Leaving HBO Max in October 2022: Three dark dramas to watch before they skip the platform

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
(Image credit: United Artists)

Given it's owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, HBO Max has tended to stay pretty consistent, but, with the vast round of cost-cutting and cancelations that David Zaslav, the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, has been on, a lot  of the licenses for movies on the streaming services are not getting renewed. 

The list movies leaving HBO Max in October is lengthy, very lengthy and we've got a full guide to everything leaving here

The streaming can still count on new releases from 20th Century Studios and Searchlight Pictures films as part of a deal done between Disney and Warner Bros, but its back catalog, the movies owned by legacy companies like United Artists and MGM, seems to be being decimated at the movie. 

So, with that in mind, we've picked out three of the finest movies that will leave HBO Max in October, please make sure you don't sleep on them. 

Thelma & Louise

Thelma and Louise

(Image credit: Pathe Entertainment)

Ridley Scott's cult classic remains just thus, and, if you haven't seen it, correct that at the first opportunity. 

Released in 1991, the movie stars Susan Sarandon as Louise and Geena Davis as Thelma, two friends who escape their humdrum lives for a weekend vacation, a vacation that takes a drastic turn when an incident at a bar finds them on the wrong side of the law. 

Searing, funny, full of action and twists and turns, the movie is one of Scott's best and won then first-time screenwriter Callie Khouri an Oscar. 

When does it leave HBO Max?

October 31

Capote

Capote

(Image credit: United Artists)

There are lots of performances that could have earned the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman a Best Actor Award, but the one that did is Capote and it's easy to see why. 

The movie follows author Truman Capote and chronicles the events during the writing of Capote's 1965 nonfiction book In Cold Blood, where the writer became fascinated with events surrounding the murder of the Clutter family in rural Kansas. 

While researching for what would become In Cold Blood, Capote forms a relationship with one of the killers, Perry Smith, who is on death row, making his personal journey doubly complicated. 

Hoffman is exceptional here, but it's a beautiful, elegant and incredibly poignant drama, though one that does shy away from the brutality of the crimes Capote documented. 

When does it leave HBO Max?

October 31

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

(Image credit: United Artists)

The psychological drama that changed the game forever. 

Jack Nicholson stars in the movie, which is an adaptation of Ken Kesey's 1962 novel of the same name. Nicholson plays Randle McMurphy, a criminal who decides to feign insanity in order to get himself transferred to a mental institution and avoid hard labor. The ward is dominated by head nurse Mildred Ratched, a tyrannical presence, who quickly views McMurphy as a threat to her rule. 

What follows is a game of cat and mouse between the pair, as McMurphy tries to wind up the other patients to overthrow Ratched and Ratched plots to keep him down. 

The movie swept the board at the Oscars, becoming only the second movie to win all five major Academy Awards (Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay), a feat that wasn't repeated until Silence of the Lambs in 1991. Watch it, you'll see why. 

When does it leave HBO Max?

October 31

Tom Goodwyn
Freelance Entertainment Writer

Tom Goodwyn was formerly TechRadar's Senior Entertainment Editor. He's now a freelancer writing about TV shows, documentaries and movies across streaming services, theaters and beyond. Based in East London, he loves nothing more than spending all day in a movie theater, well, he did before he had two small children…