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This isn’t a glossy film, but it’s purposeful and relatable. Explorers is also careful in depicting the changing American middle class. While hammy and kooky to appeal to the demographic, there’s a genuine sense of wonder in the first hour.
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Notably pulled from Joe Dante’s grasp before release, the third act was never finished.
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The excitement transcends Explorers’ goofiness as intellectual Wolfgang (River Phoenix) decodes alien messages sent through dreams. NASA’s shuttle era plays into this script, making space exploration thrilling again after people stopped tuning in to moon landings in the previous decade. Yet oddly, he doesn’t pick up on the fact that his experience retreads This Island Earth in its entirety. Ben Crandall (Ethan Hawke) is a sci-fi obsessed grade schooler, enamored with Ray Harryhausen films and alien invasion epics like War of the Worlds. Explorers and its ilk act like generational bridges, where the monster kids from the ‘50s transplant themselves into the early computing era. Movies like this, focused on a few geeky kids on a wild, surreal adventure, tapped into the decade almost flawlessly. Spielberg did it with E.T., Richard Donner with The Goonies, and Joe Dante with Explorers (and in Dante’s case, a few others). But, not for its technology or style, rather being a pure sci-fi/fantasy made by a director trying to recapture the freedom of their 1950s youth.