Starcrash(1979)
Independent Mar 9, 1979
An outlaw smuggler and her alien companion are recruited by the Emperor of the Galaxy to rescue his son and destroy a secret weapon by the evil Count Zarth Arn.
Release Details
Original Release | Mar 9, 1979
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Current Showtimes
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- Wed Sep 2
- Thu Sep 3
- Fri Sep 4
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- Sun Sep 6
- Mon Sep 7
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Director & Top Cast
Technical Specifications
Sound Mix: Dolby Stereo
Aspect Ratio: 1.85 : 1
Other Details
Country of Origin: Italy, United States
Language: English,Italian
Summaries
Plot Summary
- In the distant future, a starship with an important passenger attempts to find the secret base of the evil Count Zarth Arn. The starship is attacked by a mysterious weapon which red globs of energy enter the starship and drive the crew insane. Three escape pods launch during the attack, but the starship crashes into the atmosphere of the planet and is destroyed.Meanwhile, in another part of the galaxy, outlaw smuggler Stella Star (Caroline Munroe) and her companion Akton (Marjor Gortner) run into the Imperial Space Police led by Police Chief Thor (Robert Tessier) and robot sheriff Elle (Judd Hamilton). After a spaceship chase sequence, Stella and Akton escape from their pursuers by jumping into hyperspace, a faster-than-light travel. They happen to find one of the escape pods from the attacked starship, and find one disoriented survivor. But shortly afterwards, they are eventually apprehended by the police who have also followed their hyperspace travel route.Tried and convicted of piracy, both Stella and Akton are sentenced to life in prison on separate prison planets. Stella manages to create a diversion and escape from her prison, but she is found by Thor and Elle who takes her to a orbiting battleship where she is reunited with Akton. It is here that they are contacted by the Emperor of the Galaxy (Christopher Plummer) via a hologram, who thanks them for the discovery of the starship survivor and they are granted clemency to help find one of three missing escape pods from the starship which contain the Emperor's son. The Emperor is in battle with the rouge Count Zarth Arn (Joe Spinell) who has hidden a secret weapon on a remote planet and will use it to overthrow him and take over the galaxy for himself and his legion of evil warriors. With Chief Thor and the robot Elle accompanying them, the Emperor orders Stella and Akton to find the Count's secret weapon as well as rescue his son who may be still alive. Over the course of the movie, Stella and Atkon travel to many planets to find the three missing escape pods, and hoping to find the Emperor's son.On their first planet they visit, a jungle world, Stella is abducted by a tribe of vicious female warriors, who shoot Elle and leave him for dead. But being a robot, Elle does not die and instead makes his way into the throne room of the queen of the Amazonian-women Corelia (Nadia Cassini) and takes her hostage to secure Stella's release. She and Elle are chased by the Amazonian women to the beach where Queen Corelia sends a giant robot to kill them, only to be rescued by Akton and Thor.On another perpetually cold and dark planet, Stella and Elle investigate the second escape pod crash site to search for survivors, but after finding none, it's revealed that Thor is a spy for Count Zarth Arn who subdues Akton and traps Stella and Elle outside where he knows that when the sun sets on the ice planet, the temperature will drop hundreds of degrees below zero which will freeze any living thing. But Akton manages to revive and kill Thor, but is too late as the sun has already set, and the surface of the planet freezes solid. Being a robot, Elle is able to help Stella stay alive by keeping her in a suspended state sequence. Upon daylight, Akton is able to venture outside to bring both Elle and the frozen Stella back onto the ship where she is de-thawed and revealed to have survived.At last, Stella Star's starship arrives at the third and last planet where the third and final escape pod landed, which is right on the Count's secret planet. After surviving the Count's mental weapon, Stella and her crew land the starship to search for the final crash site. But Stella and Elle get attacked by a savage group of barbarian tribesmen who hack Elle to pieces and abduct Stella. But she escapes and flees to a nearby cave where she is met by Simon (David Hasselhoff), who is revealed to be the sole survivor of the crash, and the Emperor's son. Akton arrives having battled his way through the barbarians and gets into a lightsaber duel with Simon, unaware of his origins. But Simon proves his biological origins to the Emperor and the trio then set off to find the Count's secret weapon which is right on the planet.Arriving at an underground lab, Stella, Akton and Simon are caught by the Count's men where the Count, finally meeting the group face-to-face, reveals his intentions of using them for bait to bring the Emperor to the planet and have his weapon self-destruct, destroying everybody while he makes his escape to conquer the Emperor's homeworld to have the title to Emperor for himself. The Count and his men depart, leaving behind the Count's two personal bodyguard Golum robots to guard Stella, Akton, and Simon to make sure they don't follow him. Akton engages the two robots in a lightsaber battle, but gets mortally wounded in destroying the two robots. The Emperor arrives with his personal army where, aware that the whole planet is mined with nuclear bombs, he uses a special weapon to block the bomb timers long enough to help Stella and Simon make it back to the flagship before they detonate and destroy the whole planet. Upon arriving back on the Emperor's flagship, Stella is relived to see that Elle is alive, after being found by the Emperor's men who put him back together.Observing alongside the Emperor on the bridge of his flagship, Stella watches a huge space battle begin as the Emperor launches an attack against the Count's massive space station just as the Count is launching an attack against the Emperor's homeworld. But the attack is a failure. After an initial start, the Emperor's soldiers storm the Count's space station, gaining a foothold in a long laser-gun battle. But the Count arrives with massive reinforcements which most of the outnumbered Emperor's solders are overwhelmed and killed.With no other options, the Emperor decides the only way to stop the Count is a starcrash: to fly a whole space station into the Count's space station to destroy it. Stella and Elle volunteer to commandeer an abandoned space city to fly into the Count's space station to destroy it. Stella and Elle manage to escape from the space city's bridge by flying out into space, just as it crashes into the Count's space station destroying it and the Count as well, finally winning the war. Stella and Elle are picked up by the Emperor's son, Simon, who is finally overjoyed that Stella survived once again and they agree to get married and begin a new era of peace for the galaxy. The movie ends when the Emperor of the Galaxy delivers a victory speech to the audience.
Storyline
- Outlaw smugglers Stella Star and Akton manage to pick up a castaway while running from the authorities, who turns out to be the only survivor from a secret mission to destroy a mysterious superweapon designed by the evil Count Zarth Arn. The smugglers are soon recruited by the Emperor of the Galaxy to complete the mission, as well as to rescue the Emperor's son, who has gone missing. — Jean-Marc Rocher <rocher@fiberbit.net>
