Science-Fiction Franchises TheStar WarsandStar
Trekmovie franchises—the latter includingStar Trek
II: The Wrath of Khan(1982),Star Trek III: The Search
for Spock(1984),Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home(1986),
andStar Trek V: The Final Frontier(1989)—reinvigo-
rated space opera as a cinematic subgenre. These se-
ries required large budgets, and budgetary con-
straints limited the ambitions of such second-rank
contributions asThe Last Starfighter(1984), while at-
tempts at serious space fiction, such as2010: The Year
We Make Contact(1984), often failed to realize their
ambition. The new wave of monster movies pro-
duced in the wake ofAlienwas more consistently suc-
cessful in its exploitation of new effects; notable re-
treads of earlier, low-budget films includedThe Thing
(1982),The Fly(1986), andThe Blob(1988), while
significant new ventures in this vein includedThe
Terminator(1984),Predator(1987),They Live(1988),
andTremors(1989).The Terminatorwas a low-budget
film, but it was sufficiently successful to spawn an
important series of higher-budget sequels, and it
eventually became the archetype of a new wave of ex-
aggerated action movies whose other exemplars in-
cludedMad Max 2: The Road Warrior(1981) andMad
Max: Beyond Thunderdome(1985).
The implicit paranoia of monster movies ex-
pressed Cold War fears of the decade. Another more
hopeful type of alien-centered science fiction arose
during the 1980’s, however, to resist the worldview of
those films. These films offered more sympathetic
accounts of nonhuman characters, while often com-
plaining stridently about human tendencies toward
intolerance and exploitation. They includedAn-
droid(1981), Steven Spielberg’sE.T.: The Extra-
Terrestrial(1982)—the most successful film of the
decade—Starman(1984),Cocoon(1985),Short Cir-
cuit(1986),Batteries Not Included(1987), andThe
Abyss(1989).
The difficulties of adapting literary texts to the
cinematic medium were amply demonstrated by the
Paddy Chayevsky-basedAltered States(1980), the Do-
ris Lessing-basedMemoirs of a Survivor(1981), the
cinematic travesty of Frank Herbert’sDune(1984),
and the inevitable remake in its title year of George
Orwell’sNineteen Eighty-Four(1984). Although it bore
little resemblance to its source text and it was initially
unsuccessful at the box office, Ridley Scott’sBlade
Runner(1982), based on Philip K. Dick’sDo Androids
Dream of Electric Sheep?(1968), would eventually be
recognized as a major and significant work of cine-
matic science fiction.
The stunning art direction ofBlade Runnerset
new standards in the portrayal of fictional worlds,
and the film’s eventual success as a videocassette
rental encouraged further interest in Dick’s work.
Dick continually questioned the stability of the expe-The Eighties in America Science-fiction films 861
Year Title Director
1987 (continued) Innerspace Joe Dante
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace Sidney J. Furie
1988 Akira Katsuhirobtomo
The Blob Chuck Russell
They Live John Carpenter
Cocoon: The Return Daniel Petrie
Alien Nation Graham Baker
Earth Girls Are Easy Julien Temple
1989 Batman Tim Burton
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier William Shatner
The Abyss James Cameron
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Joe Johnston
Back to the Future, Part II Robert Zemeckis
The Wizard of Speed and Time Mike Jittlov