The Sci-fi Answer to a Fantasy Epic Is Still an ’80s Masterpiece That Was Ahead of Its Time

The Last Starfighter is one of the great science fiction movies of the 1980s. It featured revolutionary computer-generated special effects, a wicked cool spaceship, and a premise that made a whole generation of arcade kids think all those quarters they were pumping into video games might actually pay off someday. Nick Castle’s 1984 film features a teenager who discovers that his favorite video game is actually a secret recruitment tool for an intergalactic defense force. It’s a sci-fi classic that lives in the shadow of Star Wars$SW, but its biggest inspiration came from a much older tale. The Last Starfighter is basically King Arthur in space, with an arcade cabinet replacing Excalibur. Screenwriter Jonathan Betuel came up with the idea while working in New York City, where he spent his lunch breaks at a video arcade. He was also reading T.H. White’s The Once and Future King at the time, and began to wonder what would happen if a video game worked like the sword in the stone. Instead of yanking a legendary sword from a stone, a teen could prove his destiny for greatness by conquering an arcade game. That notion became The Last Starfighter, with Lance Guest starring as Alex Rogan, its unlikely King Arthur. Betuel even put a reference in the film. When Centauri is called out for his questionable recruiting practices, Grig asks if he’s up to his old Excalibur tricks again. Centauri says he didn’t use the Excalibur Test. He employed a video game. Suggesting he’s been recruiting on Earth over a millennium ago. The Last Starfighter Owes Its Story to One of Fantasy’s Most Influential Books Image via Disney$DIS The Once and Future King was published as a complete novel in 1958 and is still one of the most influential fantasy books of the 20th century. You may not have read it, but you’ve probably seen at least one of its adaptations. Its opening segment, The Sword in the Stone, was the basis of Disney$DIS’s animated classic of 1963. White’s novel was also the source for the Broadway musical Camelot and the 1967 film version that followed. The book is about a young Arthur called Wart as the wizard Merlyn prepares him for a destiny he doesn’t even know he has. Sounds familiar? It’s a setup that’s been used so many times in fantasy movies you can probably guess where the story is going before the kid even meets the wizard. In The Last Starfighter, Alex is a teenager stuck living in a trailer park dreaming of getting out and doing something with his life. Unfortunately, his plans for college have fallen apart, and his biggest achievement is holding the high score at the local arcade. Then Centauri, played by Robert Preston, arrives in a futuristic car and offers him the opportunity of a lifetime. Alex believes he has signed some kind of endorsement deal. Instead he has been drafted into a war in interstellar space against the Ko-Dan Armada. I guess nobody bothered to tell you that in the game instructions. Centauri is the Merlin of the movie, but Preston plays him mor