The Last Starfighter

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The Last Starfighter
The Last Starfighter theatrical poster
Directed by	Nick Castle
Produced by	Gary Adelson Edward O. Denault
Written by	Jonathan R. Betuel
Starring	Lance Guest Robert Preston Catherine Mary Stewart Dan O'Herlihy Barbara Bosson Kay E. Kuter Norman Snow Peter Nelson Chris Hebert Wil Wheaton
Music by	Craig Safan
Cinematography	King Baggot
Editing by	Carroll Timothy O'Meara
Distributed by	Universal Pictures Lorimar Productions (original release; joint venture) Warner Bros. Television Distribution (successor-in-interest to Lorimar) (television broadcast rights) Universal Studios Home Entertainment (home entertainment distribution rights)
Release date(s)	July 13, 1984
Running time	101 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$15,000,000 (estimated)
Gross revenue	$28,733,290 (USA) (sub-total)
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Last Starfighter is a 1984 science fiction adventure film. There was a subsequent novelization of the movie that year by Alan Dean Foster, as well as a video game based on the production. In 2004, it was also adapted as an off-Broadway musical. The movie was directed by Nick Castle and was marketed with the tagline "He didn't find his dreams... his dreams found him.".

The film made early use of extensive computer graphics to depict real objects in place of physical models.

The Last Starfighter was the last film role of character actor Robert Preston before his death. The character of "Centauri" was a 'lovable-con-man' nod to his most famous role as Professor Harold Hill in The Music Man. ^[1]

The film's premise was based on the well-known urban myth that video arcade games were in fact military recruitment tests for fighters.

[edit] Plot summary

Alex Rogan (Lance Guest), a teenager living in the remote Star Light Star Bright trailer park becomes the best player ever at Starfighter, a stand-up arcade game that has him "defend the Frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan armada." The night he gets the best score ever in the game, he is approached by the game's fast-talking inventor, Centauri (Robert Preston). Stepping into Centauri's vehicle (a "starcar"), Alex is horrified to find that not only is the car actually a spaceship, but Centauri is a disguised alien, who whisks him off to another planet.

That planet is Rylos. Upon their arrival, Alex is given a flight suit and is fitted with a translator to understand the various alien languages. He discovers that, as in the game, he "has been recruited by the Star League", and that there are real Starfighters and real Gunstar spaceships. After this he is taken to the briefing area and meets other Starfighters. Lined up in the briefing area, they appear to be two Starfighters from each planet, except Earth, which has two empty chairs, one of in which he is seated. During the orientation Alex also meets 1st Class Navigator Grig (Dan O'Herlihy) a jovial, reptilian humaniod who sounds a bit like a grizzled gunnery sergeant. Alex tells Grig this is all a mistake and Grig admits that Earth is not a formal member of the Star League, not due to be approached 'until it matures'. Upon confronting Centauri, Alex learns the truth: the Starfighter game is a test Centauri devised to find those "with the gift to be Starfighters", a recruiting tool.

Furthermore, the game's story about defending the Frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan armada is real as well, as proven when a giant holographic transmission from Xur (Norman Snow) comes through. Xur means to be Emperor of Rylos, and joined forces with the Ko-Dan and gave them the means to breach the Frontier, a galactic-scale force field that protects '...the peaceful systems of the universe, ... forever shutting out the scourge that lurks beyond'. He is also revealed to be the traitorous son of Enduran (Kay E. Kuter), the leader of the Rylans. Xur tortures one of Enduran's agents to death before the eyes of his father and the entire Star League, and proclaims that when Rylos's green moon of Galan is eclipsed, the Ko-Dan Armada will invade, and not even the Starfighters will be able to save them. Enduran defiantly answers with "We shall see, Xur. We shall see!"

If Alex wasn't ready to go home before, this does it. Reluctantly, Centauri brings him back home to Earth, all the crankier for being forced to return his finder's fee.

Soon after Alex and Centauri have departed the Starfighter base, the Ko-Dan manage to punch a hole in the Frontier, not yet big enough for the Ko-Dan Command Ship, but big enough to fire their 'meteor gun' through. A Xurian sympathizer sabotages the base's defenses, allowing the meteors to hit and destroy the base. Xur's excitement is short lived, for one of his spies reports that one Starfighter (Alex) has escaped.

After arriving back on Earth, Centauri gives Alex a pager (called a "communo-crystal") to summon him if he should change his mind. At his home, Alex discovers that no one has missed him. This is because Centauri had replaced him on Earth with a synthetic android known as a Beta Unit, designed to be an exact replica of Alex so he could leave Earth without attracting attention (a good example of a Doppelgänger). While Beta has been having trouble with his role on Earth, he still tries to convince Alex to return to Rylos. Angered, Alex refuses and activates the pager to summon Centauri to remove the impostor. But a Zando-Zan, an alien assassin sent by Xur, appears and tries to kill Alex and Beta (as he looks and sounds just like Alex). During the resulting chase, Centauri arrives and kills the assassin, but is seriously wounded himself. Beta and Centauri warn Alex that more assassins are on the way, so Alex might as well become a Starfighter to at least have his ship's firepower at his disposal against the enemy.

With this new understanding, Alex agrees to return. However, upon returning to Rylos he finds the remains of the Starfighter base. What's worse is that Centauri dies just after landing, leaving Alex alone on that world with Grig his only friend. After getting Alex suited up in Starfighter gear, Grig places him in the gunnery chair of an experimental prototype Gunstar. Grig is the Navigator who flies the ship, and Alex is the gunner. Alex is initially delighted that the controls are just like the arcade game he mastered, but then horrified to learn that all the other Starfighters and Gunstars were destroyed in Xur's attack. The battle will be "One Gunstar against the armada."

Shortly after a few practice runs with drones, they reach the Frontier and encounter real enemies, but Alex is having difficulty accepting the realities of actual combat. Despite their victory in a short dogfight, it is clear Alex is either unwilling or unable to handle the realities of mortal danger. A disheartened Grig offers to take him home where he should live happily, until the Ko-Dan inevitably attack his planet. Faced with this stark situation, and faced with another Xurian ambush, Alex finds the will to fight. They prepare a strategy for the impending armada.

Meanwhile on Earth, Beta is still having a difficult time trying to fill in for Alex. He is failing at Alex's job as the trailer park's repairman, ruining Alex's relationship with girlfriend Maggie Gordon (Catherine Mary Stewart), and has several near misses with Alex's younger brother, Louis (Chris Hebert) almost discovering his secret. Beta also discovers another assassin has landed. He's not sure what he'll look like as Zando-Zans can metamorph to look like regular people. The assassin discovers that Beta isn't Alex and rushes back to his ship to alert Xur. Beta is destroyed as he successfully interrupts the assassin's transmitted warning that the last Starfighter is on duty. Xur and the Ko-Dan Fleet Commander Krill receive an incomplete message which they assume must have been to confirm his kill of Alex. This lulls Xur and the Ko-Dan into a false sense of security, and they proceed with their invasion, having made a big enough hole in the Frontier to get their huge command ship through.

Alex and Grig use a nearby asteroid for cover while the Ko-Dan fleet passes. Their plan is to hit the Command Ship from behind and destroy the communications turret, blinding the Ko-Dan deck fighters' ability to act as one and thus impairing their fighting ability. The plan is a success, the turret is destroyed, and the Gunstar takes on the massed squadrons of fighters. However, as the battle reaches a fevered pitch, the Gunstar's weapons are depleted. In a desperate move, Alex triggers the Gunstar's secret weapon, the "Death Blossom", a weapon system that fires all the Gunstar's weapons in every direction in one spinning attack. With all the deck fighters destroyed, only the Command Ship remains. They cripple it, sending it crashing into the moon Galon. Xur, however gets to an escape pod to fight another day.

At the victory celebration on Rylos, Centauri reappears having come out of what was actually his dormant regenerative state. While Alex is being proclaimed Rylos' savior, Enduran informs him that the Frontier is still vulnerable and Xur is still at large. He then asks Alex to stay on Rylos and aid in rebuilding the Starfighter Legion.

Alex returns to Earth again, and lands in the trailer park openly in his Gunstar. He explains to his family and friends where he was while Beta was among them and reveals that he has decided to return to Rylos to rebuild and defend the Frontier. With the blessing of her grandmother (played by Meg Wyllie), Alex's girlfriend, Maggie Gordon goes with him.

The story ends with Alex's younger brother Louis preparing to play the Starfighter game, hoping to join Alex one day in the Star League.

[edit] Trivia

CG image of the Starfighters' Gunstars

• The Gunstar and other spaceships were the design of artist Ron Cobb, who also worked on Alien and Star Wars.
• The United States Army, echoing The Last Starfighter 's video-game-as-recruiting-tool premise, released a free-share online game called America's Army in 2002. Players that register, and who agree to certain conditions, are allowed to have their play performance reviewed by real-life recruiters looking for potential enlistees. The game, however, was mainly designed to convince possible recruits to join the U.S. Army, not test them.
• The computer graphics for the movie were rendered by Digital Productions on a Cray X-MP supercomputer.
• A real The Last Starfighter arcade game by Atari, Inc. is promised in the end credits, but never materialized. Atari did make a version of the game for their home computer market. However, the game was never marketed. Ultimately, it was renamed and, after removing the Last Starfighter references, sold under the name Star Raiders 2, a sequel to the very popular and ground-breaking game Star Raiders.
• An episode of South Park, "Best Friends Forever", satirized the "recruitment through a game" theme of The Last Starfighter.
• The StarCar from this movie can be found parked on one of the streets in Back to the Future II.
• Wil Wheaton had a part in this movie, but his scenes were cut. However, his name still appears in the closing credits. He can be seen as the tallest child running through the trailer park in one of the earliest scenes.
• In an episode of the ill-fated Clerks: The Animated Series, Randal Graves is recruited to build a pyramid after receiving the highest score in a fictional arcade game called "Pharaoh".
• In the Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode "Moon Master", Meatwad is recruited by the Mooninites in their battle against the monster Gorgotron following Meatwad's success at the fictional console "Moon Master" video game.
• In "Sentries of the Last Cosmos", an episode of Batman Beyond, an arcade game (from which the episode gets its title), is used as a recruiting tool for a criminal. [1]
• The recruiting-through-a-video-game premise seen in this movie inspired how the main characters got their powers in the Super Sentai series Denji Sentai Megaranger.
• The theme Craig Safan composed for this film was used in promotional advertisements for the 1994 live-action/animation hybrid The Pagemaster.
• Sean Daley, aka Slug from the Minnesota based hip-hop group Atmosphere, often refers to himself as the Last Starfighter in his lyrics.
• The Party Downers, a Chicago rock band, have a song entitled "The Last Starfighter" for their debut album.
• The term "Death Blossom" has been adopted by US Soldiers in Iraq to refer to the tactics of the Iraqi Army and Iraqi Police. It is a derogatory reference to their tendency to haphazardly fire their entire arsenal in random directions when provoked; possibly endangering civilians, their own troops, and civilian infrastructure as well. Though (as in the Last Starfighter) this can be an effective Force multiplier in certain circumstances, it is also a sign of poor training and discipline.
• In one scene Alex's younger brother, Louis, is seen looking at a Playboy magazine and says of the centerfold, "Yolanda, baby!" Yolanda was the name of director Nick Castle's aunt. Ironically, there was, in fact, a Playboy centerfold with this name, Jolanda Egger, at about the right time for Louis to have her issue in his collection (June 1983).
• In the establishing shot of the Starfighter command centre, there is a little robot trundling about at the very beginning. This is not a radio controlled robot like R2-D2 in Star Wars. This is a real robot known as the Hero 1, built by Heath-Zenith in the early eighties. This robot also made an appearance in a short film on Robots and automatons on Sesame Street.
• Maggie's grandmother is played by Meg Wyllie who appeared in the Star Trek: The Original Series pilot episode The Cage as the Talosian Keeper.
• The character Matrix in later episodes of the CGI television series ReBoot has a setting on his gun called "Death Blossom" which causes a spray of gunfire in all directions.
• 1989 the group Nostromo Dept uses a sample of the movie in its song Evolution

[edit] External links

• The Last Starfighter at the Internet Movie Database
• The Last Starfighter at All Movie Guide
• Animation Timeline from Brown University
• Reviews of the 2004 off-off-Broadway musical
• Reviews of Last Starfighter Musical Cast Album at The Thunder Child
• The Last Starfighter video game
• The Last Starfighter Memorabilia Page

[edit] Footnotes