If you look up “third act problems” in a film studies book, there should be a big picture of Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix. That’s something I realized recently, rewatching a film I loved as a child. A film that filled me with wonder and good memories. A film that, for some reason, I hadn’t revisited as much as some other films of the era. That film is called Explorers, and when I rewatched it, its odd place in my heart made total sense.
Released in 1985, Explorers was directed by the legendary Joe Dante, who was just building that legendary status coming off the massive success of Gremlins. It stars the aforementioned Hawke and Phoenix as teenagers, who team up with a third boy played by Jason Presson to discover a mysterious ball of energy that allows them to build a spaceship and travel into space. You know, becoming “Explorers.”
Having grown up in the 1980s and 1990s, Explorers was a movie I watched a lot. I have very distinct memories of the blue ball of energy that the characters create, their Tilt-a-Whirl spaceship, the Thunder Road, and the magic of them flying in both. At the same time, I had this inkling that wherever the film went next didn’t quite live up to the promise of the first half of the movie. Weren’t there weird aliens in it or something?
The boys with the Thunder Road (Image: Paramount)Recently, Vinegar Syndrome released an incredible 4K anniversary edition of Explorers that I instantly scooped up, which is how I came to rewatch the film and realize all my worries were warranted. Yes, there were weird aliens in the movie. Very weird aliens. Aliens that feel like they’re from a completely different movie. When they’re introduced, the film falls off a cliff and gives up on any semblance of interest or emotion before just rolling the credits. The whole experience was a very eye-opening, disappointing affair.
Mainly, that disappointment stems from the fact that the start of Explorers is so freaking awesome. Ben (Hawke) and Wolfgang (Phoenix) are two nerdy middle schoolers who bond over science facts and science fiction. When Ben has a dream of a Tron-like world, he draws it for Wolfgang, who builds it, and together they create a perfect blue circle of energy which their other friend, Darren (Presson), realizes can be bigger. The trio then builds a ship to fly within the circle, causing all sorts of havoc.
This section of Explorers works for a number of reasons. One is the score by Jerry Goldsmith, which is delightfully catchy and epic. Another is the charisma of the leads, including Presson as the effortlessly cool kid, and Hawke and Phoenix just beginning to unlock the talents that would take them to further levels of stardom. There’s an element of wish fulfillment, which is always a bonus in a kids’ film. And finally, the film pulses with that trademark, tactile feeling movies of the era were famous for.
Explorers exploring (Image: Paramount)The characters in Explorers are working in real locations with real sets and props. They build things. They visit real places. There are scenes on rooftops, at drive-ins, in a junkyard, climbing in trees, and in a creek. Think about movies you love from this era. I guarantee they have scenes like this in them. Ideas like going outside, getting in trouble, and learning independence are almost as fantastical in 2026 as the idea of flying into space was in 1985, but we love everything about them.
And, yes, upon a rewatch, the kids are just a little too horny and a little too creepy with the way they objectify women. Specifically, one woman, Lori, played by the late Amanda Peterson. It’s a tiny stain on the movie, but it’s also an unfortunately familiar 1980s trope.
That aside, the scenes of boys being boys, eating chips, and flying around town in this ship are basically immaculate. The effects from Industrial Light and Magic really hold up. The music adds a whole other level of excitement. But then their computer gets taken over by some kind of random intelligence and, eventually, it flies them into deep space. Here’s where things go very, very wrong.
Uh oh (Image: Paramount)In space, they dock in a large ship with the most boring interior of all time and meet Wak and Neek, two very weird-looking but expertly crafted aliens. Now, you’d think these curious, smart boys meeting beings from another world would be exciting. The sharing of knowledge! The blending of cultures! But instead, we learn Wak and Neek are obsessed with television. Yes, Earth-based television. And so they basically speak only in “television,” which leads to multiple, excruciating scenes of the aliens doing stand-up comedy routines or singing songs as the boys just sit there and watch. We’re watching the characters watching the aliens, and it sucks.
All the wonder in the film gets sucked away almost instantly. Everything becomes overtly silly. And sure, if you wanted to give the film way more credit than it deserves, you could think about Wak and Neek as some kind of mirror or commentary on the youth of America. But Explorers doesn’t earn that level of thinking. Instead, it’s simply a letdown. Then the boys go home, feign some curiosity about what the aliens are doing now, and have another dream teasing that they may see them again. But they don’t. The movie is over.
It was around this point that it all made sense. Why the nostalgia I had for Explorers didn’t come anywhere near the same feelings I have for films like The Goonies, The Monster Squad, The Lost Boys, or Flight of the Navigator. All of these movies share similar tones and tropes. And the first half of Explorers is just as good, if not better than some of those. But those movies make sense and have good endings. Explorers does not.
Falling back to Earth (Image: Paramount)Of course, if you do even the quickest of Google searches, you learn that Paramount took the film out of Dante’s hands during post-production and forced him to release it before it was ready. That there was lots of footage cut from the film that would’ve given it more clarity. It was also released soon after Back to the Future, which was a box office smash. And, surely, much of that is dealt with in the extra features on this new disc, which I have yet to explore myself.
But the final product is still the final project, and while Explorers does have a fantastic first two acts that are worthy of reverence, few films of the era fail as much from there.
Explorers is currently free to watch on Kanopy, Hoopla, and YouTube with ads. Here’s a link to that. The Vinegar Syndrome 4K release is available here.
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