The Last Starfighter (1984)

Director:

Nick Castle

Writer:

Jonathan R. Betuel (written by)

Release Date:

13 July 1984 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Family | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

In his wildest dreams Alex never suspected that tonight he would become...The Last Starfighter

Plot:

A videogaming boy, seemingly doomed to stay at his trailer park home all his life, finds himself recruited as a gunner for an alien defense force.

Plot Keywords:

Alien | Trailer Park | Arcade Game | Planet | Space Battle

Awards:

4 nominations

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

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
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
Scott Dunlop	...	Tentacle Alien
Vernon Washington	...	Otis

Runtime:

101 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) | Dolby (35 mm prints)

Certification:

Canada:A (Nova Scotia) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | Iceland:10 | Iceland:12 (video rating) | Australia:PG | Finland:K-12 | France:U | Norway:11 | Sweden:11 | UK:PG | USA:PG | West Germany:12 | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

9411 Soledad Canyon Rd., Canyon Country, California, USA

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

A lot of the scenes with the Beta Unit were shot after main filming was complete because the test audience liked the comic relief of the Beta Unit scenes and the director decided they added more originality to the "boy gets to go to outer space" story. This is why in many of the Beta Unit scenes Lance Guest is obviously wearing a wig - he had cut his hair by the time those scenes were shot.

Goofs:

Continuity: The interior set of the Star Car does not match the exterior shots.

Quotes:

Grig: [proudly displaying his family photo] This, is my Wife-oid, and twelve thousand little grig-lets.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Storm Over Ryloth (#1.19)" (2009)

Soundtrack:

Satisfy The Night

A fun movie and... hey in it's own way... Legendary

I love THE LAST STARFIGHTER... it's a good, fun movie. A matinee type of film. It's not as great as Star Wars or some of the big budget movies of the time... (hmmm, where there any big budget Sci Fi movies other than Star Wars at the time?) The acting, though not great was charming. Lance Guest (brillantly playing Alex and the very naive Beta), Greg O'Herlihy (sp) playing the loveable Lizard creature Grig and of course.... Robert Preston as rascalous Centauri. And something that I forgot for a long time (until I saw it at a local store and had to buy it on DVD) was that this was one, if not THE, first movie to utilize CGI. Yeah, it's a far cry from what filmakers can do now with Apple Rendering software. But when I saw the movie in the Theater, I was impressed and thought that if Computer Graphics were this good in the this first movie... how much it will grow. It's a movie well worth having in your library. And as I'm watching it right now, I'm glad that I have it in mine.