There’s no question that modernsci-fifilms have a certain grandeur to them, especially with the enormous budgets modern blockbusters have to play with. Yet sometimes it seems that behind all the mind-blowing CGI and A-list actors, those films just aren’t saying anything new or interesting. Thankfully, due to DVDs, blu-rays, streaming services, and more, the films of yesteryear are still around to dive into whenever there’s interest.
While many 70s and80s cult classics aged poorly, there are so many more fantastic films that make for a great watch even when they’re over half a century old. This was a groundbreaking era for films, featuring some of thefirst major uses of CGI in a movie, innovations in use of electronic music, and helping launch the careers of some of the biggest names in genre filmmaking. These ten space adventures are all great journeys not only into the farthest reaches of the cosmos, but intothe untrammeled frontiers of the imagination.
The Black Hole
Cast
The Black Hole, released in 1979, follows the crew of the explorer craft USS Palomino as they discover the lost USS Cygnus near a black hole. Controlled by Dr. Hans Reinhardt and his robotic companion, the Cygnus harbors ominous secrets that transform the crew’s awe into dread.
Originally conceived of in early 1974 asa space disaster equivalent to popular disaster filmslike 1972’sThe Poseidon Adventureand 1974’sThe Towering Inferno,The Black Holespent four years in development and went through multiple rewrites until filming began in 1978. At that point, the film was clearly positioning itself as Disney’s response to the previous year’s unlikely smash sci-fi success,Star Wars, and the final plot does echo that film a little: a plucky crew of space explorers discover the long-derelict shipCygnusin orbit around a black hole, and get embroiled in a cosmic mystery.
Director Gary Nelson originally considered Sigourney Weaver for the film’s female lead, Dr. Kate McCrae, but the casting department balked at her unusual name (viaHollywood Reporter) – which left Weaver free to be cast in 1979’s other space mystery film, a low-budget production entitledAlien.
While much ofThe Black Holeshows its age both in the story’s use of science and the special effects,it was an innovative attempt at science-fiction storytelling for the time. It also has the distinction of being the first Disney film to ever receive a PG rating from the MPAA. Critics at the time had little patience for what they saw as a Star Wars retread, andThe Black Holealso failed to win the Oscars or Saturn Awards it was nominated for, but the bones of this film still hold up as a fun, nostalgic romp through space.
Dark Star
Dark Star follows a group of scientists tasked with destroying unstable planets. Two decades into their mission, they face challenges from an alien mascot and a sentient bombing device that begins to question its existence.
BeforeJohn Carpenter and Dan O’Bannonbecame some of the biggest names in late-20th-century horror and science fiction, they were students together at the University of Southern California’s film school. In 1970, as a student project, they began work on a strange and bizarre sci-fi comedy about a starship that destroys unstable planets before people unknowingly colonize them, until one of the ship’s sentient bombs decides it is a solipsist and self-detonates, killing the crew.
WhileDark Starwas released to critical panning and audience apathy,it was an important part of the evolution of Hollywood. The camera technique O’Bannon developed for the hyperspace sequence was employed by George Lucas forStar Warsin 1977, and O’Bannon’s work on the film’s one alien, a strange beach ball with claws, inspired him to writeAlien.
Solaris
Solaris, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky and based on the novel by Stanisław Lem, follows psychologist Kris Kelvin as he is sent to a space station orbiting the enigmatic planet Solaris. Confronted with mysterious phenomena affecting the crew, Kelvin must grapple with complex themes of memory, humanity, and loss. The film is a contemplative exploration of human consciousness and the unknown.
Polish science fiction Stanisław Lem released his critically acclaimed novelSolarisin 1961, which follows a crew of scientists on a space station trying to understand the life that inhabits the titular planet –a massive, gelatinous entity that encompasses the entire planet’s surface like a great living ocean. The book was first adapted to film as a televised movie by Soviet Central Television in 1968; that same year, Soviet filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky also started work on his own adaptation of the novel, with a grand vision in mind.
Tarkovsky wanted badly to bring what he considered a much-needed emotional depth to science fiction films. In his opinion, Western sci-fi had been too heavily focused on the technology in the stories and not the people using it, such as in Stanley Kubrick’s2001: A Space Odyssey, which Tarkovsky particularly derided as “a lifeless schema with only pretensions to truth” (viaFar Out).Solariswas an international success and has since been considereda masterpiece of science fiction. American filmmaker Steven Soderbergh attempted his own version ofSolarisin 2002, starring George Clooney, but it was a box office bomb.
Flight of the Navigator
Flight of the Navigator is a science fiction film directed by Randal Kleiser. Released in 1986, the story follows 12-year-old David, who is mysteriously transported eight years into the future after a close encounter with an alien spaceship. As David tries to understand what happened, he discovers the advanced spacecraft and forms a unique bond with its artificial intelligence, known as Max.
Flight of the Navigatoris the story of young David Freeman (Joey Cramer), who gets abducted from the woods near his house in 1978 and doesn’t come home until 1986, thanks to the wonders of time dilation from faster-than-light travel. Featuring one of Sarah Jessica Parker’s first film roles, andvoice work from the legendary Paul Rubens,Flight of the Navigatorwasone of the 80s' most enduring and critically appreciated family-friendly sci-fi films.
Flight of the Navigatorwas also particularly notable for two aspects of its production. One,it was one of the first Hollywood films to use extensive computer-generated imageryin rendering the alien Trimaxion Drone Ship; specifically, it was the first film to use the technique now known as reflection mapping (viaCaptain Disillusion on YouTube). Second, it was also one of Hollywood’s first films to use an entirely electronically composed score. Composer Alan Silvestri intentionally went outside his comfort zone in digitally creatingFlight of the Navigator’s unique, stellar sound.
The Last Starfighter
The Last Starfighter follows Alex Rogan, a skilled video game player, who is transported to another planet after mastering an arcade game. Unbeknownst to him, the game served as a recruitment tool for real interstellar pilots tasked with defending a distant alien world from a looming threat.
The Last Starfighteris a film that spoke deeply to every child in the 80s and 90s whose parents told them that playing video games was a waste of time. When Alex Rogan (Lance Guest) hits the all-time high score on an arcade game calledStarfighter, he winds up recruited to actually pilot a Gunstar starfighter and help defend the Star League against the onslaught of the oppressive Ko-Dan Armada. Featuring Hollywood legend Robert Preston in his final cinematic appearance as the lovable interstellar con-man Centauri,The Last Starfighteris generally considered unoriginal, but also one of the mostfun adventure movies of the 1980s.
Only credited as “Louis' Friend,” sci-fi superstar Wil Wheaton appears in the background several times inThe Last Starfighter, although what little dialogue he had didn’t make it into the final cut of the film.
Another early use case of CGI in special effects,The Last Starfighterutilized one of the most powerful computers available at the timein order to render 27 minutes worth of visual effects, namely the Gunstar and other space fighters. The spaceships in the film were designed by concept artist Ron Cobb, who got his start in Hollywood animating for Disney in the 1950s until his layoff in 1957, and then didn’t return to working on films until Dan O’Bannon got him to design the titular spaceship forDark Star, which he allegedly first drew on an IHOP napkin.
Buck Rogers
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century is a Sci-Fi and Adventure film by director Daniel Haller. The film was written by Glen A. Larson and Leslie Stevens and stars Erin Gray, Gil Gerard, and Pamela Hensley. The plot revolves around NASA astronaut Buck Rogers that finds himself frozen and waking up in the far-off future.
Originally written by Glen A. Larson as the pilot for the TV series of the same name,Buck Rogers in the 25th Centurywas first released theatrically by studio Universal Pictures before the show began airing later that year. The same strategy had worked well for the similarBattlestar Galacticathe year before, which had also been a Larson creation. Unfortunately,Buck Rogersnever reached the level of critical or cultural acclaim as its predecessor, butit did do well enough to greenlight the TV show, which ran for two seasons.
Significantly adapted from the comic, which ran in American newspapers from 1929 to 1967,Buck Rogers' hero is a NASA astronaut whose shuttle was frozen by a strange deep-space phenomenon. After 500 years, Buck is revived to find the Earth almost unrecognizable, and joins the planet’s Defense Directorate to help fight off the evil Draconians. Sadly, the film and TV show never recapturedthe popularity and ubiquity of the originalBuck Rogersnewspaper strip. Even so, it stands out as one of themost memorable movie adaptations of a popular pulp hero.
Silent Running
Silent Running is a science fiction film directed by Douglas Trumbull. The film follows Freeman Lowell, played by Bruce Dern, who is a botanist aboard a spaceship tasked with preserving the last remaining forests from an ecologically devastated Earth. Accompanied by three robotic companions, Lowell faces moral and existential dilemmas as he navigates the challenges of his isolated mission.
Partially shot aboard the decommissionedEssex-class aircraft carrier USSValley Forge(LPH-8),Silent Runningis the story of anotherValley Forge, a massive space freighter that is part of a fleet permanently orbiting Saturn. Whenenvironmental exploitation ruined the Earth with deforestation, ecological samples were loaded aboard massive geodesic domes and attached to freighters like theValley Forgeto wait until Earth’s ecology was ready to be restored.
Critical opinions onSilent Runningand itsdeep themes of environmental conservationwere initially mixed, but the film has endured enough with other filmmakers that it has been the focus of many Easter eggs and references in the years since its release. The 1978Battlestar Galacticafilm and TV series used some of the effects shots of theValley Forgeand its sister ships, which also led to references in the 2003Battlestar Galacticareboot series and 2018’sReady Player One.
Spaceballs
Spaceballs is a 1987 comedic science fiction film directed by Mel Brooks. It follows Lone Starr and his sidekick as they confront the villainous Dark Helmet, who schemes to kidnap Princess Vespa and steal her planet’s air. They encounter Yogurt, who introduces them to the mystical power known as “The Schwartz.”
One of the zaniest of Mel Brooks' many films anda great sci fi comedy,Spaceballsisa loving parody of just about every Hollywood film that even looked vaguely up at space in the 70s and 80s, but most heavily pulls from the originalStar Wars. The heroic space vagabond Lone Starr (Bill Pullman) and his sidekick Barf the Mawg (John Candy) must save the spoiled Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga), who has been kidnapped by the doddering leader of the Spaceballs, President Skroob (Mel Brooks) and his right-hand man, Lord Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis).
Spaceballshit so close to home with its parody ofStar Warsthat Brooks had to cut a deal with George Lucas, agreeing that no licensedSpaceballsmerchandise would be sold that could compete with the toy empire that Lucas had created in partnership with Kenner thanks toStar Wars' success (viaThe A.V. Club).Thanks in no small part to its enduring cult status and popularity,aSpaceballssequel is finally in the works, produced by Brooks in partnership with Josh Gad (Frozen’s Olaf).
Flash Gordon
Flash Gordon (1980) is a science fiction film directed by Mike Hodges, featuring Sam J. Jones as the titular hero. Flash, a football player, battles the evil Ming the Merciless (Max von Sydow) who threatens Earth. Accompanied by Dale Arden (Melody Anderson) and Dr. Hans Zarkov (Topol), Flash navigates an intergalactic struggle. The film is noted for its vibrant visuals and a memorable score by Queen.
Another film based on a classic space adventure comic,Flash Gordonwasthe passion project of producer Dino De Laurentiis, who had been trying to adapt the franchise into a film since the 1960s. It was De Laurentiis' owning the rights toFlash Gordonthat led George Lucas to makeStar Wars, as he had originally wanted to film his own take on the classic adventure stories. Finally, De Laurentiis was able to begin production properly on hisFlash Gordonadaptationin late 1979.
When the twisted Emperor Ming the Merciless (Max von Sydow) decides to destroy Earth on a whim, it’s football star Flash Gordon (Sam J. Jones) who winds up fighting back as Earth’s champion. Notably, while the originalFlash Gordoncomic was a direct attempt to copy the success of the earlierBuck Rogers, theFlashfilm made no effort to update its aesthetic in the way the production team forBuck Rogers in the 25th Centurydid, resulting inan over-the-top, exhilarating comic book film, with a groundbreaking soundtrack by Queen.
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension is a 1984 science fiction film that follows the adventures of Buckaroo Banzai, a physicist/rock musician/superhero played by Peter Weller. The film follows Buckaroo as he saves the world from the evil alien Lord John Whorfin, who is threatening to destroy the Earth.
Buckaroo Banzairemains one of the strangest films ever made. Starring Peter Weller as the titular physicist/neurosurgeon/test pilot/rock star Dr. Buckaroo Banzai, the film sets him and his band, the Hong Kong Cavaliers, against an invasion of the menacing alien Red Lectroids, whose leader has possessed the body of the brilliant Dr. Emilio Lizardo (John Lithgow). With rock song montages, a very important watermelon, Jeff Goldbum in a cowboy outfit, and a kiss that works as a defibrillator, the film’s description onRotten Tomatoesis apt – it"succeeds through total devotion to its lunacy."
Lunacy or not,Buckaroo Banzaiis beloved by its fans, and has appeared high in the rankings on numerous top film lists. The line “wherever you go, there you are” has been quoted to the point that it’s often attributed to real philosophers instead of Dr. Banzai. The sci-fiBattleTechgame and fiction franchise even canonized Banzai and his team in their universe through a time travel incident. More than anything,Buckaroo Banzaiis a perfect example of a film that no major studio would make today, andHollywood is all the poorer for it.
(Sources: Hollywood Reporter, The Dissolve, Far Out, Captain Disillusion, The A.V. Club, Rotten Tomatoes)
