Explorers (1985)

The fact that it was River Phoenix’s first film, and it was directed by Joe ‘Gremlins’ Dante, drew me to Explorers. A movie I’d never heard of before, it turned out to be a classic 1980’s children’s adventure movie, at least for the first hour, and then it turned into a very bizarre and funny science fiction piece.

Geeky Wolfgang (Phoenix), wholesome and only just staying the right side of annoying Ben (Ethan Hawke, looking about 10, but actually 15) and bad boy Darren (Jason Pressan? No, me neither) are the film’s heroes, brought together through strange dreams that leads Wolfgang to programme his clunky computer to create some sort of force-field bubble. The boys manipulate the bubble and build a spaceship to go inside it in order for them to explorer space.

They eventually make it to space, where their ship is taken over by a UFO and they’re brought aboard to meet… two very rubbery aliens, who have been watching American TV for years and only speak in over-the-top TV presenter styles and using quotes direct from movies – the male alien’s first utterance is Bug Bunny’s ‘What’s up, doc?’ It’s very odd. And also very funny. And in the best 80’s adventure movie tradition, not a lot of it makes any sense, but that doesn’t matter you just go with it and revel in the fantasy and the silliness.

I enjoyed this much more than The Goonies, another supposed ‘classic’ of the era and genre. There’s a real spirit of fun, camaraderie and adventure, and the young cast are great. The adult cast is barely given any screen time, other than a guy I recognised from Gremlins, and James Cromwell as Wolfgang’s father is about the only other ‘name’ in the cast. Ben gets a bit of a ‘romantic’ subplot, i.e. he fancies a girl in his class, and this feels a bit shoe-horned in, especially since the girl in question gets screen time but only about 2 lines of dialogue. That doesn’t stop Explorers being a whole load of fun.