The NeverEnding Story (1984) on Netflix
PG19841h 42mAdventureDramaFamily
Chased by bullies, shy Bastian takes a book called The Neverending Story to his school attic. There he reads of Atreyu, a young warrior in Fantasia, a land the Nothing is consuming.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb7.3/10172,625 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes84%
Trailer
Plot summary
Bastian is a boy who daydreams in school, which worries his father. One rainy morning bullies chase him, and he hides in a bookstore, where the owner, Carl Conrad Coreander, is reading a book called The Neverending Story. Curious, Bastian takes it and reads it in his school's attic. The book tells of Fantasia, a realm being swallowed by a force called the Nothing. The Childlike Empress has fallen ill, and messengers gather at the Ivory Tower for help. A young warrior, Atreyu, is given the task of finding a cure for her, along with the amulet Auryn to guide and protect him on the quest. Bastian follows Atreyu's journey from the attic, deeper into the tale.
Cast
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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The NeverEnding Story (1984)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Michael Ende, paid $50,000 for the rights to his novel, worked as a script advisor; after Wolfgang Petersen rewrote the script without consulting him, Ende asked for production to stop or the title to change, sued when the producers refused, and lost the case.
- The film's theme song was used in the 2019 final episode of the third season of Stranger Things, set in 1985; Spotify streams for the song then rose by 400 percent.
- The NeverEnding Story had a budget of 60 million Deutsche Mark, reputedly the most expensive film made by a European studio at the time.
- Giorgio Moroder's Limahl theme song and other techno-pop touches were left out of the German version, which uses only Klaus Doldinger's orchestral score; Moroder rescored several scenes for the version released outside Germany.
- Almost five million cinema-goers in Germany produced a gross of about US$20 million, making The NeverEnding Story the highest-grossing German film at the time.
- Korn's 2019 album The Nothing is named after the dark force in the film; frontman Jonathan Davis chose the title while still grieving the death of his estranged wife.
