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It may’ve been called The Last Starfighter, but this 1984 film rendered one of the first starfighters in glorious CGI. Alongside Tron, Starfighter is considered one of the breakthrough films in special effects. The rest of the movie is a little less memorable…
And for those interested in the history of movie special effects, here’s a short visually history. (It doesn’t include Starfighter though.)
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I loved this movie; still want my own Gunstar.
“See kids, videogames can help you save the galaxy!”
Anyone who doesn’t think this movie was memorable was probably just there to make out with their GF/BF.
I still see cultural references to this movie every few weeks.
One of the most notable references not mentioned by OrionRed: “Death Blossom”.
Gamers and SF fans have made that a legend all its own.
Geez,
How can you say the rest of the movie wasn’t so memorable? Robert Preston: “Then again it never hurts to be rich!” That line alone is worth the whole movie.
Throw in the interplay between Alex and the other guy while they wait out the fleet to pass over them (family pictures and all); the make out scene by the lake; assassins; and the reference to “not another sword in the stone scam”, and that is one well-written piece of drama. Not to mention all the great characters from the trailer park. “Alex, you gotta grab on to it with both hands and NEVER let go.”
These are all from my memory of a movie I haven’t seen in almost 20 years.
This film is great, one of the greatest space fantasy film ever.
I got the dvd and watch it sometimes. When people ask about that kind of film, i usually give this one before the star wars…
That special effects video left out almost all of the major milestones in computer special effects and many of the milestones in traditional special effects. It includes Spiderman but leaves out A Trip to the Moon, the very first Sci-Fi special effects film? And I agree, The Last Starfighter is an awesome movie, but it was also the very first film to use CGI instead of models for any real length of time, so why isn’t it in the video? (in Tron, everything was supposed to look like it was in a computer, but in The Last Starfighter they were going for realism) Just a few films that should have been included: Westworld, Futureworld, Young Sherlock Holmes, Flight of the Navigator, and Forrest Gump.
Sorry, I know the post is about The Last Starfighter and not the special effects video, but everyone should know that the video is just some clips that the creator liked, not a history of special effects.
I always liked the part when the spy had is head melted.
I still use the phrase ‘OH, Yolanda!’ when i see something I really like. I have this DVD and still watch it every once in a while. Yeah, its old, but it ages pretty well, compaired to other movies from its time.
Its still on my list of all time favorites.
When I watched it again a few years ago it was still quite good, though dated. The memories from when I was an early teen watching it, the way it just kind of got ahold of my imagination and ran with it, that’s worth a lot. That wish fulfillment fantasy of landing in the middle of your old neighborhood in your very own starfighter–priceless!
I loved it as a kid, and hadn’t seen it in a long time. Rewatched here about a year ago. While yes, the plot is engaging and the effects are awesome, the writing is horrid and the acting is worse.
Still went out and bought the damn thing, though.
Just came out on Blu-ray a couple of weeks ago. In the Netflix queue. Haven’t see it since I was a kid but remember loving it!
http://www.roguesynapse.com/games/last_starfighter.php if you want to play it.
I can’t believe that this was the epic win for today!
I just bought a copy this afternoon!
OMG! This is STILL on my Top 10 films list!
So many positive messages in this movie, that I still adhere to. Yes, it borrows from many traditional stories, but the mixture of these themes is really what makes this one of the best family-type films for young boys. Yes, it may be a little cheesey, but isn’t any great “popcorn flick”? Plus, the soundtrack is fantastic!
I own this on Laserdisc! I could write a thesis on the influences of this movie on my life, but I’ll keep it curt, for now.
This movie combines so many WINs it almost hurts.
I would have killed to have that arcade game.
Recorded it from TV on VHS, still got that one. I must have seen it over 20 times, it is just awesome. Watched it with some friends a few weeks ago on DVD and it still is awesome, just the idea of coming back in your very own spaceship to collect your lifetime girlfriend…. Memories!
There are cheesy parts to it, but it’s so heartwarming and funny, and so wonderfully “good-guy wins against all odds”. I love it
“The rest of the movie is a little less memorable…”
Boo! This movie is complete win.
Not memorable?? Excuse me, but with one of the best characters of all time in it (Centauri) played by one of my all time fave actors (Robert Preston), sort of Harold Hill in space, how could this NOT be awesome! And yes, I’ve seen it since its first run, I own it, and just watched it again last week. while the computer effects now look like something you could do on your laptop (and very likely can now) at the time those were state of the art and required the world’s most powerful computer. It’s fun, it’s lighthearted, it’s David and Goliath, take the knife to a gunfight and winning epic. And I adore Grigg!!
“I’m about to get killed a million miles from nowhere with a gung-ho iguana who tells me to relax.”
“A mobile cave that never went anywhere…”
-Grig, summing up Alex’s description of living in a trailer park
Heck, one of the premises of the film (using a game to recruit someone) is still a common meme, from dozens of anime (though in many of them, the games aren’t video games), to Disney’s new series “Aaron Stone”.
It’s funny when you hear someone talk about a movie as “being a cliche”, and them not realizing that the cliche was BASED on the movie, and it was a groundbreaking new idea at the time of its making.
Common “meme”?
Proceed with the visual attack formation!
I have seen this movie but at that time I have downloaded it from the internet. But I still remember the each scene of the movie.
i randomly found this movie and watched it just last week
The video needs to be updated with Avatar… Badly.
And I think the original matrix should be thrown in there for good measure.