Adams had his first brush with films in 1983 when one of his songs was added to the soundtrack to the uneven "A Night in Heaven". The song, "Heaven", eventually became Adams first Number One single in the USA two years later. By that time he had begun his secondary career as a movie songwriter, co-writing two tunes for the soundtrack of "Teachers" (1984). In 1988, he made his feature acting debut in Clint Eastwood's "Pink Cadillac", to which he also contributed a song, but Adams has (as of 1997) yet to make a follow-up appearance in a movie.

In the 90s, Adams refashioned his image from hard-rocker to soft balladeer, beginning with "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You", the love theme to "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" (1991). The film, starring Kevin Costner, was a hit or miss reinterpretation of the classic story, but the theme was appropriately romantic and appealed to the film's female viewers. Adams performed the song, which he co-wrote with Michael Kamen and Robert John 'Mutt' Lange. Their combined efforts earned the trio an Oscar nod for Best Original Song, but the juggernaut of Disney and "Beauty and the Beast" proved insurmountable. (They fared better at the 1992 Grammy Awards.) With Sting and Rod Stewart, Adams recorded "All for Love", a gentle song that served as the theme for the 1993 remake of "The Three Musketeers". Adams shared a second Oscar nomination (again with Kamen and Lange) for the hauntingly lovely "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?" from "Don Juan DeMarco" in 1995. The following year, his duet with Barbra Streisand, "I Finally Found Someone" (from Streisand's "The Mirror Has Two Faces") brought him a third Oscar nod.

Despite his promising career as a film songwriter, Adams has not abandoned his rock'n'roll roots. In 1996, he released his tenth album, "18 'Til I Die" and headed a European tour.