Summer is firmly here and the temperatures are feeling borderline apocalyptic in much of the northern hemisphere. Why not avoid the angry sun and stay inside where it’s (hopefully) cooler and distract yourself with some of the best movies on streaming right now?
Your choices are notably rich too. The spring hit sci-fi movie Project Hail Mary, about the global freeze threatening Earth as a result of the sun mysteriously going out, is now on Prime Video, after winning theater audiences over with the help of an adorable pile of pebbles. If, however, you want to embrace the flames, you’ll find some like minds in Avatar: Fire and Ash on Disney+, where a violent new tribe of Na’vi just want to see the world (well, a semi-sentient living moon) burn.
If you instead find the heat hellish, then a double bill of Satanic panic might be more fitting. Both Ready or Not 2, also on Disney+, and They Will Kill You on Hulu tap into a previously unexplored yet surprisingly rich subgenre of “estranged sisters with melee weaponry killing murderous cultists”—insert the “weird it happened twice” meme here, but just go with it. Or if you prefer not to switch your brain entirely off for entertainment, there’s also the far more cerebral Archive or the dark dystopia of The Long Walk to take your mind off the unbearable heat.
Here are WIRED’s picks of the best movies to watch right now.
Project Hail Mary
Waking up aboard a spaceship to find himself the only crew member still alive, amnesiac middle school science teacher Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) makes for an unlikely astronaut. Even worse, he’s Earth’s last hope for survival, sent out into space in search of a way to stop a strange phenomenon devouring the sun itself—and almost every other star in the sky. It’d be an impossible task solo, but luckily Ryland has back-up in the form of Rocky (James Ortiz), the first alien humanity has ever met, a five-legged stone creature who communicates in song.
Adapted from the book of the same name by Andy Weir (author of The Martian), Project Hail Mary is a fantastic slice of survival drama and hard science fiction, but the real heart of the movie is Ryland’s and Rocky’s growing friendship. Prepare to fall in love with an excitable rock spider-thing—fist my bump, friends.
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Picking up from 2022’s The Way of Water, human-soldier-in-a-Na’vi-body Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his family are in mourning following the death of their eldest son Neteyam, leading wife Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) down a dark path. As the family struggles to stay together, the colonialist human forces led by Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) forge a deadly alliance with a warmongering tribe of fire-worshipping Na’vi ruled by the nihilistic Varang (Oona Chaplin)—who aims for destruction to spite the Na’vi’s god, Eywa. James Cameron’s almost inconceivably ambitious saga returns with a visually spectacular outing taking viewers through striking new regions of the lush jungle moon Pandora. Fire and Ash is no jumping on point, but thankfully you can binge the entire trilogy (for now; Avatar 4 and 5 are planned) on Disney+.
Ready or Not 2: Here I Come
The first Ready or Not from 2019 was something of a sleeper hit. A gory slasher with a sense of humor, it played with the fears and uncertainties of marriage and joining a new family, with bride-to-be Grace (Samara Weaving) caught in the murderous traditions of her fiance’s clan. This sequel, helmed by returning codirectors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, picks up right after that first film’s credit roll, leading to Grace’s reunion with her estranged sister Faith (Kathryn Newton)—just in time to be swept into another murder game against a cabal of billionaires and aristocrats looking to fill a power vacuum left by Grace’s almost-inlaws. Schlocky, campy comedy horror, elevated by the presence of Sarah Michelle Gellar in an almost anti-Buffy role, Ready or Not 2 isn’t high art but it’s a hell of a lot of fun.
They Will Kill You
If Ready or Not 2 is schlock, then They Will Kill You is a step up the ladder—an almost exploitation-level hack-’em-up that takes liberal inspiration from Sam Raimi’s original Evil Dead trilogy and smashes it unapologetically together with Gareth Evans’ one-man-against-a-tower-block action epic The Raid.
Zazie Beetz (Deadpool 2) stars as Asia Reaves, who arrives at an exclusive New York high-rise known as The Virgil posing as a maid—but intent on hunting down her missing younger sister, Maria (Myha’la). Of course, The Virgil is a temple to Satan, its inhabitants are immortal cultists, and Maria is lined up as their next human sacrifice to the dark lord—so, seeing Asia absolutely wreck everything and everyone in her way as she brutally battles her way through the building is all the more satisfying. It’s borderline gonzo in places, but frankly farcical levels of the red stuff and some smart practical effects—shout out to the sentient eyeball—make this a thrilling and often hilarious ride.
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die
A man who looks like he’s been living in a dumpster bursts into an LA diner, brandishes a bomb detonator, and demands a group of the clientele go with him to stop a super-intelligent AI from being created before it takes over the world. This is probably a regular occurrence in parts of LA, but in this case, the nameless man (Sam Rockwell) actually is out to save the world. A time-traveler from a ruined future, he’s convinced that a certain combination of the diner’s customers will help him complete his mission—but despite being on his 117th attempt at the timeloop, he’s reluctant to ever take along the young runaway, Ingrid.
While director Gore Verbinski’s vision of the man’s dark future is bizarre, it’s nothing compared to his snapshot of an exaggerated present day: a world where teenagers are turned into literal zombies on their smartphones, school shootings are so common the victims are cloned and serve ads to their grieving parents to subsidize costs, and people are so addicted to VR worlds they start uploading their consciousness to the cloud. Equal parts cynical, satirical, and weirdly hopeful, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is a wild time travel adventure packed with big ideas.
Archive
For a very different look at ideas of AI and consciousness transferal, check out this 2020 British sci-fi outing from director Gavin Rothery. Set in the near future, the married couple George and Jules (Theo James and Stacy Martin) have their lives torn apart when a devastating car crash kills Jules. Uploading her mind to Archive, a service that offers 200 hours of communication with the deceased, George races to build a robot advanced enough to permanently house his wife’s consciousness. Unfortunately, his prototype models don’t like the idea of being replaced or upgraded with the “real” Jules, and the powerful corporation behind Archive doesn’t take kindly to any perceived infringement of its intellectual property. Despite its big ideas, Archive is really a meditation on loss and love, and Rothery brings it all to life with real visual beauty—little surprise, given he was previously concept designer on Duncan Jones’ stark but striking sci-fi Moon.
Hoppers
Mabel Tanaka (Piper Curda) has loved animals and nature her entire life, but she’s about to get a crash course in animal rights and wrongs when she transplants her mind into an advanced robot beaver invented by her college professor. Meeting King George (Bobby Moynihan), a friendly beaver monarch, Mabel ends up caught in a rapidly escalating interspecies conflict between local animals and (human) mayor Jerry (Jon Hamm), who wants to build a massive new road through their habitats, all while hiding her secret identity as a human.
Yes, it’s a madcap concept—one that somewhat inverts writer-director Daniel Chong’s previous work, the slightly surreal We Bare Bears cartoon, which featured three ursine brothers trying to live in the human world. However, the film evolves into a story packed with real emotion and genuine humor. It’s also one of Disney Pixar’s most visually impressive pieces of animation in years. Solid summer fun for kids, but with enough charm and fun ideas to entertain older viewers, too.
The Long Walk
Based on Stephen King’s 1979 novel (written under his Richard Bachman pseudonym at the time), The Long Walk is about exactly what it sounds like—and it’s one of the most distressing but gripping films you’ll see all year. Set in an alternate America in the thrall of an authoritarian dictatorship in the wake of a brutal civil war, the Long Walk is a sadistic new tradition. Each year, 50 teenage boys are randomly selected to walk nonstop, under military escort, without sleep or rest. The last man standing gets anything they wish for, if they can even think straight by the end. It’s a twisted competition that officially displays grit and determination, but really keeps the populace in line through fear—you can clearly see the seeds of The Hunger Games here. Anyone who walks too slow, stops, or tries to run is given a warning; three warnings and they’re killed on the spot, their deaths broadcast to the people.
Although featuring some stunning location shoots (in Winnipeg, somewhat ironically), director Francis Lawrence’s adaptation feels tight and oppressive, primarily focusing on the friendship between walkers Ray Garraty (Cooper Hoffman) and Pete McVries (David Jonsson), desperately urging each other to keep going, even as the twisted Major overseeing the walk (Mark Hamill in full villain mode) seems to quietly delight in talking each walker out. There are a few significant changes from King’s original text, but this remains a searing piece of dystopian fiction.