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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", "An" and "The" at the start of the title can be ignored.)

Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955)

Costello also meets a gigantic monster lizard inside the mummy's tomb.

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.

Altered States (1980)

A Harvard scientist eats some Mexican magic mushrooms and hallucinates a bunch of lizards.

The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

Spider-Man Peter Parker battles a giant lizard monster that is threatening the city.

Apache Territory (1958)

A cowboy lying down on a rock ledge hiding from some Apache Indians, watches a Gila Monster slowly crawl towards his face, unable to shoot it or make any other noise.

Ape vs. Monster (2021)

A Gila Monster drinks alien liquid from a crashed spacecraft and becomes an enormous monster.

Arabesque (1966)

A chase scene through the London Zoo is punctuated musically to several shots of snakes and lizards sticking out their tongues.

Bad Boys II (2003)

Green Iguanas are used to fool motion detectors, then a Green Iguana steps on a land mine.

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.

The Bad Lieutenant - Port of Call: New Orleans (2009)

An imagined iguana and a bearded dragon freak out Nicholas Cage.

The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970)

Somebody shoots a Gila Monster on a rock before Cable can kill it with a knife for food.

Big Stakes (1922)

Getting bitten by a deadly Gila Monster is the price to pay for losing a bet.

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.

Broken Lance (1954)

A man finds that his old ranch is so run down that there's a Gila Monster in the garden.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

The Sundance Kid shoots a Gila Monster.

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.

Caveman (1981) - Several lizards make an appearance in this prehistoric comedy.

CrissCross (1992)

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

Crocodile Dundee (1986)

Dundee roasts a large monitor lizard for dinner.

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.

Cross Country Detours (1940)

On a split screen an animated gila monster growls while a little girl recites poetry.

Cross Country Detours (1940)

An animated lizard sheds its skin like a woman doing a strip tease dance.

Deep Red (1975)

A creepy, sadistic little girl sticks a pin through a lizard just to torture it.

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.

Don't Torture a Duckling (1972)

A young Italian boy shoots a wall lizard with a slingshot.

Drive, He Said (1971)

A campus radical runs naked into a college science lab and releases mice, snakes, lizards, and other animals.

Duel in the Sun (1946)

A couple of Chuckwallas show up briefly as local color in this campy western melodrama.

El Topo (1970)

Nihilistic Mexican murderers abuse large spiny-tailed lizards.

The Fallen Idol (1948)

A young boy keeps a Slow Worm hidden behind a brick.

The Far Side of Jericho (2006)

Fugitive women decline a young boy's offer of lizard to eat.

Fort Apache (1948)

A trading post exhibits a stuffed Gila Monster on its wall.

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.

Frogs (1972)

Nature runs amok, with lizards and other animals killing the humans who are polluting their habitat.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)

A motorcycle gang crushes a lizard eating flies on a skull.

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.

The Giant Gila Monster (1959)

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

Gila! (2012)

A giant Gila Monster terrorizes a small town.

The Gods Must Be Crazy II (1989)

A woman suddenly dropped into the African wilderness is terrified by a monitor lizard.

Greed (1924)

A fugitive sees a Gila Monster and a Chuckwalla in Death Valley.

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.

Holes (2003)

Yellow-spotted Lizards with fangs kill people with their venom.

The Holy Mountain (1973)

Horned lizards dressed as Aztecs fight Cane Toad conquistadores in the Spanish conquest of Mexico.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 Killer Snakes (She sha shou) (1975)

A bullied man uses snakes and monitor lizards to get revenge.

Komodo vs. Cobra (2005)

Scientists accidentally create a gigantic monster Komodo Dragon and a monster Cobra that battle it out in the end.

Le Cercle Rouge (1970)

An alcoholic's delirium includes Uromastyx and Iguanas.

The Left Handed Gun (1958)

Billy the Kid is recuperating in bed when his friends prank him with a horned lizard in a box.

Licence to Kill (1989)

An evil drug lord carries around an iguana that wears a diamond studded collar.

Life of Pi (2012)

A monitor lizard runs up to the camera at a zoo in India.

The Lizard (1972)

A Robin-Hood-like Kung Fu cat burglar leaves a toy lizard at the scenes of his crimes.

Lizard in a Woman's Skin (1971)

There are no lizards in this movie, but there is plenty of women's skin...

The Lizard Woman (2004)

Fiendish geckos bite people, turn them into zombies, and turn one woman into a lizard woman.

Lord of the Flies (1963)

A boy marooned on a tropical island plays with an anole.

The Lost World (1925)

A scientist on an expedition to the Amazon to find dinosaurs, studies two unusual lizards he found there.

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)

An Australian Shingleback Skink is seen in a post-apocalyptic desert wasteland.

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

A two-headed lizard makes a tasty post-apoctalyptic snack for Max.

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.

Manny & Lo (1996)

An 11-year-old girl says the pledge of allegiance to a green anole then hypnotizes it.

The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932)

Diabolical Dr. Fu Manchu makes a mind-control serum of sacred herbs and reptiles, including a Gila Monster.

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.

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 Mexican (2001)

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

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.

The Naked Prey (1965)

A great jungle adventure movie filmed in Africa with lots of herps, including some South African lizards.

The Nature of the Beast (1995)

A man steals a Gila Monster from a roadside zoo and uses it to threaten his traveling companion in order to assert his dominance.

Next (2007)

A Las Vegas magician does a trick for a boy, making a lizard appear in his hand.

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.

Nightwish (1989)

An alligator lizard eating a bug s seen briefly as we follow a van passing in the background.

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.

On the Road (201A 2)

A woman attacks a tree full of green anoles with a broom in her yard at night.

One Million B.C. (1940)

One Million Years B.C. (1966)

A caveman is chased by a gigantic lizard.

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."

The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)

An old Indian man gives Josey Wales a horned lizard that told him they should go to Mexico.

Papillon (1973)

An anole sits on a tin roof as our protagonists arive at prison.

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.

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.

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.

Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)

Dragons and skinks are used for local color while some schoolgirls picnic.

The Puffy Chair (2005)

A guy visits his quirky brother to find him in a bush videotaping Green Anoles.

Quantum of Solace (2008)

A big lizard makes a brief appearance in the Bolivian desert.

Que Viva Mexico (1932/1979)

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

Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002)

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

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.

Rango (2011)

Rango is a Chameleon, Bad Bill is a Gila Monster, Waffles is a horned lizard, and Beans is a Desert Iguana.

The Rawhide Terror (1934)

A crazy killer tortures a gila monster probably just for fun.

Realive (2016)

Young boys torture and kill a lizard to impress other children.

Red River (1948)

A cowboy riding a horse leans over and grabs a Texas Horned Lizard off the ground without stopping.

Roma (2018)

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

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.

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.

The Show (1927)

A deadly poisonous Green Iguana kills a man at a carnival then is stolen in an attempt to kill another man.

Sirens (1993)

A large lizard sits on a desk at a train station.

Skyfall (2012)

A casino in Macao has a pit below the gambling floor full of hungry Komodo Dragons.

Sorcerer (1970)

An anole lives in the squalid workers' barracks of a poor South American town.

Spectre (2015)

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

Starsky & Hutch (2004)

Starsky accidentally shoots off the tail of Huggy Bear's pet Green Iguana.

Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Luke finds a Green Iguana at a cave entrance and a monitor lizard inside.

Strange Days (1995)

A weirdo keeps a collared lizard as a pet, because, that's what weirdos do in movies.

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.

Tales of Terror (1962)

A drunk hallucinates a Green Iguana on his shelf and a Gila Monster on his cellar stairs.

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.

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.

Terrorvision (1986)

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

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

A Gila Monster crawls under the rock where Bogart hid his treasure.

The Tree of Life (2011)

Two boys chase their terrified mom with a Texas Alligator Lizard.

This is Not a Film (2011)

A large Green Iguana crawls around a movie director's house in Iran.

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.

Vanishing Point (1997)

A native American medicine man uses a horned lizard to find out which direction a man should continue driving.

Venom (1981)

A woman in a London pet store holds a large Tegu on her shoulder.

Walkabout (1971)

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

Yaksha: Ruthless Operations (2022)

A spy keeps a large pet lizard in his headquarters and in his car.

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