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Lizards in Movies

Horned Lizards in Movies Gila Monsters in Movies Iguanas in Movies

This is a list of movies with lizards in them that I found interesting for some reason. There are lists of particular types of lizards in movies you can see at the links above.

Most of these are live-action feature films or TV movies, with some exceptions.

Links lead to pictures and information about the movies.

Spoiler Alert !

Some of these pictures and brief descriptions may give away plot details that you might not want to know before watching a film.

Shortcut to Movie Title


   
A
 
Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955)

Costello also meets a gigantic monster lizard inside the mummy's tomb.
Deep Red
Along Came Polly (2004)

A man on his honeymoon carries his wife into their hotel room when a chameon falls onto her from the ceiling fan, and he drops her.
Screenshot
Altered States (1980) 

A Harvard scientist eats some Mexican magic mushrooms and hallucinates a bunch of lizards.
Altered States
The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

Spider-Man Peter Parker battles a giant lizard monster that is threatening the city.
Screen Shot
Arabesque (1966) 

A chase scene through the London Zoo is punctuated musically to several shots of snakes and lizards sticking out their tongues.
Arabesque
B
 
Bad Boys II (2003)

Green Iguanas are used to fool motion detectors, then a Green Iguana steps on a land mine.
Bad Boys 2
Badlands (1973) (IMDB)

Martin Sheen is standing in a wide open field at dusk somewhere in the South Dakota Badlands staring off into space and we see some kind of game bird, a big black rubber lizard that never moves, and looks like nothing you'd find in South Dakota or anywhere in the US, a thundercloud with lightning, then a hawk standing on the ground, then back to Sheen.
Badlands
The Bad Lieutenant - Port of Call: New Orleans (2009)

An imagined iguana and a bearded dragon freak out Nicholas Cage.
Bad Lieutenant
The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970) 

Somebody shoots a Gila Monster on a rock before Cable can kill it with a knife for food.
Ballad of Cable Hogue
Big Stakes (1922)

Getting bitten by a deadly Gila Monster is the price to pay for losing a bet.
Big Stakes
Blood Orgy of the She-Devils (1973)

A witch casts a spell to kill a man with a voodoo doll that she puts in a large jar with an alligator lizard and a lot of ants.
Blood Orgy Screenshot
Broken Lance (1954)  

A man finds that his old ranch is so run down that there's a Gila Monster in the garden.
Broken Lance
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)


The Sundance Kid shoots a Gila Monster.
Butch Cassidy Screenshot
C
 
A Cat in Paris (2010)

A pet cat named Dino catches and kills lizards on a roof in Paris and brings them to his girl Zoe, who keeps a sardine can full of dead lizards.
A Cat in Paris
Caveman (1981) - Several lizards make an appearance in this prehistoric comedy. Lizard Screenshot
CrissCross (1992) 

Young Florida boys hang Brown Anoles from their nose and tongue.

CrissCross
Crocodile Dundee (1986)

Dundee roasts a large monitor lizard for dinner.
Screenshot

Crocodile Dundee II (1988)

Dundee leaves a large monitor lizard wearing a red bandana in the bed of a man who always wears a red bandana to make the man's companions think that he was turned into a lizard by black magic.

CrissCross
Cross Country Detours (1940)

On a split screen an animated gila monster growls while a little girl recites poetry.
Cross Country Detours
Cross Country Detours (1940)

An animated lizard sheds its skin like a woman doing a strip tease dance.
Cross Country Detours
D
 
Deep Red (1975)

A creepy, sadistic little girl sticks a pin through a lizard just to torture it.
Deep Red
Django Kill... If You Live, Shoot! (1967)

Django is chained to a cross and tortured, then left alone to be tormented by bloodthirsty vampire bats and even worse - a Green Iguana.
Django Kill
Don't Torture a Duckling (1972)

A young Italian boy shoots a wall lizard with a slingshot.
Don't Torture a Duckling
Drive, He Said (1971)

A campus radical runs naked into a college science lab and releases mice, snakes, lizards, and other animals.
Drive He Said
Duel in the Sun (1946) 

A couple of Chuckwallas show up briefly as local color in this campy western melodrama.
Duel In The Sun
E
 
El Topo (1970) 

Nihilistic Mexican murderers abuse large spiny-tailed lizards.
El Topo
F
 
The Fallen Idol (1948) 

A young boy keeps a Slow Worm hidden behind a brick.
Fallen Idol
The Far Side of Jericho (2006)

Fugitive women decline a young boy's offer of lizard to eat.
The Far Side of Jericho
Fort Apache (1948) 

A trading post exhibits a stuffed Gila Monster on its wall.
Fort Apache
The Freshman (1990)

A young film student is hired to pick up something that turns out to be a live Komodo Dragon, which gets loose and causes a real commotion.

The Freshman
Frogs (1972) 

Nature runs amok, with lizards and other animals killing the humans who are polluting their habitat.
Frogs
G
 
Ghost Rider (2007)

Two flaming Ghost Riders, one riding a flaming horse and the other a flaming motorcycle, riding through the desert at night, pass a lizard that they set on fire and burn down to its skeleton.
Screen Shot
The Giant Gila Monster (1959) 

A giant Gila Monster (played by a Beaded Lizard) terrorizes a small town.
Giant Gila Monster
Gila! (2012)

A giant Gila Monster terrorizes a small town.
Gila!
The Gods Must Be Crazy II (1989)

A woman suddenly dropped into the African wilderness is terrified by a monitor lizard.
The Gods Must Be Crazy II
Greed (1924) 

A fugitive sees a Gila Monster and a Chuckwalla in Death Valley.
Greed
H
 
Hell's Belles (1969) 

A biker is knocked out on a dirt road in the Sonoran Desert. When he wakes up, he sees a Gila Monster.
Hell's Belles
Holes (2003) 

Yellow-spotted Lizards with fangs kill people with their venom.
Holes
The Holy Mountain (1973) 

Horned lizards dressed as Aztecs fight Cane Toad conquistadores in the Spanish conquest of Mexico.
The Holy Mountain
I
 
Impromptu (1991)

A young George Sand performs a ritual at a shrine in the woods, hoping to leave a live lizard as an offering, until she discovers the lizard is dead.
Impromptu
Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom (1984)

Camped in the jungle at night, an annoying woman who's not much of a camper (played by Kate Capshaw) starts screaming when she grabs a fruit bat hanging on a line instead of her laundry and then finds a monitor lizard sitting on a branch.
Indiana Jones
Inferno (1980)

A building possessed by a witch has lizard art on it an in it and inside it, and we see a live lizard eating a moth like in a nature documentary.


Inferno Screenshot
It Came from Outer Space (1953)

A harmless alligator lizard that doesn't live in the desert is used to illustrate how the desert is alive and waiting to kill you.
Screenshot
J
 
Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)

Explorers hiking down to the center of the earth encounter giant monster lizards that try to eat them.
Journey to the Center of the Earth
The Joy Luck Club (1993)

A young Chinese girl does not see her new husband until he comes into their bedroom on their wedding night. He scares her with a lizard and she is not happy to see that she has married a young boy who plays with lizards.
The Joy Luck Club
K
 
The Killer Snakes (She sha shou) (1975)  

A bullied man uses snakes and monitor lizards to get revenge.
The Killer Snakes
Komodo vs. Cobra (2005)

Scientists accidentally create a gigantic monster Komodo Dragon and a monster Cobra that battle it out in the end.
Komodo vs. Cobra
L
 
Le Cercle Rouge (1970) 

An alcoholic's delirium includes Uromastyx and Iguanas.
Le Cercle Rouge
The Left Handed Gun (1958) 

Billy the Kid is recuperating in bed when his friends prank him with a horned lizard in a box.
Left-handed Gun
Licence to Kill (1989)

An evil drug lord carries around an iguana that wears a diamond studded collar.
Licence to Kill
Life of Pi (2012) 

A monitor lizard runs up to the camera at a zoo in India.
Life of Pi
The Lizard (1972)

A Robin-Hood-like Kung Fu cat burglar leaves a toy lizard at the scenes of his crimes.
Deep Red
Lizard in a Woman's Skin (1971) 

There are no lizards in this movie, but there is plenty of women's skin...
A Lizard in a Woman's Skin
The Lizard Woman (2004)

Fiendish geckos bite people, turn them into zombies, and turn one woman into a lizard woman.
The Lizard Woman
Lord of the Flies (1963)

A boy marooned on a tropical island plays with an anole.
Lord of the Flies
The Lost World (1925)

A scientist on an expedition to the Amazon to find dinosaurs, studies two unusual lizards he found there.
The Lost World
M
 
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

A two-headed lizard makes a tasty post-apoctalyptic snack for Max.
Mad Max Fury Road
Male and Female (1919)   

A woman on a deserted island in the south seas searches for food but finds a Gila Monster Beaded Lizard instead.
Male and Female
Manny & Lo (1996)

An 11-year-old girl says the pledge of allegiance to a green anole then hypnotizes it.
Manny & Lo
The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932)

Diabolical Dr. Fu Manchu makes a mind-control serum of sacred herbs and reptiles, including a Gila Monster.
The Mask of Fu Manchu
Meltdown (Shu dan long wei) (1995)

A terrorist throws snakes at a woman to force her to do what he wants and she is also attacked by a monitor lizard that eventually bites a man on the butt and hangs on as he is pulled up into the ceiling.
Meltdown
The Mercenary (1968) 

A revolutionary disguised as a mine worker finds a lizard in his lunch then forces the mine owner to eat it.
The Mercenary
The Mexican (2001)

A Gila Monster watches a car drive by. So exciting.

Lizard Movie Screenshot
Mysterious Island (1961)

The leader of a group of castaways explores a cave to see if it is inhabitable. He finds an Iguana under an old suitcase which surprises him.
Mysterious Island
N
 
The Naked Prey (1965) 

A great jungle adventure movie filmed in Africa with lots of herps, including some South African lizards.
The Naked Prey
Next (2007)

A Las Vegas magician does a trick for a boy, making a lizard appear in his hand.
Next
The Night of the Iguana (1964) 

Mexican beach boys catch and sell Green Iguanas for food, and a drunken ex-minister releases an Iguana in order to free himself.

Night of the Iguana
Nightwish (1989)

An alligator lizard eating a bug s seen briefly as we follow a van passing in the background.
Screenshot
O
 
Old Yeller (1957)

A young boy carries a horned lizard in his pocket, and enjoys catching other lizards, snakes and frogs.
A kind-hearted cowboy offers to swap his dog to a young boy in return for the boy's pet horny toad and a home-cooked meal.

Old Yeller
On the Road (201A 2)

 A woman attacks a tree full of green anoles with a broom in her yard at night.
On the Road
One Million B.C. (1940) Screenshot
One Million Years B.C. (1966)

A caveman is chased by a gigantic lizard.
One Million Years B.C.
Opera (1987) aka Terror at the Opera

An opera singer, traumatized by a murderer, explores a grassy meadow full of wildflowers where she finds a lizard trapped in the grass that she frees and tells to "go free."
Screen Shot from Opera
The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) 

An old Indian man gives Josey Wales a horned lizard that told him they should go to Mexico.
Outlaw Josey Wales
P
 
Papillon (1973) 

An anole sits on a tin roof as our protagonists arive at prison.
Papillon
The Parent Trap (1961) - On a hiking trip, a girl puts a lizard on her canteen then gives it to her father's fiance to scare her away, which works. Lizards in Movies
The Parent Trap (1998)

On a hiking trip, a girl puts a lizard on her divorced father's fiance Meridith's water bottle as part of a scheme to make her break off the engagement. She also holds the lizard in Meredith's face then puts it on her head where it eventually crawls down her face into her mouth.

The Parent Trap
Peeping Tom (1960) 

A scientist studies his son's reaction to fear by dropping a lizard on him as he sleeps and filming his reaction.

Peeping Tom
Picnic at Hanging Rock  (1975) 

Dragons and skinks are used for local color while some schoolgirls picnic.
Picnic at hanging rock
The Puffy Chair (2005) 

A guy visits his quirky brother to find him in a bush videotaping Green Anoles.
The Puffy Chair
Q
 
Quantum of Solace (2008)

A big lizard makes a brief appearance in the Bolivian desert.
Lizards in Movies
Que Viva Mexico (1932/1979)

A girl in a market in Mexico sells spiny-tailed iguanas for use as food.

Que Viva Mexico
R
 
Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002)

A young Australian girl finds a monitor lizard in a tree and captures it for dinner.

Rabbit-Proof Fence
Raising Arizona (1987)

Leonard Smalls, the lone biker of the Apocalypse, a man with all the powers of Hell at his command, shoots a lizard off a rock, just for fun.
Raising Arizona
Rango (2011) 

Rango is a Chameleon, Bad Bill is a Gila Monster, Waffles is a horned lizard, and Beans is a Desert Iguana.
Rango
The Rawhide Terror (1934) 

A crazy killer tortures a gila monster probably just for fun.
Deep Red
Red River (1948) 

A cowboy riding a horse leans over and grabs a Texas Horned Lizard off the ground without stopping.
Red River
Roma (2018)

A boy walking in the Mexican countryside catches a horned lizard.

Roma
Run for the Sun (1956)

A man an woman traveling through the Mexican jungle to escape Nazi war criminals stop to sleep. She wakes up to see a large lizard hissing in her face.
Run for the Sun screenshot
S
 
The Scent of Green Papaya (1993)

A boy uses a lizard tied to a string on the end of a pole to tease a young servant girl.
Scent of Green Papaya
The Show (1927) 

A deadly poisonous Green Iguana kills a man at a carnival then is stolen in an attempt to kill another man.
The Show
Sirens (1993)

A large lizard sits on a desk at a train station.
Sirena
Skyfall (2012) 

A casino in Macao has a pit below the gambling floor full of hungry Komodo Dragons.
Skyfall Screenshot
Sorcerer (1970) 

An anole lives in the squalid workers' barracks of a poor South American town.
Sorcerer
Spectre (2015)

Bond wakes up strapped to a torture chair and sees a gecko on a wall.

Screen Shot
Starsky & Hutch (2004)

Starsky accidentally shoots off the tail of Huggy Bear's pet Green Iguana.
Starsky & Hutch Screenshot
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Luke finds a Green Iguana at a cave entrance and a monitor lizard inside.
Empire Strikes Back
Strange Days (1995)

A weirdo keeps a collared lizard as a pet, because, that's what weirdos do in movies.
Strange Days
Swiss Family Robinson (1960)

A juvenile and an adult Green Iguana scare a young girl when she's wading through a swamp on a tropical island. A large water monitor scares a woman on the beach of the same island.
Swiss Family Robinson
T
 
Tales of Terror (1962) 

A drunk hallucinates a Green Iguana on his shelf and a Gila Monster on his cellar stairs.
Tales of Terror
Tarzan Escapes (1936) 

Hunters in an Africa jungle pass through a staming swamp full of man-eating iguanas. Two of them fall in and are eaten alive by the hideous monsters.
Tarzan Escapes
The Terminator (1984)

Sarah Connor, the mother of the leader of the army of the last hope of humankind in its war against the machine overlords, has a cute little pet iguana named Pugsley.
The Terminator
Terrorvision (1986)

A nutty old man sells lizard-tail jerky as a self-regenerating food source for survival.

Terrorvision
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) 

A Gila Monster crawls under the rock where Bogart hid his treasure.
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
The Tree of Life (2011) 

Two boys chase their terrified mom with a Texas Alligator Lizard.
The Tree of Life
This is Not a Film (2011) 

A large Green Iguana crawls around a movie director's house in Iran.
this is not a film
Twice Told Tales (Rappaccini's Daughter) (1963)

A poisonous woman who kills any living thing she touches, proves her condition by touching and killing a lizard she finds in her garden.
Twice Told Tales
V
 
Vanishing Point (1997)

A native American medicine man uses a horned lizard to find out which direction a man should continue driving.
Vanishing Point 1997
Venom (1981) 

A woman in a London pet store holds a large Tegu on her shoulder.
Venom
W
 
Walkabout (1971)  

A boy and a teenage girl lost in the Australian desert encounter an Aborigine boy who catches and eats lizards.
Walkabout






































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