EXPLORERS

In the summer of 1985, when it seemed like every movie release involved teenagers engaged in elaborate adventure/sci fi scenarios (THE GOONIES, D.A.R.Y.L., WEIRD SCIENCE, MY SCIENCE PROJECT, BACK TO THE FUTURE, etc.), EXPLORERS was the odd film out.  About a trio of middle schoolers who build a spaceship and interact with space aliens, it should have been quite the romp, especially given that it was directed by the usually irrepressible Joe Dante (coming off GREMLINS) and starred River Phoenix and a debuting Ethan Hawke.  How odd, then, that the film had such a subdued and melancholy air, being less a kids’ movie than a lament by middle aged men about the fact that their own childhoods are long over, and not coming back.

EXPLORERS (1985) Trailer

The aforementioned spaceship takes some time to get built.  Before then we’re introduced to Ben (Hawke), a 13-year-old Californian who’s obsessed with 1950s sci fi, and afflicted by odd dreams involving weird shapes that he transcribes onto a diagram.  The nerdy Wolfgang (Phoenix) feeds the diagram into a computer, which creates a bubble-like object that Ben, Wolfgang and their punk friend Darren (Jason Presson) decide will make an excellent mode of air-based conveyance.

To this end they construct a spaceship out of an old tilt-a-whirl, TV monitors and a trashcan.  They stage a preliminary flight over their town, during which they demolish a drive-in movie theater, spy on a girl (the late Amanda Peterson) Ben is in love with and attract the attention of a helicopter cop (Dick Miller).  This is followed by a dream all three boys share in which the secret to oxygen retention inside the bubble is revealed, and a second launch is planned.  This time they head to outer space, where they’re caught in a tractor beam that orients them toward a large spaceship…and the movie falls apart entirely

The narrative construction, which takes the form of an extended build-up to a payoff that’s deeply underwhelming, is a problem (read Shane Carruth’s famous unmade screenplay A TOPIARY for what this film could have been).  So are the performances, which in keeping with the overall tone are notably contained and unenthusiastic; Ethan Hawke, for his part, seems downright taciturn (he was said to have been quite devastated by the film’s failure, and may well have had an inkling of its ultimate fate during the shoot).

Dante has made many excuses for the inertia of the third act, which essentially takes the form of an extended (and not very funny) stand-up routine by Dante regular Robert Picardo as a goofy looking alien in a spaceship setting that’s not too dissimilar to the junk shop the boys visit earlier in the film.  An incomplete script, a lack of studio support and an inadequate budget and/or schedule are among the complaints Dante has made, and they’re probably all on target.

Good things?  There are a few to be found, including the look of the spaceship, which is quite striking, and the performance of the grown-up Dick Miller, who in the film’s best scene watches, and unforgettably reacts to, the ship lifting off.  I’ll also praise the concluding dream sequence, in which the protagonists are seen flying over a giant alien diagram; it’s noteworthy for being the only time in the film that the boys seem happy, and beautifully underscored by Jerry Goldsmith’s elegiac theme, which belongs in a different movie.

 

Vital Statistics

EXPLORERS
Paramount Pictures

Director: Joe Dante
Producers: Edward S. Feldman, David Bombyk
Screenplay: Eric Luke
Cinematography: John Hora
Editing: Tina Hirsch
Cast: Ethan Hawke, River Phoenix, Jasson Presson, Amanda Peterson, Dick Miller, Robert Picardo, Mary Kay Place, Bobby Fite, Bradley Gregg, Georg Olden, Chance Schwass, Danny Nucci, Dana Ivey, Talisen Jaffe, James Cromwell, Brooke Bundy, Tricia Batholome, Karen Mayo-Chandler, Mesach Taylor, Leslie Rickert