Starman (film)
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| John Carpenter's Starman |
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 Starman theatrical poster |
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| Directed by | John Carpenter |
| Produced by | Larry J. Franco Michael Douglas |
| Written by | Bruce A. Evans Raynold Gideon Dean Riesner (Uncredited) |
| Starring | Jeff Bridges Karen Allen |
| Music by | Jack Nitzsche |
| Cinematography | Donald M. Morgan |
| Editing by | Marion Rothman |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | December 14, 1984 |
| Running time | 115 min. |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $24 million USD |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
John Carpenter's Starman is a 1984 science fiction and fantasy film directed by John Carpenter which tells the story of an alien from another planet (Jeff Bridges) who has come to earth in response to the invitation found on the gold phonograph record in the Voyager space probes.
The movie was written by Bruce A. Evans, Raynold Gideon and Dean Riesner (uncredited). Bridges was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. The film inspired a short-lived, 1986 television series of the same name which starred Robert Hays and Christopher Daniel Barnes.
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[edit] Plot
Upon arriving to earth's atmosphere, the Starman's ship is attacked by military aircraft, forcing it to crash-land. The Starman, requiring a human form in order to get assistance, searches the local countryside and finds the cabin of a young woman named Jenny Hayden (Karen Allen). After reminiscing about her dead husband Scott by watching old movies and looking through photo albums, Jenny has fallen asleep from drinking too much in an attempt to drown her sorrows. The visitor finds a lock of Scott's hair in a photo album and samples the DNA from the hair, replicating it to a fully adult, cloned body within minutes in which he takes residence. The Starman then convinces Jenny to drive him from Wisconsin to Meteor Crater in Arizona, where his mother ship will be picking him up. Jenny is both terrified and enthralled by this seeming return of her dead husband, and so she agrees to help the Starman get to Arizona, although at first the fear seems to outweigh the interest.
Along the way, the couple is pursued by the Army, who detected the crash. The Army contingent is led by gung-ho NSA Chief Fox (Richard Jaeckel), who is reluctantly assisted by a less military-oriented scientist named Mark Shermin (Charles Martin Smith).
Over the course of the journey, the Starman learns about humanity (and being human) through direct experience and from some explanations by Jenny, who in turn learns more about him when his communication skills improve, finding that he is a tender, sincere, loving being. By the end of the journey, when the Starman is retrieved by his fellow extraterrestrials, he has saved Jenny's life, they have fallen in love, and she has become pregnant by him.
[edit] Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Jeff Bridges | Starman |
| Karen Allen | Jenny Hayden |
| Charles Martin Smith | Mark Shermin |
| Richard Jaeckel | George Fox |
| Robert Phalen | Major Bell |
| Tony Edwards | Sergeant Lemon |
| John Walter Davis | Brad Heinmuller |
[edit] Sequel
An unsolicited script by Irish screenwriter Brad Hansen for a sequel to the film was written in 1998, but nothing became of it. Jeff Bridges has also expressed an interest in reprising his role, and is heard stating this on the Starman DVD commentary.
[edit] External links
- Starman at the Internet Movie Database
- Starman at theofficialjohncarpenter.com
- LA Weekly interview with John Carpenter on the making of Starman
- Karen Allen: An ACME Page - includes a Starman page
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