1974’s Dark Star delivered a fun sci fi comedy and also offered an early look at the talents of two notable up-and-comers in the industry, John Carpenter and Dan O’Bannon.
What Is It?
This movie follows the crew of the spaceship Dark Star, whose mission is to seek out and destroy unstable planets that may threaten human colonization. They carry out their objective by launching “intelligent” bombs whose only purpose in life is to explode once they reach their target. However, the ship passes through an asteroid storm that damages some of the internal systems, and one of the bombs which fails to launch insists on carrying out its sole purpose and detonating even though it will destroy the ship. This forces the acting captain—the actual captain is mostly dead but kept in a state of limbo in suspended animation—into an existential conversation with the bomb to convince it not to destroy the ship and its crew.
Cast: Dan O’Bannon, Brian Narelle, Cal Kuniholm, Dre Pahich
Crew: John Carpenter (Writer/Director/Executive Producer/Composer), Dan O’Bannon (Writer/Executive Producer)
Original Release: 1974
Legacy:
This modestly produced movie offers an early spoof on sci-fi movies while also demonstrating the potential of two up-and-coming figures in the industry, and it delivers a fun little film.
A Closer Look:
The names John Carpenter and Dan O’Bannon ring familiar to most genre fans these days because of their involvement in writing, directing, and/or producing numerous science fiction and horror classics such as Halloween, Alien, Escape from New York, Total Recall, The Thing, Blue Thunder, and many more. But these two genre auteurs got their start together with a fun little film called Dark Star, which came out in 1974. This movie delivers a spoof of sorts on science fiction standards like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Trek and offers a humorous counterpoint to the Trek mission to “seek out and find new life and civilizations.”
Made in the early ’70s on a very slight budget (around $60,000), the film obviously looks quite cheesy compared to the more polished products that come out of Hollywood today. However, the creative team makes the most of what they have and delivers an enjoyable romp that generates more than a few well-deserved laughs. Some may take issue with the acting, which includes Dan O’Bannon playing Sgt. Pinback (or liquid fuel specialist Bill Frug, depending on which story you believe), which seems more than a bit unpolished at times. But this also lends an air of authenticity to the film in its almost documentary style that tracks the tedium the ship’s crew must endure during their daunting twenty-year mission.
Unlike Trek, where the crew encounters myriad alien civilizations from week to week, the men aboard the Dark Star must deal with mundane problems like the storage locker self-destructing and destroying all of the ship’s toilet paper. Carpenter and O’Bannon key in on the fact that long-distance space travel would be monotonous and dull, deriving much of the film’s humor from that. They tap into more subtle sources for their satire and deliver the humor mostly through dry wit rather than going for a broad send-up of the genre along the lines Spaceballs. It does veer into slapstick a bit with the alien beach ball sequence, but it succeeds best when focusing on the monotony of daily life on the ship and how the crew deals with it, as well as how poorly prepared they are to handle the crisis at the end of the film. Dark Star also has a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy feel at times (though toned down), especially during Doolittle’s conversation with the bomb.
This early work from Carpenter and O’Bannon is definitely rough around the edges, and today’s viewers may need to give it some leeway considering its inauspicious beginnings. It is great fun, though, and a nice glimpse at the raw talent of the two creators who brought the movie to life. A good sci-fi comedy is hard to find, and I would classify this as one of the better ones out there. Brace yourself for the cheesiness going in, but ultimately you will find that it rises above its limitations and delivers an enjoyable little genre spoof.
Why Was There No Sequel?
Dark Star received only a limited release in 1974 and did not draw much of an audience into theaters. It would later go on to do well in midnight movie showings and home video release, largely due to the reputation of its central creative team. But both were busy with other projects by that time, and there was not much interest in revisiting the universe they created in their first film. It has gone on to be considered a cult classic, though, and a notable sci fi entry from the pre-Blockbuster era.
Should It Be Rebooted?
I’m sure that there are people in the entertainment industry who look at Dark Star for its franchise potential because of the notable names attached to it, but this one should be left alone. It was an early creative blast from John Carpenter and Dan O’Bannon, and it should be appreciated for showcasing their talents at a formative time in filmmaking. Certainly, some believe a bigger-budget version could reach a much larger audience. But there are plenty of other properties with better reboot potential (might I offer Planet of the Vampires or Logan’s Run?), so it’s better to go with those than potentially tarnish the legacy of Dark Star.
Interesting Facts:
The movie was originally shot as a 45-minute student production and made the rounds of several festivals before a financer decided to pick it up for release. He wanted it extended to it feature length, resulting in the inclusion of the alien beach ball scene, which has a tacked-on feel and does not gel as well with the rest of the film. However, it does not sink the film and adds a few laughs in the process.
Dan O’Bannon later revised the alien sequences from the movie into a script titled “Star Beast,” which delivered a more serious take on a deadly extraterrestrial stalking the crew members of a spaceship. Over the next few years, that eventually morphed into the screenplay that was used for Ridley Scott’s Alien.
Where Can You Watch It?
This movie has been released on DVD, included an remastered edition, but it has not received the Blu-ray treatment yet. It is available to stream for free (with ads) on services like Tubi TV, The Roku Channel, and Crackle, and it is also streaming on Amazon’s Prime Video and Peacock.
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