Joe Dante’s EXPLORERS Opens Friday at The Keller 8 in St. Louis

“Burn in hell, alien maggots. You shall not possess our women, slime-bred vermin!”

Joe Dante’s EXPLORERS (1985), starring a young Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix, opens June 22nd at the discount theater The Keller 8 in South St. Louis County (4572 Lemay Ferry Road). Daily showtimes are 1:45 and 9:35pm.

Like GOONIES, EXPLORERS  is one of those films that a lot of young boys saw in the mid ‘80s and stayed with them, developing something of a following over the years.

Though Steven Spielberg’s name is nowhere to be found in EXPLORERS, all the familiar Spielbergian motifs of smart children, lovable space aliens, 1950s television shows, and topnotch (for 1985) special effects are in place. The story opens with a computerized animation sequence, which, it turns out, is the dream of modern-age child Ethan Hawke. He quickly wakes up, then sketches out some of his dream’s hardware. Using a walkie-talkie, Hawke contacts his sleeping pal River Phoenix, giving him the details. Phoenix, a pint-sized computer genius, suspects this dream is yet another in a series of mysterious signals from unknown beings. Using the symbols from Hawke’s dreams, as well as his sophisticated computer setup, Phoenix creates a perfect sphere of light for a power source for their own spaceship, which takes them for an encounter with the mysterious source of Hawke’s dream signals. Industrial Light & Magic, George Lucas’ special effects company, is responsible for the visual extravaganzas in this orgy of special effects, and as usual, its work is superb. The alien costumes are clever and show some real imagination in their design. I’m not quite sure why the Keller 8 is running EXPLORERS, but here’s your chance to see it again on the big screen.