I first read Barry Longyear's riveting short story for a high school English class (I had a very progressive teacher). The original story had a blob-like creature versus a human with a force field between them. The movie version is more free form. Quaid is gung-ho, racist military pilot who engages a Drac (Lou Gossett), humankind's mortal enemy, in a dogfight. They both crash land on an isolated planet. At first, trying to kill each other, they learn to cooperate to survive and even respect each other. Gossett's performance as the alien is convincing, making his reptilian features ever more obvious through his snake-like speech.
Like all great science fiction, this story is not really about space but an extended metaphor for current human problems, in this case, racism.
The DVD faithfully reproduces the film as I remember it on cable in the mid-1980s.
Like all great science fiction, this story is not really about space but an extended metaphor for current human problems, in this case, racism.
The DVD faithfully reproduces the film as I remember it on cable in the mid-1980s.