Theatrical Poster
This project was one of two sci-fi scripts kicking around Hollywood during the early 80's. The other one was ET, which is one of the highest grossing movies of all time. With this sort of competition Starman never looked a hugely enticing prospect. How wrong that was.
With Starman JC moved away from the horror genre to create something with a more human feel, evn though it is in a sci-fi setting. The Voyager space probe contains a message inviting alien life forms to come and visit us, this time something answered. But, as is always the way with the military, the visitor gets shot down over the USA. He lands near the house of Karen Allen, a widow grieving over the loss of her recently departed husband.The alien finds a hair sample of the husband and uses this to clone itself into an exact replica.
Starman follows the alien and Allen across the country to his rescue point. They are pursued by friendly and not so friendly government agents along the way. Starman is essentially about the relationships between the two leads, complicated by the fact that Bridges is the duplicate of Allens late husband. It is a deeply moving film that has a lot to say about the violence and ignorance inherent in humans, but also what we can do if we just try. A great film.