8. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1982) - Lawrence Kasdan
Raiders of the Lost Ark started life as a homage to the B-movie serials that Steven Spielberg and George Lucas loved as children. With their own movie, they wanted to capture the fun and silliness of those adventures - unfortunately, they did one better: the created the greatest B-movie adventure ever committed to the screen. Lots of people helped to make Raiders a movie that transcended its origins, but Lawrence Kasdan's original script is a genuine marvel. What Kasdan shows us (with ease) is that story and character aren't that interchangeable: it's perfectly possible to tell a story that gels perfectly with your protagonist (and as a result of
your character's actions). Everything that happens to Indy feels actively pursued (whether or not it is is a different matter). The result, then, is arguably the best and most effective action/adventure movie screenplay ever conceived.
This is how you write a B-movie. You can read Lawrence Kasdan's screenplay for
Raiders of the Lost Arkhere.