The Fly (1986)
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
When brilliant, eccentric scientist Seth Brundle makes a huge technological breakthrough in teleportation, he decides to test it on himself. Unbeknownst to him, a common housefly manages to get inside the device and the two become one.
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| Type | Movie |
|---|---|
| Released | 15 August 1986 |
| Genre | Horror, Science Fiction |
| Director | David Cronenberg |
| Starring | Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis and John Getz |
| Runtime | 96 min |
| Rated | R |
| Scores | Rotten Tomatoes (average) 8.4/10 · Rotten Tomatoes 94% · Metacritic 81/100 · IMDb 7.6/10 · TMDB users 7.5/10 |
| Budget | $9 million |
| Box office | $61 million worldwide |
Where to watch The Fly
The Fly is streaming on Hulu ($21.49 a month) in the US. It is also on Peacock ($16.99 a month). If that is the only reason to subscribe, one month of Peacock is $16.99 at list price.
We check availability daily. Page last updated 28 October 2026. Prices are standard monthly plans and change often, so check with the service before you sign up.
Rent or buy
You can rent or buy The Fly on Apple TV, Prime Video, Google Play, YouTube and Fandango at Home.
Where to watch The Fly in 56 other countries
| Country | Streaming on (price a month) |
|---|---|
| Argentina | Disney+ $15599 ARS |
| Australia | Disney+ $17.99 AUD |
| Austria | Disney+ €10.99 |
| Belgium | Disney+ €10.99 |
| Belize | Disney+ |
| Bolivia | Disney+ |
| Brazil | Disney+ R$49.90 |
| Bulgaria | Disney+ €9.99 |
| Canada | Disney+ $15.99 CAD |
| Chile | Disney+ $10990 CLP |
| Colombia | Disney+ $36900 COP |
| Costa Rica | Disney+ |
| Croatia | Disney+ €9.99 |
| Czechia | Disney+ 219 Kč |
| Denmark | Disney+ 119 kr DKK |
| Dominican Republic | Disney+ |
| Ecuador | Disney+ $11.49 |
| El Salvador | Disney+ |
| Finland | Disney+ €11.99 |
| France | Disney+ €10.99 |
| Germany | Disney+ €10.99 |
| Guatemala | Disney+ |
| Honduras | Disney+ |
| Hong Kong | Disney+ HK$88 |
| Hungary | Disney+ 2990 Ft |
| Ireland | Disney+ €11.99 |
| Italy | Disney+ €10.99 |
| Jamaica | Disney+ |
| Japan | Prime Video ¥600 JPY, Disney+ ¥1250 JPY |
| Liechtenstein | Disney+ |
| Luxembourg | Disney+ €10.99 |
| Mexico | Disney+ $259 MXN |
| Netherlands | Disney+ €10.99 |
| New Zealand | Disney+ $18.99 NZD |
| Nicaragua | Disney+ |
| Norway | Disney+ 129 kr NOK |
| Panama | Disney+ $12.49 |
| Paraguay | Disney+ |
| Peru | Disney+ S/49.90 |
| Poland | Disney+ 34.99 zł |
| Portugal | Disney+ €10.99 |
| Romania | Disney+ 34.99 lei |
| San Marino | Disney+ |
| Singapore | Disney+ $18.98 SGD |
| Slovakia | Disney+ €9.99 |
| South Korea | Disney+ ₩9900 |
| Spain | Disney+ €10.99 |
| St. Lucia | Disney+ |
| Sweden | Disney+ 129 kr SEK |
| Switzerland | Disney+ CHF16.90 |
| Taiwan | Disney+ NT$285 |
| Trinidad & Tobago | Disney+ |
| Türkiye | Disney+ ₺449.90 |
| United Kingdom | Disney+ £11.99 GBP |
| Uruguay | Disney+ about $U521 |
| Venezuela | Disney+ |
Subscription, free and ad-supported services we track; prices where Binge Boss has a price list for the country. "About" marks a price the service bills in another currency, converted at the day's rate. All countries as data.
What kind of watch this is
David Cronenberg’s 1986 horror film runs 96 minutes. It centers on Seth Brundle, a scientist who merges with a housefly during a teleportation experiment. Jeff Goldblum plays the man becoming the monster, while Geena Davis plays the woman who stays. The tagline reads, "Be afraid. Be very afraid." It is a slow, wet, and deeply uncomfortable look at what happens when a human body loses its boundaries. You will spend the entire runtime waiting for the next transformation.
What the critics said
Critics treated the gore with surprising grace. Rotten Tomatoes reports 94% positive reviews as of January 2026, while Metacritic assigns a Metascore of 81. The consensus calls it a moving tragedy, not just a monster movie. Gene Siskel ranked it the 10th best film of 1986. Roger Ebert agreed, placing it in his top 20 and arguing Jeffrey Goldblum deserved an Oscar nod. Not everyone was convinced. Caryn James of The New York Times found the tonal shifts distracting. She felt the film tried to be too many things at once. A valid critique, perhaps, but it misses the point that the decay is the character.
How it did with audiences
The Fly made $61 million worldwide against a $9 million budget, a ratio that film accountants call efficient and everyone else calls a miracle. In the United States, it pulled in $40 million. On TMDB, users rate it 7.5 out of 10. IMDb’s weighted average sits at 7.6/10 as of March 2026. Audiences, it seems, preferred the grossing figures to the groaning ones.
What came next for the cast
Jeff Goldblum moved from Annie Hall and Invasion of the Body Snatchers to Jurassic Park and Thor: Ragnarok. Geena Davis shifted from Tootsie and Fletch to Beetlejuice and Stuart Little. John Getz left Blood Simple for Zodiac and Jobs. The credits do not map cause and effect. They just map what followed.
Where it left its mark
The tagline "Be afraid. Be very afraid." escaped the theater and colonized pop culture. So many films and TV series have borrowed the phrase that audiences often mistake it for a generic horror cliché rather than a specific reference to this movie. The film even surfaced on Saturday Night Live in 2020, where Jim Carrey channeled Jeff Goldblum during a sketch about the vice presidential debate. Heavy metal band Ice Nine Kills channeled the story in their 2021 song "F.L.Y.
If you liked this
TMDB's recommendations for people who watched The Fly.
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Sources
- The Fly on TMDB — synopsis, cast, ratings and recommendations
- Wikidata Q468700 — review scores, box office and awards (CC0)
- “The Fly (1986 film)” on Wikipedia, by its contributors (history) — reception, audience figures and legacy, summarised and adapted here under CC BY-SA 4.0
- Where to watch and prices: Binge Boss, from TMDB watch-provider data (powered by JustWatch) and our own provider list
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