The best upcoming movies for October 2025 and beyond

A nuclear warhead is dispatched towards Chicago by an unknown enemy, sparking a feverish, panicked response from the U.S. government. Can they stop the missile? Should they retaliate against all potential enemies, despite not knowing which adversary launched the strike – and risk sparking an apocalyptic global exchange? Zero Dark Thirty and Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow returns to familiar geopolitical ground in this tense Netflix original thriller, featuring a large ensemble cast including the likes of Rebecca Ferguson, Idris Elba, Jared Harris, Gabriel Basso and Greta Lee.

Release date: 3 October 2025 (cinemas); 24 October 2025 (Netflix)

Derek Cianfrance, best known for writing and directing heart-wrenching, emotion-driven human dramas like Blue Valentine, The Place Beyond the Pines and (for TV) I Know This Much Is True, turns to something a bit lighter with this upcoming biopic.

Roofman is a comedy-drama inspired by the real-life story of fugitive Jeffrey Manchester (Channing Tatum), a genial robber whose speciality is breaking into branches of McDonald’s via the roof before emptying the cash registers. On the run, Manchester winds up living in a strange hideout: the wall of a Toys-R-Us superstore.

With a supporting cast including Kirsten Dunst, Peter Dinklage and Ben Mendelsohn, Roofman is shaping up to be a ton of fun – which is something we certainly couldn’t say about Blue Valentine.

Release date: 10 October 2025

The “wouldn’t it be crazy if two people magically swapped lifestyles/bodies” comedy is back this year – first with Freakier Friday and soon Good Fortune, written by, directed by and starring Aziz Ansari.

Ansari plays Arj, a down-on-his-luck odd job man who is visited by an angel called Gabriel (Keanu Reeves). In order to demonstrate that being wealthy doesn’t solve life’s fundamental problems, Gabriel miraculously switches Arj’s life with that of his employer, a super-rich tech bro called Jeff (Seth Rogen). But the lesson doesn’t seem to land: Arj begins living the life he always dreamed of, while Jeff ends up a miserable victim of the gig economy and Gabriel is demoted, being tossed out of heaven and forced to live on Earth – as Jeff’s flatmate.

Keke Palmer and Sandra Oh also star in a film that, judging by the trailer, looks set to be genuinely funny.

Release date: 17 October 2025

Did you enjoy last year’s A Complete Unknown and its focus on Bob Dylan at a very specific point in his career? Then you’re probably going to love Deliver Me from Nowhere, which zeros in on the recording of Bruce Springsteen’s seminal 1982 album Nebraska. With ‘The Boss’ on the verge of superstardom, Nebraska’s stripped-back lo-fi sound, recorded on a simple 4-track tape machine in a bedroom, represented a major departure from his usual bombastic stadium-rock style – and was not the kind of record his label wanted at that time.

Fresh from The Bear’s brutal kitchen, Jeremy Allen White stars as Springsteen – and reportedly delivers vocals that even the real Bruce himself couldn’t discern from his originals. The supporting cast includes Jeremy Strong, Paul Walter Hauser, Stephen Graham and Gaby Hoffman, while director Scott Cooper has form in music-centric movies, having previously directed Crazy Heart.

Release date: 24 October 2025

Set in a dystopian future where America’s most popular TV show is a life-or-death competition where the participants are hunted down by ruthless assassins (we say future, but this could be about two years away in real life the way things are going), The Running Man stars Glen Powell as the show’s newest contestant. Can he survive for 30 days and win the money he needs to save his ill daughter’s life?

Based on a 1982 Stephen King story and having previously been adapted for a fun but fairly forgettable Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle, we wouldn’t be half as excited about this new version of The Running Man if it wasn’t directed by Edgar Wright. Wright has injected all his movies, from Shaun of the Dead to Baby Driver to Last Night in Soho, with so much visual flair and kinetic energy, and he seems like the perfect filmmaker to bring this death-game chaos to the big screen.

Release date: 7 November 2025

Dan Trachtenberg’s third Predator series film (after Prey and Predator: Killer of Killers) is the first to feature the dreadlocked alien hunter as its protagonist rather than its big bad. In this case, the Predator a young ‘runt’ named Dek, cast out by his clan but determined to prove himself by hunting down the most vicious creatures on a planet filled with them.

Judging by the trailer, Badlands will also feature the first merging of the Alien and Predator franchises since The Films Which We Shall Not Name. Elle Fanning appears as an android created by Weyland Yutani, the ruthless megacorporation that has appeared all the way through the Alien series. Could the real ‘apex predator’ our hero hunter ends up facing be an acid-blooded xenomorph? The trailer gives nothing away, but fans are already speculating wildly.

Release date: 7 November 2025

George Clooney and Adam Sandler lead a magnificent ensemble cast in Netflix’s tentpole festive period release – a sweeping comedy-drama following a beloved Hollywood movie star (Clooney) and his doting manager (Sandler) as they travel through Europe reflecting and reminiscing on their lives.

Given the subject matter, this could have been saccharine or sentimental in certain creative hands, but Jay Kelly is co-written and directed by Noah Baumbach, so we have hugely high expectations for it. The film has already been screened at festivals, and the critics seem impressed; we’re just looking forward to see Sandler and Clooney trading witticisms on the big (or small) screen.

Release date: 14 November 2025 (cinemas); 5 December 2025 (Netflix)

Rian Johnson’s third movie in the Knives Out series brings together another star-studded group of misfits (among them Josh Brolin, Jeremy Renner, Glenn Close, Mila Kunis and Andrew Scott) in a new murder mystery – this time centring around a Catholic congregation where the sins being committed require something a little stronger than a few Our Fathers, atonement-wise. Presiding over the case once again is Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc, a flamboyant private detective whose mind is as quick as his Southern drawl is slow.

This film will be Jeremy Renner’s first major creative project since his horrific snowplough accident almost two years ago.

Release date: 26 November 2025 (cinemas); 12 December 2025 (Netflix)

It’s alive, it’s alive! Guillermo del Toro had been dreaming of writing and directing his own adaptation of Mary Shelley’s iconic gothic novel for decades. He refused to do so until he felt he could do it justice. Netflix has given him the creative freedom – and budget – to make Frankenstein and, while we’re a little sad that this movie won’t be given the theatrical release it deserves, we’re very excited for what’s in store. Del Toro is arguably the greatest horror director of his generation; it’ll be interesting to see how he breathes new life into this well-worn tale.

Oscar Isaac leads the cast as mercurial scientist Victor Frankenstein, pushing technical innovation a little too far, alongside Mia Goth (who, as always, has the perfect name for a horror movie actress), Charles Dance, Christoph Waltz – and teen heartthrob Jacob Elordi as the monster.

Release date: November 2025

Originally slated for release in August 2024, the third Avatar movie is finally nearing touchdown. Judging by the trailer, and from comments from director James Cameron, this time around we’ll see Na’vi take on Na’vi, via the introduction of the warlike, aggressive Ash People.

But, really, it’s an Avatar movie – so we’re expecting technical mastery, breath-taking visuals, action aplenty… and a fairly forgettable story. We’re also expecting it to make an ocean full of cash during its theatrical run, after which it’ll arrive on Disney+ for home streaming.

As well as the huge returning cast, including Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Lang, there’ll be new additions in Oona Chaplin and David Thewlis.

Release date: 19 December 2025

David Koepp is known as a screenwriter of triple-A Hollywood blockbusters like Jurassic Park, Mission: Impossible and 2002’s Spider-Man, but he’s clearly got a love of b-movies too – hence penning this horror comedy based on his own 2019 novel, in which a deadly fungus emerges from a sealed lab and threatens to bring about the end of the world.

The cast features not only horror-adjacent youngbloods like Joe Keery, Sosie Bacon and Georgina Campbell, but esteemed thespians like Lesley Manville and Vanessa Redgrave. Not to mention Liam Neeson because, well, why wouldn’t you cast Liam Neeson as the straight-talking military man in an ultra-violent splatterfest?

Release date: 2026