The Best 4/20 Movies To Watch This Year (2026 Edition)

4/20 only comes once a year, and the movie you put on matters more than people admit. The best 420 movies are part of the experience. The right pick sets the tone for the whole session. The wrong one and you’re 40 minutes into something confusing with nowhere to go.

This list isn’t a random scrape of every film that’s ever had a joint in frame. It’s a real guide, broken down by vibe, so you can make a decision fast and get back to what you’re actually doing. Whether you want to laugh, get lost in something visually wild, or finally watch that movie everyone’s been talking about, there’s a pick here for it.

The best movies to watch on 420 aren’t one-size-fits-all. What you want to watch at the beginning of the night is different from what you want at hour five.

So we broke the list into categories:

• Classics you need in your rotation
• Comedies that still hold up
• Visually wild picks
• Cult films worth revisiting
• What’s streaming on Netflix right now
• Newer films that have nothing to do with weed but are worth your 4/20

Pick your category, pack your bowl, and let’s go.

These are the movies with weed that built the genre. The ones that defined what a stoner film could be, and still hold up decades later. If you haven’t seen all of these, now’s the time to fix that this 4/20.

The one that started it all. Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong accidentally end up smuggling a van made entirely out of weed across the Mexican border, and that’s about as much plot as you need to know. Up in Smoke is the blueprint for every stoner comedy that came after it. It’s loose, absurd, and built entirely around the bit. Fifty years later, it still works.

Dave Chappelle, before Chappelle’s Show, is absolutely unhinged in the best possible way. Three friends try to bail their buddy out of jail by selling weed, and the whole thing escalates from there. The cameos alone are worth it—Jon Stewart, Snoop Dogg, Willie Nelson—but Chappelle’s energy is what makes Half Baked genuinely rewatchable. The “enhancement smoker” scene never gets old.

Ice Cube and Chris Tucker are on a porch on a Friday afternoon, trying to figure out how to pay back a drug dealer by evening. The plot is simple, but the chemistry is everything. Friday is one of the funniest movies of the ’90s, and it earns that reputation with every single rewatch. Chris Tucker as Smokey is one of the great comedic performances of that decade, and it’s not particularly close.

The movie that made a specific strain of weed famous for years afterward. Seth Rogen and James Franco accidentally witness a murder and spend the rest of the film in over their heads, which sounds like a thriller until you remember it’s also extremely funny. The action sequences are genuinely well-executed, and the Franco-Rogen chemistry carries every scene. One of the better funny weed movies ever made, and not just because of the weed.

Less about weed than the others on this list, more about the specific feeling of being 17 with nowhere to be and all summer ahead of you. Richard Linklater’s ensemble is packed with actors who went on to become huge—Matthew McConaughey in his breakout role, Ben Affleck, and Milla Jovovich—but the film works because it feels like a real memory rather than a movie. Put it on when you want something that makes you nostalgic for a time you might not have even lived through.

Not every great movie for 4/20 is explicitly about cannabis. These are the funny weed movies, or at least weed-adjacent movies, that are genuinely hilarious on rewatch and deserve a spot in the 4/20 rotation.

Vermont state troopers with too much time and not enough actual crime to deal with. The opening scene alone, where they mess with a carload of stoned college kids for ten minutes straight, is one of the funniest sequences of the 2000s. The rest of the movie holds up around it. Broken Lizard made a cult comedy that has somehow gotten funnier with age, and it’s a perfect watch for anyone who wants something low-stakes and genuinely hilarious

Two guys get high and decide they absolutely have to get to White Castle. That is the entire movie and it is completely worth it. John Cho and Kal Penn have real chemistry, the cameos are legendary (Neil Patrick Harris plays himself at peak chaos), and the film is sharper about race and identity than its premise suggests. One of the best 420 movies if you want something that’s actually funny without trying too hard.

Kevin Smith’s love letter to his own universe, and it requires basically zero prior knowledge to enjoy while high. Jay and Silent Bob travel across the country to stop a movie from being made about them. It’s crass, it’s self-referential, it’s absolutely packed with cameos, and it’s exactly the kind of movie that gets better the higher you are watching it. Pure fan service in the best possible way.

Method Man and Redman go to Harvard after smoking weed grown from the ashes of their dead friend, whose ghost helps them ace their exams. It’s as chaotic as it sounds, and it commits fully to the bit. How High is one of those films that found its audience on DVD and cable and never really left. It has a genuine cult following for good reason. Quotable, absurd, and exactly right for the occasion.

These aren’t necessarily movies about weed. They’re movies that hit different when your perception is altered, the kind of films that come up when someone asks what to watch when they’re really baked. Approach with pure intentions.

Disney animators in 1940 made something that still holds up as one of the most visually ambitious films ever put to screen. Classical music, abstract animation, dinosaurs, dancing hippos, a genuinely terrifying final segment—Fantasia doesn’t have a plot, it just has 80 years of stunning imagery set to music. It’s still undefeated for pure visual experience.

Gaspar Noé filmed this almost entirely from a first-person perspective, following the consciousness of a drug dealer in Tokyo after he’s shot by police. It is not an easy watch. It is also one of the most genuinely disorienting and immersive visual experiences in modern cinema. It’s neon-soaked, trippy, and completely unlike anything else. Not for the faint of heart, but absolutely an experience worth having once.

Alex Garland directed one of the strangest and most beautiful science fiction films of the last decade. A team of scientists enters a quarantined zone where the laws of nature have stopped applying, and things get progressively weirder from there. The pacing is slow and deliberate, the imagery is stunning, and the final act goes somewhere that’s hard to describe and harder to forget. A perfect slow-burn watch for a 4/20 evening.

The most recent entry to the 4/20 visual canon and possibly the most deserving. The Daniels made a film about a Chinese-American laundromat owner who discovers she can access the skills of her parallel universe selves, and somehow turned that premise into one of the most emotionally devastating movies of the decade. It’s chaotic, hilarious, strange, and genuinely moving. Watch it if you somehow haven’t yet.

These are the films that didn’t always land at release, but found their audience over time and became permanent fixtures in the stoner film repertoire. Each one needs a rewatch, and you tend to notice new things you didn’t pick up the first time around.

The Coen Brothers made a film about mistaken identity and bowling in Los Angeles, and it somehow became one of the most quoted movies of the last 30 years. Jeff Bridges as “The Dude,” a perpetually stoned, White Russian-drinking, bowling enthusiast who gets pulled into a kidnapping plot, is one of cinema’s great relaxed performances. The film doesn’t really go anywhere, which is exactly the point. Perfect for 4/20.

Terry Gilliam adapted Hunter S. Thompson’s most famous novel with Johnny Depp as Raoul Duke, and the result is one of the most committed drug movies ever made. It’s barely a film in the traditional sense, more of a sensory experience built around Thompson’s prose and Gilliam’s visual chaos. If you’ve never read the book, watch this first. If you have, watch it again.

Paul Thomas Anderson adapted Thomas Pynchon’s stoner detective novel, and the result is one of the most genuinely funny and genuinely confusing films of the 2010s. Joaquin Phoenix as Doc Sportello, a stoned private investigator in 1970s Los Angeles, navigates a case that may or may not involve multiple overlapping conspiracies. You won’t follow everything… that’s fine. Nobody does. It’s still a great watch.

For when you want weed movies on Netflix and don’t want to go looking for them. These are currently streaming and worth the time.

The Workaholics guys, Adam Devine, Anders Holm, and Blake Anderson, play hotel housekeepers who have to save a party full of hostages from armed criminals. It’s extremely chaotic, very much not for everyone, and pretty funny if you’re in the right mood for it. Think Die Hard if the protagonists were completely useless and mostly just trying to get high. The humor is unhinged and committed, which earns it a spot on the list.

Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa in a stoner comedy that doesn’t pretend to be anything other than what it is. Snoop plays a high schooler who’s been enrolled for 15 years, and Wiz plays the straight-A student who gets pulled into his orbit. The music is exceptional, and the whole thing serves as a way for Snoop and Wiz to improvise and riff, which is exactly what you want on 4/20.

Lil Yachty and DC Young Fly step into the universe that Method Man and Redman built in 2001. The sequel definitely doesn’t reach the original, but it’s still a solid watch if you want to stay in that world. The comedy is broad, the chemistry is genuine, and it moves fast enough to hold your attention through the whole runtime. A good pick if you’ve already watched the first one.

These movies have nothing to do with weed and don’t pretend to. They’re just genuinely great films that deserve a spot in your best 420 movies rotation.

Denis Villeneuve’s sequel to his already-stunning 2021 adaptation is one of the most visually entertaining sci-fi movies in years. The scale is massive this time around. The sandworm sequences are worth the runtime alone, and Zendaya finally gets real screen time. If you saw Part One and haven’t caught Part Two yet, 4/20 is the perfect time. Put it on a big screen if you can.

Christopher Nolan’s 3-hour portrait of J. Robert Oppenheimer is not a relaxed watch, but it’s one of the best films of the decade so far. Cillian Murphy’s performance is incredible, and the non-linear structure demands your attention. The final act hits harder than most films that are twice as long. If you want something that’s genuinely going to hold your focus and leave you thinking about it afterward, this is the pick.

Zach Cregger’s follow-up to Barbarian is, by far, one of the most talked-about horror-like films of 2025. It’s creepy in a way that’s hard to shake, built on a feeling of dread rather than jump scares, and centered on realistic witchcraft rather than ghosts and the supernatural. Watch it if you want something that’s going to stick with you after the credits roll… and maybe leave the lights on.

Anna Faris plays a struggling actress who accidentally eats an entire tray of weed cupcakes before a day full of obligations she absolutely cannot handle. Gregg Araki directed it, and the film is consistently called one of the most criminally underseen stoner comedies ever made. It’s genuinely funny in a way that feels different from the rest of the genre. It’s quieter, weirder, and way more committed to its premise than most films on this list. If you’ve never heard of it, that’s exactly why it’s on this list.

Not sure where to start with the best 420 movies? Here’s the quick version:

• Need to laugh: Up in Smoke, Half Baked, or Harold & Kumar
• Want something visually wild: Everything Everywhere All At Once or Annihilation
• Feeling nostalgic: Dazed and Confused or The Big Lebowski
• Scrolling Netflix right now: Game Over, Man! or Mac & Devin Go to High School
• Want something genuinely great: Oppenheimer or Dune: Part Two
• Want the underrated pick: Smiley Face

For more than a decade, Herb has been a gathering place for people who love, use, and are simply curious about cannabis. What started as a small corner of the internet has grown into a community where millions come to learn, share, and stay connected to the culture.

Here’s what you can tap into at Herb:

• Learning hub and guides that break things down clearly, from growing weed outdoors to understanding how terpenes impact your high
• News hub that spotlights the latest cannabis culture and policy shifts
• Dispensary directory to help you find licensed shops in your local area
• Monthly strain picks, featuring rotating Indica, Sativa, and Hybrid favorites
• Deals page, updated monthly with the best cannabis discounts available online

Stay connected with the Herb community by subscribing to our newsletter, following us on Instagram, and X for the latest in cannabis lifestyle and culture.