22 Most Iconic RVs From Movies and TV Shows

Americans love their RVs, now more than ever, apparently — the RV Industry Association recently reported that RV shipments were expected to reach record highs in 2021. With so many more people living and loving that #RVlife — not to mention the 2020 release of two critically acclaimed movies, "Nomadland" and "Supernova," in which RVs featured prominently — we figured now was as good a time as any to compile a list of movies and TV shows in which RVs play nearly as important a role as the actors. From Lucy and Desi in the 1950s to much more recent fare, here are 20 movies and shows to queue up this weekend to inspire your next road trip.

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As the title suggests, the RV in this film features prominently as Fern, played by Frances McDormand, travels the western half of the U.S. in a 2001 converted Ford Econoline she names Vanguard. The Chloé Zhao-directed film — nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture — explores themes of economic collapse, community, and survival, and features real-life nomads alongside McDormand's performance. 

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In this 2020 film, Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci play Sam and Tusker, partners of 20 years who travel the English Lake District, visiting friends and family in a camper van as they try to come to terms with Tusker's early-onset dementia diagnosis. The RV in this critically acclaimed movie is a 16-year-old Auto-Trail Cheyenne 632.

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This film featured a 1972 Ford Condor II brought into the dysfunctional family fold by the Griswolds' Cousin Eddie. Chevy Chase's character refers to as a "tenement on wheels" and, in one memorable scene, Eddie, played by Randy Quaid, is seen dumping the Condor's black tank contents into the city sewer system. The RV is still alive and kicking — it's on display at Castle Noel in Medina, Ohio.

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This 2002 Oscar-winning movie features Jack Nicholson as Warren Schmidt, a bitter and recently retired widower who travels to his estranged daughter's wedding in a 35-foot 2001 Winnebago Adventurer. Along the way, Nicholson's character narrates via long letters to "Ndugu," a Tanzanian orphan that he's sponsoring.

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While the 1974 Dodge Monacos that played the part of the Bluesmobiles in this movie might have had more star power, a 1976 Fleetwood Southwind plays predominantly in one scene in the film.

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The RV in this well-received 2006 indie comedy was a decades-old, bright yellow Volkswagen T2 that played heavily in the progression of the film's plot. Actor Greg Kinnear called the scenes filmed in the van "absolute un-orchestrated chaos every single time" and noting that production "didn't have the money to close the freeway down, so there's a great chance if you live in Southern California you'll be in our movie."

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A 1970s-era GMC motorhome plays the role of the top-secret EM-50 Urban Assault Vehicle in this classic 1981 comedy starring Bill Murray. The screenplay had the combat vehicle equipped with bulletproof glass and flame throwers.

Related: 32 Legendary Vehicles From '70s and '80s TV Shows

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The oldest production on this list, this movie was released in 1954 and stars Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz as newlyweds who decide to travel the U.S. while towing a 36-foot 1953 Redman New Moon trailer. As you can imagine with anything starring Lucy and Desi, disaster and hilarity ensue.

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This raunchy 2013 comedy features Jason Sudeikis' character hiring a fake family in order to smuggle a massive amount of marijuana across the Mexican border. "Me, crossing the border alone? Huge red flag! But families, they don't get a second look, so I need you to be my wife," he says to Jennifer Aniston's character, a stripper. The RV in the movie is played by a 2013 Coachmen Encounter.

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Few RVs have become as iconic as the 1986 Fleetwood Bounder in this long-running and mega-popular TV show. Used as Walt and Jesse's inaugural meth lab, the vehicle showed up in season one's first episode and continued to be a fixture until season 3, when it was destroyed in episode 6, "Sunset" — an occurrence hilariously documented by the show's official Twitter account. And Walt and Jesse's RV wasn't the only vehicle with a starring role on the show.

Related: 20 Crazy-Expensive Cars Destroyed by Hollywood

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In this 1997 film — the second in the story's 30-year franchise — a custom 1997 Fleetwood RV is used by a team of scientists and researchers at Jurassic Park Site B island as both a mobile science lab and shelter from the dinosaurs. The model eventually ended up on eBay, where someone reportedly bought it for around $15,000.

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The RV here — a 1973 D-27C Winnebago Chieftain — played heavily into the plot in the early episodes of this longtime AMC show (as did one in the original comic books themselves), but met its fiery fate in the aptly titled "Beside the Dying Fire," the final episode of season 2.

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We guess Randy Quaid and RV movies just seem to go together? In this 1996 alien attack flick, Quaid plays Russell Case, a crop-duster pilot traveling through the desert with his kids in a 1967 Winnebago Brave, along with a convoy of other RVs.

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This cult-classic "Star Wars" spoof takes nothing seriously, including its spaceships. The Eagle 5, piloted by characters portrayed by Bill Pullman and John Candy, was actually a winged 1986 Winnebago Chieftain that had seen better days.

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This Robin Williams-helmed film stars the late actor as Bob Munro, who takes his family on a road trip that, of course, results in all manner of shenanigans and tomfoolery — including some of the specifically RV variety. The family's rig is a 2005 35-foot Forest River Georgetown 359, but another RV — the vintage 1948 Flxible Clipper — kind of steals the show. The latter can be toured at the Jack Sisemore RV Museum in Amarillo, Texas (or via this YouTube video).

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If you don't mind "ridiculous dialogue and impossible situations" along the way — a quote from one critic — you'll get to see John Cusack's character escape the scene of Yellowstone's apocalyptic super-volcano eruption in a Winnebago, even improbably dodging fireballs and jumping a massive crack in the earth's surface. Anyone who's ever driven an RV in real life will cackle.

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This 1985 Albert Brooks film sees Brooks and Julie Hagerty playing lead characters who decide to sell their house, liquidate their assets, and travel the country in search of new meaning for their lives. Things predictably do not go as planned. You can watch the trailer here — the movie made the American Film Institute's 2000 list of the Top 100 Funniest American Movies.

Related: 50 Movie and TV Locations Worthy of a Road Trip

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By the end of this 2007 movie based on a true story, main character Christopher McCandless is living in a converted bus deep in the Alaskan wilderness. We won't spoil the ending for you in case you're not familiar with the story, but it is of note that the real-life bus was recently airlifted out of the area it had sat in since McCandless made it his home in 1992.

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The van in this 2015 British film's title in a bright yellow 1957 Bedford model. The movie was based on a memoir of the same name, written by Alan Bennett, and it tells the story of Mary Shepherd, an elderly woman played by Maggie Smith, who lives in the van outside Bennett's home for well over a decade — and who is not as indigent as she seems.

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After the delightfully profane-laced outtakes of a Winnebago spokesman began showing up on YouTube a decade or so ago, some documentary filmmakers decided to go looking for the guy. What came out of that search is this 2010 film — less about the vehicles than the Winnebago Man himself — Jack Rebney — but worth it for both his cranky demeanor and some thoroughly vintage RV shots.

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This 2004 Pixar blockbuster saw the superhero Parr family careening through the city in an RV as they attempt to save the world.

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This animated TV show, which ran from 1998 to 2004, was about a nomadic family who travel the world in their "ComVee," an imaginary vehicle that one writer for Bustle noted is "a house on wheels, but also a house on inflatable rafts that just majestically floats on river beds. I would spend my entire life in it."