wrongfully convicted of stealing a famous baseball player's trainers. He is sentenced to a juvenile detention camp where the boys spend their days in the blistering heat digging holes as punishment - or so is the reason given by the camp warden and her assistants. 

During his stay at Camp Green Lake, a name steeped in irony given its dry, desolate conditions, Stanley embarks on the adventure of a lifetime with his newly-found friends, unearthing the secret behind the camp existence and ending the Yelnats’ family curse. 

Dune (2021)

There are few places hotter than Arrakis, as the Atreides family discover all too well in Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Nebula-award winning novel of the same name. 

Duke Leo of House Atreides is sent to replace House Harkonnen as the ruler of Arrakis, the only planet responsible for the production of spice, a priceless commodity valued greatly across the entire galaxy. 

His son, Paul Atreides, bears a great gift, partly thanks to his Bene Gesserit mother, a sisterhood whose members possess advanced mental capacities. While Paul battles to get his abilities under control, he must also overcome a great betrayal as events lead him deep into the perilous desert of Arrakis where he tries to befriend the Fremen, the native people of Dune, a relationship that might just benefit both parties. 

Villeneuve brings this original science fiction masterpiece to life spectacularly with help from the likes of Zendaya, Timothee Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Jason Momoa and Josh Brolin.

Watch Dune (2021) on Sky Cinema now! 

The Hurt Locker (2008)

At least we are lucky enough to walk around in our pants. Can you imagine working in Explosive Ordnance Disposal in a bomb-proof suit in this heat? 

Well, that’s exactly what Sergeant First Class William James has to endure during the Iraq War, after he comes in to replace Thompson, who was killed by an IED while fighting in Baghdad. James’ disposal methods aren’t exactly done by the book, which raises tensions between him and his team, who actively voice how his reckless actions could get himself and others killed. 

Jeremy Renner produces a stellar performance as a man unafraid of the perils of war, as we slowly see James’ true self reveal itself as the minutes go by. A proper modern war epic from director Kathryn Bigelow. 

 Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Another film set in a desolate wasteland, Tom Hardy takes on the role of Max Rockatansky, reviving the legendary Mel Gibson trilogy, and boy it does not disappoint. Arguably better than the originals, Fury Road serves up octane, pulsating action from start to finish in this diesel-guzzling, gun-slinging masterpiece. 

Set in a post-apocalyptic barren land, Max is captured by Immortan Joe’s War Boys to be used as a “blood bag” for sick War Boys dying of cancer. He is taken on a pursuit of Furiosa, a lieutenant who has left with all of Immortan Joe’s wives, and manages to escape when the car he is strapped to overturns. Given little choice, Max decides to tag along with Furiosa and the wives, but trust is scarce in the War Rig - a huge armoured truck that they must defend mercilessly if they are to get out alive.

What follows is a touching tale of friendship, trust, and of course all-out action. A must-see if you haven’t already. 

Available on Sky Cinema.

Cast Away (2000)

Tom Hanks plays Chuck Noland, the unlucky FedEx worker who gets marooned on a desert island in the heart of the baking-hot Pacific Ocean all by himself after the cargo plane he was on crashes. 

What follows is Chuck’s attempt to stay alive, which he does with the help of various FedEx parcels that wash up on the shore in the days following the crash. After leaving a bloodstained handprint on a Wilson Sporting Goods volleyball in a fit of rage, Chuck becomes attached and names the ball Wilson, which he talks to regularly - there wouldn’t be too much dialogue in this film otherwise! 

Tom Hanks gives another passionate performance in a film that would be well worth your time this summer. 

On Sky Cinema Now.

American Made (2017)

American Made is inspired by the life of Barry Seal, a TWA pilot turned CIA operative who turned to smuggling drugs into the USA for the Medellin Cartel in the 1980s. Working for the CIA and drug lords all while being hunted down by the DEA would certainly make anyone’s life stressful, but when you’re getting as rich as Barry Seal, who cares? 

We’re not sure how much of this movie is true and how much is poetic licence, but Tom Cruise’s performance in this blazing biopic is one you just can’t not see if you’re a fan. 

Dallas Buyers Club (2013)

Matthew McConaughey’s Texan cowboy performance is one that has gone down in history as arguably his best ever, paving the way for him to claim his first Oscar which allowed him to give us his famous acceptance speech. 

Ron Woodroof is a straight Dallas electrician who is diagnosed with AIDS and given just a month left to live. He is cast out by his hegemonic friends and family who mistakenly believe he has contracted AIDS from homosexual activity. After driving to get treated in Mexico as his health worsens, he is introduced to better drugs than those used in the US but are not yet approved by the FDA. 

Woodroof smuggles the drugs across the border and sets up a club with the help of Rayon, played by Jared Leto, which becomes known as the buyers club, where people can pay membership to receive the life-saving drugs Woodroof discovered in Mexico. 

Dallas Buyers Club is based on the true story of Ron Woodroof, and is a coming of age story for him, a man who once ostracised people in the gay community, but after setting up the buyers club to help others, had his views changed entirely. Just watch it.