Exploring The Last Starfighter
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- Опубліковано 12 вер 2024
- A Scifi classic.
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Movies, games, and the occasional editorial.
From A-Z list films, video games, and other overlooked goodness.
Schedule -
Monday - 1 PM EST New Main Show Episode
Friday - Unscripted reviews of movies currently in theaters and VOD
Also occasional episodes of Good Bad Games and other assorted stuff at random times.
I worked at Cray Research when this movie was made. A whole bunch of Cray people went to see it when it opened in the Minneapolis area. The Cray XMP-4/8 got a mention in the credits, and we all cheered. The other people in the theater were like "huh?"
"Teriffic. I'm about to get killed a million miles from nowhere with a gung-ho iguana who tells me to relax."
One of the greatest lines of the 80s.
YES!!! such a great line!! I need to re-watch this immediately!!
@@hansgrueber8169 I looked for a video covering this film after another site posted the theme music, found this site (subscribed and clicked for all Notifications)---and now decided to put the DVD in the Blu-ray player after I finish watching the current disk of the complete "Grimm," which I recently bought (48 bucks: all six seasons!). It's one of my favorite movies (some childhood daydreams brought to life!).
I saw this movie as a kid when it first came out in theaters. Today at 45 I have it on my phone. Reminds me of a time in the 80s I miss so much.
Yeah there were so many great movies, tv shows, cartoons and such from that era. The stories had imagination, and always meant something in the end.
Too bad they don't make em like they used to - all that stuff served as a great moral compass. Kids these days don't know what they missed..
No mention of one of the greatest lines in sci-fi history? "What do we do?"...."We die!"
I love that line and I have used that line sometime the last 2 years.
And I can still see the little visor thing swinging over his eye.
With my brothers who also loved the movie, that became the automatic reply anytime anyone said "What do we do" or "what are we going to do" whether or not they got the reference. And if they didn't know the reference they always gave a VERY puzzled look.
@@macmcleod1188 I've used that 'homage' ever since...I will take my hand and make a vfffffffff sound and say it : "WE DIE:" OR "WE drink"..OR We EAT....
In the area in which I lived after this movie came out, there was some tradition among the table top gaming community to try to work movie lines into the game. "What do we do?"...."We die!" was a very common normally done sound and/or using one had as the visor moving over the eye. "F*** the Bonus" from Wanted Dead or Alive, was also common. And of course "If someone asked you if you are a god, you say YES!" was also up there. I used when someone asked me "what do you see", i would say "I see, I See, I See Bruce Lee". Interestingly few know that one, despite the fact it was said my a very young Adam Baldwin (of Firefly and Last Ship fame).
Sumbidjin' Jayne! Ugh, everyone was amazing and perfect in their roles. I really really really wish Wash had more screen time. Or Inara... does that make me... Wishy-Washy? lol. Hey, good to know there is another Firefly fan out there!
The Trailer Park choice made the movie for me, as someone who lived in one as a child - they caught it perfectly and set the tone for me.
Same here. No Maggies in mine, though.
love starfighter. '' will have it figured out by the time we reach the frontier''(2sec. later)''what was that'' ''the frontier''
would love to see the original 17month render version.
+Dave Sharp Me too. If they still had the files it would most likely take seconds with today's machines.
That is, if they were able to to rewrite the software to work on modern systems, sadly.
why did't they keep the files do they instill have the hard drive it was on ?
Dave Sharp ha, hard drive. That is a good one
Back in the day, hard drives could cost tens of thousands of dollars. It would have been cheaper to store the files on tape but even that was very expensive. Most likely, the files would have been kept just long enough to restore any corruption then the wiped.
This and Enemy Mine were my first non Star Wars sci-fi, it's a great movie and was so freaking cool when I was a kid. Still is for that matter.
One of my favourite movies of all time. Incidentally, in the end of the novel, Alex says something to Grigg along the lines of "Remember the English I taught you?"
Yes!!!!!
I still have the novelization of this movie (written by Alan Dean Foster) and I totally remember that line from the end of the book.
Glad someone else remembers this stuff. :-) :-) :-)
Grig wore a universal translator, that solves THAT problem! Hear that, slimes? I'm famous!
👍😋
@@generalzod8589 or... maybe Grig already knew to speak English.
@@danielwilliamson6180 Maybe he's not a hybrid turtle but a tortoise? Don't they live a helluva long time? Could've learned it when he was young---on one of the exploratory visits to Earth.
Oh MAN, I remember this movie! I think we even had it on video at one point.
The special effects were SUPER dated, but you're right, the actors were charming enough and the story fun and lighthearted enough to overcome the cheap budget and become a lovable movie.
This is one of my few good childhood memories. I loved this. It was amazing as a kid.
Great 80's Sci fi classic!
It exists in a universe of its own, with interesting characters that felt realistic: Grig's family were enslaved (never forgot that), or the fact Xur's father is leading the resistance against him, or that there's even a Xurian cult. A cult!
Even the little things, like: Who's Galuca? O_O
Sure some of the special effects look dated, it's reasonable. They'll be saying the same ten years from now about some movies that "set the bar" currently.
Thank you, GoodBadFlicks, for all the awesome trivia and info!
I HIGHLY recommend the novelization by Alan Dean Foster. Great worldbuilding, particularly with regard to the Xurian Rylans and why they follow Xur, what Xur did to get banished, and also how the Frontier functions, how the Ko-Dan meteor gun functions using a mass driver, that Zando-Zan are natural thrill seekers, etc. Hell, we find out that, off duty, Commander Kril is a family man (!).
I lived in Canyon Country, CA while this was being filmed... Used to hang out at that trailer park with my friends. This brings back memories.
This is one of those few 80's movies I watched so much as a child that STILL holds up to this day. The computer effects still look great - because there's something to be said for picking a consistent style and doing it well vs. trying to be "realistic" and constantly fail - and the writing is top notch. There are so many good lines in this film that are just as funny or meaningful as they were when I was a kid.
Grig is a great character.
I'm shocked to see it's the same actor who played the old man from Robocop.
8:31 Grig had a translator too. It makes the words he says in his language sound like English (the language he set it to before he left the ship) to anyone listening.
"If that's what you think, that's all you'll ever be"
Yup, Robert Preston reprising Harold Hill, being inspirational!
One of my favorite movies when I was a kid in the 80's! Seems like it wasn't all that long ago. Hard to believe Lance Guest is 56 and Catherine Mary Stewart is 58 now.
STILL one of my favourite Sci-Fi films and pure 80's magic too!
Ever see Ice Pirates?
Not one of the greats from 1984, but Angelica Houston is in it.
Space herpes!
Shirl Bristow it's a good movie
Ice Pirates was awesome
@@johndunn6756 I agree. I own it. Space herpies are hilerious! All I was trying to say is so many great movies came out in 1984 that it has very tuff time competing.
I wasn't saying it's a bad movie. I really enjoy ice pirates, that's why I bought it.
I don't know the criteria for a good/bad movie, but this title pops into my head when I hear that.
What I was trying to say is that 1984 was an amazing year for movies, and that ice pirates isn't exactly in the top 5.
Movies from 1984:
1984, Gremlins, Ghostbusters, the Terminator, Beverly hills cop, Indiana Jones, the Karate Kid, Amadeus, Red Dawn, the Neverending Story, Police Academy, Etc.
Comparatively not one of the greats from 1984.
You can't talk about The Last Starfighter without also talking about Flight of the Navigator. Truly a double feature of a great time if ever there was! ;-)
Asked about that years ago. I don't expect it to come easy because it's owned by Disney.
That movie freaked me out as a kid. The idea of transporting into the future terrified me lol.
Could you imagine a saturday night double feature bring back at your local movie theater ? Im gonna call my local movie theater and see if this cant happen .
THANK YOU!! For the longest time I had a memory of a movie where a guy is playing a video game and gets the high score and it turns out it's an aptitude test for space fighters, but could never remember what movie it was! FINALLY have my answer lol
If you liked this movie, you might want to read "Armada" by Ernest Cline. It's a similar tale. The audiobook is read by Wil Wheaton, and he does an excellent job!
This movie is one of the best parts of my childhood. I can't even begin to tell you how much I love this film.
"The ship's got herpes"
That first Beta Unit shot always freak me out as a kid.
ZERO MENTION of the Craig Safan score?!? For shame! The scores for this and Remo Williams are pure eighties!
+Ralph F. Aunkst He also did the music that played at the end of Michael Mann's first movie, 'Thief'.
Actually The Last Starfighter's score is mostly orchestrated, with some synth, I really wouldn't call it 80's. Remo Williams on the other hand is primary synth and thus has a more 80's feel to it overall.
Love love love this film. One of those rare cases where performers, technicians and visionaries come together to create something that is far more than just the sum of its parts.
My parents moved around a lot as a kid, didn’t have many friends. But when this movie came out on HBO and I was able to record it, it made things a lot easier when I felt down. I love this movie.
This is one of my favorite movies of all time, a true classic from start to finish.
this film needs a shot for shot remake, then a sequel.
"we're locked into the moon's gravitational pull! what do we do?!"
"we die."
+beefyoso
don't forget the monocle flip. =)
+beefyoso I don't think it needs an entire remake. What I'd like to see is a rerelease with the original CG effects replaced with 2016 state of the art effects -- that would be cool. I'm not against the idea of a sequel. God knows the writer needs the work after coming up with "Theodore Rex"
It would be tough to do a "proper" remake. Gaming has changed so much since Arcades were the norm. I can see the remake recruiting an entire squadron of human pilots from an e-sports tournament and then picking them off one by one as they fight a massive Armada of drone ships in a 7 Samurai-esque last stand.
And if I could add just one joke to an already perfect movie:
Alien pilot: "The Kodan are relentless predators. All they know is war. What chance does this human have?"
Alex: "My species thinks the Gunstar simulator is an amusing game for children."
No remake but a Remaster. Why because NO ONE can replace Robert Preston as Centauri. Only things the film needs is to redo the CG into somthing more like what the 17 month render time would have been and Id say that if that had been allowed back then this might have even beaten Star Wars.
Thanks to the movie's creator who owns all the rights to prequels, sequels and remakes, he promised that none of the above would EVER happen... And THANK GOD too, for this is at least one masterpiece that today's WOKE agenda garbage Hollywood will never have the chance to defile
I remember so much Otis line to Alex: "when the right thing happens--you gotta remember to hold on with both hands TIGHT!" It always moved me---same thing Centuri told him in the desert: "if thats all you are---thats all you'll ever be!" That hit me like a ton of bricks at 19! I haven't seen it in awhile--I'm gonna watch it tonight. A friend of mine and I were trying to write a screenplay sequel to TLSF back in '98, we watched the film over and over again on video. Beutel laid down somethings maybe he thought were just 'throwaway' lines but it gave the film its own history and universe. We never did finish that script though.
Enemy Mine comes to mind everytime i see this movie. Just because of how similar the aliens look.
OMG they should so do that movie too, another classic
Well, with all the Gunstars but one blown up, Enemy Mine could easily be a sequel to The Last Starfighter.
Grizabeebles
Prequel. Back when Grigg's people, were at odds with the Starfighters. It could be the way Grigg's people become part of the Armada.
@@CorbCorbin it explains why Grigg's is so human compared to the other aliens.
' Uncle!'
I have been hoping and requesting for you to do this movie for a long time. This is one of the most underrated movies of the 80s and one of the few that could actually benefit from a remake. They would only need to replace the arcade machine with a home gaming system. In the hand of a good writer and director, they could actually improve on an already great movie.
Yep, one of my most favorite Sci Fi movies. Got it at home and I'm watching it from time to time hoping they will continue the story one day...
It'll be a slaughter!
That's the spirit!
lol Louis using the "what the shit!" phrase.
also: "louis go back to sleep or im telling mom about your playboys" lmao
This movie and The Black Hole were two of my favorite sci fi films as a kid.
35 Years later they're finally making the sequel!
This was something of a childhood favourite (yet another video hire), and I honestly never connected it with Star Wars, but maybe that is because I actually look at the story and separate a movie about a guy from Earth from a story set a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.
You are in my top 3 favourite youtube channels, in the presence of the greats like redletter media and such, but I actually value your work the most, since you helped me (re?)discover the beauty in "so bad its actually great" flicks and your input is quite valuable and entertaining at the same time. I expect my first paycheck this month so im pretty much set that you deserve to be my first patreon whatever. Such special bound. wow this got creepy quite fast.
I thank you for your videos, keep up the good work.
Cheers from czech republic
+Dendelin007 lol not creepy! Thank you, it means a lot to be mentioned with one of the big leagues. :)
+GoodBadFlicks could you do a goodbadflicks on day of the dead pls
+GoodBadFlicks Well you did a good job as always. Not much else I can say.
+GoodBadFlicks I only watch you and the RLM guys. Your content is great, I can rewatch your videos every once in a while. I hope your viewership explodes as you really deserve it.
I distinctly remember this flick when it debuted. I bugged my parents to see this and instead they took me to a disney flick (Fantasia or Jungle Book iirc). What really sucked was that I saw kids from my school getting to see The Last Starfighter. I had a day of embarrassment (I was 8 then) on Monday when I went back to school. My dad later bought it on LaserDisc to make up for it.
Good review as aways and I learned some tidbits that I didn't know about this movie! I have this on Blu and I need to give it another spin!
This has to be one of the best written sci-fi films of the early 80's.
It had such a layered storyline, complex characters and great action.
To label this movie a "Star Wars knock-off" is a real tragedy.
Good casting, an excellent score, and quality practical effects really enhanced the revolutionary computer graphics the film is best known for.
On a personal note, I not only saw this in the theater, I own the novelization, had the movie on VHS for years (I eventually wore it out) bought the 35th anniversary DVD the day it was released, and even tried my hand at writing a sequel in college as an English assignment (though I never did get very far).
Thanks for shedding a little more light on a grossly overlooked piece of cinematic history.
I feel you missed the reference to the Atari logo in the Last Starfighter logo. Notice the upwards swooshes on the side. Great video as usual, though!
Thanks!
When this m ovie came out in theaters I was just a young kid but I wanted to see it. Lucky for me my dad wanted to see it too so the opening weekend my whole family went to watch it and wow! This was one of the first movies that really hooked me into scifi.
Great upload,GBF! Loved this flick at the theater and continue loving it. Great fun!
Wow, that was a great blast from the past. I had somehow forgotten that this movie even exists. This review brought it all back. I remember actually really liking this movie as a boy, even owning the comic book adaptation. I can even hear the theme song in my head right now after watching this. It's weird that I had totally forgotten about it. Thanks for reintroducing it to me.
This movie was in heavy rotation in our house. My brother LOVED it. I mostly loved Robert Preston (I was a musicals fan), but have fond memories of the movie. Thanks for this.
This is a perfect example of why I enjoy your videos. You always have tons of good trivia and seem to do movies you want. Glad to be subbed.
oh my god, i cant begin to tell you, how much i fell in love with this movie as a kid, being a little gamer i was like "wow, i wish something this awesome would happen to me for bossing my way through a video game." still enjoy it from time to time, but wow did this ever impact me as a kid.
Great job :) You're the only channel I trust for a fair review of every movie that you do. Keep up the great work.
"if that's what you think then that's all you will ever be" is the best !
One of my favorite films of the 80's.
For me, this film works on so many levels. One I wish you'd have talked about is the amazing score by Craig Safan! It's truly one of the more nuanced scores for sci-fi films of its time. It has the bombastic main theme but then it has those lovely, quieter moments - mostly at the trailer park - that really help sell Alex's story. I could watch this film solely for the scenes with Alex and Grig and for every scene involving Centauri. Such a charming, big-hearted film that still plays well. My 10-year old really enjoys it, so #parentingwin for me. :) Another nice review, good sir!
this has to be one of my favorite movies
One of my favorite movies growing up
Wow- you referenced my favorite Destruction album, talk about random... my hero
:)
dofphoto yeah when I saw that I was so suprised
Thank you for this video. It's still one of my favorite Sci-Fi movies. and the graphics made look pretty by today's standards, but still a hell of a lot better than some movies out there today
Thanks for watching!
I would watch a TV show of this, it's one of the first movies I remember watching.
i love The Last Starfighter. still a favourite in this house, we sometimes put a tent up in the yard and setup a small tv and have a movie night outside. this film is little buddys first choice for those nights
Wow, I had no idea The Old Man from Robocop was Grig!
I loved this movie as a kid, though the Xando-Xan and Beta Unit transformations scared me. It is an undeniably great film, though, with wonderful action and heart.
Also, THANK YOU. For DECADES, I've off and on tried to remember a movie I saw at my grandparents (likely on TBS) about college kids shooting each other with suction-cup dart guns until one of them starts using a real gun. Now I know it was Tag: The Assassination Game.
Looks like a tough one to find, though.
You are very welcome. Yes, Tag is pretty hard to find. It only made it to VHS and I think its tied up in legal limbo, which is why its never made it to another platform.
Three words:
Catherine.
Mary.
Stewart.
Thank you.
Glad someone else noticed.
Man, she was sooo damn cute! I think every guy wanted a girl friend like Maggie.
No mention of her being in Night of the Comet.
At the end when you mentioned about the language, in the book adaptation by Allen Dean Foster, Alex had taught Grig some of the basic English language so that Grig could communicate with the people at the trailer park
the book adapation if memory serves also fleshed out the zandozan hunters. plus more about the frontier and how it worked plus the whole traitor son aspect.
Alex taught Grig some English on the trip back. The translators they had would make it a simple matter of memorization, which Grig clearly demonstrated with how much of the details he knew about the Gunstar.
If you notice, they tried to make him sound stilted. The only part he's smooth with is the speech about Alex, which he probably had a chance to rehearse a bit.
Cool video! Here's an extra fun fact you missed... Remember the hitchhiker who showed up at the trailer park and turned out to be a disguised alien sent by Xur to kill Alex? That alien's human disguise was played by Marc Alaimo who would become famous as Gul Dukat on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine years later!
im am 10, the year is 1995 and for the first time i see sci-fi. it was star trek. when i told my dad that its kinda cool stuff he told me to lean back and then played the VHS of last starfighter. that was the year i felt in love with sci-fi.
edit: if you look the hyperspace scene, watch closely, they even get the blue/red shift right. amazing
I was a young father of three little boys [soon to be four little boys] when this movie came out.
My oldest son and I absolutely loved this movie.
We would rent a VCR and the video cassettes [don`t forget to rewind them] and they would watch it ,with the baby sitters, on a Friday night when my wonderful wife and I would go out.Then Saturday mornings we would all watch it again until we had to return the movie and VCR, in order to avoid late charges.Ha,ha oh the 1980`s.
I am going to date myself here but I seem to recall seeing this in theaters as a child. I loved it then and my opinion has not wavered since. You only gave me more to love about this flick.
Actually....CGI in film began with TRON. It was the first motion picture to utilize CGI along with a ton of other unique and quite difficult effects to create it's amazing unique world. The Last Starfighter was I believe the second to do so followed by The Young Sherlock Holmes.
My Dad loves this film so so much. RIP Dad.
I hope they don't try to reboot it or turn it into a TV show. This film is perfect in every way, especially the music score. Even the computer graphics! Though they look dated today, I think it adds to the movie and makes it feel like Alex is experiencing a game come to life in space. As for translating, I have a theory Alex taught Grig a little on the flight to Earth. They don't say how long it takes to get there from the Frontier so there was probably time to get the basics down.
"Go back to sleep Lewis or I'm telling mom about your playboys." This movie never gets old and I listen to the music on UA-cam every once and awhile.
you're easily one of the best UA-cam channels on UA-cam, I love film and everything to do with it, your exploring series is great, and I look forward to every episode you release!
One of my favorite movies growing up ... Was always excited when they played it on tv growing up in the 80's.
It was a great movie when I saw it in the theater. It still holds up well.
In addition to everything else stated here, let's not forget that the scoring and soundtrack are absolutely terrific!
Saw this film for the first time in maybe 2015, it blew me away! TBH other then the melted ice cream planets, the CGI still looks good, even if it's not photo realistic. Was really hoping for a sequel though, like they could use modern CGI for the "real life" scenes, but then the "real life" CGI from the original as the game. Plot would involve Luis becoming part of the next generation of Starfighters: which unlike the Gunstar are small single seat ships, which creates a but of a rivalry between the new and old.
Loved this when I saw it in theaters - and you’re right, the graphics were stunning to all of us computer nerds back then as we knew just enough to understand how incredibly complex it all was. And also as you say - the movie is just wonderful. It was, and remains, one of my faves from the 80s ... and that is saying something!
One of my favorite movies of all time. I think I was five the first time I saw it and I have loved it ever since. Great review - thank you for all of that information.
When my parents bought a VHS player this was the first tape we rented, Good times
One of my favorite movies!!! To top it off you used a photo from my home town, Ottumwa, Iowa. It was the picture of the video games in the middle of the street. Keep the awesome videos coming
I love this film, too. The CGI def' has that old-school vibe. But, that Alex is going into a video game, in a sense, it all just goes hand-in-hand for me. Great review. This is really a film that doesn't get even credit.
Greetings Star fighter, you have been recruited by the star league to defend the frontier from Xur and the Ko'Dan armada. Get ready, prepare for blastoff!
another great video! one of my favorite movies growing up. I always wondered what happened to Lance Guest. he didn't do much after this.
I remember him in Jaws: The Revenge. I recently was surprised to see him in Late Phases (2014); he looked unrecognizable.
The Last Starfighter, and Flight of the Navigator, are the two movies that defined my childhood. I probably wore out the video tapes at the rental store from renting them so many times.
This was one of my favorite movies as a kid. I probably saw this over 100 times growing up.
Having finished an animation course, and thinking about some of the render times we ran into using one or a few machines to chew the data.........I can't even begin to imagine both the process itself and the render time, even with a Cray !
Such a great piece of 80's sci-fi.
7:26 "The Last Starfighter" on the Atari 2600? lol. Those are the kind of marketing decisions that killed Atari.
There WAS an NES game. One guess why most people haven't heard of it.
"it'll be a slaughter!"
"that's the spirit"
"No, my slaughter"
The Starcar is also in another film, it appears very briefly in Back to the Future part II.
I think it's the scene where the Jeep Wrangler comes in to land.
Hella...nice shout out to Wing Commander...closest thing to playing the "test" I could ever find in my childhood
this is one of my all time favorite movies as a kid,and i still love it today.
Still my favorite 80s flick...
And the Craig Safan's score is sensacional!
Saw it in the theater (in my then small town…now nearly overrun with celebs TWD, Marvel, etc. Fayetteville, GA) on opening night. Heheh!
Being only 10, and it being 1984, I was 100% unaware of the so-called ‘video game crash’ of that or the previous year.
I loved it then, loved it later and still love it now.
I honestly do not think the early CG looks ‘dated’ at all. It still looks kick-ass. Hell, my girlfriend who is about ten years my junior watched it last year and LOVED it! It still has appeal for many reasons…both it’s heart and effects…also it’s outstanding score!
Plus, as a nerd…Cobb’s design of a ‘realistic’ Starfighter ship, the Gunstar, is amazing and nearly timeless!
Awesome movie and an awesome look at it. One thing that I would have liked to hear your opinion on was the IMO, incredible score/music of the film by Craig Safan. I still jam out to the title theme.
How about Remo Williams? Both fantastic scores!
Never even heard of this movie which looks amazing. I am starting to really like youtube comments. Starcadian is pretty great for this type of music.
My favorite movie from childhood:) Great video nad cool facts! I was also wondering about the translation in the finishing scene. It could be explained that Grig the "turltle-lizard" alien is wearing the translator.
This is easily one of my all time favorite films. I even have a kit bashed model of the GunStar. The GunStar is also one of the most realistic depictions of a space fighter in film.
This film makes me break out in nostalgia and acute lament-itis 😢 Great film and wonderful score.
Also, you ROCK man - Wing Commander mentioned ? Amazing! Cheers for that 🤘🍻
I never thought that this film was a star wars Knock-off, the film was unique and it way ahead of its time.
Wait wait... Grig was the Old Man from Robocop?!