Free Movie Downloads Through the Internet Archive: Yes, You Can!

Many of us who are extensive users of the web would already know about the prowess of the Internet Archive. For the uninitiated, the internet archive is easily the largest non-profit library of movies, software, books, websites, and more. The archive typically creates a backup of anything that is uploaded on the web, even if momentarily.

While the most common use of the Internet Archive is to back up websites, we can actually do plenty more with it:

• Read books
• Watch videos
• Stream and watch free internet movies
• Listen to songs
• Download software
• Vide and download images

That is right. If you make good use of this website, there is a lot in store for you. And that includes viewing and downloading movies – in a completely legal manner. It does not hurt that almost every movie you wish for is already available on the Internet Archive. In a nutshell, the free movie download game enters another league in the Archive.

Free Movie Download: How the Process Works

The first thing you need to know about free movie download on the internet archive is how the process works. When it comes to movies, the Archive does not really spend any effort to back up files. In fact, it is the users who upload movies and other video files.

The archive simply assumes that the people uploading a movie and video files have the rights to share them. At the same time, the website also has the right to take down any material that violates a copyright or the law.

Public Domain Movies Download: What do you get?

The Internet Archive goes above and beyond free movies, downloads and internet movie streaming. You can also find classic documentaries and short films that are virtually absent from other corners of the web. What’s even more exciting? The Archive also stores commercials shot way back. Some of those commercials came out when none of us were born. This is one of those rare old TV series download sites that actually delivers!

You may either search or browse free movies on the internet without downloading. The best way to conduct a search is to use the search bar right at the top of the website.

When you search for a movie, the default action is to display all the tags with the move name (just like other public domain movies download). We ran a search with The Usual Suspects and this is what we could see.

The very first item on the list (the one with the Archive logo) did not have an internet preview available for it.

So, we decided to do what every logical movie lover should do. A click on the “Show All Files” option showed all files inside. We skipped the extras and saved the chunky media file (504 MB) for download. The zip folder with both the movie and its subtitle file (English) downloaded in about 2 and half minutes. Extracting files from the zip folder took another 10 seconds. The free movie download was completed right there!

And that was about it. This is what came next:

A high-quality movie came fluttering through the VLC Player in less than 3 minutes.

Home Run: Internet Archive.

Free Movie Download and Streaming With Torrents

While we were lucky enough to find a direct download file for The Usual Suspects, you don’t always find such luck. Most movie files are not available for direct download. For example, we could not find a direct download file for 12 Years a Slave. But we get the following options for free movie downloads.

As you can see, the last item on the list (with a deeper blue accent) reads ‘Torrent’. That is the torrent file that you need to save. Once saved, you can stream/download the movie through an app like Bit Torrent.

Downloading Torrent files first also seems to the first choice for many. The reason is mostly the high speed with which movies can be downloaded when you are using them through a Torrent client.

Watch Free Internet Movies: Browse Movie Categories and Collections

Once you click on the “Movies” icon (third from the left) on the home screen, you will be taken to a screen that looks like this:

As you can see, there are quite a few categories under which the videos have been stashed. Iraq Wars, community videos, news, and even video game clips are available.

The attention puller was the fourth option – Movies. At the time of writing, there were 22, 826 movies listed on the archive - all available for free movie downloads. And all of them are totally free. Once inside the Movies section, you will find a riff-raff collection of a lot of films. Free movie downloads are available for stock footage, silent films, comedy films, stock footage, horror, and sci-fi movies.

Across the line, there are many types of movies available through the archive. There are movies on Computers and Technology, Animation and Cartoon, Sports, and Documentaries. All of these can be watched online and can be downloaded for offline use as well.

List of 2017 Internet Archive Films: Free Movie Downloads for New Releases

The entire concept of free movie downloads through the Internet Archive is to source movies from the people. That is why you always get the newest ones first. Some users on the Internet Archive are typically active – giving the community all the latest movies that have released.

However, finding the latest movies from the Movies section could be a little difficult. The best way to find latest movies is by using the search feature. Here are is an archive.org movies list of high-quality streams that you were able to find using this button:

• Wonder Woman
• Thor Ragnarok
• Justice League
• It
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
• Spider: Homecoming
• American Made
• War of the Planet of the Apes
• Cars 3
• Transformers: The Last Knight
• Annabelle: Creation
• American Assassin
• Kong: Skull Island
• Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
• The Lego Batman Movie

All of the above movies are also a part of the list of 2017 internet archive films. These are already available in the Archive. You can find movies with better quality if you are looking at those released from a year or two earlier.

Tip: Pair your movie name with the year of release for the most relevant list of internet archive films.

Internet Archive: Better Than a Dozen Old TV Series Download Sites

Besides movies, there are lots of TV Shows that you may download from the Internet Archive. For one, there is a lot of juice for anyone who is a politics buff. When you click on TV shows, you will find a Special collections archive right there.

Like you can see here, there is a Trump Archive, a Fact Checked archive and a US Congress archive right there. The number of videos included in each of these archives amounts in hundreds or thousands. Scrolling down will let you see individual videos in the “Fact Check”, “Trending Yesterday”, and “Recent Quotes” sections.

There is a special World TV section that brings to you a collection of news channels from the globe. The locations include Europe, South America, South East Asia, Eastern and Western Europe. The Archive wants to bring to you ‘slices of television’ from around the world. And this is no ordinary service either. The exclusives are brought to you by full-time employees who share between themselves roles like engineering, collections, and direction.

Archive.org Movies List: Download Movies and Shows in Many Formats

Since there is no moderation over the kind of the files that are uploaded, you get loads of variety. That applies both to the type of content that is up for distribution as well as the formats. You can download your content in formats like:

• OGV
• MPEG
• MP4
• Torrent

Like we have already touched base on, the Torrent files seem to be the most downloaded format. While that might be a well-thought option for some, Torrenting is generally preferred for ease of habit.

The Quality of Videos Available for Internet Movies Streaming

The archive accepts submission from anyone who has an account. However, you do not need a user account to make downloads. But user submissions from a variety of quarters mean that there cannot be any rigorous quality control measure.

So that brings us to the only major negative of using the Internet Archive for free movie downloads You do not always get to download high-quality material. But that is also the problem of almost every free download service there is.

It is really up to you to check for the quality of the movies before downloading.

Internet Archive Movie App

There is no official app (yet) for Android. But there is a custom-developed app for iOS that you can download here.

Using this app, you can view the collections of the internet archive from your iPod Touch, iPad, or iPhone. You may browse the 308-billion strong collections of web pages using this app. You can also flip through the pages of a book and view some archival images.

The best thing about the Internet Archive app is the ability to create playlists along with free movie downloads. There are virtually hundreds of thousands of videos and music files on the Archive. At any time, you can create a mixed playlist of videos and music files. Unfortunately, you cannot download movies from the app. But you can always transfer downloaded movies to iOS devices through iTunes.

Registration at the Internet Archive

It is not mandatory to register at the Internet Archive. However, there are some hidden benefits of registering with the Archive. You can use the archive to engage in the forum, write reviews, or even to bookmark your favorite pages. Bookmarking allows you to mark a favorite among the movies you watch. This way you will never lose track of your favorites among millions of pages.

If you find enough merit in the free services brought to you by Internet Archive, you may consider tipping them. The Archive has been backing up the web for over 21 years now. The site has never allowed an ad and has a full-time staff to maintain. We totally applaud the work they have done over the years.