Rollerball

Rollerball (1975) is Norman Jewison's science-fiction action film you can watch online on iFILM. In the near future, war and poverty are gone, corporations run everything, and the public has been handed one savagely violent sport in place of politics.

Rollerball blends motorcycle racing, roller derby, and the Roman arena into a spectacle where players die to a roaring crowd. Jonathan E. (James Caan) is the star of the Houston team, idolized worldwide, the man who has survived the game longer than anyone. That is exactly why the corporations want him retired: a champion loved more than the company is dangerous. Jonathan refuses. So the rules start changing mid-season — no substitutions, no penalties, no final whistle.

Jewison made a cold dystopia rather than a sports drama, a film about spectacle replacing freedom. The climactic match was staged by real stuntmen with almost no editing tricks, which is what makes it genuinely frightening. Ahead of its time, it still gets cited in arguments about corporate power. Stream Rollerball (1975) online on iFILM.