Tubi has seen its user base grow significantly over the last few years thanks to offering an incredible array of movies completely free of charge thanks to ads. Initially launching in 2014, Tubi is the Fox Corporation’s free-to-access streaming platform, and as of 2024 has over 80 million users.

The best movies on Tubi include some incredibly well-known and blockbuster titles, with the library of available films constantly changing to include fresh titles for users to enjoy free of charge thanks to ad sponsorship. With the movies available on Tubi always changing, it’s always worth checking in to see what the best films on the platform are, as there’s always a solid selection of top-tier titles within the 200,000+ available.

Jurassic Park (1993)

Steven Spielberg’s Epic Dinosaur Movie

1993’s Jurassic Park is considered a highlight of director Steven Spielberg’s career, and the news that Jurassic Park is available to stream on Tubi has undoubtedly brought more than a few users to the platform. The story of Jurassic Park is, by the 2020s, incredibly well known — an eccentric billionaire uses cloning technology to bring dinosaurs back to life. While his goal is to open a theme park, the movie shows that prehistoric life has no interest in being a tourist attraction.

The premise alone is intriguing enough, but it isn’t the key reason Jurassic Park is considered a classic. Aside from Spielberg’s incredible abilities as a director, both the practical and CGI visual effects in this movie on Tubi have stood the test of time, even over three decades after it initially debuted. Throw in some career-defining performances from the likes of Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum, and Laura Dern, and it’s easy to see why Jurassic Park still stands proud as one of the best dinosaur movies ever made (including its sequels and the follow-up franchise Jurassic World).

The Terminator (1984)

The Relentless Sci-Fi That Kickstarted The Hit Schwarzenegger Franchise

Arnold Schwarzenegger and director James Cameron are both household names in the 2020s, and among the titles that put both on the map is 1984’s The Terminator. There’s no shortage of action and sci-fi movies available on Tubi, but The Terminator stands out as one of the most definitive titles in either genre. It was the movie that arguably popularized the idea of rogue A.I. being an existential threat to humanity, with the rise of SkyNet feeling especially poignant given that, in the present day, comparable technologies are already in active development.

However, the story of The Terminator doesn’t take place in the future, but in the then-present-day of the 1980s. The movie focuses on Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), a waitress at a diner who discovers that she’ll one day give birth to the man who will lead the last vestiges of humanity in an uprising against the machines. Unfortunately for Sarah, she learns this due to a cyborg assassin, the T800 (Schwarzenegger), traveling back in time to kill her before her son is ever born.

The Usual Suspects (1995)

The Gangster Movie With An Unrivaled Twist

Gangster films have been a staple of cinema for decades, and while it may not have the mainstream recognition of the likes of The Godfather or Scarface, 1995’s The Usual Suspects is inarguably one of the best titles in both the wider genre and among the crime movies currently available on Tubi. The Usual Suspects was directed by Bryan Singer and stars the likes of Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne, Stephen Baldwin, and Kevin Pollak. The five play a group of unrelated criminals (the titular suspects) who find themselves thrown together after first meeting in a shared police lineup.

From there, the group decides to team up for a heist to get revenge on the NYPD, each taking chagrin with the fact they were accused of being part of a hijacking they had no involvement in. However, the plot of The Usual Suspects ends up running far deeper than most gangster movies, and — thanks to the mystery of the identity of the feared mobster Keyser Söze — has one of the best twist endings in cinematic history.

American Psycho (2000)

The Incredibly Cryptic Horror-Satire

Director Mary Harron’s American Psycho is still one of the most widely discussed and dissected movies of the 2000s despite releasing almost 25 years ago, and thanks to Tubi, it’s easy for those who have yet to see it to find out why. Based on the novel of the same name by Bret Easton Ellis, American Psycho is both a scathing critique of Wall Street capitalism and an incredibly surreal horror — and both of these elements are carried throughout by the career-defining performance of Christian Bale as central character Patrick Bateman.

Bateman is a Wall Street broker who finds himself drawn to committing gruesome and atrocious murders to find some degree of escape from the numbing detachment of his life at the highest rungs of investment banking. He finds his sanity slowly slipping away throughout American Psycho, and his mental state is fractured even further by the seeming lack of care and interest of his peers during the moments he admits to his murderous inclinations. The movie continues to have an incredible amount of cultural influence, and it’s easy to see why many critics and viewers alike count it among the best satirical films ever made.

Life (2017)

The Modern Sci-Fi Horror That Channels 1979’s Alien

Sci-fi and horror are two genres that have always blended exceptionally well, and 2017’s Life from director Daniel Espinosa is a fitting addition to this fine tradition. With a cast that includes the likes of Rebecca Ferguson, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Ryan Reynolds, Life gained no shortage of interest from the moment it was announced, and despite some mixed reviews, it didn’t disappoint fans expecting a solid sci-fi adventure with tense moments and disturbing visuals throughout.

The plot of Life sees the crew of the ISS International Space Station analyzing soil samples from Mars in the near future. They are, at first, thrilled to discover the samples contain evidence of alien life on the Red Planet. The crew are able to cultivate a multicellular life form from the soil, which they name Calvin.

However, the birth of Calvin is when Life switches from sci-fi to horror, as the creature quickly becomes incredibly dangerous, picking off the crew of the ISS one by one. The plot is reminiscent of 1979’s Alien, which is by no means a critique, and Tubi users hoping for a similarly tense ride will find Life certainly satisfies.

St. Elmo’s Fire (1985)

The Cult Classic Brat Pack Coming-Of-Age Movie

There was no shortage of coming-of-age movies in the 1980s, as the subgenre seemed to be entering into its own. Among teen films about the trials of entering adulthood that still stands up today is 1985’s St Elmo’s Fire, the drama from director Joel Schumacher starring decade-legends like Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson, Demi Moore, Ally Sheedy, and Rob Lowe. While St Elmo’s Fire was initially panned by critics, it has since gone on to achieve cult status, with the same criticisms about its script and (at times) incredibly vacuous characters becoming the reasons that it’s so beloved by its fans.

The plot of St. Elmo’s Fire is relatively straightforward, as it focuses on a group of recent college graduates trying to make their way in the world after finally leaving the education system. However, the charm of St. Elmo’s Fire isn’t in its plot so much but in its characters, with the likes of Emilio Estevez’s Kirby and Demi Moore’s party-girl Jules being hilariously two-dimensional yet still, somehow, near-impossible not to find endearing.

Donnie Darko (2001)

The Cerebral And Highly Debated Psychological Thriller

Few movies are as misunderstood or as hotly debated as director Richard Kelly’s 2001 sci-fi thriller Donnie Darko. So ambiguous is the plot that there are even disagreements on what Donnie Darko is even about, though this only serves to make the movie even more endearing (and one that definitely counts among the “must watch” titles on Tubi). The story focuses on titular troubled teen Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal), a young man who finds himself consistently at odds with the 1988 suburban community he and his family reside in.

Donnie’s psychological problems cause him to have visions of a man in a grotesque bunny costume who he knows of Frank, who constantly forewarns him about the end of the world. However, when Donnie escapes death by following a vision of Frank to a golf course on the night a jet engine crashes through the ceiling of their family home, Donnie realizes his “visions” may be more prophetic than first appears. Notably, Jake Gyllenhaal’s real-life sibling Maggie Gyllenhaal plays Donnie’s sister Elizabeth, and the pair manage to bring plenty of their shared dynamic to the arguments between the two characters.

Terrifier (2016)

The Feature-Length Debut Of Art The Clown

Director Damien Leone reinvigorated the slasher horror subgenre in 2022 with the sleeper-hit Terrifier 2, which gained notoriety thanks to some of its incredibly brutal scenes. With Terrifier 3 on the way in 2024 and already creating no shortage of conversation, many uninitiated with the villainous antagonist Art the Clown are wondering where the franchise began — and Tubi is one of the best places to catch up thanks to 2016’s Terrifier currently being available to stream on the platform.

The plot of Terrifier sees various characters stalked and murdered by the truly diabolical silent killer Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton), a character Leone first debuted in his 2008 short movie The 9th Circle. 2016’s Terrifier is a far grittier and lower-budget movie than Terrifier 2, though it’s quickly gaining its own fanbase thanks to the prominence of the sequel.

It’s a slasher movie that pulls no punches, and Leone’s career history as a practical effects wizard prior to taking the director’s chair is evident throughout. While not hugely critically acclaimed upon its release, Terrifier is quickly defining its own legacy years later thanks both to the success of its sequel and its many brutal kills appearing in horror-fandom circles on social media platforms like TikTok and YouTube.

The Fast And The Furious (2001)

The Gritty Early 2000s Action Movie That Launched A Blockbuster Franchise

One action movie on Tubi that perhaps needs no introduction is 2001’s The Fast and the Furious, the low-budget car heist film from director Rob Cohen that spawned one of the most successful film franchises of the last few decades. With 10 sequels and counting, Tubi users who revisit the 2001 original may be surprised to find just how grounded The Fast and the Furious feels when compared to the bombastic action of later installments like 2023’s Fast X — though this only adds to its charm.

The Fast and the Furious was the first movie to introduce viewers to the likes of Vin Diesel’s Dom Toretto and the late Paul Walker’s Brian O’Conner. It’s the movie that details when the pair first met, showing them as initially distrustful rivals before they became the “family” that’s so important to both as the franchise progressed. Despite the lower budget than the sequels, 2001’s The Fast and the Furious still feels just as high-octane and nailbiting as the franchise installments that followed, and still holds up as a solid action movie despite releasing over two decades ago.

The Road (2009)

The Incredibly Bleak Apocalypse Movie

Movies detailing life after an apocalyptic event are nothing new, but few have managed to pull off the concept as deftly (or, indeed, as bleakly) as 2009’s The Road. Starring Viggo Mortensen as “Man” and Kodi Smit-McPhee as “Boy”, The Road is remarkably light when it comes to character backstories or any information about the specific event that nearly destroyed the world. Instead, The Road focuses on the psychological and emotional impact that the struggle to survive has on its two central characters. It’s this focus, combined with the masterful direction of John Hillcoat, that makes the road such a gripping and, at the same time, harrowing watch.

While some post-apocalyptic movies like the Mad Max saga or The Book of Eli mix visions of life after societal collapse with intense action and uplifting moments, there’s none of either to be found in The Road. It’s a truly unflinching movie that pulls no punches, though this doesn’t make it any less watchable. There are few movies on Tubi, or any other platform, quite like it, and the performances of both Mortensen and the young Smit-McPhee, as well as Charlize Theron in various flashback sequences, make it easily one of the best films currently available on the platform.