The 10 Most Underrated Tom Hanks Movies, Ranked (from Least to Most Underrated)

Tom Hanks’ filmography is so stacked with cultural landmarks that a surprising number of strong titles get pushed to the side. This list looks past the obvious classics to spotlight projects that showcase range, craft, and unusual choices—from historical journalism dramas to post-apocalyptic survival stories and tense maritime warfare.

To keep things simple, you’ll find a clean countdown that starts with solid sleepers and ends with stone-cold standouts. Each entry includes concrete details—directors, co-stars, source material, production notes, and recognition—so you can quickly see what each film is about and why it’s worth a watch.

‘A Hologram for the King’ (2016)

Directed by Tom Tykwer and adapted from Dave Eggers’ novel, the film follows an American salesman sent to Saudi Arabia to pitch a telepresence system in a planned coastal city. It stars Tom Hanks as Alan Clay, with Sarita Choudhury and Alexander Black in key roles, and was produced with significant German involvement alongside shooting at Studio Babelsberg and on North African locations doubling for the Gulf.

The production leans on Tykwer’s long-time collaborators for music and post, with a blend of English and Arabic dialogue throughout. Business-culture friction, government-contract hurdles, and a cross-cultural friendship drive the plot, while the story traces supply-chain delays, tender procedures, and the logistics of building out a tech demo site far from corporate headquarters.

‘That Thing You Do!’ (1996)

Written and directed by Tom Hanks, the film tracks a Pennsylvania garage band—The Wonders—as a novelty single unexpectedly climbs the charts. It features Tom Everett Scott, Liv Tyler, Johnathon Schaech, Steve Zahn, and Ethan Embry, with Hanks appearing as Play-Tone Records executive Mr. White; the original title track, written by Adam Schlesinger, earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song.

The production created a full period music-industry ecosystem—radio circuits, TV variety shows, press junkets, and cross-country touring—built around the fictitious Play-Tone label. The movie later inspired Hanks and Gary Goetzman to use Playtone as the name of their real-world production company, and the soundtrack includes multiple versions of the hit to reflect changing arrangements and tempos as the band evolves.

‘Greyhound’ (2020)

Adapted by Tom Hanks from C. S. Forester’s novel ‘The Good Shepherd’ and directed by Aaron Schneider, the film compresses a North Atlantic convoy escort mission into a tight, real-time naval thriller. Hanks plays Commander Ernest Krause, with Stephen Graham and Rob Morgan among the bridge crew, and the movie emphasizes radio discipline, sonar tracking, radar plotting, and fuel-consumption constraints under U-boat attack.

The production blends large-scale water-simulation VFX with practical ship sets to model destroyer maneuvering, convoy station-keeping, and gunnery procedures. Released on Apple TV+, it received an Academy Award nomination for Best Sound, with mixing and editing designed to communicate bearings, pings, screw noises, and acoustic deception tactics crucial to anti-submarine warfare.

‘Finch’ (2021)

Directed by Miguel Sapochnik, the film centers on a robotics engineer who builds an AI companion to protect his dog in a solar-flare-ravaged America. Tom Hanks headlines opposite Caleb Landry Jones, who performs and voices the robot, and the story focuses on engineering constraints—battery management, sensor fidelity, gait stability, and language acquisition—under harsh environmental conditions.

Originally developed under the title ‘Bios’ for a theatrical release, the project moved to Apple TV+ and was filmed largely in New Mexico landscapes that support the road-journey structure. Visual effects teams designed the robot’s motion profile around practical puppetry and digital augmentation, while production design tracks scavenged photovoltaics, ad-hoc weatherproofing, and vehicle maintenance needed to keep the trip going.

‘Charlie Wilson’s War’ (2007)

Directed by Mike Nichols from Aaron Sorkin’s screenplay, the political drama covers a U.S. congressman’s role in funding covert operations during the Soviet-Afghan conflict. Tom Hanks plays Representative Charlie Wilson, with Julia Roberts as Houston socialite Joanne Herring and Philip Seymour Hoffman as CIA officer Gust Avrakotos; Hoffman received an Academy Award nomination for his performance.

The production draws from George Crile’s nonfiction book, dramatizing committee negotiations, interagency coordination, and overseas procurement channels that fed matériel to the region. Filming utilized Moroccan locations to stage training and battlefield sequences, while the dialogue-heavy scenes map the flow of appropriations, backchannel diplomacy, and the assembly of an unlikely coalition that altered Cold War dynamics.

‘The Post’ (2017)

Directed by Steven Spielberg, the newsroom drama follows the decision by The Washington Post to publish the Pentagon Papers under intense legal and political pressure. Tom Hanks portrays executive editor Ben Bradlee alongside Meryl Streep as publisher Katharine Graham, with a large ensemble of reporters and lawyers charting sourcing, editing, and deadline workflows behind the scoop.

Production recreated Post offices, printing floors, and linotype operations to show page makeup, plate creation, and late-edition presses in motion. The film features a John Williams score and was nominated for major awards, including Best Picture and Best Actress, while also detailing Supreme Court arguments, prior-restraint questions, and the logistics of coordinating with other papers on concurrent publication.

‘The Terminal’ (2004)

A Steven Spielberg film inspired by the real-life case of Mehran Karimi Nasseri, it tells the story of Viktor Navorski, a traveler stranded in an airport after his passport becomes invalid. Tom Hanks plays Viktor with Stanley Tucci as the customs official overseeing the case and Catherine Zeta-Jones as a flight attendant he befriends; the script tracks immigration protocols, visa categories, and airline operations.

Production built a full-scale functioning terminal set—complete with moving jetways, retail storefronts, and working conveyer systems—to control lighting, security checkpoints, and crowd flow for extended shoots. The movie’s detail work covers language barriers, currency issues, food access, and overnight shelter inside a modern hub, along with the bureaucratic escalation that comes from a prolonged legal limbo.

‘Sully’ (2016)

Directed by Clint Eastwood, the biographical drama recounts US Airways Flight 1549 and Captain Chesley Sullenberger’s emergency landing on the Hudson River. Tom Hanks stars as Sullenberger with Aaron Eckhart as First Officer Jeff Skiles and Laura Linney as Lorraine Sullenberger; the narrative intercuts cockpit procedures, air-traffic control audio, and National Transportation Safety Board interviews.

Production staged water landings with large-scale tank work and partial aircraft replicas to show evacuation slides, ferry coordination, and cabin-crew commands under time pressure. The film received an Academy Award nomination for sound editing, and it incorporates line-oriented flight training, checklist discipline, and simulator re-creations to explore decision-making and crew resource management.

‘Saving Mr. Banks’ (2013)

Directed by John Lee Hancock, the film dramatizes the negotiations between author P. L. Travers and Walt Disney over the adaptation of ‘Mary Poppins’. Tom Hanks plays Walt Disney opposite Emma Thompson’s Travers, with Bradley Whitford as screenwriter Don DaGradi and B. J. Novak and Jason Schwartzman as songwriters Robert and Richard Sherman, whose tape-recorded sessions form a key narrative thread.

The movie was filmed on the Walt Disney Studios lot, with sequences staged inside Disneyland to recreate development meetings, musical demos, and script revisions. Costume and production design mirror early-studio office spaces, and the film earned multiple award nominations while documenting contract terms, character rights, and the creative compromises that moved the project to the screen.

‘Road to Perdition’ (2002)

Sam Mendes directs this adaptation of the graphic novel by Max Allan Collins and Richard Piers Rayner, following a mob enforcer and his son on a journey that intersects with Chicago-area organized crime. Tom Hanks leads alongside Paul Newman, Jude Law, and Daniel Craig, and the film features a Thomas Newman score and production design that maps speakeasies, safe houses, and city-to-small-town travel.

Conrad L. Hall’s cinematography won the Academy Award, showcasing meticulously lit interiors, rain-soaked exteriors, and restrained camera movement that underscores the father-son narrative. Location work across the Midwest supports period vehicles and wardrobe, while prop banking, firearms of the era, and ledger-book accounting details build out the organized-crime infrastructure at the center of the story.

Share your own picks—and which titles you think deserve more love—in the comments!