Movie Time! The Last Starfighter and Cloak & Dagger: The 1984 Videogame Dream Team

It’s Popzara’s Movie Time! Podcast!, where our own movie nerds Ethan Brehm and Nate Evans take you on an unscripted journey yakking and chatting about some of their favorite movie moments and cinematic scenes, from past and present, presented without snark and snobbery for your listening pleasure.

On deck for this episode are two classics from 1984 (perhaps the greatest year ever for pop cinema) that use videogames as a framing device that take our heroes into larger worlds they could have never possibly imagined.

First up is The Last Starfighter, directed by Nick Castle (Halloween’s original Michael Myers) and starring Lance Guest, Dan O'Herlihy (RoboCop), and Robert Preston (The Music Man) in a sci-fi fantasy that’s more Star Wars-lite than Buck Rogers. One of the first movies to extensively use CGI, it’s a perfect encapsulation of Joseph Campbell’s Hero's Journey, only with space combat and an entire race of aliens with male pattern-baldness (even the women).

Next is Cloak & Dagger, Richard Franklin’s Hitchcockian thriller starring Henry Thomas (E.T.) and Dabney Coleman (in a dual-role) in what could be the best 1980s kids movie you don’t hear enough about. Latchkey kids race from blood-thirsty terrorists as an Atari tape (yeah, tape) may hold the key to an international espionage plot. What more could you expect from writer Tom Holland, creator of Fright Night and Child's Play?

Even in a year overflowing with an embarrassment of riches, both movies managed to stand out. Did The Last Starfighter inspire Pixar’s Toy Story? Is Cloak & Dagger the most violent movie (made for kids) ever? Could either be rebooted and/or sequalized in today’s sensitive times? These questions and more will be answered - no quarters required!