Spaceballs (1987) on Netflix
PG19871h 36mAdventureComedySci-Fi
Spaceball's atmosphere is nearly gone, so President Skroob plans to drain Druidia's. Princess Vespa runs out on her wedding, and mercenary Lone Starr takes King Roland's offer to bring her back.
- Netflix3.6/5
- IMDb7.1/10228,897 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes52%
Trailer
Plot summary
The planet Spaceball has run through its atmosphere, and President Skroob wants Druidia's air, which sits behind a shield whose code belongs to King Roland. On Druidia, Princess Vespa refuses the marriage her father has arranged with Prince Valium, a narcoleptic, and leaves with her droid, Dot Matrix. The mercenary Lone Starr and his partner Barf, a Mawg who is half man and half dog, owe a million space bucks to the crime boss Pizza the Hutt. Roland offers that same sum for his daughter's return, and Starr accepts. Skroob's enforcer, Dark Helmet, commands the ship Spaceball One alongside Colonel Sandurz.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Spaceballs (1987)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Lucas told Brooks that Spaceballs action figures "are going to look like mine", and Brooks agreed not to make them. That agreement inspired him to write Yogurt's "Merchandising" scene and fill the film with Spaceballs-branded products such as placemats and toilet paper; no mass-produced Spaceballs merchandise was ever created.
- Brooks had Lucas's company handle some of the post-production, saying, "I was playing ball with the people who could have said no." Lucas later sent Brooks a note saying how much he loved the film, including its story structure, and that he "was afraid [he] would bust something from laughing".
- Bill Pullman got the part of Lone Starr when Brooks and his wife Anne Bancroft saw him in a play. Brooks had been unsuccessfully trying to sign big-name actors such as Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks for the film.
- Tesla took the names of its acceleration modes from the film's starship speeds. In homage to Spaceballs, a Tesla has Ludicrous Mode for acceleration beyond its Insane Mode, and Plaid Mode above Ludicrous.
- The 1/12-scale model of the Eagle 5 was created by special effects designer Grant McCune, who also created models for Star Wars and Star Trek. It was displayed at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry in the summer of 1988 and auctioned on December 11, 2018.
- According to Rick Moranis: "In the original script, the description of [Dark Helmet] was that the whole costume was one gigantic helmet. Then it got scaled back to just an exaggerated version of the Darth Vader helmet."
