Jeff Bridges And John Carpenter's '80s Sci-Fi Classic Is Streaming For Free

John Carpenter is known for directing some of the best horror movies ever — "Halloween" being a prime example. In 1984, however, the spook maestro branched out with "Starman," a sci-fi romance starring Jeff Bridges as an alien who clones a widow's dead husband. It's an outlier in the director's filmography, and viewers keen to see Carpenter's work outside of horror can now watch the film for free on Tubi.

Bridges' alien is unlike the creature in Carpenter's "The Thing," the Kurt Russell-starring sci-fi horror Quentin Tarantino hailed as a masterpiece. This extraterrestrial is the loving type, and it doesn't take long for him to develop feelings for the aforementioned widow, Jenny (Karen Allen), and vice versa. It isn't a forever love story, though, as the titular alien needs to leave Earth or else he will die.

For Carpenter, "Starman" was a conscious effort to escape the confines of horror. "I just realized at some point that they were never going to let me do a romantic comedy," he told The Flashback Files. "I was just going to be in horror and stay there, which is fine. But I wanted to get my shot at it. And that was a perfect chance to do it. I'm very happy with how that film turned out."

Unfortunately, "Starman" didn't catapult Carpenter's career into new realms. The film underperformed at the box office, and Carpenter shifted his attention to "Big Trouble in Little China" and "They Live" — an '80s classic starring Roddy Piper that's also streaming for free. However, "Starman" was a hit among critics, so let's find out why they loved it.

"Starman" is essentially a road movie about an alien and his human companion evading the authorities so he can get home. There are obvious similarities with "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," but John Carpenter's movie offers a different kind of sentimental alien story. Critics especially praised the performances — and Jeff Bridges even went on to receive an Oscar nomination.

"'Starman' contains the potential to be a very silly movie, but the two actors have so much sympathy for their characters that the movie, advertised as space fiction, turns into one of 1984's more touching love stories," Roger Ebert wrote. A similar view was shared by The Boston Globe, commending the movie for its emotional storytelling. "'Starman' is a close encounter of the most curious kind that never sacrifices hardware for humanity, intelligence for action, or character for caricature."

With that in mind, "Starman" is the ultimate movie for sci-fi fans who also happen to be mushy romantics. So, why not head on over to Tubi and find out what all of the fuss is about? It won't cost you a penny.