This is one of the movies I grew up on.
I remember a large black VHS tape that had two other movies recorded on it, with the title “The Last Starfighter” written in blue pen on the top of the label. I remember putting it into a large dull metal colored VCR that, when you pressed the huge green Eject button, would release the hydraulic launched tape deck on the top with a futuristic gear grinding sound. When I put the tape in and pressed the tape deck back into the machine, it locked in with a cluck then began a definite whir as I pressed the Play button.
They don’t make VCRs so wondrously clunky-yet-futuristic-at-the-same-time these days. To me The Last Starfighter is just like that old VCR: Aged, but still awesome.
The Last Starfighter is about a teenager named Alex Rogan (portrayed by Lance Guest) who is trying to get a better life than the trailer park he lives in with his mother can offer him. He’s a decent guy who goes out of his way to help out the close-knit trailer community, but the only thing he can have to himself is his hobby of playing the arcade game at the local diner. The arcade game is called Starfighter, and one night Alex breaks the high score. Little does he know that the arcade game is actually a recruiting and training tool used to test potential candidates for a real Starfighter program run by an alien race that needs pilots “with the gift” to pilot the powerful Gunstar fighters. For Alex, the premise of the arcade game he played becomes true as he is “recruited by the Star League to defend the Frontier from the Xur and the Ko-Dan Armada.”
The story of The Last Starfighter is not very deep and, except for a few slight turns it’s pretty simple, but it is done so solidly that even today I enjoy watching it. It is sprinkled with genuine moments and weird sights that it keeps you entertained despite the simple story and characters.
What is interesting that despite the movie’s title, Alex does not pilot a starfighter until a little more than the last half of the film. But that’s okay, because the film offers a unique and humorous subplot that involves an android masquerading as Alex on Earth (to hide the fact the Alex is really in space helping out the Star League) and the sheer fish-out-of-water experience that Alex goes through when he is thrust into an alien world is enough to keep you entertained until the big, long starfighter sequence at the end.
The special effects used in the movie would definitely be considered aged, but it was one of the first movies, along with Tron, to use CGI. 3D rendered models were used for the starships and other objects, like the exterior of the Command Center and the outer space environment. Today the effects would be considered cartoony, but it still amazing to me how much detail the models show, and, in their own aged way, still hold up. Also the filmmakers were careful to limit the number of shots that contained real filmed footage and 3D rendered footage (I don’t know if they did this intentionally) so that at least the real footage and 3D footage were consistent (and they avoided fake looking blue-screen effects).
What I find interesting about the movie is that it manages to invoke a variety of emotions. There are triumphant times of glory, humorous moments, and most interesting of all, creepy ass moments that frightened me as a kid and still creep me out today. When Alex is whisked away by his lovable conman recruiter Centauri he is replaced by a Beta Unit, an android that assumes his identify and makes sure no one notices that Alex is really gone. When Alex first meets the Beta Unit it is shrouded in darkness. It shakes Alex’s hand that causes a bright flash and Alex recoils in pain. Before he can complain the Beta Unit leaves without a word. The next we see the Beta Unit it is in Alex’s bed with the covers over its head, emitting odd, sickly groaning and moaning. Alex’s mother and girlfriend assume that he is depressed so they don’t disturb him too much, but as Alex’s girlfriend leaves the room and shuts the door, the Beta Unit pulls the covers off its face, revealing a pulsing, slimy pale skinned skull with lidless eyes and lights blinking underneath the skin. Apparently it was still in the process of transformation into Alex’s likeness. That vision of the Beta Unit in mid-metamorphosis scared the hell of me as a kid- but I kept on watching.
The music score of The Last Starfighter is awesome. Even today the tune of the main theme gets stuck in my head, and for a while I wonder where the tune is from, until I realize that it’s the ear worm that I have had off and on for over 20 years.
When I watched this movie recently I realized how some…let’s say more politically correct viewers might object to the story elements. The fact that a video game is being used as a training and recruiting tool for a dangerous military operation (and on teenagers no less) by a secret organization that pretty much abducts Alex and shoves a uniform in his arms does not exactly cast the Star League in a good and noble light. This was made in 1984, when video games were pretty much considered a fad for the young. Now a days, after the attempts by both left-wing and right-wing interests to demonize certain video games (if not the whole video game industry itself), this concept would ruffle a few feathers, especially those who follow the anti-military/establishment crowd. Of course, the military organizations in real life have always sought out ways to recruit young people, going beyond a call for patriotic pride and duty by offering perks and entertainment that pander to even the video gaming crowd.
But the focus of the Last Starfighter is not about military recruitment, war, or even video games. It is about a young man finding a purpose in his life and grabbing hold of it when the opportunity presents itself. The “war” in the movie is not much of a war- it is literally one ship versus an armada. The action is a fun ride in space with lots of colorful explosions, not a gritty, sober battlefield filled with death and angst. The issues of war and military service take a backseat to the overall theme of discovering oneself.
For The Last Starfighter war is fun and there is nothing wrong with that.
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