A recent high school grad (Lance Guest as Alex Rogan) lives in a rural traier park that his mother runs. Despite having a great girlfriend (Catherine Mary Stewart as Maggie) and a loving family, like any kid in his late teens he wants to see what is in the wider world, specifically he wants to go to college. But that requires a scholarship, and when he doesn't get one, that means he is stuck where he is, going to community college. Out of frustration and boredom he is given to playing "The Last Starfighter" video game that is in the park's rec area. Then one night Alex breaks the record on the game, and is surprised when the alien Centauri (Robert Preston) lands and asks him to come with him, that as the winner of the game he has won a great surprise of a prize.
Alex finds out that the surprise is that Centauri is an intergalactic con man who marketed the game to find somebody with the ability to be a Starfighter and basically simulated the actual war between the democratic Rylan Star League and the autocratic Ko-Dan Empire in the game. Alex says he did not sign up to get himself killed and asks to be taken back to earth.
Right after Alex leaves, the Starfighter base with all of the Rylan fighters is blown up due to sabotage and the Starfighters killed - except for one, Alex. The Empire sends a hitman after him in the trailer park, and he would have succeeded if not for Centauri interceding. Centauri tells him the empire will send more and more of these hit men and that the only way Alex can protect himself and his family is go back and be a Starfighter. Except now he is literally "the last Starfighter".
If this all sounds a bit like Star Wars - autocratic empire versus democratic good guys, a young man who wants adventure who finds himself in the middle of things, etc. that is because it is. Unfortunately, the villain doesn't really measure up. That would be Xur, a traitor from Rylos to whom the Ko-Dan Emperor has promised control of Rylos in return for giving the empire vital information. Xur plays this role as a campy man child who walks around talking to his scepter. Not exactly Darth Vader.
There are some humorous bits - Robert Preston in his last feature film doing a send up of his conman role in The Music Man, and the robotic likeness of Alex who Centauri placed on earth so that Alex's friends and family don't notice he is missing while he is out saving the galaxy. The problem is that the robotic likeness just doesn't get 20th century "mating rituals" as he calls them, and manages to alienate Maggie in Alex's absence, and also frighten Alex's little brother when, in the middle of the night, the Alex clone decides to get up and repair his head.
The ending makes it look like the film was setting itself up for a sequel, but that never happened as the box office didn't really pay off. This was a summer movie in 1984 and much was expected, but it did not pan out. I'd still mildly recommend it, largely for the wonderful Robert Preston who unfortunately is not around for most of the film.
Alex finds out that the surprise is that Centauri is an intergalactic con man who marketed the game to find somebody with the ability to be a Starfighter and basically simulated the actual war between the democratic Rylan Star League and the autocratic Ko-Dan Empire in the game. Alex says he did not sign up to get himself killed and asks to be taken back to earth.
Right after Alex leaves, the Starfighter base with all of the Rylan fighters is blown up due to sabotage and the Starfighters killed - except for one, Alex. The Empire sends a hitman after him in the trailer park, and he would have succeeded if not for Centauri interceding. Centauri tells him the empire will send more and more of these hit men and that the only way Alex can protect himself and his family is go back and be a Starfighter. Except now he is literally "the last Starfighter".
If this all sounds a bit like Star Wars - autocratic empire versus democratic good guys, a young man who wants adventure who finds himself in the middle of things, etc. that is because it is. Unfortunately, the villain doesn't really measure up. That would be Xur, a traitor from Rylos to whom the Ko-Dan Emperor has promised control of Rylos in return for giving the empire vital information. Xur plays this role as a campy man child who walks around talking to his scepter. Not exactly Darth Vader.
There are some humorous bits - Robert Preston in his last feature film doing a send up of his conman role in The Music Man, and the robotic likeness of Alex who Centauri placed on earth so that Alex's friends and family don't notice he is missing while he is out saving the galaxy. The problem is that the robotic likeness just doesn't get 20th century "mating rituals" as he calls them, and manages to alienate Maggie in Alex's absence, and also frighten Alex's little brother when, in the middle of the night, the Alex clone decides to get up and repair his head.
The ending makes it look like the film was setting itself up for a sequel, but that never happened as the box office didn't really pay off. This was a summer movie in 1984 and much was expected, but it did not pan out. I'd still mildly recommend it, largely for the wonderful Robert Preston who unfortunately is not around for most of the film.