Talk:The Last Starfighter

Destruction of Ko-Dan mothership
Alex does not destroy the mothership. During his attack, the navigation and other systems on the mothership are disable and is captured by the gravitational pull of a moon causing it to crash and explode. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.104.73.235 (talk) 04:58, 29 November 2010 (UTC)

Beat
If I recall correctly, Alex does not "beat" TLS; he "beats" the posted high score. I think it was 1,000,000.


 * Both. In the film it doesn't show what his final score is, only that it is in excess of 960,000. (The one million figure comes from Alan Dean Foster's novelisation.) Alex does end up destroying the Ko-Dan command ship in the training game, which is the ultimate goal IIRC. thefamouseccles 00:37, 27 Jan 2005 (UTC)

In addition, it is not Grig that returns Alex to Earth, but Centauri. He gives him a communication device, so, if he changes his mind, he can return to Rylos and take up the fight. Grig remains on Rylos, working on a modification to a new Gunstar - DeathBlossum - which he makes outside of the main hangar, thus avoiding the meteor assult from Xur.

"CGI generated image"
67.161.36.50 wrote in an editing title: "CGI" stands for "computer generated image", so "CGI generated image" is wrong. I thought that "CGI" means "computer generated imagery", so "CGI generated image" means "computer generated imagery generated image" means "image generated by computer generated imagery", which repeats words but is grammatically and semantically valid. Anthony Appleyard 19:23, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Speaking of CGI, "The Last Starfighter" DVD has a bonus section that features CGI X-wing fighters circa 1978. They were done by the same guys that did the CGI for "The Last Starfighter": Digital Productions. If you haven't seen the DVD, check out: http://www.cylon.org/films/last-intro-01.html

Video game
Atari wrote a "Last Starfighter" videogame for their Atari 5200 but it was never released. The game was complete except for the Gunstar having no shields so a single hit destroys it.
 * There definitely was a version for the Atari 800, and it was really cool. -- 213.39.198.56 (talk) 04:24, 25 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Exactly, there was a game under this name, I had it on Atari 65 XE —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.233.197.138 (talk) 11:16, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

You say there was never an Coin Operated Arcade Game, released by Atari, Inc., and, based on the storyline from the film. I say you are incorrect. There is one, at that. There is video evidence of it on YouTube. A more likely scenario is due to timing. The "Great Videogame Crash" of 1983, was most likely Atari's main decision, for not producing the units in vast quantities. However the fact remains that they DO exist. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2603:7081:7E3E:8D3B:690F:97CE:2D2B:7341 (talk) 03:18, 8 January 2024 (UTC)

First to use CGI
I changed the line saying it was the first major movie to use CGI extensively. Tron pre-dates it by 2 years, and I am sure there were other films before it.99DBSIMLR 15:22, 17 January 2007 (UTC)


 * The first film to use real computer graphics for SFX was Westworld. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bizzybody (talk • contribs) 23:00, 16 May 2008 (UTC)

Yes, Westworld used computer graphics...it depends then on how you define "extensive." 74.104.189.176 (talk) 02:10, 22 December 2021 (UTC)

Trivia items
I don't see how the following are related to this article except by merely containing the same elements:


 * In an episode of the ill-fated Clerks: The Animated Series, Randal Graves is recruited to build a pyramid after receiving the highest score in a fictional arcade game called "Pharaoh."
 * In the Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode "Moon Master," Meatwad is recruited by the Mooninites in their battle against the monster Gorgotron following Meatwad's success at the fictional console "Moon Master" video game.
 * In "Sentries of the Last Cosmos," an episode of Batman Beyond, an arcade game (from which the episode gets its title), is used as a recruiting tool for a criminal.

Ok, but so what? You're going to list each and every time something uses video game recruiting in its story? I don't see how this is trivia for The Last Starfighter. Then this one tries to tie it to the movie, but doesn't have a citation:


 * The recruiting-through-a-video-game premise seen in this movie inspired how the main characters got their powers in the Super Sentai series Denji Sentai Megaranger.

I'm calling original work on this one. I think it's more likely that someone is assuming that this movie was an influence.

Remember: recruiting through a video game itself was an urban myth (stated in the article) that the movie drew its premise from.

If these trivia items are apropos to the movie somehow that I'm missing, they need to be reworded.

The "death blossom" references get a little spurious as well. Unless there's evidence or a citation that indicates that the term "death blossom" was in fact inspired by this movie, you can't always claim it. I would buy the US military reference, but not necessarily the anime reference. It's quite possible that they just came up with term separately. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Angelo (talk • contribs) 16:20, 5 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Agreed. Removing some of the trivia indicated above.  The US military use of "death blossom" has a citation that seems legit indicating the term was inspired by The Last Starfighter so that one stays.  Sbacle 17:54, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Translator
That was one of the cheapest props ever in a SciFi movie. It's simply the circuit board from a cheap LCD clock that was commonly available in the 1980's. The visible side in the film is the back side with the microchip mounted "glop top" style. You can also see the silver cylinder of the quartz crystal and the semi-circular cutout for the battery. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bizzybody (talk • contribs) 04:37, 29 May 2008 (UTC)


 * It also doesn't make sense to be on a shirt he might take off and replace with some clothes he picks up at a shopping mall on Rylos, and wouldn't wear when he sleeps. It would make more sense if it was incorporated into some kind of a wristwatch communications device.


 * Also, why wouldn't Grig know about houses? Don't the people on Rylos, who seem to be above-ground-type primates, live in houses? Doesn't anyone else in the Star League live in houses?


 * I also find the frontier rather unbelievable. I'm being generous in letting the frontier devices (forcefield generators?) be one kilometre (1000 metres) apart (they look more like 200 metres or less!). If they are 1 km apart, and if the sphere they enclose is 100 light years, then the Star League would have needed to build approximately 452,389,341,600,000,000,000,000,000 of the units! GBC (talk) 07:45, 17 May 2009 (UTC)
 * geez, use von neumann machines...it is the same premise as the monoliths in 2010. how many of them did it take to cover jupiter and turn it into a star. as for the translator, maybe monkey boy could figure out that he needs to remove it from his shirt and attach it to his pajamas or whatever else he might wear - indeed, as the technology isn't described in detail, maybe it only has to be in proximity to him to work, so he could just put it in his pocket, or maybe it only needs to be on him for a short while to affect a modification to his brain to understand other languages, who knows? suspect you can look at any movie (for example, there are plot holes in the fugitive, hunt for red october, crimson tide, shawshank redemption, etc.) and nitpick - just enjoy the movie. of course, as any wiki idiot should know this isn't a forum for discussing the subject, blah blah blah. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.158.61.141 (talk) 14:15, 23 March 2012 (UTC)

Plot Issue
Okay, admittedly I haven't seen the movie in a while, but having seen it enough (AND owning the DVD), I'm quite sure that the "Rylan senior officers" (or whatever it says) didn't order Centauri to take Alex back to Earth - Grig confronts Centauri about what happened, but it's Alex who insists that Centauri take him home. I'll be making this change to the main article here very shortly. umrguy 42  02:45, 23 August 2008 (UTC)

And also Somebody needs to watch the movie before they write up the plot. If I remember right Alex fires off the death blossom and finishes off the enemy fighters, but the ship has no power left. The mother ship then tries to ram them, Grig reroutes power from life support to the engines to move them out of the way, and as they are dodging alex lets off a burst into the mothership and damages the navigation system, which causes it to crash. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.182.59.202 (talk) 18:07, 18 March 2010 (UTC)


 * I'll be rewatching before I redo the plot. It's on this weekend's agenda. I'll look out specifically for both issues above, although I tend to do plot summaries not scene by scene breakdowns so neither incident may get that specific when I work it up.   Millahnna (mouse)  talk  21:26, 18 March 2010 (UTC)


 * My new favorite IP editor handled this nicely. I'll be taking it off my to-do list shortly.  I will be keeping it on my watchlist for detail creep though.  Seriously dude, great work.   Millahnna (mouse)  talk  15:13, 16 April 2010 (UTC)
 * :D - 207.181.235.214 (talk) 21:30, 16 April 2010 (UTC)

cost of film
there are two posted costs to this film - $14m and $15m. any definitive number available? which source is more reliable? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Aptpupil79 (talk • contribs) 00:37, 6 July 2010 (UTC)
 * an approximate number in any case. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.158.61.141 (talk) 14:18, 23 March 2012 (UTC)

Various sources for misc. stuff
I was looking for a reliable source for that Nintendo game and found a few other links that might be useful throughout the article. As I usually do, I'm dumping them here for someone else to play with, in case I don't get to it. Some of these are from sites I'm not sure we can actually use. Refs aren't my strong suit.

Through this I found an audio interview with Craig Safan, the composer of the score. He also discusses the sequel a little, the 25th anniversary special edition DVD, other TV film work he's done (in case someone can use it in another article).

Info about the possible sequel.

I found more than a few references to the Nintendo game but I couldn't confirm it was a clone of the Commodore game we have mentioned in the "Adaptations" section at the moment. A site I found that I'm certain we can't use has enough info on it that it may be a decent jumping off point for anyone researching any of this stuff. Similarly, this trivia list is almost completely unsourced but buried in the comments are some interesting claims (about the games and the film) that might be good for any research efforts. And in case I'm not being clear, I mean "note the interesting factoid that isn't completely trivial and go search for verifiable sources that discuss said issue" not "hey lets start one of those frown-upon trivia lists".

It wasn't really a thorough search on my part but some passing links I turned up. Hopefully someone can use them for something. Cheers. Millahnna (mouse) talk  22:51, 20 August 2010 (UTC)

Plot too long
I've trimmed the plot several times now, and a few others keep adding enormous amounts of detail back in. The plot is supposed to summarize the story, not act as a scene by scene reenactment of the film. - Jack Sebastian (talk) 06:00, 11 January 2012 (UTC)

Unsourced material
Below information was tagged for needing sources long-term. Feel free to reinsert with appropriate references. DonIago (talk) 16:43, 19 March 2015 (UTC)

{| class="collapsible collapsed" style="width:100%;font-size:88%;text-align:left; border:1px solid silver; margin-top:0.2em;" ! style="background-color:#CFC;" | Music ==Music== Craig Safan's score for the film calls for an unusually large orchestra, including six trumpets and six trombones, which are used simultaneously to play the main theme in twelve-part harmony.
 * style="border: solid 1px silver; padding: 8px; background-color: white; " |
 * style="border: solid 1px silver; padding: 8px; background-color: white; " |

Southern Cross album
Southern Cross released a soundtrack album at the time of the film's release (later reissued on CD in 1987). Although Craig Safan co-wrote four songs for the film with Mark Mueller, only two were included on the album.

Intrada albums
In 1995 Intrada issued an expanded album which omitted the songs, presented the music in chronological order, and included the complete versions of "Centauri Dies," "Death Blossom, Ultimate Weapon" and most notably "Into The Starscape" (on the original release it cuts out at the point in the film when Louis whoops at the sight of the Gunstar taking off on the video game screen and in real life; in the film the music continues over the end credits). In 2015 the same label released the complete score (legal issues prevented inclusion of the Safan-Mueller material on either Intrada release).
 * }

Jonathan R. Betuel wants another Starfighter film.
The problem is figuring out who owns the rights to do a remake of the original and new sequels https://www.yahoo.com/movies/the-last-starfighter-sequel-118964499732.html Bizzybody (talk) 22:36, 16 May 2015 (UTC)

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What Constitutes "Financial Success"?
Chaheel Riens reverted a correction I made to the article, claiming "Making almost double the budget is indeed a success." I do not believe that is an objective standard for an encyclopedia. Producing any product which does not turn a profit is flat out NOT a "financial success". For WHOM was it a success? Probably not the studio. Perhaps the distributors? I suggest this is a CITATION NEEDED situation.MrNeutronSF (talk) 22:56, 7 May 2017 (UTC)
 * It's a little pretentious to assume that your edit was a "correction" rather than just a change, but hey ho. As it turns out, (and you can see from the article history,) I was reverted again by Milhanna pointing to a discussion over at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Film here.  I'm still not convinced and agree that the best way if included would be to have source that states a film was a "financial success" - given Hollywood accounting a film can make millions over budget and still be declared a loss - but in the meantime it's a moot point. Chaheel Riens (talk) 13:15, 10 May 2017 (UTC)

And I don't think challenging an unsupported/cited statement is "pretentious". I merely questioned what the objective standard should be for "financial success" as it's a slippery determination.MrNeutronSF (talk) 03:45, 12 May 2017 (UTC)

Digital graphics
"It is one of the first films to use CGI to represent "real-life" objects instead of digital graphics." CGI *is* digital (it's even referenced as such in the credits). I assume who wrote this had meant to say "optical"? Kumagoro-42 (talk) 22:28, 15 February 2018 (UTC)
 * I think this is referring to the slightly earlier Tron, which was the first(?) movie with 3D-CGI, but its objects were still supposed to be part of a digital world within a computer. The CGI in The Last Starfighter on the other hand was used for what was supposed to be actual physical objects. I am not sure how significant this distinction really is, though one could argue that The Last Starfighter was a bit more ambitious in its use of CGI - i.e. for Tron it was easier to get away with things looking like unreal computer objects, because that is what they were supposed to be, while The Last Starfighter wanted its ships to look like real ships. Elanguescence (talk) 05:36, 27 April 2018 (UTC)