Given its ties to Warner Bros. Discovery, HBO Max boasts one of the deepest movie libraries of all the major streamers – but not all of the films listed on the service remain available to watch indefinitely.
Disney has a deal with Warner Bros. Discovery, for instance, that allows movies produced by Disney-owned companies 20th Century Studios and Searchlight Pictures to float between Disney Plus, Hulu and HBO Max. Warner Bros. Discovery licenses films from elsewhere, too, meaning several of the best HBO Max movies exist as part of limited-time agreements.
Every month, then, a handful of titles leave HBO Max – and below, we’ve picked out three epic action movies to watch before they leave the platform at various points throughout November.
Dunkirk (November 11)
Having washed up on various different streamers in 2022, Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk makes its final bow on HBO Max this November. This Oscar-winning movie chronicles the titular World War II evacuation through the contrasting perspectives of soldiers on land, in the sea and in the air. Its ensemble cast includes breakout performances from Fionn Whitehead, Tom Glynn-Carney, Harry Styles and Barry Keoghan (who star alongside veterans Cillian Murphy, Mark Rylance, Kenneth Branagh and Tom Hardy), though it's the movie's incredible sound and scale that establishes Dunkirk as one of the best in Nolan's repertoire.
If nothing else, watch this one for the sequence in which Hardy ditches a spitfire to the rousing narration of Churchill's famous parliament speech – it's powerful stuff. You’ve only got until November 11 to catch it, mind.
Godzilla vs. Kong (November 16)
We’ll admit: compared to Dunkirk, Godzilla vs. Kong is kindergarten stuff – but nobody can deny its status as an epic action movie. Adam Wingard's bombastic MonsterVerse adventure pits the world’s most famous prehistoric sea monster against its most iconic skyscraper-climbing gorilla, and the results are nothing less than explosive (seriously, these two creatures leave so much damage in their wake that they make the Transformers look tidy).
Godzilla vs. Kong was panned by critics upon release last year, but this is a film whose popcorn premise is all about showing viewers a good old-fashioned time at the movies. Its cast isn’t bad, either – Alexander Skarsgård (Succession), Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things) and Brian Tyree Henry (Bullet Train) all feature – though the film's titular monsters are, unsurprisingly, the real stars of the show. A sequel to Godzilla vs. Kong is scheduled to be released on March 15, 2024, and you’ve got until November 16 to catch the original.
Full Metal Jacket (November 30)
As war movies go, Full Metal Jacket is up there with the best ever made. Stanley Kubrick’s deep-dive into the mental armageddon faced by soldiers before, during and after the Vietnam War is in equal parts harrowing and uncomfortably comic, and considered by many to be the legendary director’s most accomplished feature (though we’ll save that debate for another day…).
Based on Gustav Hasford’s 1979 novel The Short-Timers, Full Metal Jacket stars Matthew Modine (another Stranger Things alumnus) and Daredevil’s Vincent D'Onofrio as two young privates – nicknamed Joker and Pyle – who struggle under their abusive drill instructor Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (R. Lee Ermey). Things take a turn for the brutal when proceedings switch to the battlefields of the Vietnam War, but this is a movie whose emotional beats begin long before any boots touch the ground. Full Metal Jacket leaves HBO Max on November 30 – catch it while you still can.
For more HBO Max-related content, check out our roundup of the best HBO Max shows in 2022, and our report on Warner Bros. Discovery's decision to merge the streamer with Discovery Plus in 2023.
