Line #17 Film/Explorers


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dba6d060b0e46bbc453e015e8ce602e1.jpg]]
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3	A 1985 sci-fi/fantasy film directed by Creator/JoeDante.
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5	Ben Crandall (Creator/EthanHawke) keeps having a dream about traveling over a circuit board. He then draws it and shows it to his brainy friend Wolfgang (Creator/RiverPhoenix), who builds the board which is able to create a force field bubble. The two boys, along with help from their new tough friend Darren (Jason Presson), decide to build a spaceship out of old amusement park ride parts that when used with their new found technology gives them the ability to travel into space. Another dream gives them the schematics to create oxygen out of thin air.
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7	They create a spaceship and call it the ''Thunder Road'', and they fly into space. Not long afterwards, they explore an alien spacecraft that they get sucked into.
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9	----
10	!!The movie contains examples of the following tropes:
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12	* FiveFiveFive: The zip code on Ben's jacket is 21499. While the 214XX is indeed Maryland (matching his address), the "21499" zip code itself is not in use in the United States.
13	* AbortedArc: The sheriff investigating the situation with the ''Thunder Road'', which among other things has him saying that he had also gotten the same dreams the kids have when ''he'' was young. After the ''Thunder Road'' takes off from Earth at the climax (with him seeing it happen), he doesn't appear anymore.
14	* AdultsAreUseless: Averted, and one is envious of their adventure, but cheers them on.
15	* AliensSpeakingEnglish: Justified, they mostly speak in pop-culture references.
16	* AliensStealCable: And quote it relentlessly.
17	* [[TheAllegedCar The Alleged Spaceship]]: The ''Thunder Road'' is made of an old carnival ride, some spot-welding, a 1980s portable computer, ImportedAlienPhlebotinum (that the kids didn't know was unreliable until their first flight, and still is pretty complicated to fly) and a whole lot of prayer.
18	* AlwaysABiggerFish: [[spoiler: The ''Thunder Road'' is swallowed by a large spaceship. Then that one is swallowed by a larger one in the same way.]]
19	* AndTheAdventureContinues: [[spoiler: The aliens send Ben, Wolfgang, and Darren a new dream... and Lori has joined them. Ben asks, "If this is all a dream, what happens when we wake up?" Darren answers, "I don't know, but I can't wait to find out."]] Roll credits.
20	* AscendedFanboy: All three boys count.
21	* AuthorAppeal: Dante's love of TheFifties science fiction and casting of Dick Miller.
22	* BizarreAlienBiology: And how. The kids speculate about the aliens having (or lacking) things like no eyes (because of the alien ship being pretty dark, and once they finally meet the aliens... well, for example, they have no problem eating harmonicas as snacks. And the small aliens already had weird ears, but [[spoiler:their father]] has ''smaller arms'' for ears.
23	* BoldExplorer: All three protagonists fit the bill, as they boldly set off to hunt for aliens in their new ship.
24	* CallingMeALogarithm: An early scene has Ben calling JerkJock Steve Jackson as "having elephantiasis on his ego" (because he bullied Wolfgang) before class. GilliganCut to after class and Jackson [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown beating the holy hell out of Ben alongside his buddies]] because he ([[HandWave somehow]]) heard that Ben called him that, and not knowing what "elephantiasis" really means, just assumed it to be an insult worth beating someone into a coma over. [[RightForTheWrongReasons He's not completely wrong]], however the implication is that, with Ben being one of the class "nerds", he was just looking for ''any'' reason to beat him up. Ben deciding to explain ([[DeadpanSnarker in the most insulting way possible]]) what the term means wasn't going to do him any favors.
25	* CatapultNightmare: Ben wakes up from a nightmare.
26	* CoolSpaceShip: The ''Thunder Road'', sorta. Wak and Neek's, too. [[spoiler:And their Dad's ship.]]
27	* CrazyCulturalComparison: The aliens can only talk human using television quotes.
28	* DreamSequence: Ben has a recurring dream in which he sees the design of a circuit board (beamed to his mind by the aliens) and things like windows that have a view of Lori's bedroom also appear.
29	* TheEighties: The setting.
30	* FreeRangeChildren:
31	** All three kids work well into the night at the creek. If their parents were looking for them, we never find out.
32	** They also manage to stay out all night and come home the night of the first flight ''with their clothes and breath smelling like beer'' from christening the ''Thunder Road''.
33	* GravityIsAHarshMistress: The "Gravitational Cognizance" sort - the characters don't fall until they ''realize'' they should be falling. This happens when they return to earth the final time.
34	* HardWorkMontage: The scene depicting the construction of the ''Thunder Road''.
35	* HumansAreBastards: The aliens' father thinks that way, and his children agree that earth is too dangerous for aliens to visit since the humans aren't very welcoming of outsiders.
36	* IComeInPeace: One of the kids greets an alien with this, because it seems like the right thing to say. The alien, in turn, replies, "[[WesternAnimation/BugsBunny Ehhh, what's up, doc?]]"
37	* IfIDoNotReturn: Ben writes a will in his notebook the night before they take the ''Thunder Road'' into space, just in case.
38	* InterspeciesRomance: Neek and Wolfgang seem to have some cross-species PuppyLove going.
39	* JerkAss: The father alien. Also JerkJock Steve Jackson and his gang of goons (and the kid that ripped Wolfgang's pants ForTheLulz).
40	* JustPlaneWrong: The helicopter's amazing night of flying. The ''Thunder Road'' is flying when the Drive In is open - evening, between 9pm and 1am. The helicopter encounters it shortly after the Drive in. We next see the helicopter landing in broad daylight, late enough in the morning the newspapers have been published and are available. That's easy 7 hours of flight that evening - a long time for that kind of helicopter to be just tooling around. That is assuming that they didn't stop for refueling or took another shift the following day to look around.
41	* KidsDrivingCars:
42	** The plot of the movie is about three boys building then flying a space rocket.
43	** The aliens the kids encountered are also children that stole their father's car for a joyride.
44	* LargeHam: The father alien.
45	* MegaMawManeuver: Twice, first the Thunder Road, then the alien ship that did it to them by "{{space pirates}}" [[spoiler: Actually the first aliens parents.]]
46	* MistakenForAliens: Obviously enough, after the ''Thunder Road'' causes chaos on its maiden flight, the local newspaper has a front-page article about UFO sightings the next day.
47	* TheMothership: The father alien's ship -- the young aliens stole the equivalent of a ''car''.
48	* MythologyGag: There's one to Kingston Falls, the setting of Creator/JoeDante's previous film ''Film/{{Gremlins}}'' (the front page that talks about [[MistakenForAliens the "UFO sighting"]] the morning after the ''Thunder Road'''s maiden flight has a headline that reads "Kingston Falls '[[GasLeakCoverup riots]]' still unexplained).
49	* NoEndorHolocaust: The Thunder Road crashes through a crowded concession stand. No injuries. The property damage does attract police attention, though.
50	* NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup: [[spoiler: The ship sinks and it becomes obvious Wolfgang hasn't saved any of the programming work at all on disk - everything was in the ship. The SequelHook scene at the end, however, implies that the kids will get either a new copy of the plans or maybe an upgraded version from their alien friends.]]
51	* PowerPerversionPotential: The first thing Ben uses the force field they made to is spy on a girl he loves.
52	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Ben's reponse to [[spoiler:the father alien's refusal to let the kids stay. And for being an all around jerk]].
53	* PuppyLove:
54	** Ben has a massive crush on Lori. [[spoiler:At the end they become an OfficialCouple]]
55	** Wolfgang and Neek. Read InterspeciesRomance above.
56	* RealityIsUnrealistic: An in-universe example. The ''Thunder Road'', actually flying around, passes in front of a drive-in screen showing a cheesy sci-fi movie, prompting a moviegoer to snark "That looks so fake!"
57	* ReCut: Joe Dante hated the theatrical cut and was allowed to re-edit the movie for home video release by deleting a few sequences (one of which explains why River Phoenix's character skipped school to work in his lab) while restoring a few small snippets (the video version is three minutes shorter than the theatrical cut as a result). Some of the deleted sequences appear as extras on the DVD.
58	* SequelHook: The kids start dreaming again --all of them together, even Ben's crush-- of schematics, with the implication that it's an upgraded version of the force field system that powered the ''Thunder Road''.
59	* SharedDream: Initially Ben is the only one having the recurring dream about flying over a circuit diagram, which turns out to be plans for a force-field generator that doubles as a ReactionlessDrive. Later he has another dream, this time showing how to build an oxygen generator -- but now his friends, Wolfgang and Darren, are both there as well, which confirms that (as they had already guessed) the dreams are actually messages sent by aliens. At the end, the three -- now joined by Ben's LoveInterest Lori -- have ''another'' dream, this one showing [[AndTheAdventureContinues the biggest diagram yet]]...
60	* ShoutOut: The film was directed by Joe Dante, so it's expected. Examples that haven't already been mentioned include:
61	** The toy monkey from ''Film/CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind'' can be seen in Wolfgang's basement.
62	** The rat, Heinlein, is named after ScienceFiction author Creator/RobertAHeinlein.
63	** Sound effects from ''VideoGame/YarsRevenge'' can be heard in the [[ShowWithinAShow drive-in movie]].
64	** [[Film/CitizenKane Rosebud]] can be seen at the top of a junk pile when the boys build the ''Thunder Road''.
65	** Charles M. Jones Junior High School is named after Creator/ChuckJones.
66	*** There's other WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes references throughout the movie. Including the hole the sphere at the beginning makes being shaped like Bugs Bunny's head.
67	** A few other movies like ''Film/TheCrawlingEye'', ''Film/TheDayTheEarthStoodStill1951'', ''Film/EarthVsTheFlyingSaucers'', ''Film/ThisIslandEarth'', and 1953 version of ''Film/{{The War Of The Worlds\|1953}}'' are also featured.
68	** The name of the ''Thunder Road'' is, obviously, from a Music/BruceSpringsteen song (and mentioned as such in the story-it's a better name that the one the other kids could think of at the moment).
69	** The name "Starkiller" was Luke Skywalker's original name in ''Franchise/StarWars''.
70	* ShowWithinAShow: The film "Starkiller", starring Creator/RobertPicardo in a bad pompadour and HongKongDub. See the "Stylistic Suck" entry.
71	* SpeaksInShoutOuts: The aliens, courtesy of LearntEnglishFromWatchingTelevision.
72	* StylisticSuck: The [[ShowWithinAShow Movie]] at the drive-in is pretty much this.
73	-->'''Wolfgang''': ExplosionsInSpace? That's impossible!
74	-->'''Ben''': [[ComicallyMissingThePoint What do you mean? You can hardly see the strings.]]
75	* SympatheticInspectorAntagonist: Charlie Drake, the cop who investigates the ''Thunder Road'' after her disastrous first flight. He and Ben are ultimately quite similar, and he wishes the boys well when he sees them launch into space.
76	* TheGenieKnowsJackNicholson: As a side effect of learning all earth languages and culture [[AliensStealCable from television]], Wak's dialog consists mainly of celebrity impersonations and pop culture jokes. Neek is a little more subtle, but also does clear impersonations of Creator/MarilynMonroe and Creator/IngridBergman.
77	* TheUnintelligible: The father alien (voiced by Creator/FrankWelker). You can barely make out a few lines though [[note]]"You have no respect for authority!" and "Wolfgang? Who the hell is Wolfgang?"[[/note]].
78	* WhateverHappenedToTheMouse: Charlie's plot is dropped after the space trip, and has little bearing on the larger plot.

Context Film / Explorers