Details

Release year: 1985

Storyline

A boy obsessed with '50s sci-fi movies about aliens has a recurring dream about a blueprint of some kind, which he draws for his inventor friend. With the help of a third kid, they follow it and build themselves a spaceship. Now what?

Top credits

Directors

Joe Dante

Writers

Eric Luke

Cast

Ethan Hawke — Ben Crandall
River Phoenix — Wolfgang Müller
Bobby Fite — Steve Jackson
Bradley Gregg — Steve Jackson's Gang

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Did you know

• The film was in a prolonged editing phase when the studio moved up the release date. The theatrical release was the result of accelerated editing and was not finished to the director's satisfaction. The studio told the director Joe Dante that he was finished and they were going to go ahead and release what he had at that point.

• When the helicopter pilot looks at the newspaper, one of the headlines says "Kingston Falls 'Riot' Still Unexplained". Kingston Falls was the town where the events in Gremlins (1984) (also directed by Joe Dante), took place.

• The sound effects from the movie at the drive-in were taken directly from the original 1982 Atari 2600 video game Yars' Revenge (1981).