Trivia for
The Last Starfighter (1984) More at IMDbPro »

• The first movie to do all special effects (except makeup and explosions) on a computer. All shots of spacecraft, space, etc were generated on a Cray X-MP computer.
  
  
• Although Wil Wheaton's speaking scenes were cut, he can be seen in two scenes - running around the trailer park early in the film (wearing a red football jersey), and in the final scene, where he is obscured, standing behind Louis (wearing a blue jacket, possibly over the red jersey).
  
  
• During the pilots briefing, when Lance is exiting the room, you can hear Slim Pickens describing the contents of the pilot's survival kit. This is an audio clip taken from Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964).
  
  
• Atari actually programmed games for its 5200 SuperSystem and 400/800 series home computers as a tie-in with this movie. The games never went past the prototype phase (though extant copies do survive). Also, the game was nothing like the arcade machine Alex played in the film - the technology did not exist at the time to produce real-time 3-D polygonal graphics on a home machine. Rumor also has it that Atari produced one prototype Last Starfighter arcade machine, but it since has been lost. An early Atari 2600 program was revamped into the game released as "Solaris".
  
  
• This was Robert Preston's last movie appearance.
  
  
• The alien script seen on the computer screens in the movie is actually Hebrew with some variations.
  
  
• In addition to the major "Star Trek universe" roles later played by "Starfighter" cast members Wil Wheaton and Marc Alaimo, several others in the movie's cast guest starred in various "Star Trek" franchises. They include Dan Mason, Barbara Bosson, Norman Snow and Geoffrey Blake. But notable among them is Meg Wyllie ("Granny Gordon") who played one of the Talosian "keepers" in the "Star Trek" (1966) pilot, "The Cage".
  
  
• The "Star Car" that Centauri drives is based on the DeLorean automobile, including its gull wing doors and its stainless steel construction.
  
  
• The translator given Alex on Rylos is the circuit board of a digital watch.
  
  
• King Baggot, (Cinematographer) stood in as Alex's father in a family photo used in the movie.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• The voice of the video game that Alex plays at the trailer park is done by Robert Preston, who also played Centauri.
  
  
• In 2007, a musical based on the movie was performed as part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival.
  
  
• Robert Preston and Dan O'Herlihy had never met before this movie. When they finally met on the set, O'Herlihy was already in Grig makeup with a full-head mask. O'Herlihy introduced himself and Preston jokingly replied that of course he recognized O'Herlihy because he had "one of those faces."
  
  

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