Film

Explorers

Name: Explorers
Genre: Science Fiction, Adventure, Family
Released: 1985
Cast: Ethan Hawke, River Phoenix, Jason Presson, Amanda Peterson, Bobby Fite

Explorers is a scrappy, big-hearted slice of Amblin-era sci-fi about three suburban kids who build a working spaceship out of junkyard parts, a video-game force field, and pure obsession. Joe Dante directs it like a love letter to the B-movies its heroes worship — earnest and wide-eyed for two acts, then swerving into something stranger and funnier once the aliens finally show up. Good for anyone nostalgic for homemade wonder over CGI polish.

TMDb rating

6.3

If you liked this

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial1982

The template Explorers is riffing on — a kid's private, obsessive belief in something out there rewarded with real contact, all wide-eyed wonder and Spielberg's gift for making a bike ride feel like liftoff.

But You've probably seen it a dozen times already, and its ubiquity can make the wonder feel a little worn at the edges.

The Goonies1985

Same year, same spirit: a gang of kids treating an ordinary neighborhood like the edge of a grand adventure, mixing genuine peril with jokes that land because the friendships feel real.

But The comic setpieces are broader and the pacing scrappier than Explorers' quieter, more wistful stretches.

Flight of the Navigator1986

A kid, a mysterious spacecraft, and a wisecracking alien intelligence — this one leans even harder into the tech-wonder and gadget glee that makes Explorers' junkyard ship so fun to watch get built.

But The plot logic is even wobblier than Explorers', and the humor skews a little younger.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Castle in the Sky1986

Both are about kids whose obsessive tinkering with flying machines becomes a real escape from ordinary life — Miyazaki just trades the goofy alien comedy for pure, unashamed wonder.

Miyazaki's tale of two kids chasing a floating city on flying machines they build and repair themselves has the exact same joy in homemade engineering and the sky as an escape route, rendered with breathtaking hand-drawn beauty.

But It's animated, in Japanese, and considerably more earnest — there's none of Explorers' jokey self-awareness about B-movies.

Super 82011

J.J. Abrams' explicit homage to this whole run of eighties kid-adventure sci-fi, following amateur filmmakers who stumble into something far bigger than their small town was built to handle.

But It's more polished and self-aware than the films it's imitating, which can feel like nostalgia at one remove rather than the real thing.

*batteries not included1987no page yet

Tiny flying alien machines rescue a crumbling tenement in this gentler, more melancholy cousin — proof the era's love of small, homemade-looking marvels wasn't only for kids' stories.

But It's slower and sadder than Explorers, aimed more at grown-up nostalgia than kid-adventure thrills.

SpaceCamp1986no page yet

Kids accidentally launched into actual orbit thanks to a well-meaning robot's mistake — the same premise of a child's fantasy getting dangerously, thrillingly literal.

But It plays its stakes straighter and its science shakier; the charm is thinner than Explorers' oddball comic instincts.

WarGames1983

Swap the spaceship for a computer terminal: a teenager's curiosity and skill with machines nearly starts a war, capturing the same era's fascination with kids who understand technology better than the adults around them.

But It's a tenser, more grown-up thriller with real Cold War dread — nowhere near as playful or whimsical.

Innerspace1987

Joe Dante again, this time shrinking a man to microscopic size and injecting him into someone else's body — the same appetite for gonzo sci-fi comedy and gleeful practical-effects invention.

But It's an adult buddy comedy rather than a kids' adventure, with a completely different emotional register.

Zathura: A Space Adventure2005

A board game flings two brothers into real outer space in this later, glossier take on childhood imagination made dangerously literal, with solid practical creature design.

But It's blander and more formulaic, missing the handmade oddity and genuine strangeness of Explorers' second half.

Contact1997

Same engine — a dreamer's private obsession with the cosmos leads to actual first contact — but Contact plays it as a serious human story instead of a kids' comedy adventure.

Jodie Foster plays an adult version of Ben — someone whose childhood fixation on the sky curdled into a life spent trying to prove contact is real, and who eventually gets an answer.

But It's a two-hour meditation on faith, grief and scientific proof with barely a laugh in it — the tonal opposite of Explorers' goofiness.

The Space Children1958no page yet

The same core idea decades earlier — children singled out by an unseen intelligence adults can't perceive — but drained of whimsy and soaked in Cold War anxiety instead.

A cheap, eerie fifties B-movie where kids on a military base fall under the influence of a glowing alien intelligence that speaks only to them — decades before Explorers, and playing the same setup for atomic-age dread instead of laughs.

But It's a creaky, low-budget curiosity with dated effects and pacing — worth it as a piece of history more than as entertainment.