With our site well underway and all you retro lovers chomping at the bit for a good old dose of nostalgia, we thought we’d whet your appetite with a countdown of Atomic Threads’ favourite 80s movies! Being the suckers we are for bad special effects and a cheesy soundtrack, it obviously caused some debate here at Atomic Threads HQ about which movies made the cut… (Don’t worry, we’ve made up and we’re tighter than Chunk and Sloth again!)

Top 5 80s Movies Countdown

5) Labyrinth

Number 5 in our top 5 80s movies countdown is Labyrinth. What can we say – the ladies here all enjoy a bit of Bowie in those silver trousers! With an awesome soundtrack by Bowie himself, and the coolest puppets ever to grace the silver screen (even if they did used to have us cowering under the covers!), this movie is definitely deserving of being in our top 5. The story follows a teenage girl who is desperately trying to make her way through a near-impossible maze of weird creatures and magic spells to rescue her baby brother, after she wishes for him to be taken away by the evil Goblin King (played by Bowie). If you haven’t seen it already, go and buy it – or we’ll throw you into the Bog of Eternal Stench!

4) National Lampoon’s Vacation

This disastrous roadtrip comedy has been the benchmark for family trips for 30 years – with the demise of a family dog, a money scam, a dead grandma and finally resulting in breaking into ‘Walley World’ theme park whilst holding the security guard at gunpoint, it’s safe to say it trumps any vacation disasters we’ve ever had! Although it sounds pretty tragic, the whole thing is bursting with comedy genius from start to finish from the 80s movies legend that is Chevvy Chase, making it totally unmissable for the whole family!

3) Ghostbusters

At number 3 of the 80s movies countdown is…Who ya gonna call?!… Yeah, we couldn’t resist. Inspiring awesome fancy dress outfits for years, the Ghostbusters zap their way through a ghoul infested New York, sucking up the ectoplasmic scum as they try to save the helpless inhabitants of the city. They are faced with a menacing army of dead including some freaky Babylonian demons, a (slightly lovable) green Slimer, and the most epic of all – a 112 foot tall Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man! Oh yeah – and the theme song was AWESOME!

2) Back To The Future

While we might all be totally blasé to using technology that allows us to video chat with people on the other side of the world in real-time, and effectively having a computer in our glasses, this 80s movie takes you back to when the prospect of having a video phone was out of this world! (Although we’re still waiting for the hoverboard, tech guys?!) This movie sees a teenage boy, Marty McFly, get sent back to 1955 in a time travelling DeLorean (drool!) and frantically try to get his future parents together after he accidentally ruins their fate and risks disappearing from the future all together! All of this must be done while McFly tries to find the mad scientist who sent him there in the first place, to find a way home and to warn him of his gloomy future!

And the number 1 is…..

1) The Goonies

At number one in our top 5 80s movies countdown is…”HEEEEY YOOOUUU GUUUUUYS!” Yep, we all managed to come to a mutual decision that The Goonies is in fact, the best 80s movie ever! There’s a group of misfit best friends, some creepy villains, a lovable (yet slightly scary looking) hero, treasure, and a whole trail of perilous ‘booty traps’ as Data called them. And who could forget – the legendary truffle shuffle! We all remember dreaming of going on a treasure hunt as epic as this one, but much to our disappointment our streets all seemed to be lacking secret pirate caves and freaky looking abandoned cafés… Sigh.

So, that was the Atomic Threads Top 5 80s Movies. If you’ve let any of these gems slip through your movie net, we suggest you get out and buy them! Now if you’ll excuse us, we’re off to don some double denim and high-tops, and watch them all back-to-back in our clubhouse!