Star Trek movie marathon is now streaming – here’s how U.S. fans can watch the entire saga for free

Space. The final frontier. And also, this week and beyond, your living room.

All 13 Star Trek movies, yes, all of them, from the dreamy, meditative weirdness of the 1979 original to the sleek space jump chaos of Star Trek Beyond, are now streaming for free in the U.S. on Pluto TV.

It’s the kind of drop that feels less like a content update and more like a cosmic alignment, one of science fiction’s most enduring sagas, suddenly orbiting back into your life, ready to beam you up with a single click.

Whether you grew up quoting Spock or never quite figured out the difference between Vulcans and Romulans, this marathon is both a warm hug and an open door.

And there’s never been a better time to jump in. With Star Trek: Strange New Worlds gearing up for its third season and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy officially on the launchpad, the franchise is expanding at full warp.

Before these new adventures chart their course, however, the films offer a rare chance to revisit where we’ve been, across timelines, crews and cinematic styles, in a voyage that still feels thrillingly alive. Set phasers to “let’s go.”

Where to stream every Star Trek movie for free

Since June 1, Pluto TV has been running a full-scale Star Trek movie marathon in the United States, and yes, it’s completely free. No logins, no subscriptions, no trial periods hoping you’ll forget to cancel. Just open access to the stars.

The platform, which mimics the feel of classic television with scheduled programming, has a dedicated Star Trek channel broadcasting all 13 films in rotation.

They’re airing in release order, which means you can witness the evolution of the franchise as it happened, from the contemplative pacing of the seventies through to the explosive reboot energy of the 2010s.

It’s not on demand, so you can’t pick and choose the movie, but that’s part of the charm. There’s something beautifully chaotic about tuning in and stumbling into the middle of First Contact or catching The Voyage Home right when the whales show up.

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Pluto TV is available on just about every device you can imagine, from mobile apps to web browsers, smart TVs, Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV and even gaming consoles.

And while the stream includes ad breaks, it’s a small price to pay for access to five decades of Federation history without spending a dime. Plus, those breaks offer just enough time to process what you’ve watched, scream at the screen during a cliffhanger or refill your popcorn before the Enterprise jumps back into warp.

It feels less like binge watching and more like a ritual, a slow burn voyage through everything Star Trek has dared to imagine on the big screen.

What’s included in this ultimate Trekathon?

This marathon is more than a casual scroll through the past. It’s a full-on journey across cinematic history, uniting all thirteen Star Trek films into one continuous narrative of exploration, ethics and evolution.

It begins with The Motion Picture, a slow, meditative visual feast that dared to take sci-fi as seriously as Kubrick had a decade earlier, and ends with Star Trek Beyond, a fast-paced, emotionally sincere love letter to teamwork and legacy.

In between, you get everything from space opera revenge in The Wrath of Khan to time travel comedy with whales in The Voyage Home to philosophical showdowns with cybernetic nightmares in First Contact.

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The films span generations, shifting from the original Enterprise crew to The Next Generation era before jumping timelines entirely with the Kelvin reboot. Watching them all together feels like tracking the evolution of how each era of Star Trek responded to its historical moment, reshaping its vision of the future along the way.

There’s a real thrill in observing how the tone, pace and even moral dilemmas evolve across the decades. The earliest films wear their seventies DNA proudly, lingering in silence and grandeur.

The eighties and nineties installments become more character-driven, more willing to challenge the Federation’s ideals from within. And then there’s the reboot trilogy, which throws punches, questions fate and still manages to ask what makes a captain, a crew and a mission worth believing in.

The continuity between these films might not always be seamless, and that unpredictability is part of the fun. Star Trek has never been afraid to contradict itself, reboot, course-correct or rewrite a few logs in the name of progress. This marathon offers more than a sequence of films. It reveals how a sci-fi institution kept boldly going by refusing to stand still.

Three eras, one Federation

Though the 13 Star Trek films form a continuous cinematic legacy, they fall into three distinct eras, each with its own crew, tone and cultural backdrop. The first six films follow the original series cast, with Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura, Scotty and the rest transitioning from the small screen into epic theatrical space adventures.

These movies are often slower, more contemplative, and deeply tied to the Cold War anxieties of their time, but they also carry a sense of grandeur and loyalty that makes them essential, even when the visual effects show their age. Watching them feels like attending a high council of Starfleet elders, where every choice echoes across the cosmos.

Then comes the Next Generation era, with four films led by Captain Picard and his crew. These stories take on different themes like artificial life, memory, insurgency and legacy, reflecting a 1990s worldview that’s a little more skeptical and a little more internal.

There’s still wonder, but it comes with more political friction and a sharper sense that utopia, even in the 24th century, needs constant maintenance. The dynamic between Data and Picard, especially, anchors this era with a kind of heart-meets-head precision that still resonates.

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Finally, the Kelvin Timeline reimagines everything. Launched in 2009 with J.J. Abrams’ soft reboot, this alternate continuity introduces younger versions of the original crew in a universe reshaped by time travel and destruction.

The energy is faster, the emotions louder and the aesthetics shinier. Some longtime fans pushed back on the shift toward action blockbuster territory, but others embraced the fresh momentum and the way these films reintroduced classic characters with real emotional stakes.

If the first two eras asked big questions, the Kelvin era screams them from the edge of an exploding star. And somehow, that works too.

Star Trek films in release order

No.TitleU.S. Release DateDirector1Star Trek: The Motion PictureDecember 7, 1979Robert Wise2Star Trek II: The Wrath of KhanJune 4, 1982Nicholas Meyer3Star Trek III: The Search for SpockJune 1, 1984Leonard Nimoy4Star Trek IV: The Voyage HomeNovember 26, 1986Leonard Nimoy5Star Trek V: The Final FrontierJune 9, 1989William Shatner6Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered CountryDecember 6, 1991Nicholas Meyer7Star Trek: GenerationsNovember 18, 1994David Carson8Star Trek: First ContactNovember 22, 1996Jonathan Frakes9Star Trek: InsurrectionDecember 11, 1998Jonathan Frakes10Star Trek: NemesisDecember 13, 2002Stuart Baird11Star TrekMay 8, 2009J.J. Abrams12Star Trek Into DarknessMay 16, 2013J.J. Abrams13Star Trek BeyondJuly 22, 2016Justin Lin

Why Star Trek still boldly matters

There are sci-fi franchises that chase spectacle, and then there's Star Trek, which has always chased meaning. Long before cinematic universes became a thing, Star Trek was already building one, not out of explosions and crossover events, but out of conversations, philosophy and the radical idea that humanity could outgrow its worst instincts.

Watching the films today feels like opening a time capsule from every decade they touched. The Cold War tension in The Undiscovered Country, the post-9/11 echoes in Into Darkness, the environmental urgency of The Voyage Home. This is a franchise that doesn't simply travel through space. It travels through who we were, who we are and who we might dare to become.

That's why revisiting these films in 2025 feels less like nostalgia and more like a timely recalibration. Even their flaws, and there are plenty, reflect the messiness of trying to tell optimistic stories in complicated times.

Some entries feel dated or uneven, but together they form a lineage of cinematic ambition that keeps reaching for something larger than itself. They show that science fiction can be thoughtful without being slow, adventurous without being empty and idealistic without being naive.

And this isn't only about the past. With Strange New Worlds returning soon for a third season and Starfleet Academy preparing to introduce a new generation of cadets, Star Trek isn't coasting on legacy. It's expanding, deepening, getting weirder, queerer, more playful and more urgent.

The films act as an anchor in all this, not because they're sacred, but because they show how much reinvention is possible without abandoning the mission. They're the bridge between what the franchise was and what it's still becoming. They remind us that Star Trek has always been less about where we are in the galaxy and more about who we are when we get there.

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Star Trek is calling. Are you ready to answer?

Whether you’re a lifelong Trekkie or a curious newcomer who only knows the phrase “beam me up,” this is the moment to dive in. The entire cinematic legacy of Star Trek is spinning through the stars again, and it won’t cost you anything but time and maybe a few feelings.

The marathon is part of Pluto TV’s Summer of Cinema and will continue through the end of August 2025, giving fans a full season to explore the saga.

These films aren’t just artifacts. They’re invitations. To think harder. To dream bigger. To believe in a future that isn’t built on fear or cynicism, but on cooperation, courage and curiosity. The Enterprise is waiting. Channel open. Warp engines standing by. Let’s fly.