Pictured: Places in the Heart, Firestarter, Moscow on the Hudson and Repo Man
To commemorate film anniversaries, Netflix has and will be releasing collections that honor the 50th, 40th, 30th, and 20th milestones. Today, Netflix just dropped a collection celebrating movies that mark their 40th anniversary this year.
In case you missed it, on January 17, 2024, Netflix announced a new licensing initiative throughout this year aimed at celebrating significant movie milestones. This initiative, called Milestone Movies: The Anniversary Collection, will see the streaming service offer a selection of award-winning films, fan favorites, guilty pleasures, and cult classics for a limited time in the United States and in their three theaters: Paris Theater in New York and the Egyptian and Bay theater in Los Angeles.
The first of these collections kickstarted back in January 2024 when Netflix released 17 movies from 1974 on January 1st, 2024. The lineup included titles like The Street Fighter, The Great Gatsby, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Next, and Blazing Saddles. These only the majority of these titles having since departed the service in the United States.
1974 Milestone Movies Poster – Picture: Netflix
1984 Movie Collection Now Streaming on Netflix US
Note: Listed in alphabetical order. Netflix provides all of the synopsis.
Netflix has launched a category code that houses all these movies within the app. You can type in the code 81753656 or use this link.
2010: The Year We Make Contact
Director: Peter Hyams
Cast: Roy Scheider, John Lithgow, Helen Mirren, Bob Balaban, Keir Dullea, Douglas Rain
Distributor: MGM/UA Entertainment Co.
First Released: December 7, 1984
“On a mission to investigate an abandoned spacecraft orbiting Jupiter, an international crew encounters strange phenomena and a sentient computer.”
A Passage to India
Director: David Lean
Cast: Judy Davis, Victor Banerjee, Peggy Ashcroft, James Fox, Alec Guinness, Nigel Havers
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
First Released: December 14th, 1984
“Tensions rise in 1920s India when an adventurous young British woman traveling with her future mother-in-law accuses a local doctor of sexual assault.”
Against All Odds
Director: Taylor Hackford
Cast: Rachel Ward, Jeff Bridges, James Woods, Alex Karras, Jane Greer, Richard Widmark
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
First Released: March 2nd, 1984
“An ex-football player agrees to track down a sleazy nightclub owner’s mistress — but when he finds the elusive woman in Mexico, he falls in love.”
Amadeus
Director: Miloš Forman
Cast: F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge, Simon Callow, Roy Dotrice, Christine Ebersole
Distributor: Orion Pictures
First Released: September 19th, 1984
“When composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s brilliant work captures the attention of the Viennese court, his jealous rival Antonio Salieri plots revenge.”
Birdy
Director: Alan Parker
Cast: Matthew Modine, Nicolas Cage, John Harkins, Sandy Baron, Karen Young, Bruno Kirby
Distributor: Tri-Star Pictures / Sony Pictures
First Released: December 21st, 1984
“A young Vietnam War veteran with PTSD escapes into a world where he thinks he’s a bird, but a childhood pal tries to help him reconnect with reality.”
Body Double
Director: Brian De Palma
Cast: Craig Wasson, Gregg Henry, Melanie Griffith
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
First Released: October 26th, 1984
“Struggling actor Jake witnesses a murder in a neighbor’s apartment. When a young porn actress befriends Jake, the two join forces to find the killer.”
Conan The Destroyer
Director: Richard Fleischer
Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Grace Jones, Wilt Chamberlain, Mako
Distributor: Universal Pictures
First Released: June 29th, 1984
“On a quest to retrieve a magic gem, mighty warrior Conan vanquishes hostile armies and supernatural foes with help from a band of colorful sidekicks.”
Falling in Love
Director: Ulu Grosbard
Cast: Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep, Harvey Keitel, Jane Kaczmarek, George Martin, David Clennon
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
First Released: November 21, 1984
“A chance encounter between two married strangers leads to a clandestine love affair that has profound consequences on their lives.”
Firestarter
Director: Mark L. Lester
Cast: David Keith, Drew Barrymore, Freddie Jones, Heather Locklear, Martin Sheen, George C. Scott
Distributor: Universal Pictures
First Released: May 11th, 1984
“Eight-year-old Charlie has the terrifying ability to ignite fires with her mind, and a sinister organization will stop at nothing to control her power.”
Firstborn
Director: Michael Apted
Cast: Teri Garr, Peter Weller, Christopher Collet, Corey Haim, Sarah Jessica Parker, Robert Downey Jr.
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
First Released: October 26th, 1984
“When their mother invites her new boyfriend home to live with them, two teens uncover dark secrets about him that put everyone in danger.”
Footloose
Director: Herbert Ross
Cast: Kevin Bacon, Lori Singer, Dianne Wiest, John Lithgow
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
First Released: February 17th, 1984
“In this rousing musical drama, Kevin Bacon stars as Ren McCormack, a big-city teen who discovers the small town he’s just moved to prohibits dancing.”
Iceman
Director: Fred Schepisi
Cast: Timothy Hutton, Lindsay Crouse, John Lone
Distributor: Universal Pictures
First Released: April 13th, 1984
“When a frozen Neanderthal is thawed from an Arctic glacier and brought back to life, an anthropologist clashes with other scientists over his fate.”
Micki & Maude
Director: Blake Edwards
Cast: Dudley Moore, Amy Irving, Ann Reinking, Richard Mulligan, George Gaynes
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
First Released: December 21st, 1984
“As his marriage to a lawyer unravels, a two-timing TV reporter learns not only is his new cellist girlfriend pregnant, but so is his soon-to-be ex-wife.”
Moscow on the Hudson
Director: Paul Mazursky
Cast: Robin Williams, Maria Conchita Alonso, Cleavant Derricks, Alejandro Rey, Saveli Kramarov
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
First Released: April 6th, 1984
“A Russian saxophonist defects while performing in New York City but finds life in America far more challenging than he’d expected.”
Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Director: Wes Craven
Cast: John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Heather Langenkamp, Amanda Wyss
Nick Corri, Johnny Depp, Robert Englund
Distributor: New Line Cinema
First Released: November 9th, 1984
“Wielding a bladed glove and a gruesome sense of humor, a supernatural serial killer torments teenagers in their dreams.”
Note: Many of the sequels were also added today.
Places in the Heart
Director: Robert Benton
Cast: Sally Field, Lindsay Crouse, Ed Harris, Amy Madigan, John Malkovich, Danny Glover
Distributor: Tri-Star Pictures
First Released: September 21st, 1984
Repo Man
Director: Alex Cox
Cast: Harry Dean Stanton, Emilio Estevez, Tracey Walter, Olivia Barash, Sy Richardson, Susan Barnes
Distributor: Universal Pictures
First Released: March 2nd, 1984
Sixteen Candles
Director: John Hughes
Cast: Molly Ringwald, Paul Dooley, Justin Henry, Anthony Michael Hall
Distributor: Universal Pictures
First Released: May 4th, 1984
“Her family forgot her birthday, her high school crush doesn’t know she exists and the class clown won’t leave her alone. Happy Sweet 16, Samantha!”
Note: This is already set to expire at the end of April 2024.
Starman
Director: John Carpenter
Cast: Jeff Bridges, Karen Allen, Charles Martin Smith, Richard Jaeckel
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
First Released: December 14th, 1984
“After crashing on Earth, an alien takes the form of a woman’s deceased husband and asks her to help him rendezvous with his returning spaceship.”
The Joy of Sex
Director: Martha Coolidge
Cast: Colleen Camp, Ernie Hudson, Christopher Lloyd
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
First Released: August 3rd, 1984
“Wrongly convinced she has only weeks to live, a high schooler goes on a quest to have sex for the first time but runs into one obstacle after another.”
The River
Director: Mark Rydell
Cast: Mel Gibson, Sissy Spacek, Shane Bailey, Becky Jo Lynch, Scott Glenn, Don Hood
Distributor: Universal Pictures
First Released: December 19th, 1984
Top Secret
Directors: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker
Cast: Val Kilmer, Lucy Gutteridge
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
First Released: June 22nd, 1984
“An American rock ‘n’ roll singer becomes entangled in a web of international intrigue in this zany spy spoof from the creators of “Airplane!””
Stay tuned in the coming months for the Milestone Movie collections for 1994 and 2004. The 1994 collection will be released in July, and the 2004 collection will be released in October.
Which of these movies from 1984 will you be checking out on Netflix? Let us know in the comments.