The Last Starfighter
The Last Starfighter theatrical poster
Directed by	Nick Castle
Produced by	Gary Adelson Edward O. Denault
Written by	Jonathan R. Betuel
Starring	Lance Guest Robert Preston Catherine Mary Stewart Dan O'Herlihy Barbara Bosson Kay E. Kuter Norman Snow Peter Nelson Chris Hebert Wil Wheaton
Music by	Craig Safan
Cinematography	King Baggot
Editing by	Carroll Timothy O'Meara
Distributed by	Universal Pictures Lorimar Productions (original release; joint venture) Warner Bros. Television Distribution (successor-in-interest to Lorimar) (television broadcast rights) Universal Studios Home Entertainment (home entertainment distribution rights)
Release date(s)	July 13, 1984
Running time	101 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$15,000,000 (estimated)
Gross revenue	$28,733,290 (USA) (sub-total)
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Last Starfighter is a 1984 science fiction adventure film. There was a subsequent novelization of the movie that year by Alan Dean Foster, as well as a video game based on the production. In 2004, it was also adapted as an off-Broadway musical. The movie was directed by Nick Castle and was marketed with the tagline "He didn't find his dreams . . . his dreams found him." Image File history File links Size of this preview: 397 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (500 × 755 pixel, file size: 74 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) This image is of a poster, and the copyright for it is most likely owned by either the publisher or the creator of the work depicted. ... Nick Castle (born September 21, 1947) is an American screenwriter and film director. ... Lance Guest (born July 21, 1960 in Saratoga, California) is an American actor. ... Robert Preston Meservey (June 8, 1918 - March 21, 1987), better known as Robert Preston, was an Oscar-nominated American actor. ... Catherine Mary Stewart, née Nursall (born April 22, 1959 in Edmonton, Alberta) is a Canadian actress. ... Dan OHerlihy (May 1, 1919–February 17, 2005) was an Irish film actor. ... Barbara Bosson (born November 1, 1939 in the Pittsburgh suburb of Charleroi, Pennsylvania, USA) is an American actress who has starred on television and in film. ... Kay E. Kuter (born Kay Edwin Emmert Kuter on April 25, 1925; died on November 12, 2003) was an American character actor who starred on television and in film. ... Norman Snow (born March 29, 1950 in Little Rock, Arkansas) is an American actor who is best known for his role as Alex Rogans rival, the evil tyrant Xur in the science fiction classic The Last Starfighter {1984}. Categories: 1950 births | American actors | Cinema actors ... Peter Nelson is an American actor,(b. ... Chris Hebert (b. ... Richard William Wil Wheaton III (born July 29, 1972) is an American writer and actor. ... King Robert Baggot (born July 11, 1914) is an American cinematographer. ... Universal Pictures is the main motion picture production/distribution arm of Universal Studios, a subsidiary of NBC Universal. ... Lorimar was an American television production company, active from 1968-1993. ... A joint venture (often abbreviated JV) is an entity formed between two or more parties to undertake economic activity together. ... Warner Bros. ... Universal Studios Home Entertainment (formerly Universal Studios Home Video or MCA/Universal Home Video) is a home video company founded in 1979. ... is the 194th day of the year (195th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1984 Gregorian calendar). ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... // Events The Walt Disney Company founds Touchstone Pictures to release movies with subject matter deemed inappropriate for the Disney name. ... 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. ... “Moving picture” redirects here. ... A novelization (or novelisation in British English) is a work of fiction that is written based on some other media story form rather than as an original work. ... Alan Dean Foster (born November 18, 1946) is a prolific American writer of science fiction and fantasy novels and movie novelizations. ... Namcos Pac-Man was a hit, and became a universal phenomenon. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Last Starfighter: The Musical is a musical adaptation of the 1984 science fiction film The Last Starfighter. ... Nick Castle (born September 21, 1947) is an American screenwriter and film director. ...

The film made early use of extensive computer graphics to depict real objects in place of physical models. Computer-generated imagery (commonly abbreviated as CGI) is the application of the field of computer graphics (or more specifically, 3D computer graphics) to special effects in films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media. ...

The Last Starfighter was the last film role of character actor Robert Preston before his death. The character of "Centauri" was a "lovable-con-man" nod to his most famous role as Professor Harold Hill in The Music Man.^[1] Robert Preston Meservey (June 8, 1918 - March 21, 1987), better known as Robert Preston, was an Oscar-nominated American actor. ... The meaning of the word professor (Latin: one who claims publicly to be an expert) varies. ... The Music Man is a 1962 film starring Robert Preston as Harold Hill and Shirley Jones as Marian Paroo. ...

The film's premise was based on the well-known urban myth that video arcade games were in fact military recruitment tests for fighters.^{[citation needed]}

Plot

Alex Rogan (Lance Guest), a teenager living in the remote Starlite Starbright trailer park, becomes the best player ever at Starfighter, a stand-up arcade game that has him "defend the Frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan Armada." The night he gets the best score ever in the game, he is approached by the game's fast-talking inventor, Centauri (Robert Preston). Stepping into Centauri's vehicle (a "starcar"), Alex is horrified to find that not only is the car actually a spaceship, but Centauri is a disguised alien, who whisks him off to another planet. Lance Guest (born July 21, 1960 in Saratoga, California) is an American actor. ... “Young Men” redirects here. ... For the Beth Orton album, see Trailer Park (album). ... Centipede by Atari is a typical example of a 1980s era arcade game. ... Robert Preston Meservey (June 8, 1918 - March 21, 1987), better known as Robert Preston, was an Oscar-nominated American actor. ...

That planet is Rylos. Upon their arrival, Alex is given a flight suit and is fitted with a translator to understand the various alien languages. He discovers that, as in the game, he "has been recruited by the Star League," and that there are real Starfighters and real Gunstar spaceships. After this he is taken to the briefing area and meets other Starfighters. Lined up in the briefing area, they appear to be two Starfighters from each planet, except Earth, which has two empty chairs, in one of which he is seated. During the orientation, Alex also meets Star Navigator 1/C Grig (Dan O'Herlihy), a jovial reptilian humanoid who talks like a grizzled sergeant. Alex tells Grig this is all a mistake, and Grig is forced to admit that Earth is not a formal member of the Star League, and is not due to be approached "until it matures." Upon confronting Centauri, Alex learns the truth: the Starfighter game is a test Centauri devised to find those "with the gift to be Starfighters"; it is a recruiting tool. Dan OHerlihy (May 1, 1919–February 17, 2005) was an Irish film actor. ... The term humanoid refers to any being whose body structure resembles that of a human. ... Sergeant is a rank used in some form by most militaries, police forces, and other uniformed organisations around the world. ... This article is about Earth as a planet. ...

Furthermore, the game's story about defending the Frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan armada is real as well, as proven when a giant holographic transmission from Xur (Norman Snow) comes through. Xur means to be Emperor of Rylos, and joined forces with the Ko-Dan and gave them the means to breach the Frontier, a galactic-scale force field that protects "the peaceful systems of the universe… forever shutting out the scourge that lurks beyond." He is also revealed to be the traitorous son of Enduran (Kay E. Kuter), the leader of the Rylans. Xur tortures one of Enduran's agents to death before the eyes of his father and the entire Star League, and proclaims that when Rylos's green moon of Galan is eclipsed, the Ko-Dan Armada will invade, and not even the Starfighters will be able to save them. Enduran defiantly answers with "We shall see, Xur. We shall see!" Norman Snow (born March 29, 1950 in Little Rock, Arkansas) is an American actor who is best known for his role as Alex Rogans rival, the evil tyrant Xur in the science fiction classic The Last Starfighter {1984}. Categories: 1950 births | American actors | Cinema actors ... In science fiction and fantasy literature, a force field is a physical barrier made up of energy to protect a person or object from attacks or intrusions. ... Kay E. Kuter (born Kay Edwin Emmert Kuter on April 25, 1925; died on November 12, 2003) was an American character actor who starred on television and in film. ...

If Alex was not ready to go home before, this does it. Reluctantly, Centauri brings him back to Earth, all the crankier for being forced to return his finder's fee.

Soon after Alex and Centauri have departed the Starfighter base, the Ko-Dan manage to punch a hole in the Frontier, not yet big enough for the Ko-Dan Command Ship, but big enough to fire their "meteor gun" through. A Xurian agent-in-place sabotages the base's defenses, allowing the "meteors" to hit and destroy the base. Xur's excitement is short lived, however, for one of his spies reports that one Starfighter (Alex) has escaped. Traitor redirects here. ... “Saboteur” redirects here. ...

After arriving back on Earth, Centauri gives Alex a pager (called "communo-crystals") to summon him if he should change his mind. At his home, Alex discovers that no one has missed him. This is because Centauri had replaced him on Earth with a synthetic android known as a Beta Unit (Lance Guest in a dual role), designed to be an exact replica of Alex so he could leave Earth without attracting attention (a good example of a Doppelgänger). While Beta has been having trouble with his role on Earth, he still tries to convince Alex to return to Rylos. Angered, Alex refuses and activates the pager to summon Centauri to remove the impostor. But a Zando-Zan, an alien assassin sent by Xur, appears and tries to kill Alex and Beta (as he looks and sounds just like Alex). During the resulting chase, Centauri arrives and kills the assassin, but is seriously wounded himself. Beta and Centauri warn Alex that more assassins are on the way, so Alex might as well become a Starfighter to at least have a Gunstar's firepower at his disposal against the enemy. This article is about Earth as a planet. ... “Mechanoid” redirects here. ... Lance Guest (born July 21, 1960 in Saratoga, California) is an American actor. ... Dual role refers to one actor playing two or more roles, which may be deliberately scripted in a play or film, or merely be a by-product of a low budget in one particular production. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Jack Ruby murdered the assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, in a very public manner. ...

With this new understanding, Alex agrees to return. However, upon returning to Rylos he finds the remains of the Starfighter base. What's worse, Centauri apparently dies just after landing, leaving Alex alone on that world with Grig his only friend. After getting Alex suited up in Starfighter gear, Grig places him in the gunnery chair of an experimental prototype Gunstar. Grig is the navigator, (he flies the ship), and Alex is the gunner. Alex is initially delighted that the controls are just like the arcade game he mastered, but then horrified to learn that all the other Starfighters and Gunstars were destroyed in Xur's attack. The battle will be "One Gunstar against the armada."

Shortly after a few practice runs with drones, they reach the Frontier and encounter real enemies, but Alex is having difficulty accepting the realities of actual combat. Despite their victory in a short dogfight, it is clear Alex is either unwilling or unable to handle the realities of mortal danger. A disheartened Grig offers to take him home where he should live happily, until the Ko-Dan inevitably attack his planet. Faced with this stark situation, and faced with another Xurian ambush, Alex finds the will to fight. They prepare a strategy for the impending assault. This article is about the aerial combat maneuver. ...

Meanwhile on Earth, Beta is still having a difficult time trying to fill in for Alex. He is failing at Alex's job as the trailer park's repairman, ruining Alex's relationship with his girlfriend Maggie Gordon (Catherine Mary Stewart), and has several near misses wherein Alex's younger brother, Louis (Chris Hebert), almost discovers his secret. Beta also discovers another assassin has landed. He's not sure what he'll look like, as Zando-Zans can metamorph to look like regular people. The assassin discovers that Beta isn't Alex and rushes back to his ship to alert Xur. Beta is destroyed as he successfully interrupts the assassin's transmitted warning that the last Starfighter is on duty. Xur and the Ko-Dan Fleet Commander Kril (Dan Mason) receive an incomplete message, which they assume must have been to confirm his kill of Alex. This lulls Xur and the Ko-Dan into a false sense of security, and they proceed with their invasion, having made a big enough hole in the Frontier to get their huge command ship through. Catherine Mary Stewart, née Nursall (born April 22, 1959 in Edmonton, Alberta) is a Canadian actress. ... Chris Hebert (b. ...

Alex and Grig use a nearby asteroid for cover while the Ko-Dan fleet passes. Their plan is to hit the Command Ship from behind and destroy the communications turret, blinding the Ko-Dan deck fighters' ability to act as one and thus impairing their fighting ability. The plan is a success, the turret is destroyed, and the Gunstar takes on the massed squadrons of fighters. However, as the battle reaches a fevered pitch, the Gunstar's weapons are depleted. In a desperate move, Alex triggers the Gunstar's secret weapon, "Death Blossom," a weapon system that fires all the Gunstar's weapons in every direction in one spinning attack. With all the deck fighters destroyed, only the Command Ship remains. They cripple it, sending it crashing into the moon Galon. Xur, however gets to an escape pod to fight another day.

At the victory celebration on Rylos, Centauri reappears having come out of what was actually his dormant regenerative state. While Alex is being proclaimed Rylos' savior, Enduran informs him that the Frontier is still vulnerable and Xur is still at large. He then asks Alex to stay on Rylos and aid in rebuilding the Starfighter Legion.

Alex returns to Earth again, and lands in the trailer park openly in his Gunstar. He explains to his family and friends where he was while Beta was among them and reveals that he has decided to return to Rylos to rebuild and defend the Frontier. With the blessing of her grandmother (played by Meg Wyllie), Alex's girlfriend, Maggie, goes with him. Meg Wyllie (born Margaret Gillespie Wyllie on February 15, 1917 in Honolulu, Hawaii-died January 1, 2002 in Glendale, California, USA of heart failure) was an American actress. ...

The story ends with Alex's younger brother Louis preparing to play the Starfighter video game, hoping to join Alex one day in the Star League.

Game

A real The Last Starfighter arcade game by Atari, Inc. is promised in the end credits, but was never released. However a video of the gameplay can be found on YouTube.^[2] For the concept Atari (当たり) in the board game of Go, see Atari (go term). ...

If released, the game would have been the first arcade game to use a Motorola 68000 as the CPU. Gameplay would have been taken from game scenes and space battle scenes in the movie and would have included the same controller that was used on the first Star Wars arcade game. Ultimately, it was not released because the arcade machine would have had a sale price of $10,000, which the vice president in Atari considered too high.^[3] The Motorola 68000 is a 32-bit CISC microprocessor core designed and marketed by Freescale Semiconductor (formerly Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector). ... Star Wars is an arcade game produced by Atari and released in 1983. ...

Home versions of the game for Atari 5200 and Atari 800 were also made, but never marketed. Ultimately, the game was renamed and, after removing the Last Starfighter references, sold under the name Star Raiders 2, a sequel to the very popular and ground-breaking game Star Raiders. The Atari 5200 SuperSystem, or simply Atari 5200, is a video game console that was introduced in 1982 by Atari as a replacement for the famous Atari 2600. ... Atari built a series of 8-bit home computers based on the MOS Technology 6502 CPU, starting in 1979. ... Star Raiders II is a game produced in the 1980s for the atari home computers and game consoles. ... Star Raiders manual cover Star Raiders was a popular game for the Atari 8-bit family of computers, released in 1979. ...

In 1989, a NES game titled "The Last Starfighter" was released, but it was actually a conversion of Uridium for Commodore 64, with modified sprites, title screen and soundtrack. Year 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays 1989 Gregorian calendar). ... Nes is: A municipality in the county of Akershus in Norway, see Nes, Akershus. ... Uridium is a sci-fi horizontal scrolling shoot-em-up for the Commodore 64 (and other 8-bit machines). ... The Commodore 64 is the best-selling single personal computer model of all time. ...

A freeware playable version of the game, based on what is seen in the movie, was released for PC in 2007.

Trivia

CG image of the Starfighters' Gunstars

• The Gunstar and other spaceships were the design of artist Ron Cobb, who also worked on Alien, Star Wars and Conan the Barbarian.
• The computer graphics for the movie were rendered by Digital Productions on a Cray X-MP supercomputer.
• Craig Safan's score for the film calls for an unusually large orchestra, including six trumpets and six trombones, all of whom are called into use in unison to blare the main theme in twelve-part harmony.
• An episode of South Park, "Best Friends Forever", satirized the "recruitment through a game" theme of The Last Starfighter.
• The StarCar from this movie can be found parked on one of the streets in Back to the Future II.
• Wil Wheaton, known for his portrayal of Wesley Crusher in Star Trek: The Next Generation, had a part in this movie, but his scenes were cut. However, his name still appears in the closing credits. He can be seen as the tallest child running through the trailer park in one of the earliest scenes.
• In an episode of the ill-fated Clerks: The Animated Series, Randal Graves is recruited to build a pyramid after receiving the highest score in a fictional arcade game called "Pharaoh."
• In the Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode "Moon Master," Meatwad is recruited by the Mooninites in their battle against the monster Gorgotron following Meatwad's success at the fictional console "Moon Master" video game.
• In "Sentries of the Last Cosmos," an episode of Batman Beyond, an arcade game (from which the episode gets its title), is used as a recruiting tool for a criminal. [4]
• The recruiting-through-a-video-game premise seen in this movie inspired how the main characters got their powers in the Super Sentai series Denji Sentai Megaranger.^{[citation needed]}
• Sean Daley, aka Slug from the Minnesota based hip-hop group Atmosphere, often refers to himself as the Last Starfighter in his lyrics.
• The assasins sent to Earth to kill Alex Rogan by Xur, resemble strongly the Mon Calamari from Star Wars universe. Marc Alaimo has a cameo appearance as one of them in human disguise (before it is 'detected' and erased by a nearby Last Starfighter game).
• The term "Death Blossom" has been adopted by U.S. soldiers in Iraq to refer to the tactics of the Iraqi Army and Iraqi Police. It is a derogatory reference to their tendency to haphazardly fire their entire arsenal in random directions when provoked, possibly endangering civilians, their own troops, and civilian infrastructure as well. Though (as in The Last Starfighter) this can be an effective force multiplier in certain circumstances, it is also a sign of poor training and discipline.^[4]
• The character Matrix in later episodes of the CGI television series ReBoot has a setting on his gun called "Death Blossom" which causes a spray of gunfire in all directions.
• In Episode 9 of the anime Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu, Shinji Kazama, following Kurz Weber's order to siege the bath house, enters into "Death Blossom" mode. Shinji ends up launching himself into the air and firing in a circular pattern at surrounding the laser sentry guns (originally set up by Sousuke Sagara), destroying them all.

Screenshot from the movie The Last Starfighter showing the use of CGI for most special effects replacing traditional models. ... Screenshot from the movie The Last Starfighter showing the use of CGI for most special effects replacing traditional models. ... Ron Cobb is a cartoonist, artist, writer, film designer, and film director. ... Alien; for other films/spin-offs see Alien (film series) Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Alien (film) Alien, a 1979 science fiction/horror film directed by Ridley Scott, became a cultural phenomenon. ... This movie poster for Star Wars depicts many of the films important elements, such as Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, X-Wing and Y-Wing fighters Star Wars, retitled Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope in 1981 (see note at Title,) is the original (and in chronological... Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet. ... Digital Productions was a computer animation company in Los Angeles, California, that produced advertisements and special effects for films in the 1980s. ... The Cray X-MP was a supercomputer designed, built and sold by Cray Research. ... This article is about the TV series. ... Best Friends Forever (also known as Kennys PSP) is episode 904 of the Comedy Central series South Park paralleling the Terri Schiavo controversy. ... Back to the Future Part II Video cover Back to the Future Part II is a 1989 film and is the second part of a trilogy, coming after Back to the Future and followed by Back to the Future Part III. It was directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by... Richard William Wil Wheaton III (born July 29, 1972) is an American writer and actor. ... Wesley Crusher is a character in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation. ... The title as it appeared in most episodes opening credits. ... Dante Hicks (left) and Randal (right) Randal Graves (b. ... Aqua Teen Hunger Force (also known as ATHF) is an American animated television series shown on Cartoon Network as part of its Adult Swim late-night programming block, as well as Teletoon in Canada. ... Batman Beyond (known as Batman of the Future in Europe, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand and India) is an American animated television series created by The WB Television Network in collaboration with DC Comics as a continuation of the Batman legacy. ... The official logo of the Super Sentai Series introduced in 2000 during the run of Mirai Sentai Timeranger The Super Sentai Series ) is the name given to the long running Japanese superhero team genre of shows produced by Toei Company Ltd. ... Denji Sentai Megaranger ), translated into English as Electromagnetic Squadron Megaranger, was Toei Company Limiteds 21st production of the Super Sentai television series. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Mon Calamari may refer to: Mon Calamari, an alien race in Star Wars Mon Calamari, a planet in Star Wars This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Marc Alaimo (born Mike Alaimo, May 5, 1942 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) is an American actor. ... A force multiplier is a military term referring to a factor that dramatically increases (hence multiplies) the combat effectiveness of a military force. ... ReBoot was a CGI animated series that was produced by Canadian production company, Mainframe Entertainment, and created by Gavin Blair, Ian Pearson, Phil Mitchell and John Grace, with the visuals designed by Brendan McCarthy after an initial attempt by Ian Gibson. ... Summer theme ending Fall theme ending Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu (フルメタル・パニック？ふもっふ) is a companion series to the anime series Full Metal Panic! by Kyoto Animation. ...

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

The Last Starfighter

• The Last Starfighter at the Internet Movie Database
• The Last Starfighter at All Movie Guide
• Animation Timeline from Brown University
• Reviews of the 2004 off-off-Broadway musical
• The Last Starfighter video game
• Arcade game specifications by Atari