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.
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
