Flight of the Navigator (1986)

Thanks for the memories!

Powerful

Excellent but underrated film

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

It's 1978 Florida. 12 year old David Freeman (Joey Cramer)'s parents are Helen (Veronica Cartwright) and Bill (Cliff De Young). He falls down a ravine in the woods behind his house and hits his head. He wakes up to find 8 years have passed but he hasn't aged a single day. His little brother Jeff (Matt Adler) is now 16. Meanwhile Dr. Louis Faraday (Howard Hesseman) is investigating a crashed UFO. David seems to have a connection to the ship. Faraday convinces the family to allow David to go with him by his lonesome. Carolyn McAdams (Sarah Jessica Parker) is a low level worker at the secret facility who befriends David.There is a moment where this movie goes off the tracks a little. Faraday is able to convince David and his family to allow him to go off to a secret base with strangers all by himself. It's crazy unbelievable. No parents would ever do that without guns pointed at their heads especially for a 12 year old who's been missing for 8 years and presumed dead. I get the appeal of having the kid by himself in a strange environment. It raises the tension but does it in an unreasonable way. The core of the movie is a fascinating children's sci-fi fantasy. Joey Cramer is an endearing child actor. There are a lot to like in this movie but that turn keeps bugging me.

When I was in kindergarten, I used to go to a place after school. This place would occasionally show us tykes movies. They showed us "E.T.", "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" and "The Little Mermaid" a few times. But they also showed us another movie. When someone said the title, it sounded to me like "How to Fight an Alligator". That made no sense to little old me, since I couldn't imagine why anyone would attempt to fight an alligator (I later found out that people DO in fact fight alligators, but I'm not going to try that).Anyway, the scenes that registered in my mind were: the boy looks for his brother and gets scared when someone jumps out of the tree; the boy returns home and finds a different family there; the boy hides in the machine to board the alien ship; the boy says "I promise" and the voice says "Don't know promise"; the boy calls the voice a geek; the voice says "You called me a geek!"; the boy wakes up again in the forest. Overall, I found it as entertaining as a six-year-old would find it.I later learned that the movie's title was "Flight of the Navigator". Now that I'm an adult, I've now seen it again. I found it to be one fun movie, the sort of thing that anyone would love to experience. Obviously I now recognize a young Sarah Jessica Parker. If the director's name rings a bell, it's because he also directed "Grease". I picture Randal Kleiser telling everyone "Respect the people playing the parents. Remember, the dad was in a band that performed with The Doors, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, and the mom worked with Alfred Hitchcock."* Anyway, a really enjoyable movie. You're sure to love it.*Cliff DeYoung was a member of the '60s group Clear Light, which performed with the aforementioned people. Veronica Cartwright played Rod Taylor's niece in "The Birds".

Joey Cramer, Cliff De Young, Veronica Cartwright and Howard Hesseman star in this 1986 sci-fi film. This starts in 1978, where we meet 12-year old boy, David Freeman (Cramer) and his family. After David is sent by his parents, Bill (De Young) and Helen (Cartwright) to bring his young bratty brother, Jeff home, David is mysteriously sent 8 years into the future by an alien spaceship. David discovers everyone is different accept him and tries to find the answers. Hesseman plays Faraday, a scientist who works for NASA and Paul Reubens plays the voice of alien, Max who helps and travels with David to get home. I've loved this film since I was a kid, Joey is great as David and Alan Silvestri's score is excellent. I recommend this 80's classic.

I remember that i had watched this movie on television when i was about ten years old.It reminds me good stories like goonies,et the extra terrestial,close encounters of the third kind and basically the good movies from the 80s when they knew how to make an excellent movie without special effects.We see the story of a young boy in 1978 named David who apparently had been disappeared for 8 years without anyone know where he had been.He returns mysteriously in the year 1986 to find out that he was a missing person.This of course occurs the weirdness of Scientists who believe that David has a connection with a spaceship they found and which they cannot open.The most interesting part is that David has a high intelligence and that is the thing that they want to take advantage.David no longer can stand this situation he tries to escape from the Nasa facilities where he was captured and by luck he finds the spaceship to realize that he is the navigator and he can control it.And then there is a chasing for about 20 minutes and at the end David decides to travel back in time in 1978 again because he knows that if he stays he will an experiment for the scientists.Very good acting,an amazing music by Alan Silvestri.I think its a movie for all ages.