Flash Gordon (1980) on Netflix
PG19801h 51mActionAdventureSci-Fi
Emperor Ming the Merciless of Mongo causes natural disasters on Earth. Football star Flash Gordon, travel agent Dale Arden and scientist Hans Zarkov fly to Mongo in Zarkov's rocketship.
- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb6.5/1067,025 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes83%
Trailer
Plot summary
Ming the Merciless, emperor of the planet Mongo, breaks his boredom by setting off natural disasters on Earth. Flash Gordon, a football star, shares a small plane with travel agent Dale Arden; a meteor strikes the cockpit, the pilots are killed, and Flash brings the aircraft down in the greenhouse of Dr. Hans Zarkov. The former NASA scientist believes extraterrestrials are shoving the Moon toward Earth and has built a spacecraft in secret to look into the attacks. He brings Flash and Dale aboard and sets a course for Mongo, where Ming's troops seize the three of them. Ming takes a liking to Dale and condemns Flash to death, and his daughter, Princess Aura, intervenes to save Flash.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Flash Gordon (1980)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- George Lucas tried to make his own Flash Gordon film in the 1970s but could not get the rights from producer Dino De Laurentiis, so he created Star Wars instead.
- Newcomer Sam J. Jones landed the lead role after producer Dino De Laurentiis's mother-in-law, Ivy Webb, spotted him on an episode of The Dating Game; Jones beat out Kurt Russell and Arnold Schwarzenegger for the part.
- Star Sam J. Jones left the production over a dispute with Dino De Laurentiis before post-production, so much of his dialogue had to be re-dubbed by actor Peter Marinker, whose identity as the voice remained a mystery for years, even to Jones himself.
- Federico Fellini once optioned the rights to direct a Flash Gordon film but never made it; the finished 1980 movie pays tribute to him with a minor character actually named Fellini, played by Deep Roy.
- The film's soundtrack was composed and performed by the rock band Queen, making Flash Gordon one of the earliest high-budget feature films to use a score primarily composed and performed by a rock band; an earlier example was The Who's Tommy in 1975.
- Director Sergio Leone was also considered for the project but turned it down because he believed the script strayed too far from Alex Raymond's original comic strips.
- Canadian model Dayle Haddon was originally cast as Dale Arden but was dropped and replaced by Melody Anderson after she arrived on set looking "emaciated."
