[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/solarbabies_1986_poster.jpg]]

A 1986 sci-fi film directed by Alan Johnson and produced by Creator/MelBrooks' Brooksfilms for Creator/{{MGM}}.

The story is set in a post-apocalyptic future in which most of Earth's water has disappeared. The future is bleak and what is left of the water supply is controlled by the Eco Protectorate (a para-military organization that governs the planet's new order). There are also children, mostly teenagers, living in orphanages created by the Protectorate, designed to indoctrinate new recruits into their service.

-->'''The Warden:''' "I am the warden of Orphanage 43, one of the many orphanages that border the wasteland. Children are brought here at an early age to be indoctrinated to serve the system. It hurts me to do that to them. I too, must serve the system."

The protagonists consist of Jason (Creator/JasonPatric), Terra (Creator/JamiGertz), Tug (Creator/PeterDeLuise), Rabbit (Claude Brooks), Metron (James [=LeGros=]), and a young deaf boy named Daniel (Lukas Haas). The orphans play a rough sport which is a hybrid of lacrosse and roller-hockey. The titular Solarbabies have (through their experiences and friendships on the team) managed to forge a bond that unites them and transcends the futile attempts of the Protectorate to control them.

While hiding in a mineshaft, after a game broken up by the Protectorate, Daniel finds a mysterious orb with special powers. The orb is apparently an alien intelligence called Bohdai, who miraculously restores Daniel's hearing and has other powers, once even creating rain indoors. Daniel takes the orb back to his companions, but another orphan, Darstar, impressed by its abilities and power it promises, steals the orb, hoping to present it to the Tchigani, his native people. He leaves the orphanage with first Daniel and then, as a result, the rest of the Solarbabies in hot pursuit.

What follows is a pretty standard '80s post-apocalyptic child-empowerment romp fueled by the power of friendship as the Solarbabies risk life and limb to protect the orb (and each other) from the machinations of the oppressive Protectorate.

As an interesting sidenote, the film was renamed ''Solarwarriors'' in the UK. (possibly to make it sound ''tougher''). However, the dialogue concerning the team name was unchanged.

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!!This movie contains examples of:
* AfterTheEnd: You better believe it. Bonus points for also being barren due to lack of water.
* BigDamnHeroes: The appearance of the [[spoiler:Eco Warriors to rescue the protagonists from bounty hunters certainly qualifies.]]
* BountyHunter: Malice and Dogger hang around the E-police headquarters in the middle of the wasteland, begging for work and saying they'll kill or capture whoever Strictor wants if he'll give them water.
* BornAfterTheEnd: It has apparently been decades since most of drinking water was lost and wars ravaged the planet, as some of the main characters have been at the state-ran OrphanageOfFear since infancy.
* CaringGardener: The Warden uses some of his limited drinking water rations to make a flower grow in the middle of the desert. [[KickTheDog Strictor kills the flower just to be a jerk.]]
* CommanderContrarian: Metron spends a lot of his time complaining about his friends' decisions. He gets better after a while.
* DoAnythingRobot: "Gentlemen, this is Terminac. He is a multi-capable masterpiece. He can squeeze the colour from a ruby or deftly pluck the eye from a living bird. And he is programmed to [[RoboticPsychopath ''enjoy'']] what he does."
* FatAndSkinny: The two bounty hunters. Malice is chunky and Dogger is thin.
* GeneHunting: Darstar tries to track down the village he was taken away from when he was two months old to reunite with his people.
* GroinAttack: ''Never'' get fresh with a girl holding a shovel.
* HeroOfAnotherStory: Greentree has little to do with the main action but spent years prior to the movie fighting the sinister E-Protectorate, trying to break their control over the world, a struggle which saw his wife killed and his daughter abducted.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: After escaping guards and attack-dogs by climbing a ladder, the heroes push another security guard down the ladder's shaft. The sound of the dogs tearing into the hapless guard can be heard as the characters continue on. Grock gets attacked by his own minions' RoboticTortureDevice after it's blinded by the kids.
* ImportedAlienPhlebotinum: The Orb (Bohdai)
* InjunCountry: Lots of this with Darstar's people the Tchigani.
* LongLostRelative: [[spoiler:Terra's dad - who happens to also be the leader of the Eco Warriors.]]
* MeaningfulName: Bodhi. In the Mahabhrata, Bodhi stones are powerful orbs which granted enlightenment to the eight village elders the stones with given to. The word "bodhi" is also the Sanksrit word for "enlightenment."
* ANaziByAnyOtherName: The E-Protectorate troops wear gray Nazi-like uniforms, break apart families, and try to indoctrinate the world's children into believing their point of view while being willing to kill those who won't accept it. The BigBad even has a German-sounding name.
* NebulousEvilOrganisation: The E-Protectorate.
* OpposingSportsTeam: The Scorpions are shown, purely to introduce CorruptCop characters Gavial and Strictor Grock.
* OutrunTheFireball: The Solarbabies do this at the end [[spoiler:when Bohdai decides to destroy the facility by exploding. [[BackFromTheDead He gets better.]]]]
* PinballProtagonist: The Solarbabies.
* PunnyName: Bodhi gets the appelation "Sphere of Longinus". Longinus is reportedly the name of the Roman soldier who stabbed Christ with a ''spear''.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: The warden doesn't discipline the orphans under his care unless he's forced to by his bosses and lets them go outside the facility's walls on occasion. When disciplining the Solarbabies for going outside without permission to play a game, he says that he would have allowed them to play at the prison if they'd asked. He also pleads with Strictor not to kill Jason and the others after they escape.
--> '''The Warden:''' This orphanage is dedicated to producing useful members of the E-Protectorate. I will not run it as a prison.
* RecycledInSpace: The movie is best described as ''Film/MadMax'' [-[[RollerbladeGood ON ROLLER SKATES]]-]!
* RollerbladeGood: The protagonists all ride on roller skates.
* TheSmurfettePrinciple: Terra is the only girl among the heroes.
* TheEighties: If you've ever seen the trailer. In addition, the protagonists use roller skates.
* TheEmpire: The E-Protectorate.
* TokenBlackFriend: Rabbit is the sole African-American character and is one of the least fleshed out characters.
* TragicHero: Darstar is a bit of one. He steals the orb in the hopes of restoring the spiritual power of his people, but unfortunately they've grown corrupt [[spoiler:and his act leads to them being decimated or enslaved.]]
-->'''Terra:''' "Why did you take the sphere?"
-->'''Darstar:''' "Because I thought it'd do magic for me, like it did for you."
* WastelandElder:
** Greentree leads the Eco-Warriors, who reside in a HiddenElfVillage with one of the world's few oases. Once, he led the battle against the NebulousEvilOrganization, but he's just been laying low and hoping to win by surviving, to outlive them, for the past few years.
** The Gypsy-esque Tchigani people are also hiding from the E-Police in the wasteland, although their community is far less prosperous than Greentree's. Their leader is only in his thirties and isn't particularly bright or pleasant. However, the group's eldest member is more approachable and the only one who's heard of Bodhi.
--> '''Ivor:''' He's old. He only lives to keep the past.
* WiseBeyondTheirYears: Darstar dips into this occasionally
-->'''Darstar:''' "I was raised in a Protectorate orphanage. That's all I know."
-->'''Chief:''' "What do they call you?"
-->'''Darstar:''' "I call myself Darstar."
-->'''Chief:''' "The owl, it's yours?"
-->'''Darstar:''' "As much as an owl is anyone's."
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