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Nightflyers (1987)

Directed by: Robert Collector
Screenplay by: Robert Jaffe
Starring: John Standing (D'Brannin), Catherine Mary Stuart (Miranda Dorlac), Michael Des Barres (John Winderman), Glenn Withrow (Keelor), James Avery (Darryl), Michael Praed (Royd Eris), Lisa Blout (Audrey), Helene Udy (Lilly), Annabel Brooks (Eliza)
Rated: R (USA) - language, violence, gore (well ... we'll get to that lol)


The basic premise - a scientist Dr. D'Brannin (John Standing) puts together a mission into space to find an entity/creature known as the Volcryn. The team consists of the project coordinator Miranda Dorlac (Catherine Mary Stewart), linguist Audrey (Lisa Blout), cryptographer Lilly (Helene Udy), documentation technician/chef Darryl (James Avery), telepath Jon Winderman (Michael Des Barres) and his empath Eliza (Annabel Brooks) and a biologist Keelor (Glenn Withrow). They all board a space freighter called the Nightflyer and immediately sense something is awry when their captain Royd Eris (Michael Praed) only appears to them as a hologram.

The hologram captain then begins to build a relationship with the project coordinator (barf) and then suddenly strange things begin to happen on board - explosions etc. The telepath tries to warn everyone that the ship is alive and hates them all, but no one believes him. As the ship's computer begins to attack everyone, they discover the captain is really a cross sex clone and the computer is his "mother".

I have to preface this by saying I'm not a sci-fi fan in general - the only sci-fi I've ever gotten into is Stargate SG-1 and I think that's because it's set in present day. Well, that and Richard Dean Anderson. So to start, the material wasn't that interesting to me. The plot was convoluted and the main premise they bring up in the beginning - the search for the Volcryn - is dropped, only to be picked up for one moment in a "oh look, the volcryn, but not really" moment and it's gone again. If we hadn't even learned of the Volcryn (just that they were on a "mission") it would've been fine.

The effects weren't too bad for 1987 (the sci fi ones at least ... the so-called horror parts were funny ... I'm pretty sure if my head was lasered in half I wouldn't be A) moving or B) yelling) - the sets were hidden in a mist/fog practically the entire time. It was so distracting to not be able to see clearly it drove me nuts. It was also very dark which annoyed me. The score is so '80s it made my ears bleed, and you know, I love the '80s, so you have to be pretty special to make me hate them and the synthesizers they rode in on. The props are silly - their guns appear to be made of plastic and Tinker Toys. One minute the lasers are quiet, the next they sound like LOLcat lasers *pew pew*.

You'll know in the opening minute that this movie is made in the '80s thanks to the giant earrings, mirrored sunglasses and frosted hair that abounds, along with the massive shoulder pads. This also translates to some of the space costumes - space apparently requires that Royd Eris look like a giant dork.

The performances weren't bad, although Michael Praed grated on my nerves. Touched by the Hammer, I believe.

I have to say Michael Des Barres was made to play crazy. He has such a great off-balance demeanor as Winderman, and he never fails to freak me out. I blame watching him play psycho hit man Murdoc in MacGyver as a child for this (you have to love a character that falls of a cliff yelling "MacGyyyyvvvveerrrrr" the whole way down). They basically turn the character of Winderman into an info dump part way through - they don't advance the story by showing us Royd and his "mother's" back story (probably time constraints), so we get it in a giant info dump from Winderman, who finds it all out via his telepathic abilities and a little bit of possession. A bit of a cheat, that.

Catherine Mary Stewart wasn't bad, considering what she was given (I couldn't take the whole relationship with Royd crap). She had a certain air about her - commanding - that I thought was nice. I thought the characters of Audrey and Lilly were pretty useless and boring (could I even tell them apart? Barely. Did I care when they died? No. Could they have been left out of the story? Yes). I really liked the relationship between Darryl and Keelor - James Avery and Glenn Withrow worked really well together. I wish there was more humour in the film - the character of Keelor's such a smart mouth it livened things up; his exchanges with Darryl were nice and broke up the dramatic monotony. Their chatter as Keelor's trying to find the computer is a lot of fun, I wished there was a lot more of it. Their characters really were the most relatable and realistic to me.

I also wished we got a bit more back story from the science team characters - Keelor's pretty much the only one that we do get some back story on (he "lost it" on another mission and Darryl keeps telling him he doesn't have to prove anything by doing this alone...). Knowing a bit of his back story is necessary, since when he races off to destroy the computer, we need to know why he's so intent on doing so and without any help.

Then there's the final climax, with Keelor off to kill the computer and getting killed for his trouble. Then Darryl and Audrey getting whacked, which wouldn't be that noteworthy aside from the fact that it's Winderman's reanimated body (sans head) that kills Darryl. Then Winderman suddenly has his head and I finally see the inspiration for Mr. Boogedy with the face they give Michael Des Barres. Alas, poor decapitated head/computer/killer/psychic/mother/Boogedy is foiled when Miranda and Royd escape in Royd's coffin-like pod. Yeah.

I don't think this movie knew what it wanted to be - it's not a faithful adaptation of the source material (a short story by George R.R. Martin) from what I know. The pacing is so slow in spots, there are character moments interspersed with action, characters are forgotten (D'Brannin basically disappears until it's time to kill him), it's all over the place. I am wishing I had read the short story, because I am hoping it would answer some questions I had about the film.


Purchase Information

Nightflyers is available on VHS.
DVDs are occasionally available on eBay and at StumpyDisks.com

There hasn't been an official DVD release yet.

Pictures
(Click to enlarge)



Glenn as Keelor, from the opening few minutes of the movie.



Glenn as Keelor again. He looks cute in glasses.



On his way back from checking out the computer schematics. Apparently they must've taught computer science at biologist school ;-)



Darryl and Keelor trying to decide whether to leave the ship to repair it.

 

Video Clips



Keelor is on his way to the computer core, with Daryl giving him directions.