Year Of The Knock Off! Explorers (1985)

'...or it never really begins at all because Paramount didn't care if this film was finished before pushing it out to the theater.' That may have been too wordy.

Here we are at the end of another weird, but fun, year where a portion of the show was dedicated to a genre, or in this case, a cause and effect situation. I have a had a lot of fun talking to Steve about what happens when a movie comes out that is so big and successful that others want to capitalize on it... and how badly that can go. 

After our last episode, in which we talked about E.T. and the waking nightmare that is Mac and Me, I knew that there were other E.T. knock offs out there in the universe, so I went... Explorers-ing! Its a bad joke that was a half finished thought and feels thematically appropriate to what I just watched. So how off course can a film that was directed by Joe Dante (who had just come off of the wonderful horror/comedy of Gremlins, produced by Steven Spielberg), with special effects done by Industrial Light & Magic, and a catchy score by Jerry Goldsmith? Let's strap and blast off to... mediocrity?

This teaser trailer is more fun that the film is. 

Here is the wikipedia page, and the imdb.com cast listing.

So before we get into Explorers fully, I do have a bit of sad news. This film did not have anything that was truly .gif worthy. So 85% of my attempts at comedy while writing these posts has been taken away from me. Please be kind and respectful during my mourning period regarding this. 

Sorry Dee, no .gifs. 

Explorers starts off with young Ben Crandall (Ethan Hawke, innocent and not realizing that one day he would lose his family to The Purge), flying through the clouds while dreaming. He sees below him a Tron-like techno landscape. It becomes clear to him that this is actually a circuit board. He wakes up, and immediately draws it out as best he can while War of the Worlds plays on his TV in the background. Once he has most of it out of his head, he walkie talkies his best friend Wolfgang Muller (River Phoenix, who would one day find a dead body with Will Wheaton, Jerry O'connell and Corey Feldman), a child genius that fancies himself as already a scientist. Wolfgang, not questioning the validity of how Ben is getting these images for circuitry from within dreams, agrees to take a look at the drawing at school the next day.

It turns out that pretty much every kid at their school, with the exception of gearhead Darren (Jason Presson, who did not find a dead body but was in Gremlins 2: The New Batch), picks on Ben and Wolfgang. Seriously, the amount of bullying and physical abuse is off putting during the short time we see them in school. At one point Wolfgang gets his pants ripped apart by another kid and no one seems to care at all, not even Ben. Then, a smash cut to a bully beating up Ben, who is then saved by Darren. 

Ben, thinking that Darren is now a friend, chases him down to see if he wants to hang out his place and watch This Island Earth. Darren, who hears that his father is home (and is heavily implied that his dad is an abusive son of a bitch but the film never ever comes back to it), decides he would rather watch an old film with a weird kid he doesn't know. 

Ben takes Darren to Wolfgang's place instead, saying that Wolfgang has been faking sick (though we just saw him at school the same day... this film is broken at times) and working in his lab in the basement. Wolfgang's house is pure chaos. His parents look like the aloof scientific types where they are constantly thinking about everything else but can't focus on the world around them. They are not cold parents, just moving from one thing to the next. 

Also, they don't care if their kids dress like the thing that is now going to haunt your dreams tonight.

Pretty sure this kid wearing this Halloween mask and Christmas bib was outside Ethan Hawke's house during The Purge. Ethan, you missed your chance to save your future family because you were chasing dream science.

Side note: Wolfgang's father is played by James Cromwell, aka Zefram Cochrane, the first human to create a warp drive system in Star Trek. So I like to think Wolfgang did come from a space travel bloodline. Also, James Cromwell once owned a talking pig and Wolfgang has a mouse that steps on keys to ask for cheese. Is this film a secret prequel to Star Trek: First Contact and a secret sequel to Babe? I didn't realize how deep this rabbit hole was going to go down. I best stop making too many connections before the New Founding Fathers of America find out and send that masked kid shown above to Purge me. 

'MERRY HALLOWEEN, PAUL. NOW I WILL SLOPPILY EAT YOUR SOON TO BE DEAD BODY.'

Turns out that Ben's drawing does do something, and Wolfgang has followed the instructions and built it. The design actually creates a electromagnetic bubble that can be moved around in 3D space. Its shape can be changed and it is able to move at virtually any speed. Anything inside the bubble is kept safe and is not affected by velocity. Good dream science, Ben! The bubble, which kind of functions like a cannonball as it blows holes through everything when it gets some speed, is sent on a zany basement destroying spree when Wolfgang's cat jumps on the keyboard. There is a lot of random destruction that goes on in this film that just gets brushed aside or outright ignored. 

The three of them decide to test this bubble field outdoors and accidently find out that you can put objects inside it and can use it for travel. Ben's love of old sci-fi films leads him to believe that they should build a ship to put inside the bubble so they can travel around in it. Darren leads the other two to a junkyard where they find an old Tilt-A-Whirl cart that they use as the base for their ship. A montage beings where the kids use all sorts of junk to complete their build. 

The ship is finished and Ben wants to name it after Jules Verne, Wolfgang wants to name it after Einstein, but Darren says he has a better idea. Without any explanation why, he suggests naming it after the Bruce Springsteen song, Thunder Road. Ben, says its perfect, but doesn't say why, and so their ship was named after a 10 year old song (at that time) that was a hit when these three were just toddlers. Because toddlers understand the angst of being stuck in life and just need to go somewhere, right? 

Here is the Thunder Road. 

The film was shot in 1984. I would have picked the name 'Caribbean Queen' by Billy Ocean.

I don't dislike this design. It clearly looks like it was imagined by kids. Had I seen Explorers when it first came out, I would have thought that this ship is cool. There is some magic to be had in believing you could build something like this and fly into outer space. Also, this spaceship is better than anything I could ever build, so I should give credit where it is due.

They decide to take Thunder Road out for a spin and go to the most happening place you can find on a Friday night: the drive in. They happen to fly by a film called Starkiller that was purposefully made to look like a low budget Italian Star Wars knock off (with low budget design and dialog dubbing). So, in the Year of the Knock Off I get to see a film that is a spiritual knock of of E.T. that has a on purpose Star Wars knock off inside it. I honestly did not see that coming.

THE SNAKE IS EATING ITSELF.

By the way, that guy in the blonde wig is Robert Picardo. He actually plays 3 roles in this film (more on that in a bit). He also has a memorable role in the Star Trek universe, playing the holographic medical assistant program in Voyager, called The Doctor. He is never not great and I had to point him out.

So during the maiden voyage, something off is happening to the Thunder Road's computer. It appears that some outside force is causing it to be pulled into space. Wolfgang figures out how to fix it but not before some cops in a helicopter see them flying about. The cops, played by Dick Miller (of Gremlins fame) and Meshach Taylor (of Mannequin fame), are freaked out about it but only Dick Miller wants to keep searching for the ship after they lose it. 

Dick Miller gets a few more scenes, one in which he is talking to someone on the phone about the UFO he saw and how he has been having dreams about it (like when he was a kid) and then he eventually tracks down the Thunder Road and finds Ben's jacket (with Ben's home address written inside it). He confronts Ben soon after at Ben's home. Ben gets away in time to find Wolfgang and Darren about to take off in Thunder Road. Dick Miller is left to stare up in awe of them leaving in a homemade garbage spaceship. Plot thread left dangling. 

Once in space, the ship gets taken over again by an unseen force and leads them to a much larger space ship. This leads to a prolonged sequence where the three kids are split up at times and have to make their way around the large ship that looks more like a Double Dare obstacle course than a functional space ship. Eventually the three meet the two aliens inside: 

What is she doing to River Phoenix? 

Wak (Robert Picardo) and Neek (Leslie Rickert, this being 1 of 2 roles she ever did) are fascinated by Earth culture, well anything up till the 1960's as that is most recent broadcasts they have gotten while being so far out in space. Wak is a walking quote machine, going from Looney Toons characters to Ed Sullivan. Neek seems to like Wolfgang too much (She asks if he has a girlfriend). They also were the ones responsible for sending the circuitry plans to Ben in his dreams. They wanted to meet humans so bad but could no go to Earth due to germs and because everything they have seen from TV that shows humans interacting with aliens ends with humans killing them. They believed Ben was different (though they never explain why). Ben is disappointed because Wak and Neek don't seem to have the secrets of the universe and wondered what the point of being there was. 

Then enters Wak and Neek's father:

If I had hands on my head like that, I could play video games and more video games at the same time.

Father never has a name (also played by Robert Picardo). He is pissed because his kids took his smaller spaceship without his permission. Turns out that Wak and Neek are just kids too and wanted to meet new friends. That's it. 

Wak sends Ben home with a magic alien doodad and makes Thunder Road auto pilot back to Earth and has it crash land in a bay so that the tech will be destroyed. The boys make it out. 

There is a moment at the end where the three boys are up on a hillside having a discussion about if and when Wak and Neek will contact them again. Its an odd scene because it is clear that their dialogue is overdubbed (more on that in a minute) and there isn't a real resolution...

...well other than you see the three of them dream flying together over a new set of plans that have been sent to them and they wonder what will happen next.

And that's your movie?

If it feels like I just described two acts with no real character arcs and now third act to tie it all together, you would be right. This film was taken out of the hands of Joe Dante and told that they need stop editing it so that Paramount can just release it. Prior to Dante getting involved with the project, he saw that the script didn't really have a second act but was told that they can work it all out while making the film. This explains why there are complete threads that started and never pay off. Darren's father's abusive shadow is never addressed, Dick Miller's cop who may or may not have been contacted by the aliens as kid, is never resolved, there's a very light romantic plot for Ben that has a payoff that is not earned at all.  Remember the scene I mentioned above where the three of them were wondering about the aliens and the dialog was dubbed? Evidently that scene was about abuse (whether it was about Darren's father or the bullies at the school, I am not sure) but Dante needed some kind of closure for the story and dubbed the dialogue. Considering that this film was trying to have some fun at taking the piss out of the 1970's Italian knock offs that often suffered due to fast productions and incomplete scripts, it's ironic that Dante had to smash together an ending to just get Explorers watchable. 

Also, this just shows how film companies will green light a script before really reading it. Explorers was purchased by Paramount because it had a similar scene of kids flying like the bike scenes in E.T. The film poster shows a bike along with a bright bluish white light peeking through the fence posts that is meant to evoke E.T. as well. From the marketing to the half finished film being forced into theaters early, Paramount did not give one damn at all at releasing a good film, just one that was supposed to make quick cash. It only made about 40% of its budget back at the box office. Good call, Paramount (to further add salt in the wound, Dante's previous film Gremlins made over 14 times its budget back during its initial theatrical run).

Much like E.T.'s junk pile, this film tried to take a lot of different parts and make something that spoke to the audience, but the message did not make it out. It's unfortunate because the three leads; Hawke, Phoenix, and Presson have charisma at such a young age that you do like them. Their chemistry together is good and much like the kids in E.T., their dialogue amongst each other feel organic and age appropriate. 

The score by Jerry Goldsmith is actually quite good. Listening to it removed from the film it reveals how good natured and warm it is. Most of it deserved to be in a better and completed film. The video below has a 15 minute suite of the score. Just stop listening around the 11 minute mark. That is when it veers into the wacky Wak and Neek portions. I can go forever not hearing that part of the score ever again.

Don't say I didn't warn about what lies after the 11 minute mark.

There are moments of wonder within Explorers that makes me not want to dismiss it completely. Like I said previously, had I seen this when it came out, it may have been a film I loved because I would have been seeing kids my age that have their own problems trying to  reach for stars in their backyard. However, seeing it as a grown up and after having just watched the family sci-fi masterpiece that is E.T., Explorers feels hollow and thin, like a pilot for a TV series that never got picked up for additional episodes. 

For a film that is supposed to be a fantasy about the power of dreams, how anything seems possible when you are young, and breaking free; Explorers never takes off and that is a shame. Supposedly there are rumors that this project is going to be remade and I hope they learn the lessons from how the original failed. Let's hope they don't come up with their script from half remembered dreams and they find an actual third act or else it will fizzle on the launch pad as well.

On a scale of 1-10, how close did it adhere to the film it wanted to knock off?

Hopeful younger kids that are bullied, rooms being destroyed due to alien (inspired) shenanigans, blobby looking extra terrestrials, nice inspirational score (mostly). I would give it a 5 because there is no sense of urgency that is in this film versus E.T. He wanted to get home, these kids wanted to get away but there was no big dilemma or threat they were facing if they had to return home. 

On the Ator scale, was it better or worse than Ator?

Better produced and looking, but Ator has three acts. Ator is a complete film by the minimalist of standards and Explorers is not. Besides Ator has Ator in it, so that usually wins out.

Would you recommend this to anyone else? 

Not really. This is not a train wreck of a film. There is no rubbernecker appeal in even showing this to friends to have a few laughs with. Mac and Me has more group appeal than Explorers has. 

Bonus:   

If you want a much shorter story about a backyard spaceship being built with a badass sound track, check out this Smashing Pumpkins video for their song 'Rocket.' 

Bonus Teaser: 

Next post will be a very unscientific ranking of the Year of the Knock films that I watched for the blog. Watch the skies!