The Last Starfighter (1984)
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A teenager who achieves a high score in an arcade game is recruited by an alien defense force to fight in an interstellar war.
The story
Teenager Alex Rogan lives in a trailer park and spends his time playing an arcade game called Starfighter. One evening, Alex becomes the game's highest-scoring player. Shortly after, the inventor of the game, a disguised alien named Centauri, arrives with a proposition. Alex is taken to the planet Rylos, where he learns of a conflict between the peaceful Rylan Star League and the oppressive Ko-Dan Empire. The Ko-Dan armada, led by the would-be-tyrant Xur, is poised to invade Rylos. Alex discovers that the arcade game was actually a recruiting tool designed to train Starfighters for this very conflict.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Alex Rogan, a teenager living in a trailer park, becomes the top scorer in the arcade game Starfighter. Centauri, a disguised alien, takes Alex to the planet Rylos to join the Star League in their fight against the Ko-Dan Empire, led by the tyrant Xur. While Alex is on Rylos, a doppelgänger android named Beta covers his absence on Earth. Alex meets a reptilian Navigator named Grig and learns about the Ko-Dan's sabotage of the Frontier-forcefield. After a brutal exchange between Xur and the Star League commander, Alex is shaken and briefly returns to Earth. However, after a saboteur disables Rylos's defenses and the Ko-Dan attack, Alex returns to Rylos. Centauri is mortally wounded protecting Alex from a shape-shifting assassin, and Alex agrees to embrace his calling as a Starfighter. While Beta is on Earth, he is revealed to Maggie Gordon but sacrifices himself to destroy an assassin. Back in space, Alex and Grig ambush the Ko-Dan mothership. Alex activates 'Death Blossom,' an experimental weapon, to destroy the Ko-Dan fighters and crashes the mothership into a moon. Alex is hailed as a savior and eventually returns to Earth with Maggie and Grig, while his brother Louis begins training to join the legion.
- First release year
- 1984
- Runtime (minutes)
- 101
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Nick Castle
- Writers
- Jonathan R. Betuel · writer
- Cast and characters
- Lance Guest · Alex Rogan / Beta Alex Rogan; Robert Preston · Centauri; Dan O'Herlihy · Grig; Catherine Mary Stewart · Maggie Gordon
- Genres
- space opera; science fiction; action; war; adventure
- Themes
- coming-of-age; heroism; technology vs. nature
- Tone and mood
- plucky; adventure; glossy
- Premise and plot tags
- video game; alien invasion; space battle; android
- Reception
- The film received positive reviews from critics and has developed a cult following. It was noted for its boundary-pushing visual effects and plucky tone.
- Reported review scores
- Metacritic · score: 67
- Production trivia
- It was one of cinema's earliest films to use extensive 'real-life' computer-generated imagery (CGI).; The character of Centauri was a nod to Robert Preston's role in The Music Man.; The film was shot in 38 days, mostly night shoots in Canyon Country.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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