Is it a hidden gem, a cult classic, or hopelessly dumb? We vote "all of the above."
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On its 40th anniversary, we reassess 1986’s SpaceCamp
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There were a lot of us who wore out their vhs tapes of that movie.
The inaccuracy that got me as I grew up was Kathryn’s arrival on a vintage airplane, casually advising her dad to check out the magnetos as one or more might be sticking. An airplane ignition system malfunctioning is… notable for a pilot. Airplanes with rough running engines are a bit more serious than cars, but 80s eh?
OK let’s watch Buckaroo Banzai next.
The inaccuracy that got me as I grew up was Kathryn’s arrival on a vintage airplane, casually advising her dad to check out the magnetos as one or more might be sticking. An airplane ignition system malfunctioning is… notable for a pilot. Airplanes with rough running engines are a bit more serious than cars, but 80s eh?
OK let’s watch Buckaroo Banzai next.
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Space Camp (and that same year's The Flight of the Navigator) are bedrock in my NASA/Spaceflight memories.
Even as a kid I realized Space Camp was cheesy but kept the possibility of space flight within reach. Space was an actual, real achievable goal!
Flight of the Navigator was clearly in the realm of fantasy. Some lucky schmo got a personal vacation with an improbable alien ship who spoke with Pee-Wee Herman's voice. No knowledge of physics or astronomy required.
I also have the unique experience of the tragic Challenger accident occurring on my birthday. Like many kids in the U.S., we watched the launch on TV in school that day. That an accident had happened didn't impact us immediately. We didn't understand what we were seeing. I remember one kid in class commenting on the twin plumes from the SRB's, "Wow, they look like big caterpillars!"
Even as a kid I realized Space Camp was cheesy but kept the possibility of space flight within reach. Space was an actual, real achievable goal!
Flight of the Navigator was clearly in the realm of fantasy. Some lucky schmo got a personal vacation with an improbable alien ship who spoke with Pee-Wee Herman's voice. No knowledge of physics or astronomy required.
I also have the unique experience of the tragic Challenger accident occurring on my birthday. Like many kids in the U.S., we watched the launch on TV in school that day. That an accident had happened didn't impact us immediately. We didn't understand what we were seeing. I remember one kid in class commenting on the twin plumes from the SRB's, "Wow, they look like big caterpillars!"
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For me, I really love Armageddon. Is it completely ridiculous? Yes. Unscientific? Double yes. Cheesy as heck? God yes! But it's sooo much fun; just a perfect "turn-your-brain-off-and-enjoy-the-ride" popcorn movie.
I've never seen Space Camp, I'll have to check it out one day.
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That assumes Starliner finds itself on the launchpad in the future. I'm not so sure it'll ever fly people again.
Perhaps Orion though? Imagine Eric - one of SLS's biggest critics - getting accidentally launched into space on one. Then he has to survive a trip around the moon in Orion before using his meteorological skills to avoid a storm at the landing point. The movie practically writes itself.
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Two years ago I'd have said no chance they give an AI enough access to do something like that. Now that feels like the most realistic part of the whole movie.
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Having literally seen what people plug LLM's into, with absolutely no restrictions or controls so they can vibe their way to an 'agentic life' - and that SpaceX's IPO self-valuation is 90% Grok - it seems almost inevitable that some future space cock-up will be AI caused. Certainly people were joking about that with New Glenn, e.g. "Blue Origin trained their new flight computer on SpaceX Starship test flight footage, so the AI assumed that exploding was standard operating procedure."
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Albino_Boo
Ars Tribunus Angusticlavius
Lea Thompson's career nose dived after Howard the Duck, that came out shortly afterwards.
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For what it’s worth, I enjoyed the movie. I had asked mom if I could go to the real Space Camp with a friend who was going. She said no, and I didn’t learn until much later that she regretted that decision.
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WokStation
Wise, Aged Ars Veteran
I hated Jinx SO MUCH, while still wanting one! And after all this time I didn't know it was Joaquin Phoenix until just now!
As a kid I knew it was all really unlikely, but again, as a kid, it was also really fun.
Hadn't thought of that film in probably decades! Thanks!
As a kid I knew it was all really unlikely, but again, as a kid, it was also really fun.
Hadn't thought of that film in probably decades! Thanks!
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Thasnk goodness she was never seen again! Oh, wait... Wasn't she on one of the Star Trek: Picard episodesjust a few years ago? And BttF II and III?
But yeah, it did take a hit. I say this as someone who enjoyed (what I recall of) Howard the Duck, but will say there might have been alcohol involved...
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I watched this movie a lot as a kid, and I forgot about it until this article. (Was it maybe on HBO? I don’t remember having the VHS.) I don’t remember much about it, but I do remember cringing a bit even as a 10ish year old at the sequence that puts them in space. But I still loved it despite that.
I don’t think I’m likely to watch it again, but I’m glad you reminded me of it.
I don’t think I’m likely to watch it again, but I’m glad you reminded me of it.
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Understandable, on why many parents kept their kids away. The Challenger accident affected millions of school kids, who were tuned in watching it live on TV that morning. I was but one. The thought of an accident, with much of the public seemingly becoming accustomed to routine launches, was pushed way back. I was maybe 11 years old, I still remember the look of horror on the faces of 30 students and the teacher. It’s a moment forever frozen in time in my brain.
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Space Camp was probably how my love for space started, I watched that movie way too many times. Good memories.
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Albino_Boo
Ars Tribunus Angusticlavius
You missed Caroline in the city , which I enjoyed. But after you have sex with an anthropomorphic duck you don't get the leads in movies.
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Assessing it against quite tough competition, I have concluded that
is awarded the prize for the space-geekiest line in this review.
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SpaceCamp had a novelization as well, which I read many more times than I watched the movie.
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Space Camp and The Last Starfighter (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087597/) are some of my most favorite mid-80's cheesy kids-in-space movies of all time.
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As a geek of a certain age my ultimate problem with Space Camp was when I went to the real Space Camp a year after the movie I found out that the multi-axis trainer was not actually controllable and they had made that up for the movie.
Anyone else thoroughly disappointed by that? I mean I just knew I could do a better job at nulling out the rates than they did in the movie and then finding out it wasn’t even possible.
(Although it just occurred to me I got to deal with real loss of attitude control events in my career - hence my user name. So it all worked out)
Anyone else thoroughly disappointed by that? I mean I just knew I could do a better job at nulling out the rates than they did in the movie and then finding out it wasn’t even possible.
(Although it just occurred to me I got to deal with real loss of attitude control events in my career - hence my user name. So it all worked out)
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Being about a generation older than the authors, I was NOT a kid when Space Camp came out.
By 1986, I was an adult adulting and knew a lot about the space program, because I was weaned on the space program from the Mercury onward and couldn't get enough of it. To me, the "highlight" of that era was Apollo 13's safe return. Yes, the moon landing, watched with a billion other people at the time, was super cool. But Apollo 13's drama was much more compelling to me.
So, by the 80's, I'd done a tour in the Navy (watching what I could of the Columbia's first shuttle flight and return in between various moments of medical carnage working in an ER), seen a lot of life, and death, and watched Challenger explode on live TV.
I don't recall seeing Space Camp. I saw ads for it. But never rented it, and wouldn't have watched it in the theater. I don't think I'd have enjoyed it simply because of the "authenticity". If it had been more campy, it might have worked for me back then.
As a space shuttle disaster movie, Armageddon was better because I knew it was entirely contrived bullshit, but it was popcorn bullshit. It was fun, and not to be taken seriously. I still get a giggle out of the over the top, rah! rah! USA! USA! heartland stuff they do at the end.
But those "kids in danger" genre were huge in the 1980s, too, so it was kind of a string of them with various levels of acceptability/entertainment value. As a genre it wasn't always good. I've found the movies that include a cute robot, or putting kids in danger feels somehow mean-spirited to me.
Do it to an adult, well, they're an adult, and walked into it, or had to rise to the occasion. That's part of being an adult. Doing that to kids... That's generally the stuff that causes life-long mental health issues. PTSD is very real, and the consequences can last a lifetime. Sure, they triumph in the end. But the terror along the way leave a very lasting impression.
By 1986, I was an adult adulting and knew a lot about the space program, because I was weaned on the space program from the Mercury onward and couldn't get enough of it. To me, the "highlight" of that era was Apollo 13's safe return. Yes, the moon landing, watched with a billion other people at the time, was super cool. But Apollo 13's drama was much more compelling to me.
So, by the 80's, I'd done a tour in the Navy (watching what I could of the Columbia's first shuttle flight and return in between various moments of medical carnage working in an ER), seen a lot of life, and death, and watched Challenger explode on live TV.
I don't recall seeing Space Camp. I saw ads for it. But never rented it, and wouldn't have watched it in the theater. I don't think I'd have enjoyed it simply because of the "authenticity". If it had been more campy, it might have worked for me back then.
As a space shuttle disaster movie, Armageddon was better because I knew it was entirely contrived bullshit, but it was popcorn bullshit. It was fun, and not to be taken seriously. I still get a giggle out of the over the top, rah! rah! USA! USA! heartland stuff they do at the end.
But those "kids in danger" genre were huge in the 1980s, too, so it was kind of a string of them with various levels of acceptability/entertainment value. As a genre it wasn't always good. I've found the movies that include a cute robot, or putting kids in danger feels somehow mean-spirited to me.
Do it to an adult, well, they're an adult, and walked into it, or had to rise to the occasion. That's part of being an adult. Doing that to kids... That's generally the stuff that causes life-long mental health issues. PTSD is very real, and the consequences can last a lifetime. Sure, they triumph in the end. But the terror along the way leave a very lasting impression.
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Yeah, that was poor timing.
I was walking up Kingsway in Vancouver that day. First I knew of it was when I stopped into a used bookstore, and the regulars were already trading macabre jokes about the disaster with the proprietor. Once I figured out what they were talking about, I stopped into a nearby shop that had a TV going, and watched the clip played over and over again.
The film adaptation of Dave Barry's Big Trouble, starring Tim Allen, was similarly cursed. The plot had a pair of bottom-feeding minor league criminals accidentally hijacking a nuclear weapon, and the film was originally slated for a September 2001 release. Suddenly, that shit wasn't funny anymore.
I was walking up Kingsway in Vancouver that day. First I knew of it was when I stopped into a used bookstore, and the regulars were already trading macabre jokes about the disaster with the proprietor. Once I figured out what they were talking about, I stopped into a nearby shop that had a TV going, and watched the clip played over and over again.
The film adaptation of Dave Barry's Big Trouble, starring Tim Allen, was similarly cursed. The plot had a pair of bottom-feeding minor league criminals accidentally hijacking a nuclear weapon, and the film was originally slated for a September 2001 release. Suddenly, that shit wasn't funny anymore.
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And this is unfortunate. We're at the point of general perception that AI is so black magic that it can apparently do the literal impossible as in the movie. That will never be believable to me. Sure hand-wavey it happened plot device, big plot hole, Hollywood is clueless, whatever, get on with the movie.
I remember Space Camp and while I never watched it at the movies (we couldn't really afford to do that much at the time), I watched it religiously any other chance I got. I was in science class, first hour, when the principle came on the school-wide intercom and told the school that the Challenger had exploded in flight. Yet that wasn't at the forefront of my thoughts when watching Space Camp.
I had no idea what a thermal curtain is in that context, and still don't... I kinda assumed (at the time) it was the thermal insulation on the external fuel tank was failing. But I couldn't have told you how that would effect the SRBs and why it would have been necessary to launch into full orbit rather than take one of the emergency abort modes. "Jinx said so?" Who knows. The screwiness of the movie story wasn't the point. Never was. Kids don't really think like that. It was inspiring to think "I could do that someday, those people aren't so different from me!" Not like now where I have trouble watching any procedural drama without pointing out all the technical inaccuracies and impossibilities. We lose something I think, growing up.
Yeah, there were plot holes galore, but for a young teen of the day the Challenger explosion was less impactful in the long term. But regardless, that wouldn't happen to us if we were on the program, besides, NASA would figure it out, right? They'd always done so before. Kids are remarkably resilient and assured of their immortality when not subjected to degenerative environments.
Two years later I'd realize I'm gay and all of those dreams came crashing down, because you couldn't serve in the Air Force as an openly homosexual. The government (and NASA) could fire you if you were found out, etc etc. Degenerative environments indeed.
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Everyone knows the best and most scientifically accurate 80s kids in space movie is Joe Dante’s Explorers.
(/s, obviously. It’s definitely heavily in the fantasy end, and kind of falls apart once they actually get into space and the mystery of the ship plans are revealed, but damn it’s got quite a good lead up to that point.)
(/s, obviously. It’s definitely heavily in the fantasy end, and kind of falls apart once they actually get into space and the mystery of the ship plans are revealed, but damn it’s got quite a good lead up to that point.)
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I grew up an hour from Huntsville and was 13 when this came out! We were pretty stoked about it!
Space camp remains a hugely popular camp, my children all attended for a week in fifth grade from their school and I give it a solid recommend. They just built a new skills center that looks very nice on the outside. I am over there most weeks riding one of our local mountain biking trails, and it is good to see the Space and Rocket center doing well.
Space camp remains a hugely popular camp, my children all attended for a week in fifth grade from their school and I give it a solid recommend. They just built a new skills center that looks very nice on the outside. I am over there most weeks riding one of our local mountain biking trails, and it is good to see the Space and Rocket center doing well.
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I was absolutely in the target audience for this film in 1986, and watched it in the cinema with my little brother tagging along. I remember being irked by the so obviously fake and fantasy robot, but magically sentient robots were pretty de rigueur for late-80s teen flix, so it wasn't out of context for the era.
Anything my brother and I really liked, we usually saw at least one more time -- movies that we were "allowed" to see being a tiny minority of movies released -- but this particular film we only saw only once, strongly suggesting its overall "it was OK"-ness.
Anything my brother and I really liked, we usually saw at least one more time -- movies that we were "allowed" to see being a tiny minority of movies released -- but this particular film we only saw only once, strongly suggesting its overall "it was OK"-ness.
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OMG I haven't thought about this film in forever. I must have been 11-12 and undoubtedly saw it on TV not in the cinema. Ultimate in tween wish-fulfillment!
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I can forgive the plot armor, but why are they wearing full enclosure helmets without a flight suit to attach it to? It makes them look like kids putting on a motorcycle helmet and pretending to be astronauts.
On second thought, maybe that’s the vibe they were going for.
On second thought, maybe that’s the vibe they were going for.
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I've spent the last year on-and-off and a few hundred hours restoring a copy of the movie trailer in UHD 4K. I'm hoping to get it done this week and released on June 6th, the 40th anniversary of the release of the movie! Keep an eye out on YouTube for it!
In the meantime, here's a copy of the Japanese trailer that I had digitized but did not spend the sort of time on to fix it up. It's hilarious though!
In the meantime, here's a copy of the Japanese trailer that I had digitized but did not spend the sort of time on to fix it up. It's hilarious though!
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Summer of '86 was a big one for me.. between Top Gun and SpaceCamp, there was a brief shining moment before my eyesight took a dump and ruined my career plans. Awesome article.
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I was 9 years old and experienced the exact same thing. I remember the looks on our teachers’ faces the most. The “oh no, how are we going to handle this?” look.
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Because that is what the pre-Challenger crews wore in flight.
NASA was set on a "shirt-sleeves environment" and that extended to launch and re-entry as well.
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Interesting thing I didn't know was that the helmets hinged in back. (03:40 in this STS-6 pre-flight)
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TIL. Seems like an odd choice in protective gear. Had to be uncomfortable and movement limiting vs a hard hat and sunglasses. Plus wouldn’t those visors fog up pretty quickly?Because that is what the pre-Challenger crews wore in flight.
NASA was set on a "shirt-sleeves environment" and that extended to launch and re-entry as well.
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