History Film / DarkStar

* MusicBoxIntervals: Played by Doolittle on a makeshift organ/celesta he built out of water filled cans and bottles.

* TakeThat: A computer screen flashes "FUCK YOU HARRIS" in one scene. Carpenter and O'Bannon, feuded with producer Jack Harris.

* TakeThat: A computer screen flashes "FUCK YOU HARRIS" in one scene. Carpenter feuded with producer Jack Harris.

* MusicBoxInterval: Played by Doolittle on a makeshift organ/celesta he built out of water filled cans and bottles.

* AllForNothing: Yes, the planets the crew destroy are unstable and could eventually threaten life in that system, but only on a cosmic time scale. It will take thousands of years for the orbits of said planets to destabilize enough to be a threat, which means they aren't really a problem that needs to be dealt with any time this millennium and the Dark Star's mission is completely pointless.

* ShoutOut:
** The ending was inspired by the ending of Creator/RayBradbury's short story ''Kaleidoscope''.
** Guess where indie band Pinback got their name from?
** The character Pinbacker from Danny Boyle's film ''{{Film/Sunshine}}'' is (somewhat) named after Pinback, [[WordOfGod as confirmed by Boyle himself]].
** The Marvel Comics storyline ComicBook/OperationGalacticStorm begins with aliens attacking Rick Jones... in Benson, Arizona.

The film is about the small crew of the titular scout ship, whose job is to destroy unstable planets which might threaten future colonization.

''Dark Star'' is a tongue-in-cheek 1974 sci-fi/comedy motion picture directed by Creator/JohnCarpenter (helming his first feature film) and co-written with Dan O'Bannon. ''Dark Star'' was ranked #95 on Rotten Tomatoes' ''Journey Through Sci-Fi''.

[[ Music/Sade Go]]

Not to be confused with the video game featuring the cast of ''[[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 MST3K]]'', or the final level in ''VideoGame/Kirby64TheCrystalShards''.

Not to be confused with the video game featuring the cast of ''[[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 MST3K]]''.

* SpaceTruckers: One of the earliest examples in popular culture, if not the UrExample.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dark_star_1974_poster_03_5236.jpg]]

* AbsentAliens: The characters display absolutely no interest in their computer calculating a 95% chance of intelligent life in a nearby system, with the implication that previous pursuits of such readings had brought disappointing results. Or maybe [[FantasticallyIndifferent they're just that burned the fuck out.]]

* AGodAmI: [[spoiler:Doolittle succeeds at convincing Bomb #20 that its external sensory data is a lie and it itself is the only thing it can be sure exists, in a desperate gambit to make the bomb disregard an order to detonate while still attached to the ship.]] Unfortunately, the character in question uses this new 'insight' to become a solipsist and eventually decides that, in the absence of anything else having any proof of existence, this means it is, in fact, God. And God said "let there be light"... And there was light...

** Note that it does so when coming out of hyperdrive. Modern shows have ships doing exactly the same thing, which is justified if an esoteric Drive is used to subvert Newtonian physics.

** Note that it does so when coming out of its equivalent of warp drive. Modern shows have ships doing exactly the same thing, which is justified if an esoteric Drive is used to subvert Newtonian physics.

Not to be confused with the video game featuring the cast of [[MysteryScienceTheater3000 MST3K]].

* AbsentAliens: The characters display absolutely no interest in their computer calculating a 95% chance of intelligent life in a nearby system, with the implication that previous pursuits of such readings had brought disappointing results.

* HarmlessFreezing: The dead-but-frozen captain among its crew, who is at least partially conscious, some of the time.

** The reel to reel computers in the opening communication from Mission Base. Lampshades, as he did say there'd been some budget cuts...

* FiveFingerFillet: Boyler tries this but fails.