It was during the spring of 1995, while on vacation in Fort Lauderdale, that I read an eerie headline in the Sun-Sentinel. An elderly woman was dying of cancer, and she proclaimed that she wished to see her son one last time. What makes the story eerie is that her son disappeared from the Fort Lauderdale area in 1978, just like David Scott Freeman in "Flight of the Navigator". On the morning of July 5, 1978, Helen and Bill Freeman (Veronica Cartwright and Cliff DeYoung) awoke to learn that their son David (Joey Cramer) was missing. Eight years later, in 1986, he returned, not having aged a minute. Meanwhile, a flying saucer from the planet Phelan has landed on earth. It was later determined that all of its starcharts and artificial intelligence have escaped into David's brain. A team of NASA scientists led by Dr. Faraday (Howard Hesseman) is determined to research the connection between the alien ship and the time travelling David. Will David remain a lab rat for the rest of his life, or will he escape to freedom? There's only one way to find out, and that is by watching the movie. Perhaps there are several themes to this movie. Many families have lived with the tragedy of missing their children, and retrieving them is an arduous and time consuming task that often goes unfulfilled. It can also be seen as a story of alienation someone mired in 1978 may face if he were to suddenly awake in 1986. During those eight years, as David learned, his family moved and aged, Jimmy Carter was voted out of office, "Starsky and Hutch" went off the air, four new kinds of Coca-Cola hit the shelves, some girls began to dye their hair purple, and an all-male group named Twisted Sister replaced the Bee Gees as the most popular band of the time. Take note of the cameo appearances of Sarah Jessica Parker as NASA assistant Carolyn McAdams, and of Paul Reubens as the voice of Max. To answer your question, Chad Perman, Joey Cramer is alive and well and living in Vancouver. Having visited South Florida several times, I can add one last message of the movie. It really does feel like eight years when you travel up the I-95 instead of taking the Turnpike!
Review of Flight of the Navigator
