Explorers (film)

Explorers is a 1985 American science fantasy film written by Eric Luke and directed by Joe Dante. The film stars Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix, both in their film debuts, and Jason Presson as young teenage boys who build a spacecraft to explore outer space. The special effects were produced by Industrial Light & Magic, with make-up effects by Rob Bottin.

Rushed into production, the film was never properly finished. Dante revealed that the studio demanded that he stop editing and rush for a July release where it was overshadowed by the Live Aid concert, which was held one day after the film's release and stiff competition from Back to the Future, which opened nine days prior. It was a box office failure and received mixed reviews from critics upon its release, but it attracted a cult following with its VHS release.

Ben Crandall is a young teenage boy living in a fictional Maryland suburb, who experiences vivid dreams about flying through clouds and over a vast, city-like circuit board, usually after falling asleep watching old sci-fi films. Upon waking from the dream, he draws a diagram of the circuit board and shows the sketches to his friend, child prodigy Wolfgang Muller. At school, Ben develops a crush on Lori Swenson but is unsure whether it is mutual. The boys also befriend punkish-but-likable Darren Woods, with whom they share their circuit-board concepts. Wolfgang builds an actual microchip based on Ben's drawings. The chip enables the generation of an electromagnetic bubble which surrounds a pre-determined area. The boys discover that the bubble is capable of moving at near-limitless distances and speeds without ill effects from inertia. Due to Darren’s connections at a local junkyard and his mechanical skills, the three boys construct a rudimentary spacecraft out of an abandoned Tilt-A-Whirl car and name it Thunder Road, after Bruce Springsteen's song of the same name.

After Ben receives more dreams about the circuit board, Wolfgang discovers a means of producing unlimited sustainable oxygen; this means longer flights, whereas previously they were limited to whatever a typical oxygen tank could hold. They finalize their plan to explore the galaxy in search of alien life. The boys complete lift-off, despite interference from the authorities (one who silently wishes them well). Shortly after breaking Earth's orbit, something overrides the boys' personal computer-controls. Thunder Road is beamed light-years away into deep space and is tractor-beamed aboard a much larger spaceship. The boys venture out to meet their "captors", Wak and Neek: two aliens whose knowledge of Earth comes almost entirely from pop culture, particularly TV reruns.

The young explorers hit it off with their alien hosts, but then the alien ship is suddenly intercepted by a larger alien ship. Wak urges the boys to leave. They are in the process of doing so when they are interrupted by a gigantic alien who admonishes Wak and Neek. It is revealed that Wak and Neek are brother and sister, and the gigantic creature is their father; they have taken his ship out for a "joy ride", sending the dreams to the boys in the hopes of meeting humans. Transmissions of old movies have kept the alien populace at a distance – except for the curious Wak and Neek – due to the way humans depict violence toward alien life.

Wak and Neek's father allows "Thunder Road" and its crew to depart, after Wak and Neek give the boys a parting gift: an amulet, which, according to the aliens, is "the stuff dreams are made of." The boys make it safely back to Earth, but a malfunction results in them crashing "Thunder Road" into a lake. A week later, Ben has a dream at school in which he envisions another vast circuit board while flying through more clouds overhead. This time – thanks to Wak and Neek's amulet – Ben is joined in the dream by Wolfgang, Darren, and Lori. They note the circuitry's complexity and speculate where it may take them once completed. Lori smiles at Ben while holding his hand, and they share a kiss while flying.

A rumor persists that the script for Explorers had been circulating Hollywood offices for years before it was made, and that it was bought by the studio because a scene of "children flying through the sky on bicycles" appealed to Steven Spielberg for his film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. The film was originally to be directed by Wolfgang Petersen having initially impressed Paramount executives with his family-targeted The NeverEnding Story. Petersen wanted to film it in his native Germany. The studio decided to settle in the States with an American director and Petersen was not long after commissioned by 20th Century Fox to take over the production of Enemy Mine. "The funny thing about it is that when I was first given the script, I was coming off Gremlins and in a rare point in my career I was like 'hey, let's get this guy,'" said Dante during a Q&A and screening of the film in 2008. Dante liked what he read but did not feel there was a third act. "At the end when the kids went to the planet, they go and play baseball. That was the plot. It seemed that wasn't quite enough." While discussing the script with Paramount executives, they said "we can work on it while we're making the picture." Dante and the writer, Eric Luke, were "improvising what they were going to do" while the film was being made.

Both Hawke and Phoenix make their feature film debuts. Phoenix, who had grown up in communes in South America, was somewhat unfamiliar with popular culture of North America. During rehearsals it became a running joke when he would attempt scripted well-known words and phrases and pronounce them incorrectly. Phoenix was originally considered to play Darren, but when Dante chose Jason Presson to play him, Dante thought he was good enough to play another role so he cast him against type as the nerdy Wolfgang. Cherie Currie was considered for a part but, according to her autobiography, she was in the throes of drug dependency and could not even make it to a meeting.