Dark Star (film)
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- This page is about the film Dark Star. For other topics, please see the disambiguation page at Dark Star.
| Dark Star | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical poster |
|
| Directed by | John Carpenter |
| Produced by | John Carpenter |
| Written by | John Carpenter Dan O'Bannon |
| Starring | Dan O'Bannon |
| Music by | John Carpenter |
| Cinematography | Douglas Knapp |
| Editing by | Dan O'Bannon |
| Release date(s) | 1974 |
| Running time | 83 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Dark Star is a 1974 sci-fi motion picture tongue-in-cheek comedy directed by John Carpenter and co-written with Dan O'Bannon, which explores the theme of cabin fever aboard a spacecraft on its 20-year mission to destroy unstable planets.
Contents |
[edit] Production
Although destined for eventual release in 1974, this was only possible as a consequence of a successful series of showings at a number of film festivals in 1973. Originally the film was a 45 minute student short filmed on 16mm film. The movie was transferred to 35mm with the addition of 38 minutes which brought the movie up to feature film length. The special effects on the movie were done by Dan O'Bannon, the model work by Ronald Cobb and animation was by Bob Greenberg, all of which are considered impressive for a student work. O'Bannon starred in the film in the role of Sgt. Pinback.
[edit] Plot
Four lonely astronauts aboard DARK STAR are adrift in space, have several adventures and find various ways to relieve their boredom. The film also features an encounter with a large orange-red web-footed inflatable beach ball alien of the entirely unconvincing variety. The genre of the film is essentially one of science fiction black comedy and despite some of its 'low budget' special effects, it is often seen as seminal, a forerunner of the Alien series. This isn't surprising, since Dan O'Bannon later wrote the script for the first Alien, although it was heavily rewritten.
It is the middle of the 22nd century and the scout ship "Dark Star" has been despatched on a twenty year deep space mission to destroy orbitally unstable planets that could threaten future colonization efforts. The ship is operated by the United States military, but is virtually without command from base (which happens to be in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica) because of its distance from Earth (according to the opening transmission, 18 parsecs away with a lag of 10 years). The ship, somewhere in its work, encountered an electromagnetically bound asteroid storm, causing massive damage to the ship. The main systems on the ship are dilapidated and (according to a Ship's Log entry, "continue[d] to deteriorate"). The ship's captain, Cmdr. Powell was killed in an accident involving his seat belt, but is kept "alive" in cryogenic support with wires directly implanted into his brain, and frozen at absolute zero. Talby, has become reclusive on the observation deck, only making contact with the crew when his meals are brought to him. Doolittle, the bomb operator and Ship's de facto commander, works on the ship's cramped bridge arming the bombs (called "thermostellar devices"). Pinback drops the bombs and controls the "alien" that serves as the Dark Star's "mascot". Boiler uses the ship's computer to survey near-by systems for unstable planets, charts the courses to said planets, and operates the evacuation (accelerates the ship suddenly) after the bomb drop.
The movie opens with the Dark Star approaching a planet. Bomb #19 is dispatched from the bomb bay. Doolittle talks to the bomb, asking it to check its failsafes, operations, and (finally) arms it. Pinback drops the bomb, succeeded by Boiler pulling the ship away from the planet at an amazing speed. They slow to a stop, where we see the planet destroyed followed by a notice of successful destruction. Bolier then searches for another planet for them to destroy and Doolittle deliveres the signature line: "Don't give me any of that intelligent life crap; just give me something I can blow up." Boiler gives him another option, and they agree to take off.
En route to the planet, they encounter another asteroid storm, where the electrical storm blows out a Communications Laser at the back of the ship. Apparently this laser "talks" to the bomb bay, and Bomb #20 prematurely activates. The ship's computer pleads and eventually overrides the orders for the bomb to drop. It returns to the bomb bay disgusted.
With all things going quite well, the crew return to their bunks, now made out in a Food Storage Locker because of previous damage to the ship. Pinback pulls out a rubber chicken from his prank-box and flusters Doolittle enough that he reports to another part of the ship, to be left alone with his crude musical instrument, which he had been building apparently for quite some time. The music provides an interlude to the next scene.
Pinback and Boiler are seen in a hallway, Pinback under a sun lamp with a reflective shield and sunglasses, and Boiler pulling a heavy, armored plate to prop it against the wall. Boiler takes a gun and prompty begins to use it for target practice. Pinback scolds him for using this gun because it was "Dangerous" and supposed to be used for "emergency purposes only." The ship's intercom then announces that "it's alien-feeding time." Pinback responds with: "Aww, I don't wanna do that!" Eventually the computer persuades him grudgingly to feed the alien. He reports to an empty, but dirty room. He tries to coax the alien down off of its perch. It hops down after he slides the broom he holds in hand back and forth along the top of the masses. This is the famous "beach-ball alien." Pinback gives it a piece of some indistinguishable food mass, to which it turns up its nose and whines. Much like a parent, he tells it that it can eat the food or starve and that it is ungrateful for all his work. It attacks him playfully, which severely irritates Pinback. He eventually pries it off of his back and it runs out into the hallway and hides. As Pinback searches for the departed pest, it attacks him yet again. Once he pries the animal off again, he pulls out a cat-toy from within his uniform and throws it at its feet. The animal contemplates it and gobbles it greedily, to which Pinback responds "Idiot!" He whacks it mercilessly with a broom. After a moment, the alien grabs it and congruently whacks Pinback. It runs off into a basement-like structure.
Pinback walks in there and comes up against what looks like an air duct (which is, in fact, an elevator shaft). He takes a plank and clambers over the chasm. The alien is discovered in an air lock, retreating from Pinback. He chases it out, where it jumps across the shaft. Pinback starts to clamber, once again, over the shaft, when it activates and the elevator car starts to march down. The alien attacks him repeatedly; Pinback, once more, throws it off. Eventually, Pinback is forced to let go of the plank, and grab onto a latch-handle on the car. He is forced to unscrew the wing nuts on a plate in the floor, and trys to pull himself up through it. Unfortunately, his hips are too wide, and his legs are left dangling out of the plate. Opera music begins to play in the car, and he strains to push a panel of buttons to eject the floorplate of the elevator. The computer tells him to press button 1 (which is conveniently located as far away from his reach as possible). After much struggle, the computer finally ejects the plate, where we see Pinback stuck in the floorplate with smoke rising from the car.
Meanwhile, the alien has pulled the trigger on the laser, and reactivated Bomb #20. It is more determined than ever to explode, but the computer reels it back into the bomb bay, with it delivering an ultimatum that the next time it would explode no matter what. Talby's monitor on the observation deck shows an "All Systems' Alert."
Pinback then frees himself from the plate and pulls out an "anesthetic gun" and loads it. He finds the alien and cutely says, "Time to go sleepy-bye." He shoots the gun and it "deflates", leaving behind "feet" and its "skin."
Talby is forced to go below and go into the computer room to investigate the site of the failure. He operates the computer, and in three easy steps finds that the communications laser is faulty. He informs Doolittle that he has found the site of the failure and that he would try to fix it. He reports immediately to the room, as the ship pulls out of light-speed and prepares for orbit insertion.
Talby gets to the failure and begins to tell Doolittle that the laser had been affecting the bomb bay operations, but Doolittle becomes flustered and turns off his communications device to prepare for the bomb drop. He orders the infamous Bomb #20 out and arms it. He removes the cover on the laser, and it shoots mere centimeters from his space suit. He crouches down and adjusts the cue on the laser. He adjusts it too wide however, and it shoots him in the face. He then ambles blindly around the airlock and finally walks into the laser, causing too much energy to be reflected back into the laser, causing the bomb-drop mechanism to short-circuit.
Pinback sounds the countdown for the bomb drop; but when he pulls the lever, it sounds an alarm heralding the failure of the bomb to drop. He tries again in about 10 seconds and it continues to fail to which he says "DROP DROP DROP!!!" The crew becomes frantic, trying to disarm the bomb, but it refuses. Doolittle contacts the Commander in a comical sequence, and he suggests that they try to teach the bomb phenomenology to convince it not to explode on the basis that what he perceives as real may not truly be real. Doolittle exits the ship to talk directly to the bomb. The bomb returns to the bay, saying "I must think on this further." Doolittle re-enters the ship from the back airlock, causing Talby to be blown out into space. Doolittle attempts to retrieve Talby. Pinback tries to give the bomb new orders; he responds "You are false data." Pinback becomes exceedingly angry and scared. The bomb theorizes that since he cannot prove that anything he knows truly exists, he must be God. He explodes in the bomb bay by saying "Let there be Light." The astronauts fade away into space in an ending almost exactly like Ray Bradbury's "Kaleidoscope." Talby joins the Phoenix Asteroids, whom he was expecting near their nuke site; Doolittle is, once again, able to surf through space (one of his laments about being in space); Commander Powell was at absolute zero, so he could remain indefinitely floating through space; Pinback and Boiler are killed in the explosion. The conclusion is just above the planet, with the sun rising there. The title reads "The End"; then quickly added is "Of Dark Star".
[edit] Analysis
Carpenter described Dark Star, tongue in cheek, as "Waiting for Godot in space".
It is also singled out as an example of "philosophy in the cinema" on account of the "talking bomb" sequence, where a strategy to prevent the unintended detonation of a renegade onboard explosive device is devised based upon teaching the bomb the rudiments of phenomenology (with amusingly unexpected results). Another key interpretational theme is the caricature of the Vietnam War legacy of 'mischief emerging from tedium' among military types on long uneventful missions.
[edit] Trivia
The classic C64 demo Terminus by Drew Rodger was heavily influenced by the film.
The novel Revelation Space, by Alastair Reynolds, makes use of a similar plot device as presented in Dark Star, possibly influenced by the film. In that novel, the captain of the starship in which part of the action takes place has been infected with the Melding Plague, requiring he be cryogenically preserved so as to slow down the plague's progression. One of the protagonists nonetheless entertains short and infrequent conversations with the captain by warming his brain a few degrees and interfacing with its implants.
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[edit] Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Brian Narelle | Lt. Doolittle |
| Cal Kuniholm | Boiler |
| Dre Pahich | Talby |
| Dan O'Bannon | Sgt. Pinback |
[edit] Uncredited Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Alan Sheretz | Bomb #19 |
| Adam Beckenbaugh | Bomb #20 |
| Nick Castle | Alien |
| Cookie Knapp | Computer |
| Joe Saunders | Commander Powell |
| Miles Watkins | Mission Control |
| Michael Shaw |
[edit] External links
- Dark Star (1974) at the Internet Movie Database
- Dark Star at the TCM Movie Database
- Dark Star at The Official John Carpenter
- Bomb #20 learns a little phenomenology
[edit] References
- Holdstock, Robert. Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Octopus Books, 1978, pp. 80-81. ISBN 0-7064-0756-3
| The Films of John Carpenter |
|---|
| Feature films |
| Dark Star | Assault on Precinct 13 | Halloween | The Fog | Escape from New York | The Thing | Christine | Starman | Big Trouble in Little China | Prince of Darkness | They Live | Memoirs of an Invisible Man | In the Mouth of Madness | Village of the Damned | Escape from L.A. | Vampires | Ghosts of Mars | Psychopath |
| Made for television |
| Someone's Watching Me | Elvis | Body Bags | John Carpenter's Cigarette Burns |
