Science fiction based in the future is fascinating for what it tells us about the present, or at least the period when the particular work was produced. The scifi movies of the 1980’s are especially interesting now, in the sense that they might have anticipated technology that has not yet happened, like distant human space travel, but failed to anticipate technology that did happen, like flat-screen computer monitors. Their most egregious predictive failure, of course, was in the realm of fashion. Many 1980’s scifi movies now look like period pieces about time travelers from the 1980’s going to the future.

I vaguely recall a movie from my early teenage years called “Nightflyers.” Mostly, I remember noticing that it starred Catherine Mary Stuart, a/k/a Maggie from “The Last Starfighter” and Regina from “Night of the Comet.” It was released in 1987, and it looks like what you might imagine would happen if a spaceship captain grabbed a group of people out of an era-appropriate diet cola commercial and sent them out of the solar system. Story-wise, it’s a but like “2001: A Space Odyssey” meets “The Breakfast Club,” if HAL had a mullet.

About the only reason it grabbed my attention recently is that I learned it was based on a novella of the same name by George R.R. Martin. That makes it at least worth a look. Luckily, the whole movie is on YouTube, albeit broken down into multiple parts. I made it all the way to part 5, so see if you can beat my record. Enjoy! Continue reading →