Somewhere in Central Otago there is a vineyard with his name on the gate, and this is the first winter in a long time that Sam Neill is not there for it. He died on 13 July, at 78. This is a tribute to the great man: six Sam Neill movies and shows you can stream in New Zealand tonight, and the life behind them. He was ours first. We never made a big fuss of him, because he would have hated that, and somehow that was the most Kiwi arrangement imaginable.
The quiet man who carried our film industry
He was born in Omagh, Northern Ireland, in 1947, and his family brought him home to Christchurch in 1954. The break came with Sleeping Dogs in the late seventies, the film widely credited with kick-starting the modern New Zealand industry. Two decades later he repaid the favour with Cinema of Unease, his landmark documentary about how we see ourselves on screen. In between, he simply went and had one of the great screen careers: My Brilliant Career, Reilly: Ace of Spies, Dead Calm, The Hunt for Red October, The Piano, and the small matter of Jurassic Park.
Then he came home again. Two Paddocks, his Central Otago vineyard, started as a hobby and grew into one of the region's most respected producers, and by all accounts he was more neighbour than celebrity down there. When the knighthood was first offered he turned it down as far too grand, then finally accepted in 2022, which tells you most of what you need to know. He revealed a rare blood cancer in 2023, fought it through a clinical trial across the Tasman, and announced in April that he was cancer-free. Pneumonia took him in Sydney on 13 July, with his family around him, as reported by the Otago Daily Times. The paper described a man with no airs and a wicked sense of humour. Steven Spielberg called him exceptionally collaborative and said he adored making every Jurassic film with him.
It is hard to overstate what he meant to film here. He was making movies before there was an industry to speak of, and he never stopped backing the place. The Arts Foundation named him an Icon in 2020, an honour capped at twenty living New Zealanders, and Equity gave him a lifetime achievement award the year before. In his final years he fought a proposed gold mine near his beloved Central Otago, because of course he did. And through all of it he kept the same flat, dry humour about himself, naming the animals at Two Paddocks after his famous friends and letting the internet fall quietly in love with the whole operation.
Six Sam Neill movies and shows streaming in New Zealand
A fair few of his best are missing from the big subscriptions tonight: The Piano, Hunt for the Wilderpeople and Sleeping Dogs are not included on any of them, which feels like a small national oversight. The first two are at least a cheap rental on the usual stores. These six are streaming right now, on the services your household actually has.
Rams
A stubborn sheep farmer, a feuding brother, and a flock worth saving. It is free on TVNZ+, it is full of dry rural humour, and there is something right about him spending a late film among sheep and hard weather. The man did own two paddocks, after all.
Jurassic Park
Dr Alan Grant, a hat, a flare, and the most famous glass of water in cinema. Watch how much of this film he holds together by reacting quietly while everything else roars. The two sequels he made get a mention below, but this is the one that belongs on the list.
UNTAMED
His final major series, a national-park mystery where he brings the warmth and steel that late-career Neill did better than almost anyone. Hard to watch now without a lump in the throat. Watch it anyway.
The Twelve
A courtroom drama told through the jury, with Neill as the silk holding the centre. Late-career television that earned him a fresh round of awards attention across the Tasman, free on TVNZ+ tonight.
Peaky Blinders
His Inspector Campbell is the coldest thing he ever did, a reminder that the nicest man in the industry could play genuinely frightening when he chose to. If you only know him as Dr Grant, start here and recalibrate.
My Brilliant Career
Honourable mention
Where the world outside New Zealand first noticed him. A period drama that still holds up, and the honourable mention here because the five above are the better night in.
One Jurassic Park is enough
He put the hat back on twice, for Jurassic Park III in 2001 and Jurassic World Dominion in 2022, and he was the best thing in both. Only the original makes the list, though, because it is the essential one: the others are for the completionists. His memoir Did I Ever Tell You This?, written during treatment, is the companion piece if the films leave you wanting the man himself.
Where to start tonight
It is the middle of winter, the lounge is warm, and there are worse ways to spend a cold Friday than working through the best Sam Neill movies and shows with your household. If you want more picks first, the what to watch tonight guide covers the wider field and the best shows on Neon handles the prestige end. Available in New Zealand, Australia, the UK, and the United States.