Plot
A video-gaming boy, seemingly doomed to stay at his trailer park home all his life, finds himself recruited as a gunner for an alien defense force.
Release Year: 1984
Rating: 6.5/10 (14,428 voted)
Director:
Nick Castle
Stars: Lance Guest, Robert Preston, Dan O'Herlihy
Storyline Alex Rogan lives in a trailer court where his mother is manager and everyone is like a big extended family. He beats the Starfighter video game to the applause of everyone in the court and later that day finds he has been turned down for a student loan for college. Depressed, he meets Centauri, who introduces himself as a person from the company that made the game, before Alex really knows what is going on he is on the ride of his life in a "car" flying through space. Chosen to take the skills he showed on the video game into real combat to protect the galaxy from an invasion. Alex gets as far as the Starfighter base before he really realized that he was conscripted and requests to be taken back home. When he gets back home, he finds a Zando-Zan (alien bounty hunter) is stalking him. Unable to go home and live, Alex returns to the Starfighter base to find all the pilots have been killed and he is the galaxy's only chance to be saved from invasion...
Cast: Lance Guest
-
Alex Rogan
/
Beta Alex
Dan O'Herlihy
-
Grig
Catherine Mary Stewart
-
Maggie Gordon
Barbara Bosson
-
Jane Rogan
Norman Snow
-
Xur
Robert Preston
-
Centauri
Kay E. Kuter
-
Enduran
Dan Mason
-
Lord Kril
Chris Hebert
-
Louis Rogan
John O'Leary
-
Rylan Bursar
George McDaniel
-
Kodan Officer
Charlene Nelson
-
Rylan Technician
John Maio
-
Friendly Alien
Robert Starr
-
Underling
Al Berry
-
Rylan Spy
Taglines:
In his wildest dreams Alex never suspected that tonight he would become...
Release Date: 13 July 1984
Filming Locations: 9411 Soledad Canyon Rd., Canyon Country, California, USA
Box Office Details
Budget: $15,000,000
(estimated)
Opening Weekend: $6,011,695
(USA)
(15 July 1984)
(1287 Screens)
Gross: $28,733,290
(USA)
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Did You Know?
Trivia: King Baggot, (Cinematographer) stood in as Alex's father in a family photo used in the movie.
Goofs:
Revealing mistakes:
When Grig is trying to restore power shortly after using the Death Blossom, there is a cable for a 9-volt battery attached to the circuit board in his hand.
Quotes: Rylan Bursar:
Return the money, Centauri. Centauri:
Return the money! Are you delirious? Do you know how long it took to invent the games? To merchandise them? To get them in the stores by Christmas?
User Review
A "gem" from the 80's
Rating:
This is a lost gem of a movie from the generation of "E.T.", Indiana
Jones,
Star Wars, etc...
When a friend showed it to me on VHS in 1984 I loved it for its
originality,
warmth & humor, as well as being impressed with the first-time
computer-generated special effects for this kind of sci-fi
film.
When I saw the 'special edition' DVD in Widescreen I snatched it right up
and found that I enjoyed it as much as I did 20 years ago!
The movie's special effects still looked good to me, especially the "Star
Car" (my personal favorite).
But the special effects are not the centerpiece of this film. It has
plenty
of charm of its own to offer in plot, story, warmth, humor & good
performances. Craig Safan's music score for this film is one of my
all-time
favorites. It almost outsizes this movie but it fits just the same.
"Starfighter" is a real gem from the 80's I will treasure in my movie
collection.
0