Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace

Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace (1999) is the Lucasfilm prequel you can watch online on iFILM, directed by George Lucas with Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, and Jake Lloyd. Budget: $115 million. Global box office: over a billion.

The Trade Federation blockades Naboo, and Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn together with his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi escort Queen Amidala off the occupied planet. A detour to Tatooine turns up young slave Anakin Skywalker — a nine-year-old whose midi-chlorian count breaks every Jedi record. Stunt performer Ray Park plays Darth Maul, the Sith enforcer with the double-bladed lightsaber. The podrace across Tatooine's desert flats runs nearly nine unbroken minutes of practical-effects chaos; the three-way duel at the film's climax became one of the most replayed fight sequences in franchise history.

This opening chapter of the prequel trilogy sets up how a gifted child from the outer rim edges toward the dark side — long before anyone calls him Vader. Stream Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace (1999) in full on iFILM.