The Iron Giant

The Iron Giant (1999) is Brad Bird's animated sci-fi feature, and you can watch it online on iFILM. Rockwell, Maine, October 1957. Something huge and metal crashes out of the night sky.

Nine-year-old Hogarth Hughes goes looking for it and finds a fifty-foot robot in the woods. The thing eats steel, came from somewhere far out in space, and is terrifying right up until it turns out to be gentle and curious, like an overgrown kid. Hogarth hides his new friend from the grown-ups. Then a jittery government agent picks up the trail, convinced the visitor is a weapon that has to be destroyed. Vin Diesel voices the Giant in barely a handful of words.

Bird made his directing debut from a Ted Hughes story and turned it into a film about Cold War fear and choosing who you want to be. The voice cast includes Jennifer Aniston, Harry Connick Jr. and Cloris Leachman. The ending lands like a punch. Stream The Iron Giant (1999) online on iFILM.