Don’t let the fact that it’s free fool you, there are a ton of great movies on Pluto TV. From some of the best 2000s movies to highly decorated documentaries with fresh ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, to an assortment of Best Picture winners, it has it all. If you want to check out classics and hidden gems on one of the best streaming services, all you need to do is use Pluto TV, which is honestly easier than it sounds.
Below is a beefy list of some of the best movies on Pluto TV, but this is just barely scratching the surface of what the streaming platform has to offer. That being said, let’s check out a couple dozen of the best options the service has for you.
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
The Director: Frank Darabont
The Cast: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Clancy Brown
What It’s About: A prison inmate spends years of his life planning a seemingly impossible escape from a heavily fortified prison, making remarkable friendships along the way.
What To Expect: Shawshank Redemption is considered one of the best Stephen King adaptations, and rightfully so. This iconic 1994 movie, with its tremendous performances, empowering story, and unforgettable scenes has been a fan-favorite for 30 years.
Interstellar (2014)
The Director: Christopher Nolan
The Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Jessica Chastain, Anne Hathaway
What It’s About: With humanity on the brink of extinction due to blight, a farmer leads a daring mission to space in hopes of finding a new place to call home. But that’s just the beginning (or the end, depending on how you look at the timeline).
What To Expect: One of Christopher Nolan’s best movies, Interstellar is a wonderful sci-fi movie, but deeper than that, it’s an unforgettable saga about the unbreakable bond between father and daughter.
The Fugitive (1993)
The Director: Andrew Davis
The Cast: Harrison Ford, Tommy Lee Jones, Joe Pantoliano
What It’s About: A decorated surgeon, wrongfully convicted of brutally murdering his wife, goes on the run and attempts to clear his name before it’s too late.
What To Expect: One of the best movies based on forgotten TV shows, The Fugitive features some of Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones’ work (the latter received an Oscar for his performance). This thrilling cat-and-mouse chase through Chicago never gets old.
The Raid Movies (2012, 2014)
The Director: Gareth Evans
The Cast: Iko Uwais, Yayan Ruhian
What They’re About: A young cop’s journey plays out from his time as a member of an elite SWAT team to that as an undercover agent attempting to bring down a ruthless crime syndicate.
What To Expect: Gareth Evans The Raid movies are two of the most impressive and influential action movies of the 21st century. With incredible fight scenes, a gripping story of revenge and redemption, and unforgettable characters, there’s a lot to take in.
Seven (1995)
The Director: David Fincher
The Cast: Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow
What It’s About: Two detectives – one a hotshot rookie, the other on the eve of retirement – spend a week trying to track down a sadistic killer whose crimes are inspired by the seven deadly sins.
What To Expect: One of the tightest, and most frightening, psychological thrillers of all time, David Fincher’s Seven is full of grisly crime scenes, interesting characters, and one of the most talked about endings of all time.
The Godfather Trilogy (1972 - 1990)
The Director: Francis Ford Coppola
The Cast: Michael Keaton, Marlon Brando. Robert De Niro
What It’s About: A sprawling epic tracing the Corleone crime family over the course of nearly a century and multiple generations.
What To Expect: Some of the best gangster films of all time, The Godfather trilogy goes deeper than mobsters trying to make a living. With a focus on family, the impact of decisions on a person’s conscience, and attempts to build and maintain an empire, there’s a lot to explore.
- Stream The Godfather on Pluto TV.
- Stream The Godfather Part II on Pluto TV.
- Stream Mario Puzo’s The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone on Pluto TV.
Pulp Fiction (1994)
The Director: Quentin Tarantino
The Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, John Travolta
What It’s About: Four interconnected stories of hitmen, gangsters, boxers, and other unforgettable characters play out over the course of two days.
What To Expect: With its non-linear structure, intertwined stories filled with unforgettable characters, and a general vibe that feels both retro and modern, this is something you have to see.
Catch Me If You Can (2002)
The Director: Steven Spielberg
The Cast: Tom Hanks, Leonardo DiCaprio, Christopher Walken
What It’s About: A young yet prolific con-man travels across the world pulling off one scheme after another, but he meets his match when a dedicated FBI agent gets on the pursuit.
What To Expect: With one of the best performances of Leonardo DiCaprio’s career up to that point, a great dynamic between the young star and Tom Hanks, and some wild hijinks, this 2002 biographical drama is all killer, no filler.
Top Gun (1986)
The Director: Tony Scott
The Cast: Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, Anthony Edwards
What It’s About: A talented and cocky fighter pilot is forced to compete with the best and brightest his country has to offer upon being invited to the Top Gun training school.
What To Expect: Tony Scott’s 1986 action movie staple is one of the most intense, exhilarating, and unforgettable cinematic experiences of all time with its daring dogfights, an absurdly stacked cast, an iconic soundtrack, and what is probably the most unforgettable volleyball scene ever put to film.
Clue (1985)
The Director: Jonathan Lynn
The Cast: Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd
What It’s About: A group of strangers are invited to dinner at a remote mansion by the man who’s blackmailing each of them. When their host mysteriously dies, they are forced to work together to find the killer.
What To Expect: Based on the popular board game of the same name, this 1985 cult classic is full of twists, turns, revelations, and oh so many endings.
Tommy Boy (1995)
The Director: Peter Segal
The Cast: Chris Farley, David Spade, Rob Lowe
What It’s About: The unlikely heir to an automobile parts company goes on a road trip with his late father’s sarcastic assistant to save the family business.
What To Expect: On top of having one hilarious quote after another, this 1995 comedy has so much heart, which is one of the reasons it’s so beloved nearly 30 years after its release.
Heat (1995)
The Director: Michael Mann
The Cast: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Val Kilmer
What It’s About: A seasoned LAPD detective tries to nab a prolific and elusive bank robber before he can pull off the biggest heist of the century.
What To Expect: Quite possibly the best heist movie of all time, Michael Mann’s Heat created the blueprint for the modern crime thriller back in 1995. This crime epic blurs the lines between good and evil and right and wrong to create an unforgettable and game-changing experience.
The Master (2012)
The Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
The Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams
What It’s About: A WWII vet struggles to find a place in society until he falls into the orbit of a charismatic cult leader.
What to expect: One of Paul Thomas Anderson’s best movies, The Master, for lack of a better term, is a masterclass in filmmaking, storytelling, and acting (thanks to Joaquin Phoenix and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman). Incredible shots, incredible acting, and a powerful story like no other make this a modern classic.
Blue Velvet (1985)
The Director: David Lynch
The Cast: Kyle MacLachlan, Dennis Hopper, Isabella Rossellini
What It’s About: A college student returns home to visit his ailing father, finds a severed ear, and finds himself wrapped up in the criminal underworld (with all its seedy players).
What To Expect: One of David Lynch’s best movies, Blue Velvet combines elements of film noir and psychological thrillers to creat a unique and unforgettable experience.
Mr. Mom (1983)
The Director: Stan Dragoti
The Cast: Michael Keaton, Teri Garr, Martin Mull
What It’s About: Trading in the workplace for suburbia, Michael Keaton’s Jack Butler takes over the homestead while his wife, Caroline (Teri Garr), finally gets back into the corporate world.
What To Expect: Hilarity, hijinks, and life lessons are aplenty in this fantastic movie about a husband learning just how easy he had it in the workforce.
Platoon (1986)
The Director: Oliver Stone
The Cast: Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe
What It’s About: Told through the eyes of a young soldier named Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen), Oliver Stone’s Vietnam War movie, Platoon, explores how the horrors and stresses of combat can turn someone’s brain inside out and leave them not knowing who is a friend and who is a foe on the battlefield.
What To Expect: One of the most realistic war movies ever made, this Academy Award-winning drama is intense, to say the least. It also features the best use of Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings.”
Heathers (1988)
The Director: Michael Lehmann
The Cast: Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Kim Walker
What It’s About: A high school student and her boyfriend accidentally kill the most popular girl in school, kicking off a series of unfortunate and unsettling events.
What To Expect: This 1988 dark comedy may center around high school students, but this doesn’t mean it doesn’t have any bite. Ruthlessly violent, darkly funny, and consequential, this is one of the best movies of the ‘80s.
Memento (2001)
The Director: Christopher Nolan
The Cast: Guy Pearce, Joe Pantoliano, Carrie-Anne Moss
What It’s About: A man with a rare and untreatable form of amnesia attempts to track down the man who viciously assaulted and murdered his wife.
What To Expect: One of Christopher Nolan’s best movies, Memento is the one that put him on the map and led to later successes like the Dark Knight trilogy and Oppenheimer. Though hard to follow at times due to its unique narrative structure, this crime thriller is unlike anything else.
Grizzly Man (2005)
The Director: Werner Herzog
The Cast: Timothy Treadwell, Werner Herzog
What It’s About: This intimate portrait of Timothy Treadwell, a man who spent many years of his life living with bears in Alaska, ends in an unspeakable tragedy, but everything that leads to that fateful moment is beautiful, innocent, and pure.
What To Expect: Though you don’t see or hear the recording of Treadwell’s final agonizing moments, there’s a scene in Grizzly Man where Herzog listens to the fatal attack that is utterly gutting.
Nosferatu (1922)
The Director: F.W. Murnau
The Cast: Max Schreck, Gustav von Wangenheim, Greta Schroeder)
What It’s About: One of the greatest horror films of all time, as well as one of the most controversial, Nosferatu is an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula that some would argue is more terrifying than the source material.
What To Expect: The visual of Count Orlock’s (Max Schreck) shadow creeping up the stairs to claim his next victim, or really any image of the grotesque vampire, is pure nightmare fuel. As is the rest of this 1922 silent film.
12 Angry Men (1957)
The Director: Sidney Lumet
The Cast: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Ed Begley
What It’s About: Tasked with deciding the fate of a teenager charged with murder, a group of jurors begins to question everything about the case and their own lives after one of them casts doubt on the whole situation.
What To Expect: When it comes to legal dramas, it doesn’t get much better than Sidney Lumet’s 12 Angry Men. This tense legal drama dives into arguments about morals, ethics, and redemption.
This is just a small sampling from the vast library of great films available on Pluto TV. If you’re looking for even more titles to watch, check out our rundown of the best free movies online.
