Flight of the Navigator
(1986)
PG | 90 mins | Science fiction | 30 July 1986
Director:
Randal KleiserWriters:
Michael Burton, Matt MacManusProducers:
Robby Wald, Dimitri VillardCinematographer:
James GlennonEditor:
Jeff GoursonProduction Designer:
William J. CreberProduction Companies:
Walt Disney Pictures , Producers Sales Organization
A 20 Oct 1984 Screen International news item stated that the picture represented “the first distribution deal” for the new management team of Michael Eisner, Frank Wells, and Jeffrey Katzenberg at the Walt Disney Co., and John Avildsen was named to direct. However, producer Robby Wald stated Avildsen was paid $100,000, given the screenplay, then proposed creative changes that deviated tremendously from the original concept. Avildsen claimed he passed on the script he received, as reported in the 15 Nov 1984 DV. The article also stated that director Brian DePalma was being considered for the project as Avildsen and DePalma shared the same agent, Martin Bauer. According to production notes in AMPAS library files, 300 boys were auditioned for the role of “David Freeman,” but only Joey Cramer who had finished Indestructible Man, a Disney Sunday Movie for television, was felt to have the experience and talent to carry a feature film. A brief in the 29 Jul 1986 HR noted that actor Paul Rubens [aka “Pee-wee Herman”] supplied an alien’s voice although he was not credited.
Referring to the project as The Navigator, a 1 Aug 1984 DV item stated John Ellis wrote the script, but Ellis receives no onscreen credit.
A news item in a 12 Feb 1986 Var and a 26 Feb 1986 Var article stated that principal photography began 4 Dec 1985 for ten weeks in Fort Lauderdale, FL. The picture was budgeted for $17.5 million, and was a coproduction with Viking Film of Norway, which financed one-third of the cost, while Producers Sales Organization ...
A 20 Oct 1984 Screen International news item stated that the picture represented “the first distribution deal” for the new management team of Michael Eisner, Frank Wells, and Jeffrey Katzenberg at the Walt Disney Co., and John Avildsen was named to direct. However, producer Robby Wald stated Avildsen was paid $100,000, given the screenplay, then proposed creative changes that deviated tremendously from the original concept. Avildsen claimed he passed on the script he received, as reported in the 15 Nov 1984 DV. The article also stated that director Brian DePalma was being considered for the project as Avildsen and DePalma shared the same agent, Martin Bauer. According to production notes in AMPAS library files, 300 boys were auditioned for the role of “David Freeman,” but only Joey Cramer who had finished Indestructible Man, a Disney Sunday Movie for television, was felt to have the experience and talent to carry a feature film. A brief in the 29 Jul 1986 HR noted that actor Paul Rubens [aka “Pee-wee Herman”] supplied an alien’s voice although he was not credited.
Referring to the project as The Navigator, a 1 Aug 1984 DV item stated John Ellis wrote the script, but Ellis receives no onscreen credit.
A news item in a 12 Feb 1986 Var and a 26 Feb 1986 Var article stated that principal photography began 4 Dec 1985 for ten weeks in Fort Lauderdale, FL. The picture was budgeted for $17.5 million, and was a coproduction with Viking Film of Norway, which financed one-third of the cost, while Producers Sales Organization covered the remaining two-thirds. A 15 Mar 1986 Screen International article reported that adverse weather conditions in Los Angeles, CA, and Dallas, TX, forced the production to move to FL. Production notes state that the company made its headquarters on a Ft. Lauderdale, FL, houseboat. Other locations included Watson Island in Biscayne Bay near Miami, FL, where the film’s opening Frisbee championships took place. The Villa Vizcaya Museum and Gardens doubled as the forest adjacent to David Freeman’s house. Sets for Dr. Faraday’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) headquarters and David’s bedroom were built at a soundstage at Miami’s Limelite Studios.The Federal Aviation Administration Tracking Station for Southern California was the site of several scenes, while the interiors of assorted hangars located at Opalocka Airport stood in for NASA property. Al’s Alligator Farm, a general store and dilapidated roadside attraction, was filmed at the BR Horse Ranch, owned by actor Burt Reynolds, in Jupiter, FL.
According to a 22 Feb 1986 Screen International article and the 26 Feb 1986 Var, the production relocated to Norway for an additional three weeks to shoot a section of a spacecraft that was transported in four sections to the outskirts of Oslo, and reassembled in an airplane hangar. Production notes state that two identical spaceships were built and only differed in weight. The lighter 700-pound ship was used solely for flotation sequences. The heavier ship of 1450 pounds had a full interior made out of aluminum. As reported in the 26 Feb 1986 Var, additional filming of glacier footage took place in a northern artic area of Norway.
The following acknowledgments appear in end credits: “Special Thanks to: Kevin Schehr, FAA Aviation Safety Inspector, Miami FSDO, residents and officials of Dade and Broward Counties, and the cities of Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, and Miami, Florida.” End credits state: “Filmed on location in Broward County, Florida and Limelite Studios, Miami, Florida,” “Segments from The Price is Right courtesy of Goodsen-Todman Productions,” “Music Video ‘Lose Your Love,’ written by Neil Arthur and Stephen Luscombe, published by Complete Music, Inc., ASCAP, performed by Blancmange, courtesy of Sire Records Company and London Records, produced by Stewart Levine,” “all original music composed and performed on Synclavier Digital Music System,” and “special thanks to N. E. D. Brad Naples.”
As the Freeman family leaves a park after watching the South Florida Frisbee Dog Championship, twelve-year-old David Freeman announces that someday his dog, Bruiser, will win the Frisbee competition. However, his younger brother, Jeff, thinks their dog is feeble and winning would be a long shot. Soon, Jeff is dropped at a friend’s house, and the Freeman family arrives home. After dark, Helen Freeman asks David to escort Jeff on his walk home through the woods. The brothers meet but when Bruiser runs off, David searches for his dog, slips, and falls unconscious into a ravine. He awakens and returns to the house without Bruiser. He finds the front door locked and pounds on the door. A strange woman appears and asks who he is. He runs past her looking for his parents. The house has been redecorated and his bedroom is now a study. The homeowners call police to reunite David with his parents. At the police station, Detective Banks and a colleague pull a missing persons report on David dated 1978. As the officers drive David to his parents’ new address, David believes the year is 1978 and Jimmy Carter is the president of the United States. His answers are met with silence. They stop at an unfamiliar house. When Bill and Helen Freeman greet the detective at the door, David rushes to meet them. As his parents embrace him in joy and disbelief, David loses consciousness. Elsewhere, Dr. Louis Faraday of The National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) has been called to examine an alien spaceship tangled in an electrical tower. As Faraday ponders how to move the spaceship to a new location, David ...
As the Freeman family leaves a park after watching the South Florida Frisbee Dog Championship, twelve-year-old David Freeman announces that someday his dog, Bruiser, will win the Frisbee competition. However, his younger brother, Jeff, thinks their dog is feeble and winning would be a long shot. Soon, Jeff is dropped at a friend’s house, and the Freeman family arrives home. After dark, Helen Freeman asks David to escort Jeff on his walk home through the woods. The brothers meet but when Bruiser runs off, David searches for his dog, slips, and falls unconscious into a ravine. He awakens and returns to the house without Bruiser. He finds the front door locked and pounds on the door. A strange woman appears and asks who he is. He runs past her looking for his parents. The house has been redecorated and his bedroom is now a study. The homeowners call police to reunite David with his parents. At the police station, Detective Banks and a colleague pull a missing persons report on David dated 1978. As the officers drive David to his parents’ new address, David believes the year is 1978 and Jimmy Carter is the president of the United States. His answers are met with silence. They stop at an unfamiliar house. When Bill and Helen Freeman greet the detective at the door, David rushes to meet them. As his parents embrace him in joy and disbelief, David loses consciousness. Elsewhere, Dr. Louis Faraday of The National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) has been called to examine an alien spaceship tangled in an electrical tower. As Faraday ponders how to move the spaceship to a new location, David is scared as he is wheeled through a hospital hallway. His mother promises that no harm will come to him, and a doctor calls his parents away. David thinks he was only gone for a few hours, but sees his brother, Jeff, now a teenager, standing by the door. Jeff describes how David went missing eight years ago, and every weekend, their parents insisted Jeff post missing person flyers with David’s photograph. As he hands David a flier, he says it is 1986. His parents return, and say the doctor wants to run some tests. David tells his mother that if he has truly been away eight years, it seems like a bad dream. Later, Dr. Faraday and his team transport the alien spaceship in a flatbed truck to an empty airplane hangar. At the hospital, David wakes and tells Jeff that he hears a voice over and over but does not understand the words. Reassured by Jeff that he is not going crazy, David falls back to sleep. At NASA, Dr. Faraday and his team are unable to penetrate the spaceship. Later, the doctor attaches electrodes to David’s head, and another doctor interviews him about his adventure in the woods. As he speaks, his brain waves create linear drawings of a spaceship on a computer screen. His doctor forwards the drawings to Dr. Faraday at NASA. Soon, Dr. Faraday visits the Freemans and asks that David be put under his care. David refuses until the doctor suggests he can explain the mystery behind David’s disappearance. He asks David to spend two days at NASA so the staff can determine the truth, and he agrees. As David rides with Dr. Faraday, he hears alien voices the doctor cannot detect. David is sequestered in a bedroom with toys, and a state-of-the-art television set. Soon, intern Carolyn McAdams delivers dinner in an automated food cart, and discovers David has missed out on recent popular culture. Later, more electrodes are attached to David’s head and he is interviewed. As David responds, scientists notice alternate answers appear in English on their computer screens, but soon, the answers switch to an alien language, and Dr. Faraday addresses the screen directly. It responds that the trip from the planet Phalon took 2.2 solar hours. Then, the screen scans though several uncharted solar systems until it locates Phalon. The computer activity upsets David, who pulls off the electrodes and runs away. Back in his room, Carolyn McAdams reveals to David that his stay has been extended. He persuades her to contact his parents to rescue him. At night, David hears alien voices asking for his help. He hides in Carolyn’s automated food cart and escapes undetected by guards. The food cart transports him to the hangar where the alien spaceship is stocked. As he circles the mollusk-shaped craft, liquid metal pours from a hatch and forms a floating staircase. Slowly, he climbs the stairs and enters the vessel. There, Max, a robot pilot, admits to summoning David, and ushers him into a chair that rises from the floor. David possesses information Max needs to complete his mission. Max calls him “the navigator,” and explains that he must access navigational charts that have been stored in David’s memory. His own data was wiped out when he plowed into an electrical tower. When instruments reveal security has been breached, NASA staff descends on the hangar. Dr. Faraday commands David to leave the ship. Instead, NASA scientists watch helplessly as the spaceship breaks free from its mooring with David inside. When David orders the pilot to travel twenty miles away, Max directs the ship twenty miles above Earth. Exasperated, David gives an order to return to his planet. They land in a field surrounded by cows. There, David learns that Max’s mission is to study species from other planets. After he studied David it was too dangerous to send him back in time so he returned him to the place where David was found. David will let Max have the charts he needs, if Max returns him to his family. However, helicopters carrying NASA scientists appear, and David orders Max to escape somewhere they cannot be found. Max submerges the spacecraft underwater and David is introduced to other specimens Max collected. The animals are hungry, and one grabs David’s NASA cap and devours it. Once Max scans David’s memory, he absorbs much American culture and sounds increasingly human. David makes the mistake of calling Max a geek, and the robot shuts down the engines. As the craft plunges to Earth, David discovers how to fly the spaceship. Meanwhile, Dr. Faraday wants to talk to Carolyn McAdams because she was the last person to see David, and finds her at the Freeman house explaining to David’s family what has happened. Soon, David and Max are lost. They travel from Japan to San Francisco, and scare some travellers on the road when they stop to ask for directions. David teaches Max a Beach Boys song as they head toward Florida. From the air, the spaceship reaches Al’s Gator City, and David deduces they must be in Florida. After landing, David borrows change from Al to use the payphone. He talks to his brother Jeff and asks him to devise a signal that can be seen from the air so he can navigate his way home. David flies the ship, following Turnpike signs to Fort Lauderdale. Meanwhile, Jeff climbs to the roof of the house with a box of fireworks. The first few rockets he ignites malfunction, but then a few launch and colors burst in the night sky. Bill and Helen stand on their front lawn watching for the spaceship. As David sees the fireworks and lands, NASA scientists and police surround the house. David steps out of the craft and says he no longer belongs with his family and apologizes to his parents. He ducks inside the spaceship and leaves. He tells Max he knows he should be with his family but he belongs back in 1978. Max tells him that a return to the past might bring about his death, but David has to try. The ship goes back in time, and David wakes up in the ravine. When he reaches his front door, his parents call to him from their boat dock. As he steps onto their boat, David tells his mother he loves her, hugs Bruiser, and tells Jeff he loves him too. Jeff notices a tiny alien creature sticking out of David’s backpack. David pushes the creature back and silently motions Jeff not to say anything. In space, Max says to David, “See you later, alligator!” David gazes up at the sky and smiles.
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