Film

The Ice Pirates

A scrappy 1984 space-opera comedy about rogueish ice pirates hunting for the galaxy's rarest resource: water. It's a deliberately silly adventure that wears its B-movie heart with glee, packed with practical effects, absurd logic, and a cast having genuine fun. For anyone who loves Star Wars but wishes it would lighten up and break character.

TMDb rating2.8

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Flash Gordon1980

Same era, same unashamed commitment to colourful space-opera excess. Treats its ridiculous premise with complete sincerity, letting the camp emerge from the genuine spectacle rather than winking at the audience.

But It's very 1980, moves slowly by modern standards, and the theatrical plotting might feel quaint if you're used to tighter scripts.

Flash Gordon poster

Barbarella1968

The spiritual ancestor of everything Ice Pirates is doing: gorgeous sci-fi production design, a hero who's fundamentally good-natured rather than cool, and the absolute refusal to take anything seriously that doesn't deserve it.

But Even shorter on plot than Ice Pirates, and the sexual politics are very much of their time in ways that grate now.

Barbarella poster

Spaceballs1987

Mel Brooks doing the same thing three years later: a sci-fi action film that works as both adventure and parody because it genuinely loves the thing it's spoofing. Sharper writing, broader laughs.

But If you don't like broad comedies, the constant gags will exhaust rather than delight you.

Spaceballs poster

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Stalker1979

Both are set in resource-scarce universes shaped by impossible absence. One's a comedy about the chase; one's a tragedy about what the chase means. They're inverse mirrors of how scarcity shapes human desire.

Andrei Tarkovsky's meditation on desire and the human need for meaning in an impossible landscape. Glacially paced, philosophically dense, a film about wanting things rather than getting them—but fundamentally about the same hunger Ice Pirates treats as a punchline.

But Slow to the point of abstraction. If you want entertainment, not contemplation, this will feel like punishment.

Stalker poster
More like this (8)

The Hidden1987

Low-budget sci-fi action that doesn't apologize for its premise. Kyle MacLachlan and Michael Nouri have real chemistry, and it sustains genuine tension while remaining completely aware of how weird it is.

But It's considerably darker and meaner-spirited than Ice Pirates—less fun, more body horror.

The Hidden poster

Krull1983

Another mid-80s oddity that blends fantasy and sci-fi with complete earnestness. Gorgeous to look at, genuinely inventive creature design, and it commits fully to its own strange internal logic.

But Slower-paced than Ice Pirates and tone-deaf about its own romance subplot in ways that actively distract from the adventure.

Krull poster

Lifeforce1985

Tobe Hooper in full fever-dream mode: a vampire-from-space film that commits absolutely to its insane premise. Gloriously overstuffed, technically accomplished, and impossible to look away from.

But Genuinely incoherent plotting, a weird sexual component that hasn't aged well, and occasionally tiring grandiosity.

Lifeforce poster

Explorers1985

Joe Dante's love letter to space adventure and the boys who dream about it. Made by someone who understands why Ice Pirates works: sincerity in the absurd, and genuine affection for its characters.

But More earnest than funny, and the third act shift in tone will polarize you based on whether you want adventure or allegory.

Explorers poster

Cherry 20001987

Post-apocalyptic action-romance that knows exactly how preposterous it is and leans in completely. Fast, inventive, genuinely charming, and doesn't overstay its welcome.

But The gender politics are muddled at best, and it's less interested in coherent worldbuilding than just having fun with the premise.

Cherry 2000 poster

Space Truckers1996

A late entry into the

But The script can't quite sustain feature length and the film knows it—some stretches lag noticeably, and the humor doesn't consistently land.

Space Truckers poster

Delicatessen1991

Both are scrappy, optimistic films about survival in a resource-starved future. One's a romp; one's a fable. But both believe humans are fundamentally clever and good-natured enough to win anyway.

Jean-Pierre Jeunet's post-apocalyptic romance-comedy told almost entirely through tone, production design, and visual storytelling. Absurdly inventive in how it makes deprivation look beautiful, and genuinely moving beneath the whimsy.

But Non-English language, deeply strange visual grammar, and the plot is deliberately obscured by style—you have to feel your way through it rather than follow it.

Delicatessen poster

Damnation2017

Both are about con artists and rogues trying to stay one step ahead in systems designed to crush them. Ice Pirates wins through humor and heart; Damnation suggests the system is designed to extract both.

Nic Pizzolatto's pilot for an ambitious anthology series about crime, corruption, and moral compromise. One episode, but told with such economy and dark wit that it works as a complete film. The writing is sharp enough to cut glass.

But It's a fragment of something larger that got cancelled, and despite its perfection as an episode it can't help feeling incomplete. Also considerably darker and nastier than Ice Pirates in every way.

Damnation poster

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