This movie is a real gem and a hugely enjoyable adventure. I discovered it whilst flicking through late night TV in the 90s, and since then it's become a real favourite.
It's pretty obvious that the film is basically a mashup of a few things, and it could easily be described as Han Solo in Mad Max land. However, don't let that dissuade you - this is a top notch little sci-fi adventure film which is far more than the sum of its parts.
Peter Strauss plays the grumpy Space Captain called Wolf, and he does an excellent job of the typical hardened loner but with a soft centre. Molly Ringwald is terrifically bratty as the orphan Niki, and the chemistry between the two really shines. Ernie Hudson and a heavily made up Michael Ironside provide solid support.
My only real complaint is that I really felt they should have kept the Chalmers character throughout the whole film. I found the interplay between Andrea Marcovicci and Peter Strauss to be really interesting, and I was sad that it came to an end so soon. I think a triangle with Wolf, Chalmers, and Niki could have been really fascinating as a pseudo family unit, and offered much more texture than just Wolf and the kid, with Chalmer's "secret" plus her as a mother figure being a real talking point in a Terminator 2 type way.
The film isn't too heavy on backstory which is a shame as we're kind of just thrown into things, but the character setups, although thin, do the job.
Just as a side note, the film has an odd connection to Ghostbusters. It's produced by Ivan Reitman who is the director of Ghostbusters, and it stars Ernie Hudson who played Winston Zeddemore, it's scored by Elmer Bernstien who also scored Ghostbusters, and Harold Ramis (Egon) even has an uncredited voice cameo. Spacehunter of course being released a year before Ghostbusters, so it's interesting to think that this may have been some testing of the waters for certain aspects.
Like The Last Starfighter, this film feels like it is part of a bigger story, and it seems like it was perhaps meant to kickstart a series of Spacehunter movies. I'd have loved to have seen a continuation with Wolf and Niki with maybe a new Chalmers model, but I guess the film didn't quite do well enough.
Nevertheless, it's standalone value makes it well worth a watch.
It's pretty obvious that the film is basically a mashup of a few things, and it could easily be described as Han Solo in Mad Max land. However, don't let that dissuade you - this is a top notch little sci-fi adventure film which is far more than the sum of its parts.
Peter Strauss plays the grumpy Space Captain called Wolf, and he does an excellent job of the typical hardened loner but with a soft centre. Molly Ringwald is terrifically bratty as the orphan Niki, and the chemistry between the two really shines. Ernie Hudson and a heavily made up Michael Ironside provide solid support.
My only real complaint is that I really felt they should have kept the Chalmers character throughout the whole film. I found the interplay between Andrea Marcovicci and Peter Strauss to be really interesting, and I was sad that it came to an end so soon. I think a triangle with Wolf, Chalmers, and Niki could have been really fascinating as a pseudo family unit, and offered much more texture than just Wolf and the kid, with Chalmer's "secret" plus her as a mother figure being a real talking point in a Terminator 2 type way.
The film isn't too heavy on backstory which is a shame as we're kind of just thrown into things, but the character setups, although thin, do the job.
Just as a side note, the film has an odd connection to Ghostbusters. It's produced by Ivan Reitman who is the director of Ghostbusters, and it stars Ernie Hudson who played Winston Zeddemore, it's scored by Elmer Bernstien who also scored Ghostbusters, and Harold Ramis (Egon) even has an uncredited voice cameo. Spacehunter of course being released a year before Ghostbusters, so it's interesting to think that this may have been some testing of the waters for certain aspects.
Like The Last Starfighter, this film feels like it is part of a bigger story, and it seems like it was perhaps meant to kickstart a series of Spacehunter movies. I'd have loved to have seen a continuation with Wolf and Niki with maybe a new Chalmers model, but I guess the film didn't quite do well enough.
Nevertheless, it's standalone value makes it well worth a watch.