Due to the fact that February is the shortest month of the year, it’s almost half over already. The good news is that you should still have more than enough time to catch our picks for the three sci-fi movies on Hulu that you need to watch in February.
Our first two picks of the month were among the best science fiction movies of the ’80s, while our final choice, District 9, was nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars 13 years ago. You may want to watch District 9 first because that’s among the films that are leaving Hulu at the end of February. The other two will be sticking around for at least a few months.
Predator (1987)
How pervasive is the original Predator movie? Arnold Schwarzenegger made a direct reference to it in his State Farm commercial that aired during the 2024 Super Bowl, and it was recognized as one of the best films of the late Carl Weathers earlier this month. It’s just a fantastic action flick that takes a turn for the sci-fi when an alien Predator (Kevin Peter Hall) shows up and begins hunting heavily armed men for sport.
Major Alan “Dutch” Schaefer (Schwarzenegger) and his team may be seasoned mercenaries, but even they are unprepared for the lethal tactics that the Predator uses against them. As they go down one by one, Dutch has to figure out a way to counter the Predator’s tech or else he’ll meet the same fate as his comrades.
Watch Predator on Hulu.
The Abyss (1989)
The cast of The Abyss has been pretty vocal about what a difficult shoot it was, especially Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. And the performers don’t seem to have very fond memories of director James Cameron from this film. Regardless, The Abyss is an underrated sci-fi flick that has been overshadowed by Cameron’s other movies. Even decades later, it still holds up thanks to strong performances from the cast and visual effects that were stunning for that era.
Mastrantonio and Ed Harris co-star in the film as an estranged couple, Dr. Lindsey Brigman and Virgil “Bud” Brigman, who are reunited when a U.S. submarine crashes into an underwater vessel that is not of this Earth. When disaster strikes, Lindsey, Bud, and the rest of their team are trapped with little hope of rescue. They also encounter an alien intelligence that freaks out U.S. Navy SEAL Lieutenant Hiram Coffey (Michael Biehn), a man who may get everyone else killed in his mad quest to destroy it.
Watch The Abyss on Hulu.
District 9 (2009)
The allegory in Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 is unmistakable as the South African filmmaker sets the story in his own home country as a reflection of its legacy of Apartheid and racism. In the backstory of the film, a ship of aliens – who are derisively called Prawns – arrive on Earth as refugees. Rather than welcoming the visitors with open arms, South Africa’s government forces the aliens to live in slums while they endure poverty and abuse from the humans.
One of the Prawns, Christopher Johnson (Jason Cope), has had more than enough of Earth’s “hospitality.” Johnson has put in motion a bold plan to return to the Prawns’ alien ship and return to their home world to bring reinforcements and free his people. A human bureaucrat named Wikus van de Merwe (Sharlto Copley) stumbles onto this plan while attempting to force the aliens to relocate. After being exposed to Johnson’s alien fuel, Wikus begins physically transforming into a Prawn, which forces him to team up with Johnson if he ever hopes to have his humanity restored.
Watch District 9 on Hulu.
