_______ _ _ ______ |__ __| | | | ____| | | | |__| | |__ | | | __ | __| | | | | | | |____ |_| |_| |_|______| _ _____ _______ | | /\ / ____|__ __| | | / \ | (___ | | | | / /\ \ \___ \ | | | |____ / ____ \ ____) | | | |______/_/ \_\_____/ |_| _____ _______ _____ ______ _____ _____ _ _ ______ _____ / ____|__ __|/\ | __ \| ____|_ _/ ____| | | | ____| __ \ | (___ | | / \ | |__) | |__ | || | __| |__| | |__ | |__) | \___ \ | | / /\ \ | _ /| __| | || | |_ | __ | __| | _ / ____) | | |/ ____ \| | \ \| | _| || |__| | | | | |____| | \ \ |_____/ |_/_/ \_\_| \_\_| |_____\_____|_| |_|______|_| \_\ THE LAST STARFIGHTER EIGHBITSWIDE FAVORITE FILM 80'S CHEESE COMING OF AGE FILM RELEASED IN 1984 The Last Starfighter is an American space opera film directed by Nick Castle. The film tells the story of Alex Rogan (Lance Guest), a teenager recruited by an alien defense force to fight in an interstellar war. It also features Robert Preston, Dan O'Herlihy, Catherine Mary Stewart, Norman Snow, and Kay E. Kuter. The Last Starfighter, along with Disney's Tron, has the distinction of being one of cinema's earliest films to use extensive "real-life" computer-generated imagery (CGI) to depict its many starships, environments, and battle scenes. The Last Starfighter was Robert Preston's final role in a theatrical film. The character of Centauri, a "lovable con-man", was written with him in mind and was a nod to his most famous role as Professor Harold Hill in The Music Man. _ _ | | | | _ __ | | ___ | |_ | '_ \| |/ _ \| __| | |_) | | (_) | |_ | .__/|_|\___/ \__| | | |_| WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! Alex Rogan is a teenager living in a trailer park with his mother and younger brother, Louis. After being rejected for a scholarship, Alex becomes angry at his go-nowhere existence. The only entertainment in the trailer park comes from an arcade game called "Starfighter", in which the player defends "the Frontier" against Xur and the Ko-Dan Armada in a space battle. After Alex becomes the game's highest-scoring player, he is approached by the game's inventor, Centauri, who invites him to take a ride in his fancy car as a prize for winning the game. Centauri is actually an alien and his car a spacecraft; Alex is essentially abducted, and Beta, a doppelgänger android, is used to cover Alex's absence. Alex learns that the Starfighter arcade game represents a real-life conflict between the Rylan Star League and the Ko-Dan Empire; the latter is led by Xur, a native Rylan traitor and son of Ambassador Enduran, the Starfighter commander, to whom the Ko-Dan Emperor has promised control of Rylos. Starfighter is, in fact, an elaborate recruiting tool, designed as a test to find those "with the gift" (Centauri is actually criticized in one scene for placing the game on Earth, as humans were not considered capable of becoming Starfighters). Alex, expected to be the gunner for a Starfighter spacecraft called the Gunstar, is partnered with a reptilian pilot named Grig. He also learns that the Frontier is a forcefield protecting Rylos and its surrounding planets from invasion; Xur has given the Ko-Dan the means to breach it. Xur reveals he has discovered an infiltrator in his ranks and broadcasts the spy's execution to the Star League. He then proclaims that once Rylos' moon is in eclipse, the Ko-Dan Armada will begin their invasion. Unnerved by everything he has seen, Alex asks to be taken home. On Earth, Centauri tells Alex to contact him should he change his mind. Meanwhile, a saboteur eliminates the Starfighter base defenses and thus enables the Ko-Dan to attack the base, causing heavy damage, killing the Starfighters and destroying the Gunstars. Only Grig and an advanced prototype Gunstar survive. Alex discovers Beta and contacts Centauri to retrieve him. Centauri arrives just as Alex and Beta are attacked by an alien assassin, a Zando-Zan, in Xur's service; Centauri shoots off its right arm. He then explains that more Zando-Zan will be coming to Earth, and the only way for Alex to protect his family (and Earth) is to embrace his ability as a Starfighter. Before Alex can reply, the assassin attempts to shoot Alex. Centauri jumps in the way, taking the hit and killing the alien. Alex and Centauri fly back to the Starfighter base, where Centauri succumbs to his injuries. Alex finds Grig, and they prepare the Gunstar to battle the Ko-Dan Armada. While Grig trains Alex, Beta finds it difficult to maintain his impersonation, particularly with Maggie Gordon, Alex's girlfriend. After discovering that a group of Zando-Zan have set up a communication center from their spaceship outside the trailer park, Beta reveals everything to Maggie. She does not believe him until the Zando-Zan discover the pair and Beta is shot, exposing damaged circuitry. They steal a friend's pickup truck and charge it at the Zando-Zan ship; Beta has Maggie jump out before sacrificing himself by crashing into the ship, destroying it. Alex and Grig attack the Ko-Dan mothership, crippling its communications. Once Alex's weapons are depleted, he desperately activates a secret weapon on the Gunstar, the "Death Blossom", that destroys the remaining Ko-Dan fighters. With the fleet destroyed, Lord Kril orders Xur executed for his arrogance and failure to ensure victory, but Xur escapes the mothership just before Alex cripples its guidance controls, causing it to crash into Rylos' moon. Alex is proclaimed the savior of Rylos and invited to help rebuild the Star League by Enduran, as it is still vulnerable: the Frontier has collapsed and Xur escaped. An unknown alien approaches, revealing himself as Centauri and explaining he was in a healing stasis. Alex agrees to stay, but he returns to Earth, landing his ship in the trailer park. Grig tells Alex's mother and the people of the trailer park of Alex's heroism; Alex asks Maggie to come with him, and she agrees. Louis is inspired to join Alex and begins playing the Starfighter game. _ _ _ | | | | (_) _ __ _ __ ___ __| |_ _ ___| |_ _ ___ _ __ | '_ \| '__/ _ \ / _` | | | |/ __| __| |/ _ \| '_ \ | |_) | | | (_) | (_| | |_| | (__| |_| | (_) | | | | | .__/|_| \___/ \__,_|\__,_|\___|\__|_|\___/|_| |_| | | |_| The Last Starfighter was shot in 38 days, mostly night shoots in Canyon Country. It was one of the earliest films to make extensive use of computer graphics for its special effects. In place of physical models, 3D rendered models were used to depict space ships and many other objects. The Gunstar and other spaceships were the design of artist Ron Cobb, who also worked on Dark Star, Alien, Star Wars and Conan the Barbarian. The computer graphics for the film were rendered by Digital Productions (DP) on a Cray X-MP supercomputer. The company created 27 minutes of effects for the film. This was considered an enormous amount of computer generated imagery at the time. For the 300 scenes containing computer graphics in the film, each frame of the animation contained an average of 250,000 polygons and had a resolution of 3000 × 5000 36-bit pixels. Digital Productions estimated that using computer animation required only half the time and between a third to half of the cost of traditional special effects. The result was a cost of $14 million for a film that made about $29 million at the box office. DP used Fortran, CFT77 for programming: Everything was in FORTRAN, because it was the only language with vectorization when we started and remained the only language with good vectorization through the life of DP. — email from Larry Yaeger (lead software programmer in Digital Productions) Not all special effects in the film were done with computer animation. The depiction of the Beta unit before it had taken Alex's form was a practical effect, created by makeup artist Lance Anderson. The Starcar, created by Gene Winfield and driven by Centauri, was a working vehicle based on Winfield's Spinner designs from Blade Runner. _ | | ___ __ _ ___| |_ / __/ _` / __| __| | (_| (_| \__ \ |_ \___\__,_|___/\__| Lance Guest as Alex Rogan / Beta Alex Rogan Robert Preston as Centauri Dan O'Herlihy as Grig Catherine Mary Stewart as Maggie Gordon Norman Snow as Xur Kay E. Kuter as Ambassador Enduran Barbara Bosson as Jane Rogan Chris Hebert as Louis Rogan Dan Mason as Lord Kril Vernon Washington as Otis John O'Leary as Rylan Bursar George McDaniel as Kodan 1st Officer Charlene Nelson as Rylan Technician John Maio as Friendly Alien Al Berry as Rylan Spy Scott Dunlop as Tentacle Alien Peter Nelson as Jack Blake Peggy Pope as Elvira Meg Wyllie as Granny Gordon Ellen Blake as Clara Potter Britt Leach as Mr. Potter Bunny Summers as Mrs. Boone Owen Bush as Mr. Boone Marc Alaimo as Hitchhiker Wil Wheaton as Louis' Friend Cameron Dye as Andy Geoffrey Blake as Gary