The Last Starfighter
| The Last Starfighter | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Nick Castle |
| Produced by | Gary Adelson Edward O. Denault |
| Written by | Jonathan R. Betuel |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Craig Safan |
| Cinematography | King Baggot |
| Edited by | Carroll Timothy O'Meara |
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Production
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| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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101 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $15 million |
| Box office | $28,733,290 (North America) |
The Last Starfighter is a 1984 American space opera film directed by Nick Castle. The film tells the story of Alex Rogan (Lance Guest), an average teenage boy 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 computer-generated imagery (CGI) to depict its many starships, environments and battle scenes. It is one of the first films to use CGI to represent "real-life" objects instead of digital graphics.
The Last Starfighter was Preston's final film role. His character, a "lovable con-man", was a nod to his most famous role as Harold Hill in The Music Man. There was a subsequent novelization of the film 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.
Alex Rogan is a teenager living in a trailer park with his mother and younger brother, Louis. Alex often plays Starfighter, an arcade game in which the player defends "the Frontier" from Xur and the Ko-Dan Armada in a space battle. He becomes the game's highest-scoring player, and is approached by the game's inventor, Centauri, who invites him to take a ride. Alex does so, discovering the car is a spacecraft. Centauri is an alien who takes him to the planet Rylos. An android duplicate named Beta takes Alex's place during his absence.
Alex learns that the characters and ships in the Starfighter arcade game represent a conflict between the Rylan Star League and the Ko-Dan Empire; the latter is led by Xur, a traitor to whom the Ko-Dan Emperor has promised control of Rylos. The game was designed as a test to find those "with the gift"; Alex is expected to be the gunner for a Starfighter spacecraft called the Gunstar. He also learns that the Frontier is an array of satellites creating a forcefield protecting Rylos and its surrounding planets from invasion. Xur has given the Ko-Dan the means to breach the forcefield.
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Wikipedia