Hulu tends to have a good lineup of sci-fi movies, but fans of the genre are really in for a treat in March. That’s because Warner Bros. Pictures has lent out two of the best sci-fi movies from the last decade. The downside is that those films on loan probably won’t be sticking around for very long, so catch them while you can.
Our picks for the three sci-fi movies on Hulu that you need to watch in March include the aforementioned Warner Bros. flicks, both of which were directed by Denis Villeneuve. The third film is a sci-fi comedy that’s coming up on its 20th anniversary in 2025.
Dune (2021)
Hulu scored a coup this month by lining up Dune at the same time that Dune: Part Two is in theaters. The first film introduces viewers to Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), the heir of House Atreides. Paul’s father, Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac), has accepted a risky assignment from the Emperor of the universe to move to the planet Arrakis and oversee the production of SPice, which allows the empire to travel through space.
Duke Leto intends to make allies with the local Freemen, unlike his predecessors in House Harkonnen. Meanwhile, Paul experiences visions of the Freemen that he doesn’t understand, including a young woman named Chani (Zendaya). But House Atreides has more enemies than the Atreides realize, and Paul will soon have bigger problems than just sorting out his destiny.
Watch Dune on Hulu.
Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
Would Blade Runner 2049 have been a bigger hit if it had come out after Ryan Gosling’s turn as Ken in Barbie or his show-stopping performance at the Oscars? We may never know, but Gosling’s elevated status in Hollywood will hopefully draw streaming viewers to Dune director Denis Villeneuve’s dazzling continuation of the Blade Runner franchise.
Gosling portrays K, a replicant who hunts down other replicants as an official Blade Runner. K’s A.I. girlfriend, Joi (Ana de Armas), is convinced that he’s more than a mere replicant, and her suspicions could be right. While investigating a case, K discovers that a female replicant has given birth, and he may be the child in question. That’s a mystery that billionaire Niander Wallace (Jared Leto) would kill to solve, and also why K has to race to find the first film’s Rick Deckard, the man who could be his father.
Watch Blade Runner 2049 on Hulu.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy novels are among the best sci-fi humor stories in the genre. The film isn’t quite as hilarious as the books, but it’s still pretty funny. Sherlock‘s Martin Freeman stars as Arthur Dent, an unlikely choice to the be last man alive. Arthur only escapes the destruction of Earth thanks to the intervention of his friend, Ford Prefect (Mos Def), an alien travel writer.
Before long, Arthur and Ford find themselves going on misadventures through the galaxy alongside the last human woman, Trillian (New Girl‘s Zooey Deschanel), a depressed android named Marvin (voiced by Alan Rickman), and Zaphod Beeblebrox (Sam Rockwell), the President of the Galaxy who has largely abandoned his duties while attempting to find “the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.” And the story only gets crazier from there.
Watch The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy on Hulu.