June 2024

In the not-too-distant future...

Author

Chance Shirley
June 05, 2024

I somehow missed most of Mystery Science Theater 3000 back when it originally aired in the 1990s. Even though a show about a dude and his robot friends living on a satellite and watching cheesy old movies is 100% my jam.

I have made up for lost time in the last few years, mostly thanks to the MST3K channel on Pluto TV. As good as that Pluto channel is, there’s an even better option for watching MST3K now — the Gizmoplex, the official MST3K streaming site (and app). The site includes newer MST3K episodes from the show’s recent revival, but you can watch most of the classic (20th century) episodes of the show there for free.

On Pluto TV

Airplane II: The Sequel (1982) — Airplane is one of my favorite movies of all time. “I am serious, and don’t call me Shirley,” is basically my family motto (at least if you ask me or my spouse). Airplane II: The Sequel, which takes the silliness to outer space (and includes a cameo from William “Captain Kirk” Shatner for good measure), might not be quite as funny as the original. But it is very funny, and it includes some bits (“I don’t think I’ll ever get over Macho Grande”) that rival anything in Airplane.

Also on Pluto…

  • Arrival (2016) — A linguist struggles to communicate with strange extraterrestrial visitors.

  • Battle Beyond the Stars (1980) — Roger Corman-produced Seven Samurai-by-way-of-Star Wars flick.

  • Deep Impact (1998) — Earth is threatened by an impending comet collision. Not to be confused with Armageddon (1998).

  • Event Horizon (1997) — Things get weird when a spaceship that has been missing for years reappears.

  • The Faculty (1998) — Invasion of the Body Snatchers goes to high school in this excellent ’90s horror flick.

  • Galaxy Quest (1999) — The cast of a canceled sci-fi TV show gets involved in a real-life interstellar conflict.

  • Krull (1983) — On the planet Krull, a prince mounts a mission to save a princess from alien invaders.

  • Life (2017) — Scientists on a space station fight for survival against a bizarre alien lifeform.

  • Multiplicty (1996) — A construction worker hopes to solve his problems by cloning himself.

  • Night of the Comet (1984) — Totally ’80s teenagers-versus-zombies flick.

  • The Running Man (1987) — Dystopian satire about a brutally violent reality TV show.

  • Safety Not Guaranteed (2012) — Reporters investigate a supermarket clerk who claims to have built a time machine.

  • Species (1995) — Scientists create an alien/human hybrid with predictably disastrous results.

  • Star Trek — The first season of the iconic sci-fi television show.

  • Star Trek: The Next Generation — Season 7 of the second Trek TV show, including the series finale “All Good Things.”

  • The Time Machine (2002) — Guy Pearce stars as the time traveler in this adaptation of H.G. Wells’ classic novel.

  • Universal Monsters Channel — A live stream of classic Universal horror and sci-fi movies.

  • War of the Worlds (2005) —Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of H.G. Wells’ classic alien invasion story.

  • When Worlds Collide (1951) — As a rogue planet approaches earth, a team works frantically to build an escape rocket.

On Tubi

Demolition Man (1993) — In a mega city of the future, the recently resurrected criminal Simon Phoenix is wreaking havoc. In a desperate attempt to stop him, the police awaken Phoenix’s old nemesis, a reckless 20th century cop nicknamed “The Demolition Man,” from suspended animation. Also, all the restaurants are Taco Bell.

Also on Tubi...

  • Birds of Prey — Superheroes Oracle, Black Canary, and the Huntress team up to protect a Batman-less Gotham City in this 2002 TV show.

  • A Boy and His Dog (1975) — Fun “VHS Vault” presentation of the movie about a post-apocalyptic scavenger and his telepathic dog.

  • Colossal (2016) — An American woman has a strange connection to a giant monster in South Korea.

  • Dark City (1998) — An amnesiac struggles to piece together his past in a city where the night never ends.

  • Day of the Dead (1985) — “VHS Vault” presentation of the third movie in George Romero’s zombie series.

  • The Descent (2005) — A group of spelunkers encounter vicious humanoid creatures.

  • Devil Girl From Mars (1954) — A leather-clad female alien visits earth to abduct men for breeding stock.

  • Forbidden Planet (1956) — Widescreen sci-fi take on Shakespeare’s The Tempest.

  • How to Make a Monster (1958) — A monster makeup artist exacts revenge on the movie executives that fired him.

  • Island of Terror (1966) — A remote island community is threatened by tentacled monsters. Peter Cushing stars.

  • Logan’s Run (1976) — A cop in a dystopian future finds his allegiances changing after he goes undercover.

  • Phantom From Space (1953) — An invisible humanoid from outer space terrorizes earthlings.

  • Predator (1987) — Jungle commandos hunt a formidable alien invader. If it bleeds, they can kill it.

  • A Scanner Darkly (2006) — Animated adaptation of the Philip K. Dick’s trippy, paranoid novel.

  • The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1968) — Jack Palance stars in this shot-on-video adaptation of the classic story.

  • The Suicide Squad (2021) — Super-powered convicts go on a Dirty Dozen-style mission to save the world.

  • Tenet (2020) — Attackers from the future wage a strange (and confusing) covert war on the present.

  • The Vampire (1957) — Bat blood-infused pills turn a small-town physician into a monster.

  • War Between the Planets (1966) — Earth faces disaster as a rogue planet approaches in this Italian sci-fi flick.

  • The Wasp Woman (1959) — A cosmetics executive’s ill-advised experiments turn her into an insect monster.

On YouTube

I always say that Back to the Future is the most ’80s movie ever. Not only does it capture the ’80s style (the wardrobe! the Delorean!), it also leans into the ’80s nostalgia for the 1950s by sending its hero to that decade. As is the case with many classic trilogies, you don’t have to watch all three Back to the Future movies — the first one is the best and works fine by itself. But Part II and Part III are good, too.

Also on YouTube...

  • The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002) — Pluto Nash tries to keep his nightclub out of the hands of the lunar mafia.

  • Alien (1979) — Things get scary when the crew of a spaceship investigates a mysterious transmission.

  • The Andromeda Strain (1971) — Scientists work to contain a deadly virus with extraterrestrial origins.

  • Contagion (2011) — Steven Soderbergh’s rocedural disaster movie about a global pandemic.

  • Dark Star (1974) — John Carpenter’s sci-fi comedy debut feature.

  • The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) — An alien and his robot pal visit earth with a message of peace... or else.

  • Donnie Darko (2001) — A troubled teen sleepwalks his way out of a bizarre accident. Then things get weird.

  • Enemy Mine (1985) — Enemy soldiers must work together to survive after crash landing on a desloate planet.

  • Frankenstein (1931) — Universal’s iconic adaptation of the Mary Shelley’s seminal sci-fi novel.

  • Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943) — The two classic Universal monsters team up.

  • The Ice Pirates (1984) — Wacky sci-fi spoof about spacefaring water pirates.

  • The Invisible Man (1933) — A scientist makes himself invisible and goes mad in the process.

  • It! The Terror From Beyond Space (1958) — A vicious martian creature stows away on a spaceship bound for earth.

  • Jason and the Argonauts (1963) — Greek myth-inspired adventure with groundbreaking Ray Harryhausen special effects.

  • Jupiter Ascending (2015) — Cinderella in space, from the directors of The Matrix.

  • On the Beach (2000) — Survivors of a nuclear war face a bleak future.

  • Speed Racer (2008) — Live-action adaptation of the classic 1960s cartoon.

  • Stargate (1994) — A military team uses an ancient device to teleport to a distant planet.

  • Timecop (1994) — A shady politician plans to change the past to control the future.

  • Total Recall (1990) — A construction worker becomes a secret agent after his “virtual vacation” goes awry.

  • Train to Busan (2016) — A virus that turns people into flesh-eating zombies runs wild. Chaos ensues.

On The Roku Channel

Sometimes it seems like every movie that comes out these days is a superhero flick. There’s a strong argument to be made that the release of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man in 2002 was ground zero for the modern superhero movie craze. (With due respect to Blade (1998) and X-Men (2000), both of which paved the way for Spider-Man.) Spider-Man 2 is the rare sequel that often surpasses the original. And Spider-Man 3 has its moments, despite being generally overstuffed.

Also on the Roku Channel...

  • The Bionic Woman — 1970s TV show about a crime-fighting cyborg.

  • King Kong Lives (1986) — Yes, they somehow made a sequel to the 1976 King Kong remake.

  • Land of the Lost — 1970s lost-world-with-dinosaurs kids’ TV show that isn’t afraid to get weird.

  • The Road (2009) — A father and son navigate a bleak, post-apocalyptic wasteland.

  • The Terminator (1984) — A cyborg from the future travels to 1984 Los Angeles on a murder mission.

  • Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022) — Not a sci-fi movie, but “Weird” Al did sing about Yoda.

On Freevee

  • Beyond Atlantis (1973) — A team of thieves and adventurers visit a mysterious island in search of treasure.

  • Cube (1997) — A group of strangers try to escape a strange maze filled with deadly traps.

  • Escape From New York (1981) — A bitter ex-soldier infiltrates a city-sized prison to rescue the U.S. president.

  • Eve of Destruction (1991) — A dangerous android, who is also a nuclear bomb, runs amok.

  • Fallout — Retro-futuristic post-apocalyptic adventure TV show based on the popular video game.

  • The Girl With All the Gifts (2017) — In a dystopian future, a trio of unlikely allies go on the run.

  • The Invisible Man (2020) — A woman suspects her abusive husband is stalking her, even though he’s supposed to be dead.

  • The Mist (2007) — A strange storm unleashes bizarre and deadly creatures on a small Maine town.

  • The Purge: Election Year (2016) — A senator is targeted after she vows to eliminate a barbaric annual ritual.

  • A Rough Draft (2018) — A man is recruited to be a gatekeeper for a multi-dimensional portal.

On Hoopla

  • Angry Red Planet (1959) — The traumatized survivor of a Mars mission tries to remember how she got back to earth.

  • Color out of Space (2019) — A fallen meteor has strange effects on a secluded family farm.

  • Cyst (2020) — Super gross retro monster movie.

  • The Host (2006) — Giant monster movie from Parasite director Bong Joon Ho.

  • Impostor (2001) — An apparently human scientist is accused of being an extraterrestrial enemy agent.

  • Red Planet (2000) — Astronauts (and their robot dog) fight for survival on Mars.

  • Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004) — A reporter and a pilot team up to investigate missing scientists and giant robots.

  • Sphere (1998) — Divers discover a centuries-old spaceship on the ocean floor.

Do you have a favorite sci-fi movie that’s available on one of the free streaming sites that I missed? If so, let me know. Feedback is always appreciated!