Gerard Butler’s Underwhelming Sci-Fi Action Blockbuster Lands on Free Streaming

Gerard Butler might be a household name in the action genre, but sometimes even he can’t save a movie from underperforming at the box office. However, like many of his movies, it’s about to find redemption on free streaming. Tubi is one of the most popular streamers around, which is aided by the fact that it’s completely free. In the past, Butler’s action hits, like Den of Thieves, Machine Gun Preacher, Law Abiding Citizen, and 300, have all come and gone from the platform. Now it’s time for his biggest sci-fi action movie to date, Geostorm, to find its audience on the free streaming site.

Geostorm will stream for free on Tubi on January 1, 2026. Released in 2017, Dean Devlin directed Geostorm, with Butler in the leading role. The Scottish actor played Jake Lawson, a satellite designer living in an age where repeated natural disasters have threatened humanity. To combat this, humans designed a network of satellites to control the weather. But, when the satellites are taken over by an unknown threat, Jake must uncover who is behind it before the end of the world. It’s a bonkers plot that only works in the action genre, and, despite Butler’s best efforts, it falls short. The official synopsis reads:

“After an unprecedented series of natural disasters threatened the planet, the world’s leaders came together to create an intricate network of satellites to control the global climate and keep everyone safe. But something has gone wrong, as the system built to protect Earth is attacking it and it becomes a race against the clock to uncover the real threat before a worldwide geostorm wipes out everything and everyone along with it.”

Alongside Gerard Butler, Geostorm starred Abbie Cornish, Jim Sturges, Ed Harris, Andy Garcia, Alexandra Maria Lara, Robert Sheehan, Zazie Beetz, and Daniel Wu. Geostorm was expected to be a major hit at the box office, as Warner Bros. sunk $120 million into the movie. It made back its budget; however, it wasn’t the most profitable film for ole Warners. Geostorm grossed $221 million worldwide. When paired with its lackluster reviews, Geostorm was widely considered to be a failure.

‘Geostorm’ Was Slated by Critics and Audiences

A still of depicting one of the key cast members from Geostorm

Warner Bros. Pictures

Gerard Butler movies, even the bad ones, tend to find an audience somewhere. But Geostorm is one of the rare cases that turned the actor’s fandom against him. The movie holds a very poor critics’ rating of just 18% on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences were slightly kinder… but only slightly, giving Geostorm a score of 35%.

“I can’t recommend it to anyone in good conscience, but if you absolutely have to watch it for some reason, do yourself a huge favor and skip the first hour and thirty minutes. Even then, temper your expectations,” read one harsh user review on Rotten Tomatoes, while another read, “Is it a disaster movie, a political intrigue movie, or an action flick? It tried to be all and didn’t do any of them well.” Perhaps the harshest user review was as follows:

“For those who remember the video store, this reeks of the “Straight to Video” style of movie. Somehow they managed to hire a bunch of decent names for a Dollar Tree script. Zero chemistry between the actors, especially the second and third level characters who seem to just be there to show some sort of clout. Typical evil white, male villain tops off this crap show that unfortunately has just continued that trope more than ever.”