* ActingForTwo: Lance Guest plays both Alex and Beta, who show up together on screen a few times.
-->'''Beta:''' Wait a minute, what are you doing ''back''?!
-->'''Alex:''' Are you kidding? It's ''war'' up there!
* ChannelHop: The film was produced by Creator/{{Lorimar}} (more known for their TV shows than films) and originally distributed by Creator/{{Universal}}. Lorimar was purchased by Creator/WarnerBros in 1989, and they now have TV and international rights, while Universal still has theatrical and home media rights.
* CowboyBebopAtHisComputer: The British TV guide, ''TV Quick'' synopsis of this movie says that Alex gets contacted by an alien from the future even though the movie doesn't feature TimeTravel.
* TheDanza: If you listen real carefully, there is exactly one scene in the entire movie where Mrs. Boone is referred to by her first name, Bunny, which is the same first name as the actress who plays her, Bunny Summers.[[note]]Pee-Wee Herman fans will know her as the costume lady in ''Big Top Pee-Wee''. [[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S10E03MerlinsShopOfMysticalWonders Mystery Science Theater 3000]] fans: Zurella from Film/MerlinsShopOfMysticalWonders.[[/note]]
* DeletedRole: Although Creator/WilWheaton's speaking scenes were cut, he can be seen in two scenes, running around the trailer park early in the film (wearing a red football jersey), and in the final scene, where he is obscured, standing behind Louis (wearing a blue jacket, possibly over the red jersey).
* FollowTheLeader: ''Franchise/StarWars'', which director Nick Castle admits in the DVDCommentary, and that there was some work to try to distance the movie from both that franchise and anything from Creator/StevenSpielberg.
* HeAlsoDid:
** Composer Craig Safan was also doing the music for ''Series/{{Cheers}}'', and some of the more wistful music in the film was incidental music from the sitcom.
** Scott Dunlop, the man behind the [[{{Cthulhumanoid}} Bodati]] mask (credited as "Tentacle Alien") later conceived and created ''Series/TheRealHousewives.''
** Veteran actor Creator/KayEKuter had a small role as Enduran, Xur's father.
** Director Nick Castle was also Michael Myers in the original [[{{Film/Halloween1978}} Halloween]]!
* InspirationForTheWork: According to Screenwriter Jonathan Beutel, the idea for this movie came about because he wandered into a video arcade and saw a young boy playing a video game, and also at that time, he read ''Literature/TheOnceAndFutureKing'' by T.H White, and it occurred to him, that what if a video game had been a sword in a stone, and a boy had scored an incredible number in the video game, which sent out a ripple effect across the universe.
* PropRecycling: Soon after Alex meets Grig for the first time, we see Grig adjusting a device with rotating red beams. This prop is a mainstay of engineering sets, most notably seen in ''Film/AirplaneIITheSequel''.
* ReferencedBy:
** The Pkunk ''Fury'' from ''VideoGame/StarControl'' can spin very fast, and has three short-range weapons firing three different directions. A popular move with this ship is to spin wildly while emptying the weapons battery.
** ''VideoGame/UniverseAtWar'' makes "Death Blossom" the special of the Novus ''Dervish'' fighter. It spins around wildly while firing its AntiMatter cannon everywhere.
** An episode of ''WesternAnimation/BuzzLightyearOfStarCommand'' has the crew tipped off that something's wrong because Buzz trips over the "foot" of an octopus-man who's not supposed to be there, parrallelling a scene where Alex [[spoiler: trips over [[TheMole a Ko-Dan spy]], who's also an octopus-man]].
** ''{{Literature/Armada}}'' is a WholePlotReference. In fact, Zack {{lampshades}} the similarity. [[spoiler: This is actually his first clue that all is not what it seems.]]
** Reaper's Ultimate move in ''{{VideoGame/Overwatch}}'' is called "Death Blossom" which involves him spinning while firing his dual shotguns in a 360° arc.
** In the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "[[Recap/SouthParkS9E4BestFriendsForever Best Friends Forever]]", Kenny gets a high score on a [[Platform/PlaystationPortable PSP]] game, meaning he's worthy to lead the armies of heaven to stave off an invasion from hell.
** Similar to the ''South Park'' version, in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/ClerksTheAnimatedSeries'', Randal plays a game about being a slave building pyramids, and then is recruited to do the same. Unfortunately for Randal, pushing bricks on screen and IRL are vastly different things.
** The ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'' episode "The Episode with No Name" has Matrix get into a bar fight with numerous enemies in which he instructs his SmartGun to enter "Death Blossom Mode." This causes it to tag every enemy in the room with a targeting marker and then spin like the titular maneuver in the film.
** Even if called with another name (''RIP Star'', if memory serves right), a power-up in the videogame ''Blasteroids'' when used causes your ship to spin wildly while shooting in all directions. It can be seen being used in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEZN8nnZDb0 the game's attract mode]]
** ''Anime/StarshipGirlYamamotoYohko'' has a similar premise of gamers teleported elsewhere in order to fly starships.
* ScrewedByTheLawyers: There have been talks of remaking, rebooting, or making a sequel to ''The Last Starfighter'' for years, but legal red tape has caused setbacks, as Creator/{{Universal}}, Creator/WarnerBros, and screenwriter Jonathan Beutel all claim to hold rights to the property. Creator/SethRogen tried to secure those rights but ended up doing a {{homage}} series, ''Series/FutureMan'', instead.
* VindicatedByCable: While the film did make a decent profit in theaters ($29 million gross against a $15 million budget), it was a hit on video and {{Creator/HBO}}.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** Atari did develop a full ''The Last Starfighter'' video game and cabinet, but it was never released to the public. ''VideoGame/StarRaiders'' programmer Doug Neubauer was developing an Platform/Atari2600 game based on the movie, but that project was also canceled after Atari's takeover by former Commodore head Jack Tramiel. It was eventually {{Retool}}ed into a game called ''Solaris''.
*** There was a licensed game for the Nintendo Entertainment System, but it was nothing like the game in the movie.
** Creator/RobinWilliams was offered the role of Xur, but passed.
** An earlier draft of the script took place in the suburbs.
** The producers wanted a song over the end credits, presumably eyeing a BreakawayPopHit. When composer Craig Safan and lyricist Mark Mueller had complied with Melissa Manchester singing the ballad "Just One Star Beyond". But when it was laid against the film, both Safan and director Castle felt it was exactly the wrong way to end the film. It's heard as source music in the film, and wasn't included on the soundtrack album. But you can find it on the Melissa Manchester compilation ''Mathematics: The MCA Years''.
--->'''Safan''': We didn't want people walking out of the theater to this song. We wanted them marching out of the theater, excited about what they had seen!
** Much higher quality CGI effects were planned, up to photorealistic landscapes, but the rendering would have taken 17 months. Redesigns to make some models less complicated and scaling back the resolution on others was done so the effects could be ready in a reasonable timeframe.

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