This page is about the film Dark Star. For other topics, please see the disambiguation page at Dark Star.

Dark Star
Theatrical poster
Directed by	John Carpenter
Produced by	John Carpenter
Written by	John Carpenter Dan O'Bannon
Starring	Dan O'Bannon
Music by	John Carpenter
Cinematography	Douglas Knapp
Editing by	Dan O'Bannon
Release date(s)	1974
Running time	83 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Dark Star is a 1974 sci-fi motion picture tongue-in-cheek comedy directed by John Carpenter and co-written with Dan O'Bannon, which explores the theme of cabin fever aboard a spacecraft on its 20-year mission to destroy unstable planets. Shortcut: WP:WIN Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia and, as a means to that end, also an online community. ... The license Wikipedia uses grants free access to our content in the same sense as free software is licensed freely. ... The terms Dark Star or Darkstar may refer to: Dark star, a theoretical star whose gravity is strong enough to trap light, mostly superseded by the concept of black holes. RQ-3 Dark Star, a military drone developed by the United States Dark Star (band), an English rock band Dark... Image File history File links Dark_Star. ... John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, film score composer and occasional actor. ... John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, film score composer and occasional actor. ... John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, film score composer and occasional actor. ... Dan OBannon (born Daniel Thomas OBannon on September 30, 1946 in St. ... Dan OBannon (born Daniel Thomas OBannon on September 30, 1946 in St. ... John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, film score composer and occasional actor. ... Dan OBannon (born Daniel Thomas OBannon on September 30, 1946 in St. ... 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Sci-fi is an abbreviation for science fiction. ... For other uses see film (disambiguation) Film refers to the celluliod media on which movies are printed Film — also called movies, the cinema, the silver screen, moving pictures, photoplays, picture shows, flicks, or motion pictures, — is a field that encompasses motion pictures as an art form or as... Sarcasm is the making of remarks intended to mock the person referred to (who is normally the person addressed), a situation or thing. ... John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, film score composer and occasional actor. ... Dan OBannon (born Daniel Thomas OBannon on September 30, 1946 in St. ... This articles describes the psychological conditions. ... The Space Shuttle Discovery as seen from the International Space Station. ... Space exploration is the physical exploration of outer space objects and generally anything that involves the technologies, science, and politics regarding space endeavors. ...

Production

Although destined for eventual release in 1974, this was only possible as a consequence of a successful series of showings at a number of film festivals in 1973. Originally the film was a 45 minute student short filmed on 16mm film. The movie was transferred to 35mm with the addition of 38 minutes which brought the movie up to feature film length. The special effects on the movie were done by Dan O'Bannon, ship design by Ron Cobb, model work by O'Bannon and Greg Jein, and animation was by Bob Greenberg, all of which are considered impressive for a student work. O'Bannon starred in the film in the role of Sgt. Pinback. A film festival is the presentation or showcasing of films in one or more movie theaters or screening venues. ... (Redirected from 16mm film) 16mm film was initially created in the 1920s as an inexpensive amateur alternative to the conventional 35 mm film format. ... A reel of film, which predates digital cinematography. ... Dan OBannon (born Daniel Thomas OBannon on September 30, 1946 in St. ... Ron Cobb is a cartoonist, artist, writer, film designer, and film director. ...

Plot

Four lonely astronauts, adrift in space aboard Dark Star, have adventures and find various ways to relieve their boredom. The film features an encounter with a large orange-red web-footed inflatable beach ball alien of the entirely unconvincing variety. The genre of the film is essentially one of science fiction black comedy and despite some of its 'low budget' special effects, it is often seen as seminal, a forerunner of the Alien series. This isn't surprising, as Dan O'Bannon later wrote the original first draft script for the first Alien film. For other uses, see Astronaut (disambiguation). ... A beach ball is a large inflatable ball used in various games and other recreational activities traditionally conducted on the beach. ... Extraterrestrial, as an adjective, refers to something that originates, occurs, or is located outside Earth or its atmosphere. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Special effects (abbreviated SPFX or SFX) are used in the film, television, and entertainment industry to create effects that cannot be achieved by normal means, such as depicting travel to other star systems. ... Alien (1979), directed by Ridley Scott, is an extremely popular and influential science fiction/horror film that spawned several sequels and imitators. ... Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Alien (film) Alien is a 1979 science fiction / horror film directed by Ridley Scott, from an original story by Dan OBannon and Ronald Shusett. ...

It is the middle of the 22nd century and the scout ship Dark Star has been dispatched on a twenty year deep space mission to destroy orbitally unstable planets that could threaten future colonization efforts. The ship is operated by the United States military, but is virtually without command from base (which happens to be in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica) because of its distance from Earth (according to the opening transmission, 18 parsecs away with a lag of 10 years). The ship, somewhere in its work, encountered an electromagnetically bound asteroid storm, causing serious damage to the ship. The main systems on the ship are dilapidated and (according to a Ship's Log entry, "continue[d] to deteriorate"). The ship's captain, Cmdr. Powell was killed in an accident involving his seat belt, but is kept "alive" in cryogenic support with wires directly implanted into his brain, and frozen at absolute zero. Talby has become reclusive on the observation deck, only making contact with the crew when his meals are brought to him. Doolittle, the bomb operator and ship's de facto commander, works on the ship's cramped bridge arming the bombs (called "thermostellar devices"). Pinback drops the bombs and controls the "alien" that serves as the Dark Star's "mascot." Boiler uses the ship's computer to survey nearby systems for unstable planets, charts the courses to said planets, and operates the evacuation (accelerates the ship suddenly) after the bomb drop. The 22nd century (Gregorian calendar) will comprise the years 2101-2200. ... Outer space (also called just space), as a name for a region, refers to the relatively empty parts of the Universe, outside the atmospheres of celestial bodies. ... The eight planets and three dwarf planets of the Solar System. ... Categories: Antarctica geography stubs | Geography of Antarctica | Ross Dependency ... Adjectives: Terrestrial, Terran, Telluric, Tellurian, Earthly Atmosphere Surface pressure: 101. ... Stellar parallax motion The parsec (symbol pc) is a unit of length used in astronomy. ... 253 Mathilde, a C-type asteroid. ... Cryogenics is the study of very low temperatures or the production of the same, and is often confused with cryobiology, the study of the effect of low temperatures on organisms, or the study of cryopreservation. ... In animals, the brain, or encephalon (Greek for in the head), is the control center of the central nervous system. ... Absolute zero is the lowest possible temperature where nothing could be colder, and no heat energy remains in a substance. ... The Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bomb produced in the United States. ... Major features of the Solar System (not to scale, from left to right): Pluto, Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, the asteroid belt, the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth & Moon, and Mars. ...

The movie opens with Dark Star approaching a planet. Bomb #19 is dispatched from the bomb bay. Doolittle talks to the bomb, asking it to check its failsafes, operations, and (finally) arms it. Pinback drops the bomb, succeeded by Boiler pulling the ship away from the planet at an amazing speed. They slow to a stop, where we see the planet destroyed followed by a notice of successful destruction. Boiler then searches for another planet for them to destroy and Doolittle delivers the signature line: "Don't give me any of that intelligent life crap; just give me something I can blow up." Boiler gives him another option, and they agree to take off. Intelligent Life is an upmarket magazine launched by the editors of The Economist in 2004. ...

En route to the planet, they encounter another asteroid storm, where the electrical storm blows out a Communications Laser at the back of the ship. Apparently this laser "talks" to the bomb bay, and Bomb #20 prematurely activates. The ship's computer pleads and eventually overrides the orders for the bomb to drop. It returns to the bomb bay disgusted. Optical communication is any form of telecommunication that uses light as the transmission medium. ... For other uses, see Laser (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Laser (disambiguation). ... A BlueGene supercomputer cabinet. ...

With all things going quite well, the crew return to their bunks, now made out in a Food Storage Locker because of previous damage to the ship. Pinback pulls out a rubber chicken from his prank-box and flusters Doolittle enough that he reports to another part of the ship, to be left alone with his crude musical instrument, which he had been building apparently for quite some time. The music provides an interlude to the next scene. A prop comic holding a rubber chicken in sweatpants (as in the simile looser than a rubber chicken in sweatpants). Please see this page: www. ...

Pinback and Boiler are seen in a hallway, Pinback under a sun lamp with a reflective shield and sunglasses, and Boiler pulling a heavy, armored plate to prop it against the wall. Boiler takes a gun and promptly begins to use it for target practice. Pinback scolds him for using this gun because it was "dangerous" and supposed to be used for "emergency purposes only." The ship's intercom then announces that "it's alien-feeding time." Pinback responds with: "Aww, I don't wanna do that!" Eventually the computer persuades him grudgingly to feed the alien. He reports to an empty but dirty room. He tries to coax the alien down off of its perch. It hops down after he slides the broom he holds in hand back and forth along the top of the masses. This is the famous "beach-ball alien." Pinback gives it a piece of some indistinguishable food mass, to which it turns up its nose and whines. Much like a parent, he tells it that it can eat the food or starve and that it is ungrateful for all his work. It attacks him playfully, which severely irritates Pinback. He eventually pries it off of his back and it runs out into the hallway and hides. As Pinback searches for the departed pest, it attacks him yet again. Once he pries the animal off again, he pulls out a cat-toy from within his uniform and throws it at its feet. The animal contemplates it and gobbles it greedily, to which Pinback responds "Idiot!" He whacks it mercilessly with a broom. After a moment, the alien grabs it and congruently whacks Pinback. It runs off into a basement-like structure.

Pinback follows and comes up against what looks like an air duct (which is, in fact, an elevator shaft). Using a plank, Pinback clambers over the chasm. The alien is discovered in an air lock, retreating from Pinback. He chases it out, whereupon it jumps across the shaft. As Pinback starts to clamber, once again, over the shaft, it activates and the elevator car starts to descend. Warding off repeated attacks by the alien, Pinback is eventually forced to let go of the plank in order to grab a latch-handle on the car. He unscrews the wing nuts on a plate in the floor, and tries to pull himself up through it. Unfortunately, his hips are too wide, and his legs are left dangling out of the plate. Opera music begins to play in the car, and he strains to push a panel of buttons to eject the floorplate of the elevator. The computer tells him to press button 1 (which is conveniently located as far away from his reach as possible). After much struggle, the computer finally ejects the plate, and we see Pinback stuck in the floorplate with smoke rising from the car. An airlock is a device which permits the passage of objects, people, etc between a pressure vessel and its surrounding space while minimising the change of pressure in the vessel. ... A set of lifts in the lower level of a London Underground station. ... A nut is a type of hardware fastener with a threaded hole. ... The Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Italy. ...

Meanwhile, the alien has pulled the trigger on the laser and reactivated Bomb #20. It is more determined than ever to explode, but the computer reels it back into the bomb bay, as it delivers an ultimatum that the next time it will explode no matter what. Talby's monitor on the observation deck shows an "All Systems Alert."

Pinback, meanwhile, frees himself from the plate and pulls out an "anesthetic gun." He finds the alien and cutely says, "Time to go sleepy-bye." He shoots the gun and the alien "deflates," leaving behind its "feet" and "skin."

Talby is forced to go below into the computer room to investigate the site of the failure. He finds that the communications laser is faulty. He informs Doolittle that he has found the cause of the failure and that he will try to fix it. He reports immediately to the room, as the ship pulls out of light-speed and prepares for orbit insertion. A line showing the speed of light on a scale model of Earth and the Moon The speed of light in a vacuum is an important physical constant denoted by the letter c for constant or the Latin word celeritas meaning swiftness. ...

Talby gets to the failure and tells Doolittle that the laser had been affecting the bomb bay operations, but Doolittle becomes flustered and turns off his communications device to prepare for the bomb drop. He orders the infamous Bomb #20 out and arms it. He removes the cover on the laser, and it shoots mere centimeters from his space suit. He crouches down and adjusts the cue on the laser. He adjusts it too wide however, and it shoots him in the face. He then ambles blindly around the airlock and finally walks into the laser, causing too much energy to be reflected back into the laser, whereupon the bomb-drop mechanism short-circuits. This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ...

Pinback sounds the countdown for the bomb drop; but when he pulls the lever, it sounds an alarm heralding the failure of the bomb to drop. He tries again in about 10 seconds and it continues to fail to which he says "DROP DROP DROP!!!" The crew becomes frantic, trying to disarm the bomb, but it refuses. Doolittle contacts the Commander in a comical sequence, and he suggests that they try to teach the bomb phenomenology to convince it not to explode on the basis that what he perceives as real may not truly be real. Doolittle exits the ship to talk directly to the bomb. The bomb returns to the bay, saying "I must think on this further." Doolittle re-enters the ship from the back airlock, causing Talby to be blown out into space. Doolittle attempts to retrieve Talby. Pinback tries to give the bomb new orders; he responds "You are false data." Pinback becomes exceedingly angry and scared. The bomb theorizes that since he cannot prove that anything he knows truly exists, he must be God. He explodes in the bomb bay, saying "Let there be light." The ship is destroyed and Pinback and Boiler are instantly killed in the explosion. This article is about the philosophical movement. ... In general, data consist of propositions that reflect reality. ... This article discusses the term God in the context of monotheism and henotheism. ... Let there be light is a common English translation of the Latin phrase fiat lux, which describes the creation of light by God near the beginning of Genesis, the first book of the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament. ...

The other astronauts fade away into space in an ending similar to Ray Bradbury's "Kaleidoscope." Talby is swept up alive into the Phoenix Asteroids, which he was expecting near their nuke site; Doolittle is, once again, able to surf (his inability to surf is one of his laments about being in space), because a loose panel from the destroyed ship allows him to surf through space until he is burned up while entering the atmosphere of a nearby planet; Commander Powell's body and cryogenic container remain intact after the explosion, and, since he is at absolute zero, he can float indefinitely through space. The conclusion is just above the planet, with the sun rising there. The title reads "The End" ...quickly followed by the words "Of Dark Star." Ray Douglas Bradbury (born August 22, 1920) is an American literary, fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer best known for The Martian Chronicles, a 1950 book which has been described both as a short story collection and a novel, and his 1953 dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451. ... Look up surf on Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Analysis

Carpenter has, tongue in cheek, described "Dark Star" as "'Waiting for Godot' in space." Sarcasm from Greek sarkasmos, to tear flesh is sneering, jesting, or mocking a person, situation or thing. ... Vladimir (left) and Estragon (right) hold Pozzo aloft (from a production by Naqshineh Theatre). ...

It is also singled out as an example of "philosophy in cinema" by virtue of the "talking bomb" sequence, in which a strategy to prevent the unintended detonation of a renegade onboard explosive device is devised, based on teaching the bomb the rudiments of phenomenology (with amusingly unexpected results). Another key interpretational theme is the caricature of the Vietnam War legacy of "mischief emerging from tedium" among military types on long uneventful missions. The Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bomb produced in the United States. ... This article is about the philosophical movement. ... Combatants Republic of Vietnam United States Republic of Korea Thailand Australia New Zealand The Philippines National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam Democratic Republic of Vietnam People’s Republic of China Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea Strength US 1,000,000 South Korea 300,000 Australia 48,000...

The final sequence of the film is more than reminiscent of Slim Pickens playing MAJ T.J "King" Kong in the film Dr Strangelove. In the near-final sequence, a nuclear bomb "refuses" to budge from the B-52 bomb bay, until forced to do so by the mechanical intervention of MAJ Kong. When the bomb suddenly releases, MAJ Kong ends up riding it like a bucking horse with hat-in-hand cart-wheeling sailing towards the target and oblivion. Slim Pickens riding the bomb in the movie Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb Louis Bert Lindley, Jr. ... For the hit 1987 single by Depeche Mode, see the album Music for the Masses Film poster for Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is a 1964 satirical film directed by Stanley Kubrick. ...

Trivia

• A novelization of the film was written by Alan Dean Foster.
• The lyrics of the theme song "Benson, Arizona", a space traveler's lament about being separated from his lover by distance and relativistic time dilation, was written by Bill Taylor, who also worked on the optical and visual effects for the movie.
• The classic C64 demo Terminus by Drew Rodger was heavily influenced by the film.
• The novel Revelation Space, by Alastair Reynolds, makes use of a similar plot device as presented in Dark Star, possibly influenced by the film. In that novel, the captain of the starship in which part of the action takes place has been infected with the Melding Plague, requiring he be cryogenically preserved so as to slow down the plague's progression. One of the protagonists nonetheless entertains short and infrequent conversations with the captain by warming his brain a few degrees and interfacing with its implants.
• The British television series Red Dwarf, which ran during the 1980s and 1990s and included elements of both comedy and science fiction, is said to have drawn heavy influences from Dark Star.
• A brief single-frame insert flashing across the computer screen reads "FUCK YOU HARRIS". This is a reference to Jack Harris, the producer who financed the film's upgrade from student work to feature. He and Carpenter frequently clashed over the film's budget.
• The band Pinback used samples from the movie in both of their albums Pinback and Blue-Screen life
• The 1983 Gottlieb arcade game "Mad Planets" is loosely based on the film. Players pilot a similar looking spaceship on a mission to destroy rogue planets.
• Pinback's character claims in a pre-recorded diary entry that "...my real name is Bill Froug...". This is a reference to William Froug, a real-life screenwriting teacher (then adjunct professor) from USC. This good-natured practical joke was discussed in an interview of O'Bannon, in Froug's book "The new screenwriter looks at the new screenwriter". ISBN 1-879505-04-5. (See pages 45-46; and DVD's Dear Diary chapter; or Pinback's Diary on LaserDisc.) Froug says he first saw this with 500 or 600 students at the film's USC premiere; and that the "crowd laughed themselves silly and I nearly fell out of my chair".

Alan Dean Foster (November 18, 1946, New York City) is a prolific American writer of science fiction and fantasy novels and movie novelizations. ... Benson is a city located in Cochise County, Arizona, 45 miles east-southeast of Tucson. ... The special theory of relativity was proposed in 1905 by Albert Einstein in his article On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies. Some three centuries earlier, Galileos principle of relativity had stated that all uniform motion was relative, and that there was no absolute and well-defined state of rest... Time dilation is the phenomenon whereby an observer finds that anothers clock which is physically identical to their own is ticking at a slower rate as measured by their own clock. ... The Commodore 64 is the best-selling single personal computer model of all time. ... Game Music IV on the Commodore 64 by Charles Deenen (also known as The Mercenary Cracker (TMC) was perhaps one of the very first demos ever produced. ... Revelation Space cover Revelation Space is a 2000 hard science fiction space opera novel by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds. ... Alastair Reynolds is a Welsh science fiction author. ... Red Dwarf is a British science fiction comedy franchise, whose most notable form consists of eight series of a post-watershed television sitcom that ran on BBC2 between 1988 and 1999, and which has achieved a global cult following. ... Comedy has a classical meaning (comical theatre) and a popular one (the use of humour with an intent to provoke laughter in general). ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... Pinback is an indie rock band from San Diego currently signed to Ace Fu Records. ... Gottlieb (formerly D. Gottlieb & Co. ...

Cast

Uncredited Cast

Nick Castle (September 21, 1947)Born in Los Angeles, CA. Graduated from USC School of Cinema-Television in 1970. ...

References

• Holdstock, Robert. Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Octopus Books, 1978, pp. 80-81. ISBN 0-7064-0756-3

External links

• Dark Star (1974) at the Internet Movie Database
• Dark Star at the TCM Movie Database
• Dark Star at The Official John Carpenter
• Bomb #20 learns a little phenomenology
• Dark Star film script
• Dark Star film trailer
• Doolittle's dialogue with Bomb 20