Robin Williams’ ’90s AI Sci-Fi Film Powers Up Again on Free Streaming

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Published Mar 21, 2026, 10:40 AM EDT

Shrishty is a decade-old journalist covering a variety of beats between politics to pop culture, but movies are her first love, which led her to study Film and TV Development at UCLAx. She lives and breathes cinema and sometimes wakes up with the close-up shot of Ryan Gosling's hands playing piano in La La Land, in her head.

She has worked with numerous media outlets, including Burda Media (MSN News), DKODING Media, The Voice of Fashion, Hindustan Times, and more. Throughout her career, she has interviewed an array of people, from CEOs and politicians to filmmakers and farmers.

Robin Williams has given us some iconic movies throughout his illustrious career — from Good Will Hunting and Jumanji to Hook and Mrs. Doubtfire. Each of his films is etched in the audience's minds owing to Williams’ heart-tugging, energetic, humorous performances. But in his four-decade-long career, there are only a handful of sci-fi films that the actor made, and it’s hard to believe he could have an underrated movie in his filmography, but then Bicentennial Man exists.

Helmed by Harry Potter director Chris Columbus, Bicentennial Man is based on author Isaac Asimov’s The Positronic Man, and features William as the titular android, Andrew, who was purchased as a household appliance and begins to exhibit emotions, creativity, and self-awareness. For over 200 years, he fought for legal recognition as a human, undergoing physical modifications to become more human-like.

On the surface, the feature feels like a normal sci-fi story like A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, Replicas, or Ex Machina, but underneath it asks the most pertinent questions, like what does it mean to be a human? The themes of morality, the beauty of feelings, the freedom to have autonomy, and the sense of belonging are beautifully embedded in Nicholas Kazan’s screenplay. So, while the movie was a box office bomb, earning $87.4 million against a $90–100 million budget, it has, in time, risen as a cult classic among fans.

Fans were dismayed when it went off streaming and wasn’t available easily, but that changes as Bicentennial Man has been added to Tubi’s lineup, as per ComicBook. The movie is now free to watch (and rewatch) for fans, and if you haven’t seen it before, it’s a good time to catch up on this underrated gem also starring Sam Neill, Embeth Davidtz, Wendy Crewson, and Oliver Platt.

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'Bicentennial Man' Wasn’t Easy To Make

While the feature bagged an Oscar nomination in the Best Makeup category, Williams later revealed that it was hard to perform in the prosthetic suit. The movie was also marred by on-set accidents. Further, in recent times, Columbus called making the movie a “mistake,” as it did not capture the futuristic elements properly, revealing, “For me, it was a mistake because I realized at the time that I'm not the guy. I'm not the director you're going to go to if you want a futuristic movie. I still struggle with what the future is... it's not my wheelhouse and I'll never understand it. So, doing a futuristic movie was a mistake.”

Nonetheless, do check out Bicentennial Man on Tubi.