12 Best Ridley Scott Movies to Watch Now

Russell Crowe stars as the famous English folk hero in this historical action epic (three words you’ll hear a lot in this feature). More historically referential than most, Robin Hood almost biographical in nature. It’s clear Scott and his writers did their homework. 

Anthony Hopkins reprises his role as vicious cannibal Hannibal in Scott’s sequel to The Silence of the Lambs . Jodie Foster’s replaced by an equally game Julianne Moore who’s now up against a terrifying new adversary in the disfigured Mason Verger (Gary Oldman in horrific facial prosthetics).

Demi Moore stars as the first candidate in a new initiative by the US army to allow women into their ranks. Moore shaves her head and grits her teeth as she fights to prove herself under the brutal regime of Commander Urgayle (Viggo Mortenson).

Matt Damon goes head to head with Ben Affleck in this feudal drama exploring concepts of misogyny and masculinity. There aren’t enough jousts in cinema, and given the box office return for this underrated release, there probably won’t be many more.

Russell Crowe follows up his Gladiator collaboration with Scott by playing Newark Detective Richie Roberts in this meaty biographical crime drama. Set in the late '60s, it's based loosely on the criminal life of North Carolina gangster Frank Lucas, who smuggled heroin into the United States on American service planes returning from the Vietnam War.

Scott’s 2017 Prometheus sequel pales in comparison to his other offerings in the series, but it’s certainly worth watching to see what happens following the events of the last movie. Here members of a crew discover an alien world they first think to be a paradise, but soon discover its hostile alien natives want them dead.

Make sure to watch the director’s cut of Scott's 2005 historical epic, which stars Orlando Bloom as the blacksmith joining a crusade to the Holy City of Jerusalem. It promotes Eva Green from vague love interest to the beating heart of the film, and bolsters the characters of Bloom and Brendan Gleeson with additional scenes.

Uneven and perhaps overlong, sure, but nobody stages an historical epic quite so lavishly as Scott. The spectacular Battle of Austerlitz is a masterful demonstration of his action sensibilities, with thousands of actors covered by a dozen cameras. There’s even a fresh release adding 48 extra minutes called Napoleon: The Director’s Cut. It’s released - here’s where to watch it.

The pursuit of immortality is one of Scott's enduring themes, and Prometheus is his deepest dive yet. It sees wealthy CEO Peter Weylund fund a private expedition to an uncharted planet in order to discover the secrets of eternal life. That’s hard to attain when they make contact with a pre-human species who wakes up and wants them all of humanity immediately dead for their litany of sins.

This set the blueprint. Countless works of both horror and sci-fi can trace themselves back to Scott’s brooding masterpiece that unleashes a terrifying ‘perfect organism’ on board a ship or blue collar corporate employees. From the discovery of the crashed vessel to the chestburster scene, the memorable moments are almost too many to name.

OK, Blade Runner doesn't appear to be streaming anywhere, but we can't leave it off the list. Scott returned time and time again to his most well-regarded sci-fi film in order to recut and refine it. That just shows how endlessly examinable it is. You could watch this neo-noir starring Harrison Ford a dozen times and discover something new during each viewing, whether it’s perspectives on personhood, globalisation, slavery, or the pursuit of immortality.

A controversial choice perhaps, but this is Scott’s most enjoyable movie to watch right now. It follows Matt Damon’s charming, disco-hating astronaut who gets stranded on Mars and prompts a global effort led by to Jeff Daniels and Chiwetel Ejiofor rescue him. A total counterpoint to the cynical isolation of Alien and Blade Runner, this is uplifting, joyous sci-fi where people solve problems by working together.