Labor Day is one of those holidays that walks the line between a couple of identities. Officially, it celebrates American workers and labor movements fighting for fair pay and safe working conditions. Unofficially, however, it is a three-day weekend that marks the unofficial end of summer, giving friends and families a final chance to skip work and relax in the sunshine. But for us at The Streamable, that means we have countless directions we can go when assembling a Labor Day movie marathon. Whether you want something actually set around the holiday, a story about workers standing up for themselves, a workplace comedy, a labor documentary, or one last taste of summer, there is something here for just about every mood. So, if you have to spend part or all of your Labor Day inside, here are a few dozen movie options that can get you into the Labor Day spirit, regardless of what the holiday most means to you.

Top movies to watch on Labor Day

Movies actually about Labor Day

There are not many movies built specifically around Labor Day, but the holiday does occasionally serve as the backdrop for stories about family, change, and the last stretch of summer.

Dirty Dancing
A Good Old Fashioned Orgy
Labor Day

Workers fighting for something better

Labor Day exists because generations of workers organized and fought for better pay, safer conditions, reasonable hours, and basic protections. These films put those battles at the center of the story, ranging from historical dramas to sharp modern satires.

Documentaries about the labor movement

If you would rather spend part of your day off learning about why you don’t have to go to work in the first place, these documentaries examine unions, strikes, factory closures, globalization, and the people trying to change the conditions under which we all work.

Workplace comedies

Sometimes the best way to celebrate Labor Day is simply to laugh at how strange it is that we spend so much of our lives in offices, stores, restaurants, and other places where everyone is pretending to know exactly what they are doing.

Jobs from hell

Of course, some movies take the normal indignities of work and push them into considerably darker territory. Bad bosses, layoffs, impossible expectations, toxic corporate cultures, and even the occasional murderous alien can make the average Monday morning look pretty manageable.

One last movie before summer ends

For many, Labor Day is the unofficial end of summer, making it the perfect excuse for one last movie filled with beaches, vacations, baseball, amusement parks, road trips, and that bittersweet feeling that the season is almost over.