Matt Damon’s 2013 sci-fi film Elysium landed on Tubi on July 1, giving viewers a free way to watch the dystopian thriller at a moment when interest in Damon's screen work is rising again. The film puts Damon in the lead as Max Da Costa, a former car thief on parole who has only five days left to live after radiation exposure.
That makes the timing unusually useful for anyone searching for a Troy Movie connection, because the film is now easier to catch ahead of his next big turn as Odysseus in The Odyssey. For a film star whose career runs from Good Will Hunting to The Talented Mr. Ripley and The Bourne series, a free streaming window can turn an older title into an easy stop for curious viewers.
Elysium is set in 2154, when a polluted, overpopulated Earth sits beneath a high-tech orbital station where the Med-Bays can heal any disease or health condition. Neill Blomkamp directed the film, with Wagner Moura as Spider and Jodie Foster as Defense Secretary Delacourt, building a world that is part action movie and part social fable.
That mix is also why the movie has endured. Elysium is still entertaining, even if it feels like a step down from District 9 and Chappie and never goes much beyond a rudimentary, surface-level treatment of its theme. Damon keeps it moving anyway, especially once Max puts on a sturdy exoskeleton to keep going as his body gives out.
The unresolved piece is simple: Tubi has made Elysium free, but it has not said how long that window will last. For viewers who want to revisit Damon in one of his most undervalued sci-fi roles, July 1 is the day to press play rather than assume the film will stay there.
