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Alexandra Daddario shifts from intimate comedy to blockbuster spectacle. With clear blue eyes that cameras love and a comic timing honed in early career roles, she has steadily built a résumé that appeals to both casual viewers and film fans looking for underrated movies.
Daddario has taken on a wide range of roles, from battling gods and monsters to escaping disasters or trading sharp comebacks. This curated list spotlights seven films that showcase her abilities, from youthful franchise heroics to adult rom-coms.
Each entry pairs a concise plot overview with an analysis of how Alexandra’s presence improves the material, shapes audience expectations, and often saves weak narratives through her strong appeal. This chronological lineup tracks her evolution as a performer.
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Disclaimer: The following movies are ranked in no particular order. This article solely contains the writer’s opinion.
Percy Jackson, San Andreas, and 5 other must-watch Alexandra Daddario movies
1) Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010)
Teenager Percy Jackson discovers he is the demigod son of Poseidon and is accused of stealing Zeus’s master lightning bolt. Flanked by satyr Grover and demigoddess Annabeth Chase (played by Alexandra Daddario) Percy races from Long Island camp to the Underworld to prevent an Olympian war.
Director Chris Columbus directs the contemporary myth mash-up with the same wide-eyed wonder he brought to early Harry Potter installments, ensuring that every hidden doorway or Hydra attack feels like pages ripped from Rick Riordan’s best-seller.
Alexandra’s Annabeth emerges as the trio’s strategic brain and occasional moral compass. She tempers the script's exposition dumps with quick-witted deliveries that foreshadow the humor she would later display in comedies. Compared to Harry Potter, Alexandra Daddario's presence grounds the CGI in humanity.
2) Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013)
Decades after the original 1974 massacre, Heather learns she has inherited a Victorian mansion in rural Texas from a grandmother she never met. Road-tripping with friends, she discovers Leatherface hiding in the basement and a townsfolk conspiracy hell-bent on erasing past sins.
Director John Luessenhop’s sequel retcons continuity to position Heather as the problematic heir to the Sawyer bloodline, doling out 3D splatter with nostalgic fan service. Stepping into a legacy horror property can typecast performers, yet Daddario uses her wide-eyed innocence to complicate audience sympathy.
Her Heather is no mere final girl; she’s a grudging Leatherface defender whose moral compass tilts toward family loyalty. The actress layers her screams with flashes of inherited darkness, culminating in the widely discussed climax of Texas Chainsaw 3D, which reclaims the tool as both birthright and burden.
Also read: 5 best movies of Sydney Sweeney
3) Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (2013)
A magical tree protecting Camp Half-Blood is poisoned, forcing Percy, Annabeth, and cyclops half-brother Tyson to seek the healing Golden Fleece in the treacherous Sea of Monsters. Director Thor Freudenthal takes over directing, dialing up nautical set pieces and creatures cribbed from Homer’s greatest hits.
The sequel doubles down on demigod sea-quests while sneaking in meditations on family, loyalty, and the dread of prophetic destinies. Reprising the role that launched her career, Alexandra Daddario injects a newly minted vulnerability into Annabeth’s armor, emerging as the narrative’s emotional anchor.
Percy Jackson film demonstrates Daddario’s growth: she uses stillness, letting small brow twitches convey stakes more effectively than pages of expository dialogue, a skill that later directors would exploit.
4) San Andreas (2015)
A magnitude-9 earthquake along the titular fault line sends Los Angeles and San Francisco crumbling. Rescue-helicopter pilot Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson navigates falling skyscrapers and tsunamis to save his estranged wife and daughter.
Alexandra Daddario plays resourceful college student Blake, who forms a tag-team with British brothers Ben and Ollie to survive downtown chaos. Director Brad Peyton renders destruction on an IMAX scale, yet the script keeps family bonds at the eye of the digital storm.
Tasked with screaming only when absolutely necessary, Daddario sidesteps damsel clichés by turning Blake into a capable problem-solver. She plans routes, signals for help, and keeps others calm under pressure. Critics praised her plausible competence, noting she held her own against the large-scale spectacle.
5) Baywatch (2017)
Mitch Buchanan leads an elite team of lifeguards who patrol Emerald Bay’s beachfront like a toned Navy SEAL unit. When disgraced Olympic swimmer Matt Brody (Zac Efron) joins as a PR stunt, recruit Summer Quinn (played by Alexandra Daddario) joins the team as Mitch runs the training.
The squad soon uncovers a drug-smuggling ring fronted by a glamorous resort owner. Director Seth Gordon trades nighttime CCTV grit for sun-kissed farce, stuffing the runtime with slow-mo sprints and knowing winks at the '90s Baywatch TV phenomenon.
Daddario plays the archetypal “cool girl” in an overtly self-aware sandbox without succumbing to sardonic detachment. Although reviewers split on the film’s tonal whiplash, her performance was noted for its comedic authority. Baywatch earned $177.9 million worldwide but later found a loyal streaming audience.
Also read: 9 most popular James Gunn movies: ranked from best to worst
6) The Layover (2017)
Best friends Kate and Meg, played by Alexandra Daddario and Kate Upton, find their flight to Fort Lauderdale diverted due to a hurricane warning. Mid-air rivalry ignites when both women fall for the same seat-mate, Ryan, prompting a St. Louis layover full of sabotage, seduction, and slapstick catastrophe.
Director William H. Macy aims for Farrelly-style raunch filtered through a female gaze, with Daddario leaning into physical comedy and deadpan reactions to keep the chaos relatable. Despite a low Rotten Tomatoes score, the film is better remembered for its posters than Daddario’s sharp comedic work.
She uses her trademark sincerity to sell absurd beats, grounding Kate’s insecurity beneath increasingly grotesque one-upmanship. A lesser performer would have sailed above the material; Daddario dives head-first, earning chuckles through micro-expressions that chart a best-friendship fracturing in real time.
7) Can You Keep a Secret? (2019)
Emma Corrigan, a jittery marketing rep played by Alexandra Daddario, survives a turbulent flight by spilling every humiliating secret to her seat-mate. The handsome stranger turns out to be Jack Harper, the elusive CEO at her own company.
Director Elise Duran directs Sophie Kinsella’s best-seller into a fizzy New York rom-com that asks whether radical honesty can coexist with corporate ambition—and true love. Carrying nearly every scene, Alexandra Daddario channels vintage Sandra Bullock: klutzy but never cartoonish, vulnerable yet luminous.
She mines slapstick for empathy rather than pity, letting mortification evolve into self-acceptance. Bypassing a wide theatrical release, the film found a significant audience on-demand, indicating Daddario’s steady draw.
Also read: 7 best survival movies to watch if you like The Last of Us
Final Thoughts
From demigod strategist to chainsaw heiress, from earthquake survivor to romantic basket-case, Alexandra Daddario’s filmography already reads like a varied syllabus in modern genre study.
As Hollywood pivots toward hybrid theatrical-streaming models, her rare combination of Instagram-era relatability and classic Hollywood glamour positions her for leading roles that bypass age-old ingenue limitations. Queue up any of these seven films to see Alexandra Daddario turn popcorn roles into quiet showcases of charisma.
