The blending of the science fiction and family genres has led the way to many beloved cinematic experiences over the years. There are vast creative possibilities and limitless potential within the sci-fi genre to tell stories of all types and styles, making it all the more endearing that many of these tales are equally accessible to be appreciated by children. For the past half-century of cinematic history, sci-fi family movies have been some of the most approachable and compelling out there.

Whether it be mysterious visitors from across the cosmos or massive leaps in technological advancement, these otherworldly concepts of sheer imagination lend themselves perfectly to the childlike wonder and whimsy of a family movie. Even more so, these concepts can serve as a great entry point for truly powerful thematic material and messaging that can land with older audiences just as effectively as with younger ones.

10

‘Frankenweenie’ (2012)

Image via Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Tim Burton‘s stop-motion remake of his quirky sci-fi family short film from the ’80s, Frankenweenie remixes the classic Frankenstein story by following a young Victor Frankenstein, who uses his mad genius to resurrect his beloved dead dog Sparky. However, things quickly begin to go awry when Victor’s neighbors and peers discover what he has done, initially shocked at the return of Sparky before creating mayhem when they decide to reanimate their own deceased pets.

This unique Frankenstein adaptation stays true to some of the core themes and concepts of the original story while also making it much more approachable to younger audiences. It’s filled to the brim with Burton’s signature sense of wit and gothic charm, with a lot of the same appeal that has made several of his other stories and films family movie icons. The stop-motion animation is also a joy to watch, feeling highly impressive and intricate in its craft to a point where adults can also find great enjoyment in the film.

9

‘Honey, I Shrunk the Kids’ (1989)

Image via Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

An absolute icon of ’80s family movies that succeeds not only thanks to the strength of its premise, but the striking execution in bringing it to life, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids has been pervasive in the history of family movie filmmaking ever since its release. The Joe Johnston film follows a scientist father (Rick Moranis) who accidentally shrinks his two children and two other neighborhood teens to the size of insects, forcing them to fight against the miniature dangers while the father searches for them.

Honey, I Shrunk the Kids does an exceptional job playing up the fantasy elements of its clearly sci-fi concept, showing both the danger and unexpected fun of being a few inches tall. On top of an exceptional leading comedic performance from Moranis and a great exploration of the concept’s potential, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids quickly became one of the most beloved family movies of the ’80s and persisted in culture throughout the ’90s and beyond.

8

‘Megamind’ (2010)

Image via DreamWorks Animation

Playing into the pervasive trend of superhero stories rising in popularity throughout sci-fi films of the 2000s, Megamind‘s family movie twist on superhero and supervillain archetypes has given it an effective niche that still feels relevant over 15 years later. The film follows the titular pompous supervillain Megamind (Will Ferrell), who faces an identity crisis after finally defeating his life-long arch-nemesis. He soon begins to realize that most of the fun of being a villain was facing off against a hero, so he creates a new hero to face.

This beloved animated superhero movie has only grown more appreciated in the years since its release, as its meta characters and fundamental understanding of hero-villain rivalries have made it a great, self-aware family experience. Today, the film is largely considered one of the most underrated films released by DreamWorks Animation and one of the all-time great superhero parody films.

7

‘Spy Kids’ (2001)

Image via Dimension Films

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The definitive family movie from fan-favorite filmmaker Robert Rodriguez, Spy Kids blended the 2000s craze with espionage and the world of super secret spies with young children using their perspective to save their family from a dastardly conspiracy and crazed villains. While the film spawned several sequels over the years, its distinct charm helps it exceed the quality of follow-up entries in the franchise.

The film follows a duo of children who believe that their parents are the most boring people on Earth, completely unaware of their previous lives as top secret agents who gave up their lives to raise them. However, when several old colleagues disappear, forcing the parents out of retirement, it doesn’t take long before the kids themselves are put up to the task to find their parents and save them from a dastardly villain.

6

‘Lilo & Stitch’ (2002)

Image via Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

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While Disney has had its fair share of notable family movies delving into the sci-fi genre, Lilo & Stitch is easily their absolute best combination of classic family values with wild sci-fi characters and concepts. It follows Stitch, a chaotic genetic experiment from outer space who escapes confinement and crash-lands on the islands of Hawaii. Initially causing chaos, he finds an unexpected friendship with independent little girl Lilo, as their true bond gives them both new perspectives on life.

This exceptional animated comedy gets a lot of mileage out of the comedic banter and dynamic between its titular duo. With stellar animation and a great mix of heartfelt moments and top-notch comedy, Lilo & Stitch has cemented itself as one of Disney’s greatest and most acclaimed films of the 21st century so far. Even after a live-action remake that grossed over a billion dollars, nothing comes close to the exceptional filmmaking present within the original 2002 classic.

5

‘The Wild Robot’ (2024)

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A striking evolution of 3D animation that proves just how much DreamWorks Animation has progressed as an animation studio in recent years, The Wild Robot is a glorious combination of the sci-fi, family, and adventure genres to create one of the definitive animated masterpieces of the 2020s. The film follows an intelligent helper robot who, after a shipwreck, is stranded on an uninhabited island. As it attempts to survive the harsh climate, it begins to form bonds and care for the various animals, most notably an orphaned baby goose.

While the gloriously beautiful animation does a lot to help elevate the film’s strengths, the clearest and most prominent quality is the exceptional characters. Roz the robot’s growth from an unfeeling helper into a genuine fighter and mother figure is incredibly endearing to watch on-screen. With a sequel on the way, The Wild Robot‘s legacy and prominence among modern sci-fi family movies only continues to grow.

4

‘The Iron Giant’ (1999)

Image via Warner Bros.

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While the film was initially a box-office bomb, The Iron Giant thrived in the home video market, with many quickly understanding its qualities and brilliant combination of 2D and 3D animation. This glorious story of unexpected friendship between a boy and a 50 ft robot perfectly complements the Red Scare aesthetic and nuclear war fears underlying the plot. Brad Bird‘s initial animated outing continues to be celebrated over 25 years later as one of the greatest animated movies of all time.

Despite coming out in the early years of 3D animation, The Iron Giant‘s stylistic visuals have aged exceptionally well into the modern age, directly complementing the style of 2D animation without ever feeling distracting. The emotional moments hit hard, and the characters feel grounded in a place of reality amidst the wild sci-fi madness around them. It can be enjoyed by adults just as much as young children, making it a true one-of-a-kind.

3

‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ (2018)

Spider-Man is a character that has had an overwhelming appeal with audiences and young children for generations, with many different film adaptations leaning into the character’s sheer charm and appeal. However, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse easily stands out as not just the best Spider-Man film, but one that fundamentally understands the strengths of the character and translates them to a fun, sci-fi family tale. It sees a variety of alternate universes coming together, with a whole team of Spider-People having to team up to return to their universes.

After so many great Spider-Man films, Into the Spider-Verse does the greatest job of recreating the magic and strengths of the comic on the big screen, with its stylish animation feeling at times like it was taken directly off the panel. It all works in tandem with an exceptional story of strength and growth, showing that anyone can find success and can have the title of Spider-Man and that the pains of our past can help drive us toward a greater future.

2

‘WALL·E’ (2008)

Image via Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

One of the greatest films from Pixar’s golden era and a masterclass of beautiful animation mixed with powerful eco-messaging, WALL·E‘s overwhelming reputation as an animated masterpiece precedes it. The film follows an incredibly cute trash robot left as the lone inhabitant of Earth, with humanity having abandoned the planet after it has been overwhelmed by a high amount of trash and decay. However, plant life has managed to find a way to exist on Earth, with WALL·E going on a journey across the cosmos to return humanity to Earth.

WALL·E features some of the greatest worldbuilding and stage-setting in a sci-fi film, with the powerful visuals of a decaying Earth contrasting perfectly with the quaint, simple, and cute life of WALL·E himself. As his journey of love and curiosity grows, there is a consistent and seamless marriage between top-notch slapstick silent comedy and exceptional eco themes. While already massively acclaimed, WALL·E has attained an overwhelming legacy as one of the definitive family movie masterpieces of the 21st century.

Image via Universal Pictures

It’s impossible to discuss iconic and well-crafted sci-fi family movies without mentioning Steven Spielberg‘s legendary blockbuster masterpiece, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. This absolute icon of ’80s cinema exemplifies all the great strengths inherent to the sci-fi family genre, telling a timeless story of family friendship with galactic stakes and an overwhelming sense of charm from beginning to end. E.T. sees Spielberg going all out in terms of a crowd-pleasing entertainment, playing to his greatest strengths to create a true cultural moment for family filmmaking.

Time has only been kind to the strengths and influence of E.T. on wider culture. Indeed, the film has become the face of sci-fi family filmmaking as well as one of the most iconic movies of its decade. Its legacy and impact on filmmaking as a whole only continues to grow with each passing year, massively influencing every other sci-fi family movie for both the past 50 years and the next 50 years.

Of all the many reboots currently in production or post-production, few are as exciting as John Wick director Chad Stahelski‘s Highlander reboot. Following in the footsteps of the 1986 film of the same name, starring Christopher Lambert and Sean Connery, Stahelski will be looking to pack action and tension into this beloved fantasy tale, and will do so with a star-studded cast, who have been seen in action in recent first-look photos from behind the scenes.

Henry Cavill will star as Connor MacLeod alongside Academy Award winner Russell Crowe as Ramirez, with the pair joined by the star-studded ensemble of Dave Bautista (The Wrecking Crew), Karen Gillan (Guardians of the Galaxy), Jeremy Irons (Batman v Superman), Djimon Hounsou (Blood Diamond), Marisa Abela (Industry), and more. Directed by Stahelski and written by Kerry Williamson and Mike Finch, the movie will be released by Amazon MGM Studios and is reported to have an eye-catching production budget of roughly $180 million.

The stage is set for yet another exciting action flick from Cavill, in the shadow of his stint as Superman and other big-budget projects. To get in the mood for the Highlander reboot, fans have been heading back to one of the actor’s lesser-spotted actioners, and one of his biggest flops ever. Released in 2019, the Canadian action thriller Night Hunter by writer/director David Raymond stars Cavill alongside the likes of Ben Kingsley, Alexandra Daddario, and Stanley Tucci. Sadly, despite boasting an undeniably talented cast, the movie flopped in spectacular fashion, scoring less than $1 million in a limited theatrical release and a dismal 14% score from critics on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.

‘Night Hunter’ Is Surprising the Streaming Charts

Such poor reviews will usually harm the reputation of movies, but streaming often provides a place for solace. Eight years after its poor commercial and critical reception, Night Hunter is redeeming itself on global streaming. At the time of writing, the movie is one of the ten most-streamed titles on Paramount+ in the world, going toe-to-toe with some of the most exciting options on the streamer, including the zombie apocalypse flick World War Z, Glen Powell‘s 2025 remake of The Running Man, and even Ridley Scott‘s long-awaited legacy sequel Gladiator II.

You can stream Night Hunter on Paramount+ now. For all the latest streaming stories, make sure to stay tuned to Collider.

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August 29, 2019

Runtime

95 minutes

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Writers

David Raymond

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Kevin Scott Frakes, Nadine de Barros, Larry Harding, Nasrat Muzayyin, Zorin Finkelsen, Francesca Dutton, James Lancaster, Mitesh Parikh, Niraj Parikh, Gaurav Talwar, Pulak Parikh, Rob Wood, Mark Catton, Rick Dugdale, Sundip K. Bhundia, Steven Ashley, Peter Aitken, James Milligan, Chris Pettit, Alastair Burlingham, Buddy Patrick, Robert Ogden Barnum, Dave Hansen, Tony Parker

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The 1990s brought forth a new wave of provocative, introspective, cutting-edge dystopian sci-fi features, and the sci-fi thriller Gattaca perfectly encapsulates the era. Written and directed by Andrew Niccol and boasting an all-star cast, Gattaca explores a society where humanity mastered genetic manipulation, dividing humans into two classes: the genetically engineered with what are viewed as the best genetic traits through natural selection (the “valids”), and the naturally born who are more susceptible to genetic defects, called the “in-valids.” Gattaca depicts a unique vision of the future by examining the potential dangers of genetic manipulation, along with the indomitable human spirit exceeding analytical potential.

‘Gattaca’ Brilliantly Portrays the Dangers of Eugenics

Niccol’s script for Gattaca brilliantly explores the dangers of a society overly reliant on eugenics and genetic manipulation. Geneticists have mastered artificial birth, and children are genetically designed to be born with superior, preferable genetic traits. Unfortunately, the practice causes discrimination and a class divide, as the naturally born in-valids are depicted as a lower class and not afforded the same privileges and opportunities as the genetically superior valids. Gattaca intriguingly shines a light on scientific breakthroughs occurring throughout the era.

In the 1990s, the Human Genome Project launched to map, identify, and sequence all the genes of human DNA and decipher humanity’s genetic code. 1996 also saw the creation of Dolly the Sheep, the first mammal that was artificially cloned through an adult somatic cell. Gattaca presents a dystopian vision of the future with these ideas taken to an extreme conclusion. Humanity’s supposed mastery over eugenics favors those with the stronger genetic traits, and the in-valids are considered inferior and forced into menial labor. Meanwhile, the valids are treated among society’s elites and allowed to participate in space travel, which brings the plot to protagonist Vincent Freeman (Ethan Hawke), who dreams of traveling to space.

The Sharp Sci-Fi ‘Gattaca’ Features an All-Star Cast

Gattaca features a stunning cast, showcasing the talents of many impressive Hollywood veterans. Ethan Hawke leads the visionary feature as Vincent Freeman, who was born through a natural birth. However, his projected lifespan is only about 30 years old. Unfortunately, Vincent’s status as an in-valid excludes him from achieving a higher status in society and fulfilling his dream of space travel. Vincent commits a type of fraud, posing as a valid, using the genetic material and identity provided by Jerome Eugene Morrow (Jude Law), a paraplegic valid who was paralyzed in a car accident. However, a murder committed at the Gattaca Aeronautical Corporation falsely implicates Vincent when his genetic material is found at the scene of the crime, and the walls begin to close in around him.

Hawke and Law deliver incredible performances, infusing their roles with a melancholic energy. Hawke brilliantly showcases Vincent’s desperation and unbreakable spirit to fulfill his dream. Meanwhile, Law brings a tragic sadness to his character, especially when it’s revealed how he became paralyzed later in the movie. Vincent eventually meets and falls in love with his co-worker, Irene Cassini, portrayed by Uma Thurman. Thurman is terrific as a valid citizen with a high risk of a heart defect, which excludes her from being assigned to a space travel mission. Her chemistry with her future husband, Hawke, is electric.

The movie also features familiar faces up and down the cast, including Alan Arkin and Loren Dean as a detective duo investigating the murder at Vincent’s workplace. Ernest Borgnine, Tony Shalhoub, Xander Berkeley, Elias Koteas, Blair Underwood, and the award-winning author Gore Vidal also appear in the movie in notable supporting roles and enhance the world’s immersion.

‘Gattaca’ Is Intellectual Sci-Fi Done Right

Image via Sony Pictures Releasing

Although Gattaca was not a huge success upon its release, it has aged remarkably in the nearly three decades since its original release. It’s a thinking person’s sci-fi movie, with a unique dystopian setting that looks real, grounded, and authentic. The world of Gattaca is very tactile and focused on DNA analysis, where surveillance comes through genetic material, like hair follicles, eyelashes, and fingerprints. Essentially, genetic material has become a type of currency and contraband in the world of Gattaca.

Niccol also demonstrates that, despite society’s ability to achieve control over eugenics and society being partial to artificial birth, it’s the valids who suffer the most from their predetermined genetic fatalism and are more subject to criminal outbursts. Meanwhile, it is Vincent who exceeds his genetic potential, despite his physical ailments and defects. Gattaca exceptionally depicts how, even with the advances in genetic sequencing and manipulation, science still cannot measure traits such as the capacity of free will and the triumph of the human spirit. Despite the plot’s melancholy style, Gattaca ultimately presents an uplifting underdog story arc for Vincent in an incredibly bleak, dystopic setting, elevating the movie into a must-watch sci-fi feature worth revisiting.

Kit Harington admitted it was “gross” to film sex scenes with Sophie Turner for their horror movie The Dreadful given their past on Game of Thrones.

“It was weird,” Harington, 39, confessed in a recent interview with fellow Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage for CNN’s Actors on Actors.

Harington and Turner, 30, essentially grew up together on the set of Game of Thrones, in which they played Jon Snow and Sansa Stark, respectively. For most of the show’s run, Jon and Sansa believed they were siblings before it came out that they were actually first cousins.

Still, the pair’s bond on and off the Game of Thrones set made it awkward when Turner asked Harington to play her lover in The Dreadful. (Turner produced and starred in the gothic horror film, in which Harington portrayed a sinister stranger who reemerged in the lives of Anne and her mother-in-law Morwen.)

Related: Sophie Turner Jokes She Got Her Sex Education on ‘Game of Thrones’

For Sophie Turner, Game of Thrones wasn’t just a job — it was an education. The British actress, 29, was just 13 years old when she was cast as Sansa Stark on the hit HBO fantasy drama, so naturally she learned a lot of life lessons on set, including, she jokes, “more than enough” about sex. […]

“She sent me the script and I said, ‘Sophie, there’s a lot of us getting it on,’” Harington revealed. “She hadn’t seen that. She just said, ‘Yeah, Kit would be good for this part.”

Harington initially had doubts about accepting the role in The Dreadful because he’s “known [Turner] since she was a child” and considers her like “a younger sister.”

“We did it. It was gross but it was fine,” he insisted. “She’s an amazing actor. I know we all know that but she was a child when she [started on Game of Thrones]. She is phenomenal!”

Turner revealed during an appearance on Late Night With Seth Meyers last year that she was equally horrified by the thought of shooting love scenes with Turner.

“I’d just got the script for this amazing gothic horror called The Dreadful, and I was reading through all the characters,” she explained to host Seth Meyers. “And I’m producing it, so the director was asking me, ‘Who do you think?’ And immediately, the first person I thought of was Kit.”

She went on, “So, I sent the script to Kit, and he kind of sent me a message back going like, ‘Yeah, I’d love to, but this is going to be really f***ing weird, Soph.’ And I was like, what is he talking about? Then I was reading it, and I’m like, ‘Kiss, kiss, sex, kiss, sex scene.’ And then I’m like, oh shoot, that’s my brother. But it’s such a good script that he’s like, ‘We kind of have to do it.’”

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Related: Celebs Get Real About Sex Scenes: Awkward Moments, Arousal, and More

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When it comes to filming sex scenes for TV shows and movies, actors have had a variety of good and bad experiences. Intimacy coordinator Brooke M. Haney previously opened up to Us Weekly about how filming steamy scenes between actors goes down on set. Contrary to what some fans may think, Haney said that it […]

Turner joked that the great script for The Dreadful didn’t make filming the love scenes any less awkward.

“We put it out of our minds, and then we get on set, and it’s the first kissing scene,” she recalled. “And we are both retching, like really, it is vile. It was the worst, another really bad moment in my career.”

The Dreadful was released in February.

There couldn’t have been an actor more suited to the role of John Dutton on Yellowstone than Kevin Costner. And despite the ups and downs, the back and forth, the will-they-won’t-they between him and the show’s creator, Taylor Sheridan, Yellowstone turned out to be just the sort of hit that Costner needed at this stage of his career. The show’s success gave him the confidence to mount his own Western epic, Horizon: An American Saga, which remains stalled after the underperformance of the first installment. He spent a considerable amount of his Yellowstone earnings on self-financing the epic Western series, not to mention the fact that he effectively gave up the chance to return for more seasons of the show by focusing on his own project. But Costner and the Western genre go hand-in-hand; some of the best and most underrated movies of his career are Westerns.

One of those movies, which turns 23 years old this year, dealt with many of the same ideas and themes as Yellowstone. It revolved around a Montana ranch owner — yup — who gets into a turf war with an older herder who believes that his cattle can graze anywhere on God’s green earth. Costner played a Civil War veteran who fights on the side of the free-grazing herder. It’s interesting how the villain in the movie is like the sort of man Costner would go on to play, endearingly, in Yellowstone. A decade after the release of this movie, which Costner also directed, he starred in the limited series Hatfields & McCoys, which revisits a legendary Old West feud. You can tell that Costner loves a story about standing your ground, or, as Regina Hall would say, “sheltering in place.”

Where To Watch Kevin Costner’s Underrated ‘Yellowstone’ Companion Piece

His underrated 2003 movie is now streaming for free in the United States, two decades after a theatrical run during which it grossed nearly $70 million against a reported $22 million budget. We’re talking, of course, about Open Range. The movie also features Robert Duvall, Annette Bening, and Michael Gambon. Open Range marked one of the earliest Hollywood roles for Diego Luna, who’d become a household name thanks to roles in Narcos and Andor. Open Range received positive reviews, and now holds a “Certified Fresh” 79% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. The site’s consensus reads, “Greatly benefiting from the tremendous chemistry between Kevin Costner and Robert Duvall, Open Range is a sturdy modern Western with classic roots.” You can watch the movie for free on Tubi, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.

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August 15, 2003

Runtime

139 Minutes

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Christian Bale has long been a powerhouse in entertainment, from his unnerving role as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho to the Caped Crusader himself in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy. Batman hung up his cowl in 2012 after The Dark Knight Rises, but that wasn’t the end for Bale. Pretty soon after, the performer delivered a gripping performance in a forgotten thriller that deserves a second chance.

Out of the Furnace is a character-driven crime thriller with an all-star cast difficult to beat. Bale stars in the drama as Russell Baze, a steelworker in the rural part of Pennsylvania that may be familiar to Mare of Easttown fans. Russell is a working-class man who struggles to support his veteran brother, Rodney (Casey Affleck), after he becomes indebted to a local bookie. This starts a cataclysm of events that culminates in a violent revenge plot where there are no winners.

‘Out of the Furnace’ Is Elevated By an All-Star Cast

Out of the Furnace is a haunting story that, in the hands of the impressive ensemble cast, is truly great. Christian Bale carries the worries of his character Russell with grace, while Casey Affleck, as the troubled brother Rodney, is hard to look away from. The Baze brothers, however, are just a small part of the captivating characters. Woody Harrelson steals the show as Harlan DeGroat, the vicious antagonist of the story.

Desperate for money and unable to function at a 9-to-5 job, Rodney enters the world of underground fighting, further digging himself in deeper with a brutal drug dealer from New Jersey. Harrelson disappears completely into the role, becoming a terrifying villain who starts the story by abusing a woman and only gets worse from there. He is truly unredemptive, which is the linchpin of the rest of the narrative.

Russell dives headlong into vengeance after Harlan destroys his family, which may resonate with fans of Batman. Bale brings the same savage energy he had in his work in The Dark Knight trilogy in an even more realistic fashion. Russell’s desperation and grief are palpable, as are the stakes of the world. This small town is a place where not many people are allowed to get ahead. Rodney has to resort to back-alley fighting to make a living, while Russell’s own life falls apart because of a cruel twist of fate.

These characters have to subsist on nothing and still try to scrape by. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that the movie was originally a spec script by Brad Ingelsby, now known for his many vivid characters based in Delaware County. Ingelsby created Mare of Easttown and Task, both crime thrillers that deal with the specificities of what it is to live in that location. Out of the Furnace is equally specific, just on a shorter timeline.

The grim drama was a perfect first project after Bale’s tenure as Gotham’s protector. His range is evident in this story as Russell commits to some of the worst choices anyone could make. A tragic character portrait, it is a surprise that the star-studded film didn’t get more play the first time around. Now fans can see it to their heart’s content, streaming on Prime Video.

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December 6, 2013

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116minutes

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Glen Powell‘s face will soon lead yet another sci-fi movie, as he joins forces with a veteran director in the genre for a hotly anticipated, big-budget theatrical spectacle. The film in question is The Great Beyond, directed by J.J. Abrams, which is set to star Wednesday favorite Jenna Ortega, Emma Mackey (Sex Education), and Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction) alongside Powell. “I wanted it to be big and something that generations of different people can all go to the theater to see,” Abrams promised in an interview at CinemaCon, with excitement for the November 2026 release continuing to build.

Before Powell’s latest sci-fi effort hits theaters — and prior to his work in Judd Apatow‘s next comedy, The Comeback King — his 2025 sci-fi adaptation of a Stephen King favorite continues to dominate streaming. Of course, we’re talking about The Running Man, featuring Powell alongside a star-studded cast including Josh Brolin, Colman Domingo, Lee Pace, and more. The second adaptation of King’s 1982 novel, following the 1987 effort directed by Paul Michael Glaser, 2025’s The Running Man sadly failed to capture the magic of the source material either critically or commercially.

Falling to mediocre reviews, despite the best efforts of talented director Edgar Wright, The Running Man was also a box office disaster, earning just $68.5 million worldwide against a bloated production budget of $110 million. Thankfully, the film has since redeemed itself on streaming, becoming a favorite on Paramount+, where it ranks as one of the top ten movies in the U.S., at the time of writing. The current chart-topper on the streaming site is Scream 7, the 2026 horror sequel that frightened its way to over $200 million at the box office.

Another 2025 Stephen King Adaptation Is Popular on Streaming

The Running Man isn’t the only recent King adaptation proving popular on American streaming. Whilst Paramount+ subscribers indulge in that sci-fi adventure, Starz users are propelling the most-acclaimed King adaptation of 2025 into the streaming top ten. Hunger Games director Francis Lawrence‘s The Long Walk, based on King’s 1979 novel of the same name, stars Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson, and debuted in September last year. Earning widespread acclaim from both critics and audiences, the movie earned a respectable $63 million worldwide, against a reported production budget of $20 million.

The Running Man is currently available to stream on Paramount+. Stay tuned to Collider for the latest streaming stories.

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Release Date

November 11, 2025

Runtime

133 minutes

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Director

Edgar Wright

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Writers

Michael Bacall, Edgar Wright

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Nira Park, Simon Kinberg, Edgar Wright

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It’s been four years since the conspiracy thriller series The Capture was last on our screens, and since then, there have been rapid advancements in the technologies the show focuses on. When it was first released in 2019, AI deepfakes were still an emerging technology, so the way The Capture paired a crime thriller with the underbelly of the digital era felt novel. It took another three years for the second season to air, in which the political implications of deepfakes and surveillance were ramped up with the evolution of AI. Now, four years later, Season 3 is bound to grow bigger and hit harder, so there’s no better time to catch up with The Capture in preparation for June 18, when this alarmingly timely show returns on Peacock in the U.S.

‘The Capture’ Plunges Viewers Into the Terrors of the Digital Age

The Capture‘s first season kicks off with a crime that may or may not have occurred, depending on how much you trust the live video footage. DI Rachel Carey (Holliday Grainger) investigates the assault and kidnapping of lawyer Hannah Roberts (Laura Haddock), and a CCTV camera that captured the entire scene points to Corporal Emery (Callum Turner) as the perpetrator. The thing is, not only is there plenty of evidence that Emery is innocent, but also that the video is a terrifyingly convincing deepfake, tossing the viewer into the uncertain waters of conspiracy and betrayal. This continues into Season 2, where the use of deepfakes expands from framing innocent people to manipulating the public.

The Capture‘s premise already feels very Black Mirror-esque, but the show is a uniquely invigorating entry in the thriller genre. With a plot that is meticulously mapped and swiftly paced, the series remains an engaging narrative on a personal level for its characters while still connecting to the larger implications of surveillance and AI. Ironically enough, this conspiracy thriller barely leaves the viewer time to form their own theories, as the plot sets up and lands twists and revelations with a startling precision. As such, the audience is simply tossed into the deep end and carried away by the current of mind-boggling deceptions and high-stakes political maneuvers, while still feeling the acute sense of danger that defines a thriller.

The Capture‘s tech-horror can be deeply outrageous in its portrayal, almost dystopian in the sheer magnitude of how deepfakes and surveillance can be weaponized against the public, but it is this quality that also makes the series alarmingly relevant. There’s a chilling horror in watching footage being doctored in real-time, where the words on live footage are dissonant with the words actually coming out of someone’s mouth. This digital threat hangs heavy in the air, constantly evolving in ways neither the audience nor the characters can keep up with.

‘The Capture’ Questions Technology Through Compelling Characters

Alongside simply reflecting technology’s most dangerous aspects, The Capture raises ethical dilemmas about how law enforcement employs it in the name of justice and service. It questions the line between protection and invasion, as well as commitment to justice versus individual autonomy. Grainger’s Carey becomes the anchor that sifts through these questions, with her own grit, determination, and slight paranoia making her a lead we are happy to follow, yet she also has to confront and take accountability for her own role in this dynamic between the police and the public. On the other side in Season 1 is Turner’s Emery, a layered and flawed antagonist who complicates the line even further, while Season 2 gives us an idealistic politician (Paapa Essiedu) whose morals are tested in this AI-plagued society.

With The Capture‘s return just around the corner, now is the time to submerge yourself in a world that feels just as dystopian as it is hyperrealistic. While the show constructs its dramatic vision of the modern age, the humanly flawed characters and the rapidly-moving plot will sweep you away into larger conspiracies that are impossible to tear your eyes from. It makes for the perfect weekend binge, one that will make you second-guess every picture, video, or livestream you see on a screen from that moment on.