The 9 Best Movies to Stream This Month (October 2026)

Fall is here, and the autumnal turn marks a season of returns. Back to school, back to work—and when it comes to the best films on streaming services, back to some of the best films of yesteryear.

September finds John Carpenter’s brilliant 1982 remake of The Thing crawling its way onto Prime Video, Luc Besson’s mind-bending and eye-popping The Fifth Element on Netflix, and an unexpected blast from the past coming to Hulu in the form of The X-Files: I Want to Believe—Vrach Frankenshteyn, an R-rated director’s cut of 2008’s second cinematic case for Mulder and Scully, now closer to creator Chris Carter’s original vision.

Even the new arrivals have a vintage flair this month though. Star Wars spinoff The Mandalorian and Grogu brings the big-screen bounty hunters back to Disney+ for a retro-tinged adventure, Netflix’s Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway expands on the world of the classic 1970s anime series, and Edge of Tomorrow on Paramount+ shows the past can be hard to escape at the best of times.

Here are WIRED’s picks of the best movies to watch right now.

The Mandalorian & Grogu

Sure, The Mandalorian and Grogu has the dubious distinction of being the lowest-grossing live-action Star Wars movie ever (only 2008’s animated Clone Wars performed worse). And yes, for fans of the Disney+ space western series, a full fourth season might have been more welcome (and the three seasons of homework beforehand may have put off wider audiences anyway). Yet this spinoff is, in its own way, the “purest” Star Wars movie in years, capturing the feel of the classic serials that originally inspired George Lucas all those decades ago.

This stand-alone adventure finds Mandalorian bounty hunter Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and his apprentice-slash-adopted-son Grogu (aka Baby Yoda) running jobs for the New Republic but, after being sent on the trail of an Imperial officer turned warlord, getting swept up in a battle against twin Hutt crimelords, battling hordes of alien monsters, and shooting their way through a factory’s worth of droids. Best of all, though, is that while there are plenty of nods for hardcore Star Wars fans, this isn’t trying to establish a new “saga” or a pivotally important entry in the wider lore. It’s just two hours of solidly enjoyable swashbuckling adventure. Star Wars could do with more like this.

The Wild Robot

Dreamworks Animation has had a solid streak recently, but The Wild Robot stands as one of the studio’s best films ever. A gorgeously animated ode to the power and importance of the natural world, it follows Universal Robots ROZZUM Unit 7134—soon shortened to “Roz” (Lupita Nyong’o)—who becomes the stand-in mother for baby gosling Brightbill (Kit Connor) after being stranded on an isolated island. Guided by the fox Fink (Pedro Pascal, again) and the opossum Pinktail (Catherine O’Hara), Roz struggles to raise the infant, desperately trying to teach him to fly in time for migration season—and before her manufacturers track her down.

A blend of Studio Ghibli’s reverence for nature and The Iron Giant’s emotional heart, The Wild Robot earned a near-total clean sweep at the 2025 Annie Awards—animation’s Oscars. Once you’ve finished sobbing from watching this, you’ll understand why.

Obsession

“Be careful what you wish for” is such a beautifully simple concept for horror, but it’s rarely as well executed as in Obsession. When lovelorn Bear (Michael Johnston) makes a wish on the “One Wish Willow” for his friend and coworker Nikki (Inde Navarrette) to love him, he thinks it’s just a dumb toy. It works though, better than he dared hope. Or rather, worse—Nikki goes from besotted to bunny boiler faster than you can blink, stalking Bear’s every movement, reacting with increased hostility to anyone who comes near him, and going to brutal lengths to keep the man she “loves,” whether he likes it or not. Balancing some shockingly gory scenes with darkly comedic moments, Obsession was the breakout hit of the summer.

Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: The Sorcery of Nymph Circe

Yes, the title is a mouthful, and no, it has nothing to do with sorcery or nymphs. Instead, this second in a planned trilogy of movies returns to the core “Universal Century” timeline of the Gundam franchise for blistering battles between military mecha, with a side of complex planetary politics to keep things cerebral.

The eponymous Hathaway Noa (Kenshō Ono in Japanese; Caleb Yen in English) is secretly Mafty, leader of a rebel group of fighters dedicated to overthrowing the corrupt Earth Federation Government. One man’s rebel is another’s terrorist, though, and Federation loyalist Kenneth Sleg (Junichi Suwabe; Aaron Philips) is finally on Mafty’s trail, having uncovered his true identity. Yet as the two head toward a clash over the skies of Adelaide, the visions of precognitive Gigi Andalucia (Reina Ueda; Megan Shipman) could change everyone’s fates. You’ll definitely want to catch the first Hathaway film (on Netflix, too) before jumping in here, but this captivating anime epic packs in plenty of emotional depth alongside the giant robot smackdowns. Fingers crossed the finale isn’t too far off.

The Thing

John Carpenter’s remake of the 1951 classic The Thing From Another World was intended to be a more accurate adaptation of the original source material, author John W. Campbell Jr.’s 1938 novella Who Goes There? What he ended up creating was one of the most influential and enduringly brilliant pieces of sci-fi horror ever committed to celluloid.

In the sheer isolation of an Antarctic research station, a crew of scientists—a powerhouse cast including Kurt Russell and Keith David—find themselves facing a shapeshifting menace from the stars, with the paranoia mounting as they turn on each other, unsure of who among them is really human. It’s a masterclass in tension, all brought gruesomely to life with pioneering effects work. Almost paradoxically, it bombed on release, but audiences have seen the error of their ways in the decades since. Learn the same lesson now, if you’ve not seen it yet.

The X-Files: I Want to Believe—Vrach Frankenshteyn

Originally released in 2008, this second feature length X-Files thriller was never anyone’s favorite chapter for the long-running sci-fi conspiracy franchise. It abandoned much of the mythology of the core series and instead charged returning leads Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) with investigating a missing FBI agent, a rash of murders, and grisly organ harvesting. It all felt like an odd fit.

In hindsight, that might be down to the film being in development hell for years, then subject to studio interference, its release ultimately neutering creator-director Chris Carter’s vision. This Vrach Frankenshteyn edit corrects that, reinserting cut scenes and restoring the almost “folk horror meets body horror” approach that the original was aiming for, while trimming some other scenes for a tighter, better-paced experience. Longtime fans of The X-Files will appreciate this more authentic take on the film, while newcomers will find it a solid stand-alone horror—and perhaps a perfect introduction to the vibe of the series ahead of Ryan Coogler’s upcoming TV reboot.

The Fifth Element

Set in the 23rd century, but with a mythology spanning millennia, this wildly ambitious sci-fi adventure sees humble cab driver Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis) drawn into a battle to save Earth from impending doom when runaway Leeloo (Milla Jovovich) crashes into his life—literally, falling onto his flying taxi while escaping from the forces of the exquisitely evilly-named Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg (Gary Oldman). Cut to: a race to find ancient elements, a cosmic opera diva, warring alien races, and a scene-stealing turn from Chris Tucker as the phenomenally flamboyant media mogul Ruby Rhod.

Director Luc Besson’s gloriously weird, experimental outing was something of a sleeper hit in the US when it was released in 1997, but with its phenomenal practical effects, mind-bending world designs, and bizarre fashions dreamed up by Jean Paul Gaultier, it has more than earned its status as a bona fide cult classic. If you’ve never experienced it, prepare for sensory overload as you take in this vibrant vision of the future.

Edge of Tomorrow

It’s rare for a film’s tagline to outshine its actual name, but Edge of Tomorrow’s striking “Live. Die. Repeat.” so perfectly encapsulates this time-loop action epic that it has supplanted the title for many. Then again, you might also know it as All You Need Is Kill, the original Japanese light novel by Hiroshi Sakurazaka and Yoshitoshi Abe that it’s based on.

Director Doug Liman’s live-action take reframes humanity’s battle against seemingly unstoppable alien “Mimics” to grand cinematic scale, with Tom Cruise as Major William Cage, a cowardly public affairs officer in the United Defense Force, killed almost as soon as he’s forced onto the battlefield—only to wake right up and have to go through it all again and again. His only hope is to learn from Sergeant Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), a legendary soldier who’s been caught in her own cycle of violent death and rebirth. An explosive take on Groundhog Day, the film packs in a surprising amount of heart alongside the thrilling clashes against alien monsters.