The Last Starfighter(1984)
Universal Pictures Jul 13, 1984
High schooler Alex Rogan conquers the Starfighter video game, only to find out it was more than just a game, it was a test, so he is transported to another planet. He has been recruited to join a team of the best starfighters.
Release Details
Original Release | Jul 13, 1984 | Wide
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Box Office Results
Results
$6,011,695
$28,733,290
$28,736,154
Current Showtimes
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- Wed Aug 26
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- Fri Aug 28
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Director & Top Cast
Technical Specifications
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital
Aspect Ratio: 2.39 : 1
Other Details
Country of Origin: United States
Language: English
Summaries
Plot Summary
- Alex Rogan (Lance Guest), is a teenager living in a Southern California trailer park with his divorced mother (Barbara Bosson) and little 10-year-old brother Louis (Chris Hebert). Outside of being a handyman at the trailer park, his sole hobby is playing Starfighter, a stand-up arcade game where the player defends "the Frontier" from "Xur and the Ko-Dan Armada" in a space battle. Alex has high hopes that one day he can escape the trailer park and attend a prestigious college, however he gets a rejection letter from a college he had wished to attend.Eventually one evening, he becomes the highest scoring player of the game, winning the final round where he has to destroy the enemy squadron's command ship. His victory becomes quite a joyous event for most of the trailer park, with everyone, including his little brother Louis, cheering him on. Later that night, he is approached by the game's inventor, an eccentric old man who identifies himself as Centauri (Robert Preston) who invites him to take a ride in an exotic-looking sports car. Alex does so before discovering that the vehicle is actually a spaceship; moreover, Centauri is a disguised alien who whisks him off to a faraway planet called Rylos, leaving behind his family and girlfriend, Maggie Gordon (Catherine Mary Stewart). So that his absence goes unnoticed, an android lookalike named Beta (Lance Guest in a dual role) is left in his place.Upon his arrival, Alex discovers that the images and territories in the Starfighter arcade game represent an actual conflict between the Rylan Star League and the Ko-Dan Empire, an alien lizard-like race which is assisted by Xur (Norman Snow), a native traitor to whom the Ko-Dan Emperor has promised control of Rylos itself. The game was designed by Centauri as a test to find those with the gift; Alex is expected to pilot an actual Starfighter spacecraft called the Gunstar. He also discovers that the Frontier is an array of planetary-scale force fields that protect Rylos and its surrounding planets from invasion from the hostile Ko-Dan on the other side, and that Xur has given the Ko-Dan Armada the technology and means to breach it.Before Alex can fully understand and dispute his induction, Xur appears in a holographic projection and reveals he has discovered an infiltrator in his ranks and proceeds to broadcast his death by torture to the entire base, including his estranged father, Ambassador Enduran (Kay E. Kuter), the Starfighter commander. He then proclaims to the people of Rylos that once Galan (the Rylan moon) is in full eclipse, the Ko-Dan Armada will begin their invasion and not even the starfighters will be able to save them. While receiving payment for bringing Alex to Rylos as a recruit, it's discovered that Centauri had used an illegal method to do so, bringing Alex in against his wishes from a planet beyond their federation. Unnerved by everything he has seen, Alex asks to be taken back home. Centauri does so and is highly disappointed, and brushes off Alex's protests that he is nothing special, noting that attitude will prevent him from becoming more. After dropping him off a short distance away from the trailer park, Centauri gives Alex a communications device, which is a means by which to contact him, should Alex change his mind.After they leave Rylos, the Starfighter base is attacked. A small breach in the Frontier is achieved and the Ko-Dan command ship fires large missile-like meteors at the Starfighter base. During the attack, a saboteur eliminates the base's defenses. The base sustains heavy damage, killing all Starfighters save for a friendly reptilian alien navigator named Grig (Dan O'Herlihy), and destroying all the Gunstars save for an advanced prototype. Afterward, Xur becomes enraged when he learns that one Starfighter has escaped the base.Once home on Earth, Alex discovers the android who assumed his identity and contacts Centauri to come and retrieve it. Just then, a beast-like assassin appears and attempts to shoot Alex with a laser gun. Centauri arrives and shoots the creature. Centauri identifies the assassin as a Xando-Xan, an "interstellar hitbeast" sent by Xur, with more surely coming to kill Alex themselves. Alex finally realizes that the only way to protect himself is to return to Rylos and pilot a Gunstar, while Beta keeps the hitbeats' attention. The Xando-Xan is able to manipulate his severed arm and shoots at Alex, hitting Centauri. They leave Beta behind, returning to Rylos. When they arrive, they find that the base has been destroyed. Centauri allegedly dies from his wound, and Alex meets up once again with Grig and they set out in the Gunstar to battle the Ko-Dan Armada by themselves. Alex is given a brief update on the Gunstar, which is more advanced than the ships that were destroyed; it is able to take laser blasts with minimal damage and houses a new weapon called the Death Blossom. After a brief chase near the Frontier with a small scout ship sent by Xur that Alex destroys, the experience leaves Alex somewhat rattled. Grig believes that Alex isn't ready for combat and agrees to take him home where he should live a long life, until the Ko-Dan likely one day attempt to conquer Earth. Realizing the stakes and what he is fighting for, Alex thinks of a strategy to fight the armada; he agrees to stay and fight.Meanwhile back on Earth, the Beta-Alex tries to adjust to life at the trailer park and dealing with human interaction, especially with Maggie. During an evening out at a lake with some of Alex's friends, another assassin arrives in the form of a policeman that it recently killed, and attempts to shoot Alex as he sits around a campfire at a resort lake. When Maggie becomes annoyed by Beta's awkward attempts at romantic conversation, he finally gives up and admits that he is not Alex, but an android Beta unit. The assassin fires his laser gun at Beta, revealing green android fluid which comes out of the wound. The assassin flees in the stolen police car while Beta, with Maggie tagging along, chases the assassin in a pickup truck Beta steals. When the assassin arrives back at his spaceship, he attempts to radio the Ko-Dan Armada to report that the last starfighter is actually about to attack them. Beta forces Maggie to jump from the truck as he rams the truck into the assassin's spaceship, destroying her and himself. The transmission to the Ko-Dan Armada is cut off. On the Ko-Dan command ship, Xur receives the assassin's message, which is cut off; "The last starfighter is--" Xur mistakenly assumes that the last word is "dead" and orders the attack on Rylos.With the Frontier down, Xur sends the armada through the breach. Alex and Grig employ Alex's strategy and hide in a small asteroid near the Frontier and attack the Ko-Dan command ship from behind. The approaching GunStar is detected and Lord Kril (Dan Mason), the commander of the Ko-Dan command ship, blames Xur for this complication because of his mistaken assumption and orders him seized and removed from the Bridge. However, that means little as Alex and Gig cripple the Command Ship's communications system and impairs the Ko-Dan fighter wings' fighting ability. The climatic space battle reaches a fevered pitch; Alex keeps the upper hand, using the "lone fighter-against-hordes" tactics he mastered by playing the coin-operated video game. However, his weapons are soon depleted. Desperately, Grig has Alex activate the Death Blossom, which destroys all the remaining Ko-Dan fighters After relieving Xur of command, Kril orders him executed for his arrogance and failure to ensure victory. Instead, Xur takes advantage of Alex's attack and kills the sentries escorting him from the bridge. He then escapes from the command ship in an escape pod.Lord Kril then orders the command ship at ramming speed towards the lone Gunstar which has been temporarily drained of power by the use of the Death Blossom. Grig manages to tap into the Gunstar's life support systems to temporarily regain power, which Alex fires and disables the command ship's systems, forcing her to crash into the moon of Galan. The command ship is destroyed, killing Kril and all of the remaining Ko-Dan warriors on board. Alex is proclaimed the savior of Rylos, only to discover from Enduran (who escaped from the Starfighter base before its destruction) that the Star League is still vulnerable: the Frontier has collapsed and Xur escaped, and he will continue to be a threat as long as he still lives. Alex agrees to stay on Rylos for good and recruit other starfighters, rebuilding the Legion. Alex is also happy and revealed to see that Centauri is alive having healed from his wounds.Alex returns to Earth, dramatically landing his Gunstar in the trailer park. Grig informs Alex's mother and the people of the trailer park of Alex's heroism in the Rylan Star League and that he will be a starfighter of great potential, who will teach future starfighters. He also explains that Alex's actions will one day protect Earth from the Ko-Dan Empire as well. After explaining to his friends and family where he was, Alex reveals that his services as a starfighter are still needed by the Rylan Star League and that he may not return for a while. He then asks Maggie to join him in space. Maggie's grandmother, Granny Gordon (Meg Wyllie) gives her blessing to her granddaughter, and Maggie returns to Rylos with him. After Alex's Gunstar takes off back to Rylos, Louis is inspired to follow in his brother's footsteps and begins playing the game, so that he can also master it someday.
Storyline
- Alex Rogan lives in a remote trailer court where his mother is manager and everyone is like a massive extended family. He defeats Starfighter, a stand-up arcade game to the applause of everyone in the court and later finds out 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 sports 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. To defeat the invaders, who are paying the bounty on him, he must be victorious. — John Vogel
