“If that’s what you think, then that’s all you'll ever be.” Intergalactic con-man Centauri declares as teenager Alex Rogan walks back home, turning his back on the greatest adventure of his life. When finally given the chance to strike out on his own, Alex runs back to his boring, but safe, life as “just a kid from a trailer park.”
In the 1984 film, The Last Starfighter, Alex Rogan (Lance Guest) spends his days doing odd jobs for the people at the trailer court that he lives in with his waitress mom and younger brother. Whenever he tries to steal away with his girlfriend Maggie (Catherine Mary Stewart) he is always pulled back to the park to fix a neighbor’s television antenna or do electrical work on someone’s mobile home. Elvira can’t miss her soaps! The residents always need him for something and he resents it. Any time not spent fulfilling their needs is consumed at the local store’s only arcade game, The Last Starfighter.
When Alex finds out that he has been turned down for the college loan he desperately needed, he confides in Otis, the trailer park manager, his feelings, Otis brings the point of the movie home. “Things change. Always do. You'll get your chance. Important thing is, when it comes, you've got to grab with both hands, and hold on tight.”
That chance arrives when Alex breaks the record on the video game. Soon after, he meets Centauri (Music Man’s Robert Preston), the inventor of the game, and is whisked across the galaxy to be recruited by an organization known as the Star League to defend the planet Rylos against invading aliens.
Alex doesn’t recognize his chance and demands to be sent back to Earth. When push comes to shove, Alex doesn’t want to leave the safety of his simple life in the trailer park. Despite chiding his girlfriend about never wanting to leave home, he has the same feelings. Adventure is for other people.
It takes some convincing by Centauri and a robotic simulacrum named Beta (along with a murderous bug-eyed alien sent to assassinate the galaxy’s only remaining Starfighter) to get Alex back to Rylos so that he can take on an entire invading armada. Even then, he is unsure he can make it on his own. It takes a mountain of pep talk from the navigator of his ship, a reptilian named Grig (Dan O’Herlihy) to convince Alex that his home will eventually be destroyed if he doesn’t step up.
The Last Starfighter is a by-the-numbers science fiction adventure but at its heart is the tale of a small-town boy who learns that he must leave the safety of his world in order to save it.
MJ Krey is a Communications Major at Lakeland College and avoids confrontation at all costs. Let him know how you feel about that on his Twitter feed at @mjkrey .
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