The best free movies to stream right now (September 2025)

By Joe Allen Updated September 3, 2025

The word “free” can be a beautiful thing, as long as you know what strings come attached. In the case of movies, free means that you have to sit through some advertisements to watch it, which definitely isn’t the worst thing in the world, especially if you like taking bathroom breaks.

And, as it turns out, there are plenty of great movies available on free streaming services. We’ve pulled together 10 of the very best movies you can stream now, all of which are available for the low cost of nothing. Check them out below.

Few directors have been on quite the hot streak that Paul Verhoven was in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Total Recall is one of the best movies in that run. The film tells the story of a construction worker living in the future who dreams of traveling to Mars.

When he visits a new company that can implant false memories, he realizes that his entire life has been a lie and that he’s really a secret agent with a price on his head. Total Recall is an expansive sci-fi movie, especially for its era, and it’s also one where the plot confuses you in ways that will leave your head spinning.

You can watch Total Recall on Pluto TV.

The Coen brothers are among the great directors in the history of movies, and Fargo might be their most definitive work. The film tells the story of a kidnapping gone wrong and the trail of death that comes in its wake.

Anchored by a brilliant central performance from Frances McDormand, Fargo is funny, dark, and ultimately focused on the darkness at the heart of people’s hearts. Few movies feel more complete and note-perfect than this one, and even fewer will leave you eager to start the whole experience over from the beginning.

You can watch Fargo on Tubi.

Although it could be accused of feeling stagey, 12 Angry Men has instead become one of the most important movies ever made, even though it’s set almost entirely in a single room. The film tells the story of 12 jurors debating the merits of a specific case as they are all slowly swayed to the side of the lone dissenter.

Buried in the story’s script are questions of prejudice and misunderstanding that are far deeper than the intricacies of the case at hand. These details have helped the story endure through all these years.

You can watch 12 Angry Men on Tubi.

There are plenty of great newspaper procedurals out there, but Spotlight is one of the very best. The film tells the story of the reporters who investigated reports that the Catholic Church had covered up systemic abuse of young parishioners.

Because it’s grounded in reporters at a single paper, Spotlight manages to take a pretty grounded look at a remarkably devastating story and reminds us what value good journalism has in a world that seems to devalue it more and more every day.

You can watch Spotlight on Tubi.

A pseudo-documentary horror film that is every bit as terrifying as it gets credit for being, Lake Mungo tells the story of the drowning death of a teen girl and what her family learns about her double life in the aftermath of her death.

The twists and turns of this movie will leave you genuinely disturbed, as the family discovers more about a daughter they thought they knew, and we learn more about what’s real in this supposed haunting and what isn’t. Lake Mungo isn’t an actual documentary, but it will leave you spooked by the end anyway.

You can watch Lake Mungo on Tubi.

28 Days Later (2002) 

Danny Boyle’s foundational horror classic, 28 Days Later is set 28 days after the rage virus has descended upon much of the United Kingdom. The film follows one man who wakes from a coma to discover a totally changed world and has to fight for survival.

Although the film is essentially told in interconnected vignettes, Boyle’s bracing digital cinematography and Cillian Murphy’s central performance make it a film that is hard to forget. There are plenty of zombie movies, but none of them were quite as earth-shattering as this one. 

You can watch 28 Days Later on Pluto TV.

Still the best movie that Guillermo Del Toro has ever made, Pan’s Labyrinth is both a historical drama and an epic fantasy. The film follows a young girl living in Spain in the 1940s who becomes the stepdaughter to a sadistic general. As she witnesses his various atrocities, she becomes more and more drawn into the world of Pan’s Labyrinth.

Featuring some brilliant production and creature design, Pan’s Labyrinth takes serious, adult ideas and filters them through the mind of a child. In that way, it’s both a fairy tale and something far more grounded, and thereby the fullest realization of Del Toro’s vision.

You can watch Pan’s Labyrinth on Tubi.

Hollywood used to make its bread and butter on sword and sandal epics, and Gladiator is a throwback to that era. The film tells the story of a Roman general who is betrayed by the new emperor in a power grab and eventually becomes a celebrity in the gladiatorial arena to get his revenge.

Anchored by some of the best work of Russell Crowe’s career, Gladiator is a thrilling, broad-scale blockbuster. It’s not a perfect script, but Ridley Scott’s remarkable ability to bring every element of ancient Rome to life more than makes up for any cliches scattered throughout the film.

You can watch Gladiator on Pluto TV.

2007 was a great movie year, and in a crowded field, No Country for Old Men rose to the top. Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen and adapted from a Cormac McCarthy story of the same name, the film follows a hunter who stumbles upon a bag of money and finds himself chased by a sociopathic assassin and the police. 

Although the movie has many of the beats of a conventional thriller, Javier Bardem’s incredible supporting turn, coupled with the Coens’ meditations on the elemental nature of good and evil, make No Country for Old Men riveting from start to finish. 

You can watch No Country for Old Men on Pluto TV.

Goodfellas (1990) 

One of the great gangster movies ever made, Goodfellas tells the story of Henry Hill, a real gangster who was part of the New York City mafia in the 1960s and ’70s. Often lauded as a masterpiece, Goodfellas depicts the highs of a gangster and the unpredictable violence and death that always permeated it.

Although Goodfellas can be a riotously good time, director Martin Scorsese is always careful to reveal the rotten core at the heart of it all. These are men who cheat, lie, and abuse their way through life, hoping that they’ll never have to be like the regular people they so evidently despise.

You can watch Goodfellas on Tubi.