I caught this on cable the other day. This movie is a complete guilty pleasure for me.
I noticed something that’s been bugging me. Xur, the leader of the Kodan armada has this wicked scepter that he carries around. I think that this prop was used in another film but I have no idea what film it was.
Any ideas on that?
I can’t say I’ve seen the scepter in anything else, but just wanted to stop in and say i’ve loved this movie since it came out. It’s on the DVD shelf with “Buckaroo Banzai”, “Time Bandits”, “Tron” and half a dozen other movies from '80-'84 that I saw multiple times in the theatres and help me keep my sanity during my lost “waitressing in Hollywood” years.
I’d love to have a gung-ho iguana around to tell me to relax.
Ah, the young boy’s fantasy. Arcade games are actually sophisticated aptitude tests designed to help select the best of the human race so they can be put in charge of a spaceship, helping to defend all that is good and right in the universe.
Cool movie.
I love The Last Starfighter. Robert Preston was a favorite actor of mine from way back, and he had a great role in this movie.
Regarding the sceptre, I seem to recall that Sybil Danning’s character in Battle Beyond the Stars carried a sceptre that was very similar, if not identical.
Hmmm. This is what I remembered about the movie. I was very psyched some years ago to rent it and reexperience the movie as I did as a child. Then I noticed something. At first I thought, “no it couldn’t be, not one of my best childhood movies.” The more it played though, the more obvious he became. There it was, before my eyes, Jar-Jar Binks. Oh no, he wasn’t disguised as an alien. He was an african-american janitor on the trailor park. One of my favorite childhood movies was ruined. Suddenly there were racial conotations to everything. Yuck! I wish I had left it in my past, where it was still good.
For those of you that are interested in defending the Star League from Xur and the Ko-Dan armada, you can.
Some guy actually made the game, and it is available for download here. I’ve played it, and it is a cast-iron bitch.
In a case of life imitating art, the U.S. Army released the game America’s Army in 2002 as a recruitment tool. Players can consent to have their play performance reviewed by real-life recruiters looking for potential enlistees.
My dad says his entire attitude on life can be described with a quote from this movie:
Sounds like someone didn’t pass their Excalibur test…
I have seen Battle Beyond the Stars and I’ve been Googling images but I haven’t found one of her with the scepter.
Of course the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.
You need not apologize for liking The Last Starfighter. It’s a fun movie. And don’t mock it’s special effects – they were considerably more advanced than what had been done before (the number of starships in a shot, for instance, was more than anything previous).
Robert Preston was great, but it’s really Dan Herlihy (as Grig) who steals the show.
Wasn’t it the first movie with only CGI special effects?
The Last Starfighter is a fun movie but it is so cheesy that my cholesterol level goes up each time I see it.
I know nothing about this movie, except that my mom still has the newspaper clipping for when it was showing at a Drive-In theatre near us… because it was the first movie I saw at a Drive-in with my brother and dad.
I should probably watch it someday.
Cheesy or not, I really, really liked this movie. It had humor, heroism(although with Alex it was reluctant), and the good guys won. And Centauri(Preston) at the end, still trying to get his cut.
The best exchange in a movie ever:
Kodan Officer: She won’t answer the helm! We’re locked into the moon’s gravitational pull. What do we do?
Lord Kril: We die.
And his girlfriend was hot!
I saw this on Sci Fi a few weeks ago and considered starting a thread on how stupendously horrible it was, despite my positive memories of it as a child. I think it’s one of those things where the idea of it is great, with the memories of it generating smiles, but I don’t think I could watch it again, ever. So… bad… 
Last Starfighter on Sex:
Alex Rogan: Otis, I just never have a chance to have a good time around here.
Otis: Things change. Always do. You’ll get your chance! Important thing is, when it comes, you’ve got to grab with both hands, and hold on tight!
Last Starfighter on Living your Dream:
Alex Rogan: Listen, Centauri. I’m not any of those guys, I’m a kid from a trailer park.
Centauri: If that’s what you think, then that’s all you’ll ever be!
Last Starfighter on Courage:
Alex Rogan: One gunstar? Against the whole armada? It’ll be a slaughter!
Grig: That’s the spirit!
Last Starfighter on Death:
Grig: Death is a primitive concept; I prefer to think of them as battling evil - in another dimension!
Last Starfighter on Destiny:
Centauri: The amusing thing about this, it’s all a big mistake. That particular Starfighter game was supposed to be delivered to Vegas, not some fleaspeck trailer park in the middle of tumbleweeds and tarantulas. So it must be fate, destiny, blind chance, luck even, that brings us together. And as the poet said, the rest is history.
Can you tell I like this movie? 
Does anyone have a screencap of the sceptre in question?
Apparently there was a Last Starfighter musical …