The Last Starfighter

The Last Starfighter is a 1984 science fiction movie, its subsequent novelization that year by Alan Dean Foster, and a video game based on the movie. In 2004, it was also adapted as an off-off-Broadway musical. The movie was directed by Nick Castle.

The movie was the first major movie to use extensive computer graphics to depict real objects in place of physical models.

The Last Starfighter is notable for having been the last film role of notable character actor Robert Preston before his death. The character of "Centauri" was a 'lovable-con-man' nod to his most famous role as Professor Harold Hill in The Music Man.

Alex Rogan (Lance Guest) is a teenager living in a trailer park who becomes the best player ever at Starfighter, a stand-up arcade game that has him "defend the Frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan armada." But the game is actually a flight simulator used as a training device: the night after he gets best score ever in the game, an alien named Centauri recruits him as a gunner against the enemies mentioned in the game; those enemies prove to be real. Centauri's spaceship is designed to look and drive like an ordinary car while it is on the ground on Earth in sight of humans. Centauri takes Alex to the alien base on another planet to get inducted while Centauri gets his recruitment fee. While serving as a starfighter, he is replaced on Earth by a synthetic android known as a Beta unit. Alex refuses the recruitment the first time since he is a Terran whose world is not a member of the Star League. He feels no obligation to get involved in a war his planet apparently has no stake in. Reluctantly, Centauri brings him back home to Earth.

Soon after Alex and Centauri have departed the Frontier base, it is destroyed in a sneak attack by Xur (acted by Norman Snow) and the Ko-Dan. After arriving home, Centauri gives Alex a pager to summon him if he changes his mind. Alex meets his double, who has been having trouble with his role on Earth. The android tries to convince Alex to return to the base. Angered, Alex refuses and activates the pager to summon Centauri to remove the impostor. But an assassin sent by Xur appears and tries to kill Alex. During the resulting chase, Centauri arrives and kills the assassin, but is seriously wounded himself. The Beta unit and Centauri warn Alex that more assassins are on the way, so Alex might as well become a Starfighter to at least have his ship's firepower at his disposal against the enemy.

With this new reality, Alex agrees to return only to find the base destroyed with only one experimental fighter left with one pilot, Grig (Dan O'Herlihy), to handle it. What's worse is that Centauri dies, leaving Alex alone on that world with Grig his only friend. They launch and encounter enemies, but Alex is having difficulty accepting the realities of actual combat and a disheartened Grig offers to take him home where he should live happily, until the Ko-dan inevitably attack his planet. Faced with this stark situation, Alex finds the gumption to fight. He hides in asteroids while the Xurian fleet passes, attacks it from behind, and destroys the Command Ship's communications turret to destroy the Xurian fighters' ability to act as one and thus impair their fighting ability. Meanwhile on Earth the Beta unit is destroyed as he successfully interrupts an assassin's transmitted warning that the last Starfighter is on duty. This lulls Xur and the Ko-Dan into a false sense of security. Alex pilots and Grig navigates the advanced fighter and defeats the surprised Ko-Dan armada. Xur escapes to fight another day. At the victory celebration, Centauri reappears having come out of what was actually his dormant regenerative state.

Alex returns to Earth again, and lands in the trailer park openly in his alien starfighter craft. He reveals to his family and friends that he has been recruited to help rebuild and defend the Frontier. With the blessing of her grandmother, Alex's girlfriend, Maggie Gordon (Catherine Mary Stewart) goes with him. The movie and the book end with Alex's younger brother Louis (Chris Hebert) preparing to play the Starfighter game hoping to join Alex one day in the starfighter force.