Explorers (film)

Infobox Film
name = Explorers


caption = Theatrical release poster
director = Joe Dante
producer = David Bombyk Edward S. Feldman
writer = Eric Luke
starring = Ethan Hawke River Phoenix Jason Presson
music = Brad Gillis Jerry Goldsmith
cinematography =
editing =
distributor = Paramount Pictures
released = 12 July 1985 (USA)
runtime = 109 min.
country = USA
awards =
language = English
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
amg_id = 1:16387
imdb_id = 0089114

"Explorers" is a 1985 science fiction, fantasy film targeted at a family audience. It was the first feature film for both River Phoenix and Ethan Hawke. The third young actor in it was Jason Presson. The story was written by Eric Luke and the film was directed by Joe Dante.

The film received an MPAA rating of PG. It was filmed in 70mm color with 6-track sound, and runs for 109 minutes. The special effects in the movie were produced by Industrial Light and Magic.

The film did not do well at the box office, owing in large part to being released on the same weekend that the Live Aid concert occurred, although it did better in video rentals and DVD sales. It has gained a cult following among fans of Dante's work, as well as science fiction fans and those who feel it is an overall family friendly movie.

Plot

This film blends some elements of "E.T." with "The Goonies" and classic sci-fi films, as three young friends are drawn into a space fantasy adventure. The protagonists of this film are three neighborhood kids, Ben Crandall (Hawke), Wolfgang Müller (Phoenix), and Darren Woods (Presson).

Ben is obsessed with aliens, and one night he has a dream about a circuit board. He proceeds to draw out the board; with the aid of the brainy Wolfgang, the two friends begin to assemble the device. After a fight at school, Ben meets Darren, a new kid in the neighborhood that appears to be tough. The three continue working on the circuit board. All three have a recurring dream which includes seeing each other and flying about a giant version of the circuit board.

They quickly discover that the circuit board enables the creation of a sealed bubble that can be remotely steered. It can force open the ground and allows space travel.

The first bubble is made in their workshop, and is about 3 inches diameter, and makes holes in anything that it goes through. Their next experiment is away from town. The bubble is about 5 feet diameter and forms around one of the boys and gives him a scary unexpected flight.

The three build a home-made spacecraft out of an amusement ride seat (a "Tilt-A-Whirl"), with windows from washing machines and televisions. Darren names it the "Thunder Road", after the Bruce Springsteen song. Their first flight results in property damage and a close call with the police, and a UFO report in a newspaper. They do not want to finish where the circuit board is taking them, so they reverse polarity (shutting the bubble off, which allows in a fresh supply of air) and return to the ground.

Another dream and circuit board results in a device that creates oxygen. They install three breathing apparatuses connected to this device. Two of these apparatuses are each a small medical mouth-and-nose transparent oxygen mask coupled to the air supply by a thin transparent hose. The other is a wider single corrugated black hose linked to a scuba diving full face mask of the type with two flat eye windows and an inner mouth-and-nose mask.

They embark on an adventure deep into outer space. An alien spaceship shows up and scoops up the boys' spaceship. Ben and Darren get separated from Wolfgang. They end up meeting an intimidating spider-like robot that proceeds to smell and frisk them. They then come across Wak (Robert Picardo), a friendly but odd alien. They set out to look for Wolfgang, who is lounging under a window with Neek (Leslie Rickert), a female alien. Both of the aliens are enamored with TV and radio signals they can pick up; Wak mimics sounds and voices perfectly and proceeds to entertain them. The boys discover that the aliens have been sending the circuit schematics to Ben's dreams in order to meet some of the people who have been beaming the signals into space.

A bigger spaceship shows up and scoops up the aliens' ship. Wak suggests to the boys that they are space pirates and tries to get the boys to leave quickly. Before they reach the boys' ship, it proves to be carrying the aliens' father and that Wak and Neek are errant children who stole one of the family cars. The father alien reprimands the alien children, visibly angry at the theft as well as the presence of the Earthlings. Neek gives Ben a flat round device about 4 inches diameter. When asking what it is, Ben is told "The stuff that dreams are made of". The boys are quickly sent home by the father alien.

After the flight, the boys' spaceship lands in a harbor and sinks, but the boys swim to land safely. Lori Swenson (Amanda Peterson), a girl in Ben's class that he has a crush on, has a dream involving the three boys and wakes up to see the crash of the ship.

At the end of the film, the three boys experience another dream. Ben is in class when the communication device starts glowing. The students disappear, to be replaced by the "Thunder Road". Ben goes to touch the ship, and the dream moves to the three boys flying towards a more complicated circuit board. This time Lori shares the dream, and the four children begin to fly through clouds, wondering what the next adventure will be.

Trivia

* The film includes several segments from the George Pál version of "The War of the Worlds".
* At one point, the boys are watching a movie featuring a spacefaring hero named Starkiller. In the original "Star Wars" treatments, Starkiller was the surname of what would become known as the Skywalker family.
* Writer Eric Luke has a cameo as a schoolteacher.
* Although Robert Picardo received the actor credit for the father alien, his voice was actually provided by Frank Welker.
* The main 'human' characters in the film attend Charles M Jones Junior High School. This is the full name of Chuck Jones, a famous figure in the annals of animation's golden age. Dante has referenced or alluded to classic Warner Bros' cartoons in many of his films. Jones made cameo appearances in "Gremlins" (1984) and in "Innerspace" (1987); both of these films were directed by Dante.
* During the first season of the TV show "Sliders," the Fox network used Jerry Goldsmith's theme for this movie during its promos at the end of the program ("Next week on "Sliders"...").
* The sound effects of the drive in movie were actually the sound effects from the Atari 2600 game Yar's Revenge.
* As the boys look through the junkyard for the pieces for the ship, the sled rosebud from Citizen Kane can be seen sitting at the top of a pile.
* A scene was left from the DVD release of the film that shows the boys pushing the Tilt-A-Whirl ride, that gets away from the boys once they start going down a hill. Although this has been placed on the DVD as a "Special Feature" fans of the film are confused as to why this short, but funny scene was not included.

Adaptations

A novelization was written by George Gipe.

External links

*