Without Universal Pictures’ library of films, Netflix‘s lineup of classic movies would be extremely disappointing. From Netflix’s perspective, it may simply be cheaper to pump out original movies rather than pay up to give subscribers a blast from the past. And it’s impossible not to notice that several classic movies including Amadeus, Footloose, Born on the Fourth of July, and A Nightmare on Elm Street are no longer streaming on Netflix.
It’s a good thing Universal came through with Back to the Future, The Secret of My Success, The Breakfast Club, and Conan the Barbarian. It’s hard to field a selection of films that’s more ’80s than those titles. You can find those flicks and the rest of our selections below in our roundup of the best classic movies on Netflix right now.
Back to the Future (1985)
Back to the Future is closing in on its 40th anniversary in 2025, which is crazy when you think that Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) only traveled 30 years back in time. It wasn’t Marty’s idea to make a detour to 1955. His best friend, and Hill Valley’s local mad scientist, Emmett “Doc” Brown (Christopher Lloyd), built a time machine out of a DeLorean. And the next thing you know, Doc is dead and Marty has no choice but to hop into the DeLorean to make his escape.
The big problem is that Marty has endangered his own timeline by disrupting the first meeting of his parents, George McFly (Crispin Glover) and Lorraine Baines (Lea Thompson). A younger version of Doc Brown may be able to send Marty home. Now, Marty just has to make sure that he still has a future.
Watch Back to the Future on Netflix.
The Secret of My Success (1987)
Two years after establishing himself as a box-office draw in Back to the Future, Michael J. Fox headlined the comedy The Secret of My Success. Fox plays Brantley Foster, a recent college graduate who finds that the only way he can land a job in a competitive market is to rely on a distant relative, “Uncle” Howard Prescott (Richard Jordan).
Once Brantley lands in the mail room, he realizes that Howard is running the company into the ground. Brantley then gets the bright idea to pass himself off as Carlton Whitfield, a new executive who threatens Howard’s power plays. And Howard is so threatened by “Carlton” that he sends his mistress, Christy Wills (Helen Slater), to spy on him without realizing that his new rival is also his nephew.
Watch The Secret of My Success on Netflix.
The Breakfast Club (1985)
The Brat Pack begins in The Breakfast Club, which is also one of John Hughes’ best movies. Andrew Clark (Emilio Estevez), Allison Reynolds (Ally Sheedy), Claire Standish (Molly Ringwald), Brian Johnson (Anthony Michael Hall), and John Bender (Judd Nelson) are stuck in Saturday detention under the occasionally watchful eye of Vice Principal Richard Vernon (Paul Gleason).
The kids don’t really know each other and they aren’t friends going in. But being forced to spend so much time together helps the students realize that they have more in common than they thought. Even the movie itself questions whether the connections they make will last outside of detention, but it’s still very entertaining to see the teenagers bond and grow up a little.
Watch The Breakfast Club on Netflix.
Conan the Barbarian (1982)
Last Action Hero‘s Arnold Schwarzenegger hadn’t quite mastered his English when he made Conan the Barbarian, but he looked like he walked out of a Frank Frazetta fantasy painting and embodied Robert E. Howard’s pulp hero in a way that no other actor has been able to match. The film reinvents Conan’s origin by depicting his life as a slave after Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones) killed Conan’s parents.
Upon being freed from bondage as an adult, Conan befriends Subotai (Gerry Lopez) and finds potential love with Valeria (Sandahl Bergman). However, Conan’s desire for revenge on Thulsa Doom may prove to be his undoing. And even if Conan survives, he stands to lose more than he could ever gain from his vengeance.
Watch Conan the Barbarian on Netflix.
Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
Eddie Murphy was never just an action star. Coming off his iconic run as a cast member of Saturday Night Live, Beverly Hills Cop was the action comedy that propelled Murphy to leading man status and a member of Hollywood’s A-list. Murphy portrays Axel Foley, a Detroit police detective driven to solve the murder of his friend, Michael “Mikey” Tandino (James Russo).
Foley defies orders to stay out the investigation and follows the trail of Mikey’s killers back to Beverley Hills. The Los Angeles Police Department wants no part of Foley’s vendetta, so they assign Detective William “Billy” Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and Sergeant John Taggart (John Ashton) to keep him out of their way and out of trouble. But trouble is what Foley does best, and Rosewood and Taggart are overwhelmed when Axel runs rings around them before bringing both men over to his side.
Watch Beverly Hills Cop on Netflix.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
Monty Python is a group of comedy legends, and their second film, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, may be one of the funniest movies ever made. It’s the relentlessly silly story of King Arthur (Graham Chapman) and his knights, Lancelot (John Cleese), Robin (Eric Idle), Bedevere (Terry Jones), and Galahad (Michael Palin) as they stumble across the countryside in search of the Holy Grail.
On their journey, Arthur and his servant, Patsy (Terry Gilliam), encounter the Black Knight (Cleese) in a sequence that’s still hilarious and quotable nearly five decades later. The rest of the movie is also amazingly funny, and it’s one of the rare films that never seems to get old as long as you’re willing to embrace the Pythons’ brand of bizarre comedy.
Watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail on Netflix.
