Character sheet for the film The Last Starfighter.
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Starlite Starbrite Trailer Park
Alex Rogan
Alex Rogan
Played by: Lance Guest
A teenage boy living with his mother and brother in the Starlite Starbrite trailer park. The film's protagonist, he dreams of greater things.
- 2xFore: Grabs a big hunk of plywood with a nail in it to defend himself against the Zando-Zan.
- '80s Hair: Big, poofy and very curly.
- Action Survivor: While Alex is pretty darn good at the controls of his Gunstar, outside of it, he is just a regular teenager, and lacks anything even resembling combat skills. This is best seen when he finds himself attacked by the Zando-Zan, who gets the drop on him not once but twice, requiring our hero to be rescued by the intervention of Centauri and Beta.
- Dare to Be Badass: When he protests that he's just a nobody who lives in a trailer park, Centauri sternly tells him that if that's really what he thinks of himself, that's all he'll ever be.
- Deadpan Snarker: It comes with being an 80s teenager.
- Disappeared Dad: Whoever Alex's father is or was, he's not around, forcing his mother to work to raise two kids in a trailer park. The novelization reveals that Mr. Rogan is dead.
- "Eureka!" Moment: When telling Grig about how he and Louis used to play hide and seek in the caves near the trailer park, this gives him the idea to hide until the Ko-Dan command ship passes them by so they can hit it from behind.
- Refusal of the Call: Once he finds out just how serious things are, he bails on the Rylans. This actually ends up unintentionally saving his life. If he'd stayed, he would've been killed along with all the other Starfighters by the Ko-Dan's meteor gun.
Maggie Gordon
Maggie Gordon
Played by: Catherine Mary Stewart
Alex's girlfriend.- Raised by Grandparents: Her only family seems to be Granny.
- Satellite Love Interest: She really doesn't add much to the plot, and "Alex's girlfriend" is about the sum total of her personality.
Louis Rogan
Louis Rogan
Played by: Chris Hebert
Alex's little brother.
- Bratty Half-Pint: Prone to wearing a space helmet and running around shooting at people and animals with his toy laser pistol, which fires suction cup darts.
Otis Davis
Otis
Played by: Vernon Washington
One of the trailer park's older residents.
- All There in the Manual: His last name comes from the novelization, as does the fact he insists everyone call him Otis instead of Mr. Davis.
- Cool Old Guy: Seems to think the Starfighter game is pretty cool.
- Intergenerational Friendship: With Alex.
The Star League
Beta
Centauri
Centauri
Played by: Robert Preston
Video game developer and the inventor of Starfighter. He is in fact an intergalactic huckster of sorts who serves as a recruiter for the Star League.
- Con Man: He tricks Alex into coming with him to save the Star League and he also uses his persuasive skills to sell the game that he invented to various stores and arcades.
- Disney Death: He is seemingly killed protecting Alex, but he later shows up after the film's climax to reveal that he was merely in a healing stasis.
- Expy: His entire characterization is based on Prof. Harold Hill, the lovable con man lead character in the musical The Music Man, which is the character that Preston was most well known for playing both on Broadway and in film.
Grig
Star Navigator First Class Grig
Played by: Dan O'Herlihy
A reptilian alien who serves as Alex's confidant, mentor and co-pilot when he has to go up against the Ko-Dan armada.
Enduran
Ambassador Enduran
Played by: Kay E. Kuter
The Rylan ambassador to the Star League. He has the dubious honor of being Xur's father.
Rylan Bursar
Rylan Bursar
Played by: John O'Leary
The Rylan officer in charge of dispensing pay. He's secretly a member of Xur's evil cult.
The Ko-Dan Empire
Xur
Xur
Played by: Norman Snow
The disowned son of Ambassador Enduran who has turned traitor. He leads the Xurians, an evil faction of Rylans who have aligned themselves with the Ko-Dan.
- Big Bad Wannabe: Xur only thinks he's in charge of the Ko-Dan armada. They barely tolerate his presence until they have crossed the Frontier.
- Evil Is Hammy: It's amazing the hull of his command ship was able to withstand his vast scenery chewing.
- Karma Houdini: At the end of the movie, Xur flies off in an escape pod and is never seen again (though it was done as a Sequel Hook).
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Xur escapes during the impact strikes of the Gunstar.
Kril
Commander Kril
Played by: Dan Mason
A Ko-Dan nobleman and commanding officer of the Ko-Dan armada, who answers directly to the Ko-Dan emperor.
- All There in the Manual: A lot of his backstory, such as the fact he has a family and is particularly keen on conquering the Star League as quickly as possible so he can go home and put his feet up (or whatever it is Ko-Dan do when they're off duty), comes from the novelization.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: Is identified as Lord Kril in the credits and the novelization confirms he is a member of Ko-Dan nobility.
- Dragon-in-Chief: Nominally under Xur's command by the order of the Ko-Dan emperor, but he's much more "main villain" material than the whiny, overly theatrical and tantrumy Xur.
- Dragon Ascendant: After he gets tired of Xur's antics and repeated screwups.
- Evil Sounds Deep: In contrast to Xur, he has a pretty deep, gravelly voice.
- Face Death with Dignity: His response to his own impending death is to simply stand a little straighter, swivel his techno-monocle thing into place, and calmly inform his Mook Lieutenant "We die" (in response to the latter's panicked "What do we do?").
- Commanding Coolness: A thoroughly levelheaded and smoothly evil Ko-Dan nobleman who holds the rank of Commander.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He's actually a family man.
- High-Class Glass: He has a red-lensed futuristic monocle-like thing attached to the side of his helmet which tends to swivel into place whenever he's feeling particularly contemplative.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Doesn't seem too interested in the glories of conquest. He's got a job to do and he wants to get it done as quickly as possible.
- Villainous Breakdown: Suffers a minor one that sees him order Xur removed from command, and make a fatal tactical error of attempting to ram Alex and Grig's Gunstar with his own ship despite the guns not working, which is what leads directly to his own death. Unlike his second in command, however, he recovers long enough to prepare to meet his maker with dignity after realizing there's nothing they can do.
- We ARE Struggling Together: Finds Xur irritating, is amused by the evil Rylan's efforts to intimidate him, and clearly wishes he'd just go away.
Ko-Dan Officer
Ko-Dan Officer
Played by: George McDaniel
Kril's second in command.
- Communications Officer: Seems to be his main job aboard the command ship, in addition to serving as the operator of its meteor gun.
- Decomposite Character: In the novelization, Kril has numerous officers serving under him instead of just this one guy. Since the book is based on the script, what likely happened is that in the script, Kril did have a much larger crew, and during filming the various communications officers, lieutenants, gunners, etc. abetting him were combined into one single character identified only as "Ko-Dan Officer" in the film credits.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Has an appropriately deep voice just like his superior.
- Hero Killer: With a dash of Small Role, Big Impact. Since he operates the command ship's main weapon, it is by his actions that all the Starfighters except Alex get killed.
- Mook Lieutenant: Being the second highest-ranking Ko-Dan that we see.
- No Name Given: The only thing he's ever referred to as in dialogue is "meteor gunner." The credits just call him "Ko-Dan Officer."
- Satellite Character: Is never seen without Kril and his entire character is just being the Ko-Dan commander's Number Two.
- Villainous Breakdown: Suffers a pretty big one when he realizes they're about to crash into the moon of Galan.
- We ARE Struggling Together: Does not like Xur, and openly expresses his contempt for the Rylan traitor every chance he gets.
Other Characters
Jack Blake
Jack Blake
Played by: Peter Nelson
A teenage boy from town and one of Alex's friends. Sort of.
- Adaptational Jerkass: In the movie, a lot of his and the other guys' jabs at Alex come off as just good-natured ribbing. In the novelization, however, he's quite a creep and exceptionally mean to Alex.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Alex, Maggie and even Blake's own girlfriend don't seem to like him very much, but seem to tolerate him because he's the only one in their social circle with a car.
- Last-Name Basis: Is almost always referred to as Blake, never as Jack. Similarly, he also always calls Alex by his last name.
- The Precious, Precious Car: A shiny red Dodge Power Ram. When "Alex" (actually Beta) takes it to drive off in pursuit of the Zando-Zan disguised as a cop, Blake yells at him, "Scratch that paint and you're dead, Rogan!" Beta ends up crashing the truck into the Zando-Zan's ship in a Heroic Sacrifice, destroying both vehicles.
- The Rival: For Maggie's affections. This is made more apparent in the book.
Zando-Zans
Zando-Zans
Played by: Marc Alaimo (Human Form #1) and Ed Berke (Human Form #2)
Shapeshifting alien assassins who take contracts for hire to kill people.
- Animal Motifs: Hammerhead sharks.
- Evil Smells Bad: They really stink, apparently due to bad hygiene.
- Helping Hands: Centauri shoots the arm off of the Zando-Zan impersonating the drifter. Despite this, the severed arm manages to still pick up the Zando-Zan's dropped gun and shoot back, (nearly) fatally wounding Centauri.
- Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: Their primary motivation for hiring themselves out as assassins. The second one (who impersonates the policeman) even considers remaining on Earth to keep killing humans according to the novelization because "there is good sport to be had here."
- Kill and Replace: Their standard M.O. is to go to a planet, find a native, kill them, and impersonate them. The first Zando-Zan does this to a drifter. The second one picks a cop.
- No Body Left Behind: When the first one is killed, his body is reduced to ashes. It's unclear whether this is because of the power of Centauri's gun or if a disintegrating body to avoid leaving any trace behind is a standard Zando-Zan thing.
- Professional Killer: They've made a name for themselves as hired killers due to their race's propensity for being thrill-seekers. To the Star League, they're "ZZ-Designates." To the Ko-Dan, they're "Termination Emissaries." Centauri just calls them "hitbeasts."
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: They can transform themselves to look like anyone and even mimic voices.
