Cast

Ethan Hawke - Ben Crandall River Phoenix - Wolfgang Mueller Jason Presson - Darren Woods Robert Picardo - Starkiller/Wak/Wak and Neek's Father Leslie Rickert - Neek Dick Miller (I) - Charlie Drake Mary Kay Place - Mrs. Crandall Amanda Peterson - Lori Swenson Dana Ivey - Freda Müller (Mrs. Müller) Taliesin Jaffe - Ludwig Müller James Cromwell - Mr. Müller Bobby Fite - Steve Jackson

Story

Ben Crandall, a kid dreaming of other worlds, start making really strange dreams about an electronic device. With the help of Wolfgang Mueller, a little genius, he builds what happens to be a space travel engine.

With Darren, another outsider kid, they build a spaceship and leave to follow their dream of space adventures.

They hope to represent Earth, peace and wisdom to their visitors from outerspace, and that this encounter would be the beginning of a new era for the world.

The truth will reveal itself to be quite deceptive, though quite fun to watch.

Trivia

Director Joe Dante experienced many difficulties in the making of this movie : the script wasn't completely ready when they started shooting, so he had to improvize a lot, and the release date was brought forward by Paramount, which didn't really leave him the time to make the movie as he would have liked to.

River initially auditioned for the part of Darren. Jason Presson was better for the part, but Joe Dante and the casting director liked River a lot so they kept him as Wolfgang instead, which part he didn't like much.

Other Resources

• French review (not translated yet)