The Man Who Fell to Earth

The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) is Nicolas Roeg's science-fiction drama you can watch online on iFILM. David Bowie takes the lead in his first major screen role, playing a visitor whose craft splashes down in a lake somewhere in the American West.

Calling himself Thomas Jerome Newton, the alien passes for human. His home world is dying of drought, and he has come for water. Using technology that runs decades ahead of anything on Earth, Newton patents one invention after another, builds a corporate empire, and pours the money into a ship to rescue his family. His lawyer Oliver Farnsworth (Buck Henry) handles the business; a quiet hotel clerk, Mary-Lou (Candy Clark), pulls him into a life he never planned. Then drink, television, and government agents start to hollow him out.

Roeg tells it in fractured, hypnotic style, slipping through time with elliptical cuts and stray memories. Adapted from Walter Tevis's novel, the film grew into a cult favorite, carried largely by Bowie's strange, fragile presence. Stream The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) online on iFILM.