Everyone’s favoriteTeen Wolfsidekick is Stiles Stilinski, and without Dylan O’Brien, Stiles would not be nearly as well-known of a character, makingTeen Wolfone ofDylan O’Brien’s best movies and TV shows. O’Brien got his big break withTeen Wolfafter making videos and sharing them online. Since he got that big break in 2011, O’Brien has gone on to have a varied career in Hollywood.
O’Brien did not useTeen Wolfto jump into other high school or teen projects, which was likely a good decision on his part. Because of that, he is not simply known as a teen actor or someone whose best roles are all in his teen years. Instead,O’Brien has had a variety of action, comedy, drama, and thriller roles that show his versatility as an actor and make up his best movies and TV shows.
The First Time
Cast
The First Time is a romantic comedy-drama film that follows a shy senior and a down-to-earth junior as they meet and gradually fall in love over the course of a weekend. Released in 2012, the film explores themes of young love and self-discovery through its central characters.
Though O’Brien had been on television before, the aptly titledThe First Timemarks his feature film debut.The movie is about two teenagers falling in love for the first time.
O’Brien plays a high school senior who has a crush on his best friend. When he meets a girl from another high school at a party, however, he finds himself drawn to her. Their paths continue to cross and they are able to be themselves with one another in a way they haven’t been able to with other people, having conversations about their real fears concerning relationships, and falling for one another along the way.
The First Timeis O’Brien’s first foray into the romantic comedy world and the independent movie might not have made a huge splash with audiences, but it did showcase his talents outside of the project he was known for at the time -Teen Wolf.Audiences got to see he could play more than the sidekick with the quippy one-liners and that he could easily find a place in the rom-com world if he wanted one.
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Bumblebee
The sixth installment in the Transformers movie franchise, Bumblebee acts as both a spin-off and prequel to the series. Set in 1987, Bumblebee follows Charlie (Hailee Steinfeld) after she discovers the injured Autobot scout, B-127. Nicknaming him Bumblebee, Charlie helps the iconic yellow Transformer to evade both the evil Decepticons and the efforts of Colonel Jack Burns (John Cena) to capture him.
Bumblebeeacts as more of a standaloneTransformersmovie than the rest of the franchise does, focusing more on the human than machine element. It’s set in the 1980s, long before the events of the main timeline in the live-action movies.
Hailee Steinfeld plays a young woman who is having a difficult time after the loss of her father. O’Brien voices Bumblebee before he is sent to Earth to set up a location for Autobots to escape the Decepticons. The movie allows audiences to see just how Bumblebee lost his voice and how the Autobots arrived on Earth.
Though O’Brien’s role in the movie overall is a small one, the movie is a memorable part of his resume because O’Brien does not often do voice over roles. It’s also one of the best movies in theTransformersfranchise because the characters do not get lost in the big computer generated battles.
New Girl
New Girl is a television series that debuted in 2011, centering on Jessica Day, an eccentric young woman. Following a breakup, she moves in with three single men, navigating her quirky personality and forming unexpected friendships in her new living situation.
…the writers set the audience up to believe he is the first person Jess sleeps with, but instead, they are treated to an even more hilarious set up…
Dylan O’Brien appears in a single episode ofNew Girl, called “Virgins,” that mostly employs the use of flashbacks to tell all of its stories. O’Brien’s single-time guest-starring in the series, however, is one of thebest episodes ofNew Girl.
New Girlkicks off with Jess (Zooey Deschanel) moving in with three complete strangers after her boyfriend cheats on her. As she and the guys become friends, they become much closer, leading to this episode, which sees all of them looking back on how they lost their virginity.
O’Brien appears as a high school classmate of Jess in her flashback. He is just a little too cool for her in the initial story, playing the guitar, appearing fairly aloof, and the writers set the audience up to believe he is the first person Jess sleeps with, but instead, they are treated to an even more hilarious set up that ends with him stuck on a playground.O’Brien is perfect as both leading man and comedic relief here.
The Maze Runner
The first installment in the Maze Runner franchise, The Maze Runner, is based on James Dashner’s 2009 novel of the same name. When sixteen-year-old Thomas wakes up in the middle of an intricate maze with no memory, he falls in with a group of other boys who have been working to find their way out of the labyrinth. The maze is filled with deadly techno-organic creatures, and Thomas strives to find his way out of the maze while trying to recover his lost identity.
In the 2010s, a string of young adult novel adaptations tried to capture the same success asThe Hunger Games. WhileThe Maze Runnermoviesdid not entirely succeed at that, they didcement O’Brien as a capable lead and demonstrated that he would be great in action movies.
The Maze Runnerand the movies that follow are inspired by the novels of the same name. Set in a dystopic world, the movies see teenagers trapped in mazes and having to figure out how to get out, only to discover the world outside is populated by those infected with a deadly virus and their captors are researching how to combat it.
As the lead of the large ensemble cast, O’Brien is the grounding force in the movies.He is charismatic, even when his character does not remember who he is, and he is decisive, shaking things up for everyone else with every decision he makes. O’Brien solidified himself in the acting world with these movies, and expanded his fan base, earning several nominations and wins from the likes of fan-voted Teen Choice Awards and MTV Movie Awards because of The Maze Runner movies.
6All Too Well (2021)
As Him
All Too Wellis not a movie or television show. It is a short film, set to the10-minute version of Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well.”It earns its spot among Dylan O’Brien’s best movies and TV shows, however, because he and Sadie Sink are able to completely tell a story in a visual medium without any dialogue.
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The short film, directed by Taylor Swift, brings the lyrics of the song to life. While Sadie Sink (and later, Swift herself) plays the narrator of the song’s story, O’Brien plays the man being sung about, complete with laughing at dinner parties, letting Sink drive, and not showing up for milestone moments in her life.
O’Brien manages to bring a perfect balance of charm and condescension to the part that comes across without the audience hearing any dialogue, just Swift’s music.
Dylan O’Brien is also credited as the drummer on Taylor Swift’s song with Lana Del Rey, “Snow on the Beach.”
Deepwater Horizon
Deepwater Horizon is a 2016 disaster film based on the BP oil spill. Directed by Peter Berg and based on a story by Matthew Sand, the film chronicles a mishandling of an oceanic drilling job that leads to a massive explosion and mass amounts of oil leaking into the ocean depths.
O’Brien has only appeared in a handful of projects based on real events. A few of them land among O’Brien’s best movies, includingDeepwater Horizon.
Deepwater Horizonchronicles the failure of the oil rig of the same name and one of the most disastrous oil spins in history. The movie features a star-studded cast playing real people. O’Brien stars as one of the members of the drill team who manages to survive the explosion and help save several other people.He might be a small part of a much larger ensemble, but every moving piece of the movie’s puzzle is necessary to make it work.
Though the movie took a few liberties with facts to better streamline its story for an audience,Deepwater Horizonwas nominated for a lot of technical awards from different groups. The movie made an impressive effort to not look like computer generated effects were used, but not everything in the movie could be practical.Those visuals, editing, and sound mixing all received nods from a large number of technical and critical societies, making it one of O’Brien’s most well-crafted projects.
Saturday Night
Saturday Night (2024) is a forthcoming film with an undisclosed director. The movie centers on the vibrant nightlife of a bustling city, capturing the intertwining lives and stories of a diverse ensemble cast navigating personal and social challenges over the course of a single evening.
2024 marks the 50th anniversary of the debut ofSaturday Night Live. Because of that, several retrospectives and documentaries made their debut during the year, but this movie recreates the events surrounding the series' premiere.
An ensemble of impressive talent bring the story of puttingSaturday Nighton live to life. From Gabriel LaBelle as Lorne Michaels to Ella Hunt as Gilda Radner and Lamorne Morris as Grant Morris, the cast is full of so much modern comedic talent. Any one of the cast members could outshine the others if the ensemble was not so very well balanced in its comedic talent. It’s a testament to their talent that the audience is still rooting for them to make it work, even though they know thatSNLis still on the air decades later.
O’Brien is one of the cast members to be singled out for his work though.The Playlistcalled his work asBlues BrotherslegendDan Ackroyd“transformative” and believed the role was an “eye-opening turn” for him.
The Outfit
The Outfit is a 2022 crime drama directed by Graham Moore. Set in 1950s Chicago, The Outfit centers on Leonard Burling, an English tailor whose primary customers are gangsters that run the neighborhood. Mark Rylance stars as Leonard, alongside Zoey Deutch, Dylan O’Brien, and Johnny Flynn. Graham Moore wrote the film’s script with Jonathan McClain.
Gangster movies have largely gone out of fashion in Hollywood, but this is one that might make audiences wish for a modern resurgence.
Some of O’Brien’s thrillers, likeAmerican Assassin, have not been as well-received as others.The Outfit, however, is one that works. It might be though, that it works because ofhow well O’Brien fits into the larger ensemble.
The Outfitis a crime drama that centers on the tailor and his shop that services a family of gangsters. O’Brien plays a member of that family who ends up in a scuffle early in the film and does not make it very long thanks to a dramatic gunshot wound. His time in the movie is short, but his character drives the events of the story.
It’s the tailor, played by Mark Rylance, and his shop assistant, played by Zooey Deutch, who have to do most of the heavy lifting in the movie’s ensemble.While their roles deserve all the praise, without O’Brien to play off of early in the movie, there might not have been as much thrilling weight to all of their actions.
Teen Wolf
This supernatural drama follows a high school student in Beacon Hills who becomes a werewolf after being bitten. Alongside his best friend, he navigates newfound powers and dangers, confronting various threats while entangled in the complexities of adolescence and the supernatural world. Created by Jeff Davis.
Teen Wolfis the best television series Dylan O’Brien has done.
The most famous role on Dylan O’Brien’s resume is the one that gave him his big break.Teen Wolftook O’Brien from someone starring in videos that went viral online to one of the most successful MTV dramas of all time.
Teen Wolfwas loosely inspired by the 1980s movie of the same name. It brought the idea of a high school teen being turned into a werewolf and being introduced to the world of supernatural creatures into the modern day. It swapped in lacrosse for basketball and expanded the lore to include a variety of supernatural creatures like banshees.
O’Brien did not star as one of the supernatural creatures, though rumor has it he was initially up for the lead role of Scott. He auditioned forScott’s best friend Stilesthough, and became both the comedic relief and the heart of the show.Stiles remained human throughout the run of the show and, because of that, his emotional reactions to the events of the series are what really hold the show together.
O’Brien, however, did get the chance to play a villain in the show when a shapeshifter used Stiles' appearance to go up against Scott and his friends.The Nogitsune is one of the most popular villains of the show as a result of O’Brien’s complete change in playing the role. The darkness was a huge contrast to Stiles.
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Love and Monsters
The post-apocalyptic movie Love and Monsters follows a young man who sets out to find his girlfriend in a monster-infested world seven years after the apocalypse. Dylan O’Brien and Jessica Henwick star, with Michael Rooker, Dan Ewing, and and Ariana Greenblatt in supporting roles.
Love and Monsterschronicles another step in a dystopian world for O’Brien. The movie had the misfortune of releasing during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, which meant it did not get the theatrical treatment it might have deserved, but it became ahit with O-Brien’s fans and criticsthanks to digital on-demand services.
The movie follows a young man named Joel (O’Brien) who has been living in a bunker underground after a radiation event of some kind caused some insects and reptiles to grow to giant sizes, producing the titular “monsters.” He has spent years reconnecting with the girl who stole his heart in high school over a two-way radio. Despite not being adept with weapons or having many survival skills, he decides it’s time for him to leave the bunker and find her, leading to a journey through dangerous territory to find her bunker.
The movie is part adventure, part love story, and incredibly funny and heartfelt.O’Brien both narrates and stars in the movie, and so much of the movie relies on his reactions to the world around him while he is completely on his own. He shows a great command of his talent.While some might want to select a more dramatic role as his best,Love and Monstersis Dylan O’Brien’s best movie because it is the best showcase of all parts of his skill set.
