It’s late 2024 and streaming prices continue to increase, but luckily for viewers, there’s a growing number of free streaming services out there. From Tubi to Pluto TV and even no-cost options on Peacock, there’s a ton of free content to be enjoyed. In recent years, the free content has also gotten a lot better now that major companies are investing in free streaming services.
This is especially great news for sci-fi fans since lots of fantastic new and classic sci-fi films have made their way to these free streamers. Whether you want a big box office hit, an award-winning indie film, or a legendary cult classic, you can find them there for free. Here are 10 of the best sci-fi movies you can stream right now without paying a dime.
We also have guides to the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Max, and the best movies on Disney+.
The Dark Crystal (1982)
Jim Henson’s fantasy film The Dark Crystal was a modest hit when it premiered in the 1980s, but it’s since developed a massive cult following and is considered by many fans to be Henson’s best work. In the movie, a young boy must complete a prophecy and find a missing crystal piece to save his race. What really makes the movie special are the intricate costumes and puppets that the Jim Henson Company is known for, as they create a dark, mystical, and almost Tim Burton-esqe setting.
In recent years, the film has gained so much popularity that it has received spinoff novels and mangas, and Netflix even launched its own prequel series to the film called The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance in 2019.
Watch The Dark Crystal for free on Peacock and Pluto TV.
Starship Troopers (1997)
With the success of Helldivers 2 and its own recently released video game, Starship Troopers is having a bit of a moment. The film is inspired by the 1959 Robert Heinlein novel of the same name. But whereas Heinlein’s novel actually glorifies war, fascism, and authoritarianism, the movie is a hilariously campy rebuttal. In a 2017 interview with Digital Spy, director Paul Verhoeven even admitted he purposefully chose his cast to resemble characters from Nazi propaganda films. “I wanted them to look like the people you see in Leni Riefenstahl’s movie The Triumph of the Will,” he said.
In Starship Troopers, Earth has launched numerous colonization missions around the galaxy, killing whoever may be there already. This starts a seemingly never-ending war with an arachnid alien race known by humans as “bugs.” But the characters in Verhoeven’s movie don’t seem to mind because endless war with various enemies is all they know. The film is loaded with humor, action, and one hell of an underlying message.
Watch Starship Troopers for free on Pluto TV.
Galaxy Quest (1999)
Galaxy Quest proves that great comedy doesn’t need to be raunchy. This PG movie brilliantly pays homage to (and is a biting satire of) Star Trek and nerdy sci-fi culture as a whole. The film follows the washed-up cast of an old sci-fi TV series called Galaxy Quest (which is clearly a nod to Star Trek). What the cast doesn’t know is that aliens have been watching reruns of the show and now think that the actors are actual galaxy-traversing space heroes.
Galaxy Quest is loaded with sci-fi tropes, and the movie expertly plays with them, twists them, and mocks them, all while very lovingly giving the genre lots of recognition and respect. Galaxy Quest works because you can tell its filmmakers were in on the joke and were sci-fi fans themselves. Plus, the movie has an outstanding cast, including big names like Sigourney Weaver and Alan Rickman, as well as comedy experts like Missi Pyle and Rainn Wilson.
Watch Galaxy Quest on Pluto TV.
Monsters (2010)
Monsters premiered at the 2010 SXSW festival to rave reviews. In the movie, alien creatures begin taking over Mexico. The film follows an American man and woman who try to escape the country before the U.S. has time to fully construct a massive wall to try and stop the creatures and quarantine Mexico. Beneath the madness, the movie becomes a weird love story, which helps elevate it into something much larger than just a generic monster flick.
Monsters became a massive hit in the festival circuit and even earned a BAFTA nomination for then-first-time director Gareth Edwards, who later went on to direct box office hits like 2014’s Godzilla and 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
Watch Monsters for free on Peacock.
Super 8 (2011)
Super 8 is J.J. Abrams’s stylized and somewhat polarizing 2011 sci-fi epic. Set in Ohio during the summer of 1979, the film follows a group of kids who encounter a bizarre accident one night while filming a homemade movie on a Super 8 camera. Soon, strange events happen around town and a mysterious creature lurks in the darkness.
The movie was both praised and criticized for its style – most notably its liberal use of lens flare, which divided viewers, with some thinking it was a great stylistic choice and others finding it distracting. In 2011, IndieWire even titled an article about the then-upcoming film, “New 30 Second ‘Super 8’ Clip Has At Least 30 Lens Flares In It.”
Ultimately, Super 8 became a hit, with many loving its retro vibes, its fun group of kids, and its great mystery. Two of its biggest fans included the Duffer Brothers, and the similarities between Stranger Things and Super 8 are pretty obvious. “I loved Super 8, but then it was just gone,” the brothers said on the Happy Sad Confused podcast in 2022. “No one else did it. And I do think there was an appetite, or that’s what I hoped, for this type of storytelling.” With the success of Stranger Things, it seems the Duffer Brothers were absolutely right about there being an appetite.
Watch Super 8 for free on Freevee.
The Invisible Man (2020)
In 2020, H.G. Wells’ classic story The Invisible Man was remade for a new generation. The film stars Elisabeth Moss as Cecilia Kass, a woman in an abusive relationship with a man who (unfortunately for her) happens to be a world-renowned optical engineer. She escapes from him, but instead of finding peace and freedom, she senses a lurking presence that’s out to torment her. Could it somehow be her obsessive boyfriend, or is she just breaking under the pressure of trauma?
The Invisible Man was a hit with critics and audiences, and despite premiering just two weeks before the COVID pandemic caused theaters around the globe to shut their doors, the movie managed to gross an impressive $144 million.
Watch The Invisible Man for free on Freevee.
The Void (2016)
Lovecraft fans will love 2016’s The Void. In the movie, a group of strangers find themselves at a mostly-abandoned hospital that’s surrounded by robed cultists. Things get even worse when people start turning into monsters after the cult leader reveals he’s found a way to make deals with otherworldly entities. Like all Lovecraftian horror films, The Void has an emphasis on cosmic terrors and lots of tentacles, pus, slime, and morbid creatures.
The Void received mostly positive reviews, but it did get some negative criticism for its plot — which leaves a lot unexplained. But for fans of the body-horror genre, or anyone who enjoys Lovecraft’s famous style, the movie won’t disappoint thanks to its great monsters.
Watch The Void on Tubi.
The Mist (2007)
In this modern Stephen King classic, a small town is suddenly consumed by a strange mist. As police cars rush down the street and alarms go off around the town, a group of residents hunker down inside a crowded grocery store. But things get even worse when they learn that giant monsters are lurking within the mist.
As the situation, becomes more dire the group struggles with conflicts. They wonder if they should stay or run, how long they might be trapped for, and how to ration supplies. But The Mist is most memorable for its traumatic and shocking finale that is both heartbreaking and brilliant. If you’ve never seen the movie, the ending is a giant gut punch that will sit with you long after the film ends.
Watch The Mist for free on Tubi.
Cube (1997)
In Cube, a group of strangers wake up in a giant cube made of smaller, ever-shifting cubes. The movie never fully explains who made the cube or why the group has been trapped in it. Instead, it focuses on the desperation and paranoia that arises as they try to escape. The group is also forced to deal with another dilemma: some of the cubes are rigged with traps, and the only way to know which rooms are trapped is by solving a secret code within each cube’s room numbers.
Cube was praised by critics and even won Best Canadian Feature Film at its Toronto Film Festival premiere. Many have also noted its similarities to Saw, calling it a spiritual precursor to that movie thanks to its gritty, confined spaces and morbid traps. Cube‘s popularity has also led to two sequels and a 2021 Japanese remake. In 2022, Bloody Disgusting reported that Lionsgate was also in the early stages of working on an American remake.
Watch Cube for free on Tubi.
Stargate (1994)
If you’re a sci-fi fan, you probably already know about the Stargate franchise. In the original film, archeologists uncover a mysterious circular structure in Egypt that’s revealed to be a portal to other worlds. After activating the stargate, a team travels through a wormhole and finds themselves on an alien planet with structures that resemble those found in ancient Egypt. They also discover the Egyptian god Ra is actually an alien with malicious intent.
Stargate became an unexpected, if minor, hit, grossing more than $71 million in America and over $196 million globally. It also launched one of the most high-profile fandoms in sci-fi history and spawned the insanely popular spinoff series Stargate SG-1. If you love sci-fi, Stargate is a must-watch.
Watch Stargate for free on Freevee.
