Galaxy Express 999: The Movie

Watch Galaxy Express 999: The Movie (銀河鉄道999, 1979) online on iFILM — a Japanese animated feature directed by Rintaro, based on Leiji Matsumoto's landmark manga and anime series. A steam locomotive hurtling through nebulae on rails of starlight: few images in the anime canon are as instantly recognisable.

Tetsuro is a boy with a single goal — reach the distant planet that hands out mechanical bodies for free, become immortal, and destroy the man who killed his mother and mounted her like a trophy. His ticket arrives with Maetel, a tall, pale stranger who is the image of his dead mom. The Galaxy Express carries them through a world of permanent summer, another of endless blizzard, a gold-dust planet, and one that shakes without stop. Each stop reshapes Tetsuro in ways he did not expect.

Masako Nozawa voices Tetsuro; the film reached Japanese cinemas in 1979 and has held its place in the science-fiction conversation ever since. Stream Galaxy Express 999 online on iFILM.