If you want to see the list of movies I’ve rolled so far, check out my Letterboxd list!
Are you A) a Dungeons & Dragons or other tabletop roleplaying nerd, B) have a set of polyhedral dice sitting next to you, and C) don’t know what movie to watch tonight? Try a Random Movie! A stress-free way to figure out what to put on the TV while you endlessly scroll through your phone.
This is meant to hone your choices down to a specific year, but there are optional additions if you want to find something even more specific.
Step 1: Decade
Roll a d4 and consult the table below. This will give you a range for how many decades back you’ll go with your subsequent roll.
| d4 | result |
| 1 | roll a d12 |
| 2 | roll a d10 |
| 3 | roll a d8 |
| 4 | roll a d6 |
(If you’re not a huge film aficionado, just roll a d6 or a d8. Finding films from the 1940s and before can be difficult.)
Whichever die you choose or result you got, roll it and use the table below to see which decade you’re working with.
| d6 | d8 | d10 | d12 | decade |
| 1 | 1910s | |||
| 2 | 1920s | |||
| 1 | 3 | 1930s | ||
| 2 | 4 | 1940s | ||
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 1950s | |
| 2 | 4 | 6 | 1960s | |
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 1970s |
| 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 1980s |
| 3 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 1990s |
| 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 2000s |
| 5 | 7 | 9 | 11 | 2010s |
| 6 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 2020s |
So, let’s say I want to go all the way back to the beginning of cinema. That means I roll a d12. I roll and get a 9. My decade is the 1990s!
Step 2: Year
Now that you’ve got your decade, roll a d10 to determine which year of that decade you’re going to use. The results for this one should be fairly obvious, but here’s a table anyway:
| d10 | year |
| 1 | xxx1 |
| 2 | xxx2 |
| 3 | xxx3 |
| 4 | xxx4 |
| 5 | xxx5 |
| 6 | xxx6 |
| 7 | xxx7 |
| 8 | xxx8 |
| 9 | xxx9 |
| 10 | xxx0 |
Based on my earlier example, I roll a d10 to find a year for my decade, the 1990s, getting a 7. My year is 1997!
At this point, you could just find a film from your year and that’s it, you’re done. But if you want to get truly random, continue onward!
Step 3: Caliber
Now that you have a year picked out, it’s time to pick a film. But what kind of film are you going to watch? Let’s let the dice decide.
Roll a d6 and consult the chart below.
| d6 | result | instructions |
| 1 | worst 100 film | roll d100 and consult flickchart, picking the result from that year |
| 2-5 | top 100 film | roll d100 and consult flickchart, picking the result from that year |
| 6 | cult classic | google “cult classic XXXX” and find what you can. if there’s a list, try to roll for it |
A “d100” is actually two d10s, one of which takes the tens place, with the other taking the ones place. So if you rolled 2 d10s and got an 8 and a 4, the first number would be 80, and the second would still be 4, for 84.
At this point you’re kind of winging it. I use Flickchart.com to pick movies. https://www.flickchart.com/Charts.aspx
You can filter by year and by best or worst, which is helpful. For cult classics, you’ll have to google something and come up with a system on your own, or just pick something. Lots of sites have “top tens” for stuff like this. Be creative!
Alternate Step 3: Genre
If you are trying to find a specific vibe, roll this instead. It might be harder to find a certain genre in your year, however.
| d20 | result | d20 | result |
| 1 | Action | 11 | Horror |
| 2 | Adventure | 12 | Musical |
| 3 | Animated | 13 | Mystery |
| 4 | Best Picture | 14 | Romance |
| 5 | Comedy | 15 | Sci-fi |
| 6 | Crime | 16 | Short |
| 7 | Documentary | 17 | Sports |
| 8 | Drama | 18 | Thriller |
| 9 | Fantasy | 19 | War |
| 10 | History | 20 | Western |
Watch the Movie!
That’s it. Watch the movie! Okay bye!