Battle Beyond the Stars

Battle Beyond the Stars
Theatrical poster by Gary Meyer
Directed by	Jimmy T. Murakami
Produced by	Ed Carlin Roger Corman
Written by	Anne Dyer (Story) John Sayles (Screenplay)
Starring	Richard Thomas Robert Vaughn George Peppard John Saxon Darlanne Fluegel
Music by	James Horner
Cinematography	Daniel Lacambre
Editing by	Allan Holzman Robert J. Kizer
Distributed by	New World Pictures (20th Century Fox)
Release date(s)	September 8, 1980
Running time	105 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$2,000,000 (estimated)

Battle Beyond the Stars is a Roger Corman-produced science fiction film, directed by Jimmy T. Murakami and released in 1980. The film, intended as a "Magnificent Seven in outer space," is a pastiche of The Magnificent Seven, the Western remake of Akira Kurosawa's film Seven Samurai. The screenplay was written by John Sayles, the score was composed by James Horner, and the special effects were directed by James Cameron.

Several of the effects shots and clips were re-used for other films throughout the 1980s, including Bachelor Party, while the spaceship model was re-used in the film Space Raiders.

Plot

The farmers of the peaceful planet Akir (named in honor of Seven Samurai director Akira Kurosawa) are threatened by the space tyrant Sador and his army of mutants, the Malmori. Sador's huge ship carries a weapon called a "Stellar Converter", which literally turns planets into small suns, destroying all life on their surface. He threatens to use the Converter on the planet unless the people of Akir submit to him when he returns to Akir in several days. Zed, the last Akira warrior, now old and blind, suggests they hire mercenaries to protect the planet. Lacking any valuable resources, the Akira can only offer food and shelter in payment. Unable to go himself, Zed offers his ship, Nell, for the job if they can find a pilot. A young man named Shad, who has often piloted the ship and is well known by her artificial intelligence system, volunteers to recruit the mercenaries. Shad takes to the skies, unaware that Sador has left a fighter behind to watch over the planet. The evil mutants Kalo and Tembo pursue Shad, but the youth is able to outrun them and the mutants return to Akir to continue their orbit of the planet.

Shad's first stop is the run-down Hephaestus space station which repairs androids. Expecting to find potential allies, Shad instead finds only two organic lifeforms among the androids, the old Doctor Hephaestus kept on life support, and his beautiful daughter Nanelia. The Doctor attempts to keep Shad there against his will to mate with his daughter. Unable to abandon his people, Shad escapes, with Nanelia following in her own ship. Although her ship offers no weapons, her computer systems are highly advanced and might be used in the coming fight. The two split up to look for more mercenaries.

Shad comes across Space Cowboy of the planet Earth, essentially a spacegoing truck driver with a fondness for old western films. Shad saves Cowboy and his ship from hijackers. Shad learns that Cowboy is late delivering a shipment of handguns to a planet which, as they watch on a viewscreen, Sador destroys using the Stellar Converter. Lacking the fuel to carry the weapons home with him, Cowboy offers to deliver them to Akir. Shad talks him into staying on to teach the Akira to use the weapons.

Shad is then approached by a set of five alien clones who share a group consciousness named Nestor. These aliens say their life is incredibly dull, since their whole race shares one mind. In order to be entertained, they have sent five members in a ship to join Shad's cause. Nestor asks no payment, saying they are completely self sufficient.

Back orbiting Akir, Kalo and Tembo are bored and observe a wedding ceremony which is being conducted by Shad's sister Mol on the planet's surface. The mutants swoop down in their fighter, beam her up and return to orbit. Meanwhile, Shad's next stop is on a planet known for criminal activity in Zed's day. He discovers a nearly abandoned world being used as a hideout for Gelt, a wealthy assassin who became too well-known to even show his face on any civilized planet. Gelt gladly offers his services in trade for the ability to live among the Akira without being hunted.

Shad is then approached by Saint-Exmin, a member of the Valkyrie warriors. She is a pushy young adventuress looking to prove herself in battle. She pilots a small, but fast ship. Shad finds her annoying and wishes she would go away, but she tags along.

While awaiting Shad's return, Nanelia had been captured by a reptilian slaver named Cayman of the Lambda Zone. Cayman possesses a powerful, if old, ship with an odd crew of aliens. She quickly recruits Cayman to their cause when he learns that they are looking for mercenaries to fight Sador, saying all he wants in payment is Sador's head.

The band of seven ships makes their way back to Akir. In the orbiting Malmori fighter, Tembo is raping Mol when Kalo detects the approaching fleet of mercenaries. They try to escape, but their ship is destroyed by the pursuing Gelt. Shad takes the mercenaries down to the surface, but they are greeted with caution by the natives, who are not used to violent lifeforms. Eventually, Sador returns, but his fleet of fighters is intercepted by Shad and his new friends. Despite taking several enemy ships down skillfully, Gelt is shot down and critically injured in the initial dogfight. Meanwhile, on the surface, Cowboy and the Akiran natives, armed with his laser guns, fight off a ground invasion. Shad having won the first round, the two sides withdraw.

Sador survives an attempt on his life by one of the Nestors he has captured, and in anger, launches all his remaining ships against the planet. There is another huge battle and the mercenaries are all killed one by one, including Cowboy who leads a strafing run on Sador's flagship. However, the mercenaries are successful in destroying most of Sador's forces and the Stellar Converter. With only Shad and Nanelia left in Shad's ship, they are captured in a tractor beam by Sador. The pair escape in a lifepod with Nell self-destructing to blow up Sador's ship and Shad and Nanelia return to Akir, where the natives will remember the sacrifices made by the mercenaries.

Cast

• Richard Thomas – Shad, a young Akira farmer who looks for mercenaries to save his people.
• Robert Vaughn – Gelt, an experienced assassin with a price on his head looking for a place to hide. Vaughn played Lee in The Magnificent Seven, who is essentially the same character as Gelt.
• John Saxon – Sador, leader of the evil Malmori raiders. Very old, keeps himself alive using transplants to renew his body. His character is similar to the character of Calvera from The Magnificent Seven.
• George Peppard – Space Cowboy, the only character from Earth, who has many one liners and becomes Shad's good friend. George Peppard was originally considered to play Vin, Steve McQueen's character, in The Magnificent Seven.
• Darlanne Fluegel – Nanelia, Dr. Hephaestus' beautiful daughter and Shad's love interest.
• Sybil Danning – Saint-Exmin, a Valkyrie warrior looking to prove herself in battle.
• Sam Jaffe – Dr. Hephaestus, an old man on life support who wants his grandchildren to inhabit his space station.
• Jeff Corey – Zed, a blind old Akira who used to be a warrior. Former pilot of Nell.
• Morgan Woodward – Cayman of the Lambda Zone, a Zymer and slaver who has a score to settle with Sador for destroying his species.
• Marta Kristen – Lux, an Akira who works the early warning system and starts a relationship with Space Cowboy.
• Earl Boen – Nestor 1, usually speaks for the five clones.
• John Gowens – Nestor 2.
• Lynn Carlin – Nell (voice) computer of Shad's ship, protective of the kid, who she thinks is "wet behind the ears".
• Larry Meyers – Kelvin 1, one of Cayman's crew, communicates by radiating body heat.
• Lara Cody – Kelvin 2.
• Steve Davis – Quepeg.
• Julia Duffy – Mol, an Akira woman who is kidnapped by the Malmori.

Production

Prior to production, a Hollywood trade paper announced that John Wayne would star in the film, under the direction of Ingmar Bergman. In all likelihood, this was a joke, either by the trade paper or the film's publicist^{[citation needed]}. At the time of its release, it was the most expensive film produced by Roger Corman. Much of the budget allegedly went toward paying the salaries of George Peppard and Robert Vaughn^{[citation needed]}, since screenwriter John Sayles was known for low-budget productions and the film was produced in Corman's own studio, his "renowned lumberyard facility" in Venice, California.

Roger Corman hired James Cameron as a model maker in his studio, and after the original art director for the film had been fired, Cameron became responsible for the special effects in Battle Beyond the Stars, or, as Cameron later put it, "production design and art direction." This was Cameron's first "big break" in the entertainment industry, and it helped propel his career. While he initially worked on camera rigging, he soon started working on special effects, and designed spaceship's corridors, for instance, out of spray-painted McDonald's containers. Cameron paid great attention to detail, and hardly slept for weeks while working on the film; however, his hard work paid off, since it opened the door for his later success.

The production sound mixer, also responsible for special effects, such as Robert Vaughn's "laser shot" – based on Clint Eastwood's .44 Magnum from Dirty Harry – was David Yewdall, a regular contract-worker for Corman films. Yewdall later remarked on the "film's frugal sound editorial budget" in his Practical Art of Motion Picture Sound, and explained some of the movie's sounds: each of the seven spaceships had its own sound. The Nester ship's sound was made from human voices generated by the community choir from his hometown college in Coalinga, California; Robert Vaughn's ship was based on the recording of a dragster.

Reused material

The spaceship used in the film was reused for another science fiction film blasted by critics, the Roger Corman film Space Raiders. Footage from the film was used in later films and games: a clip from the film (in 3-D) is shown during the movie theater fight scene at the end of Bachelor Party, and footage was also used for the laser disk game Astron Belt. The soundtrack was later recycled by Corman for Raptor and other films.

Reception

Battle Beyond the Stars grossed $1.7 million in its opening weekend, and reportedly earned $11 million fairly quickly. It received mediocre reviews, receiving a 40% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Battle Amongst the Stars

A prequel comic book, set 30 years before the BBTS film, was launched by Bluewater Productions in March 2010. It is a 4 part mini-series that tells the story of how Zed, the old man played by Jeff Corey in BBTS, began his adventures from the planet Akir with Nell. It also has the character of Dr. Hepheastus and Sador of the Malmori.

See also

• List of American films of 1980

External links

• Battle Beyond the Stars at the Internet Movie Database
• Battle Beyond the Stars at AllRovi
• Battle Beyond the Stars at Rotten Tomatoes