Spaceballs is a 1987 science fiction
parody film co-written, directed by, and starring Mel
Brooks. It was released on June 24, 1987, and
earned only modest returns, but it has gone on to become a cult classic on video. Its plot and
characters contain numerous parodies of elements from the Star Wars
trilogy in particular, as well as other popular science fiction films. The script was written by Mel Brooks in only
six months, and was approved by George Lucas, as he was a big fan of Brooks's previous
films[1]. Lucas's Industrial Light & Magic was also involved in the special visual effects for the film.
As of 2007, an animated sequel TV series is in preparation.
Plot
Planet Spaceball, led by President Skroob (Mel Brooks), has foolishly wasted all of its
air and, desperate to find more, aims at extorting the
peaceful Planet Druidia into giving them all of its air. They devise a plan to kidnap the
Druish Princess Vespa, who is about to marry the narcoleptic
Prince Valium. Resenting this marriage, Vespa runs off from the altar and escapes into space,
where she is attacked by the Spaceballs (commanded by Dark Helmet, played by Rick
Moranis).
Vespa's father, King Roland, hires Captain Lone Starr (Bill Pullman) and his mawg Barf (John Candy) (who are desperate
for money to pay back their debts to the Mafioso Pizza the Hutt), to rescue his daughter.
They manage to rescue her and escape the Spaceballs, but have to crash-land on a desert planet. There, they meet the sage
Yogurt, who introduces Lone Starr to the mysterious power called the The Schwartz. However, the Spaceballs trick Vespa into leaving her hiding place and capture her
again. Lone Starr and Barf rescue the Princess again, but not before the Spaceballs have succeeded in forcing King Roland to
reveal the entry code to Druidia's atmosphere (which is simply 1-2-3-4-5). Their spaceship Spaceball One transforms into Mega Maid with a vacuum cleaner, which starts to extract the
air from Druidia. Lone Starr uses his Schwartz ring to reverse the procedure, defeats Dark
Helmet in a duel using lightsaber-like weapons emanating from their Schwartz rings, and
causes Mega Maid to self-destruct.
Lone Starr returns the Princess to Druidia and, since his creditor Pizza the Hutt "ate himself to death", leaves without
taking the agreed payment, a million spacebucks, instead taking a much smaller amount of only 248 spacebucks for food, gas and
tolls. Shortly afterwards, on finding out that he is a "certified Prince", he returns just in time to interrupt the marriage and
marry Vespa himself.
Cast
Box Office
The budget for Spaceballs was $22,700,000 (estimated). The film grossed $38,119,483 during its run in the United States, taking in
$6,600,000 on its opening weekend[2].
Cultural Context
"What's the matter, Colonel Sandurz? Chicken?": Dark Helmet taunts Colonel Sandurz on the bridge of Spaceball One.
The plot is deliberately evocative of fairy tales, as are the scenes on the planet
Druidia. Throughout the film, the Spaceballs regularly break the fourth wall, often to
promote their merchandise, and they are aware that they are making a movie, and the events are not real life (at one point, the
villains succeed in capturing the main characters' stunt doubles). In fact, in one scene, they pull out the (somehow) complete
video version of Spaceballs in order to find the main characters, and temporarily take a look at the scene they're in:
"now".
The majority of the scenes and characters are parodies of Star Wars, although the
film parodies other movies as well. The most notable are 2001: A Space
Odyssey, Jaws (gigantic shark-like space ship and Jaws-like music),
Transformers (Spaceball One, during the merchandising scene with Yogurt,
Spaceballs The Coloring Book has Optimus Prime on the cover), Star Wars (Skroob's
transporter accident, and possibly inspired by how C-3PO was erroneously re-assembled by Chewbacca
in The Empire Strikes Back, with Skroob's reversed
head), Battlestar Galactica, Superman: The Movie (only in the musical score), the Police Academy movies (Michael Winslow sound
effects; Winslow has a cameo in the film as a Spaceball officer), and the Sir David Lean films The Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia. Also, The Wizard of
Oz, Planet of the Apes, Rambo, Max Headroom, Back to the Future, Rocky, It Happened One Night, and Alien (with
John Hurt reprising his famous death scene from that movie, and even groaning in despair, "Oh
no! Not again!"). However, when the chestburster emerges from the victim, it screams,
smiles, puts on a straw boater hat with a miniature cane in one hand, and begins dancing
and singing like Michigan J. Frog, performing Hello! Ma Baby.
The film also satirizes various aspects of 1980s culture, including video rental, fast food, Mr. Coffee,
action figures, and merchandising. During a scene
in which Dark Helmet and various other crewmates try to locate a copy of Spaceballs on video (which confuses Dark Helmet,
as they are still making the movie at the time), other video cassettes of The
Producers, The Twelve Chairs, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein,
Silent Movie, High Anxiety,
History of the World, Part I, and To Be or Not to Be can be seen before Sandurz finds the video he is looking for. All
of the mentioned films were made by Mel Brooks prior to Spaceballs.
At the end of the final battle, in the final minute of the self-destruct countdown, Spaceball One's computer reminds Dark
Helmet that there is a self-destruct cancellation button. Rushing to the button, he, President Skroob and Colonel Sandurz find it
out of order, to which Dark Helmet curses, "Even in the future, nothing works!"
One of the features of Spaceball One was beverage cans filled with air, branded
"Perri-air".
Rick Moranis reportedly modeled Dark Helmet's "mask-down" voice not on that of James
Earl Jones, the actor who provided Darth Vader's voice, but on that of Geoffrey
Holder, a popular performer of similar voice intonations to Jones.
Theater vs. Video/DVD Release
In the scene where Lone Starr asks Yogurt if they will see each other again, Yogurt replies; (shortened to show differences
only)
- Theater Release: "Spaceballs 3 : The Search for Two"
- Video/DVD Release: "Spaceballs 2 : The Search for More Money"
Mistakes
- Lone Starr loses his Schwartz ring while fighting Dark Helmet aboard Spaceball One/Mega Maid, which
becomes a momentarily important element in Lone Starr's character development (the voice of Yogurt tells him, "the ring is
bupkiss...the Schwartz is in you, Lone Starr!"), yet, miraculously, Lone Starr has the ring again when he boards the
Eagle 5 to escape before Mega Maid self-destructs.
- When Mega Maid appears, its head is large enough to fit Eagle 5 in its ear, but when Mega Maid explodes
and the head is sent all the way to the Planet of the Apes, its head is only big enough to fit one person through its
nostril.
- In the scene where they visit the great Yogurt, it shows Yogurt exiting the statue and the small door closes, but once it
zooms in, the door is open again.
- When Lone Starr and Barf stop by the diner and the alien dances across the table, you can see a mechanical part that is
connecting the alien to the table.
Parodies
Heroes
- Captain Lone Starr combines traits from Star Wars' two male heroes, Han Solo
and Luke Skywalker. He hails from the Ford Galaxy in reference to Harrison Ford (who played Han Solo), and also a play on the Ford
Galaxie, a full size car made by the Ford Motor Company.
- His companion Barf (Barfolomew), a Mawg (half-man, half-dog), is a parody of the Wookiee Chewbacca (Chewie).
- Their ship Eagle 5 is a modified Winnebago RV. Its shabby state resembles the Millennium
Falcon. The name Eagle 5 also refers to both the ships of Luke Skywalker (Red 5) and Han Solo (Millenium
Falcon) in Star Wars.
- Yogurt, a parody of the Jedi master Yoda (and the food
yogurt), is a sage with deep knowledge of the mysterious power called The Schwartz
(The Force). His bombastic entrance resembles that of the wizard in
The Wizard of Oz. Like many characters played by Mel Brooks he
embodies several Jewish stereotypes.
- He is assisted in his work, particularly merchandising, by the Dinks, which
resemble the Jawas from Star Wars while making sounds similar to
the Seven Dwarfs.
Druidians
- Princess Vespa resembles Princess Leia in her noble heritage and her
love/hate relationship with Lone Starr/Han Solo. Her name references the motor scooter Vespa. She
is a Druish princess a play on Jewish princess, a characterization of spoiled
young Jewish-American women. She obviously was spoiled by her father and is used to a life of luxury. Her hooked nose was changed by rhinoplasty. Her space ship is a
Mercedes Benz.
- Dot Matrix, Vespa's droid-of-honor, resembles C-3PO. Her name is a reference to the old dot matrix style
printers.
- Prince Valium, the last prince in the galaxy and Vespa's fiance. He takes his name from the comic strip Prince Valiant but combines it with the sedative drug to reflect his narcolepsy.
Spaceballs
- President Skroob, though in the place of Star War's Emperor Palpatine, appears more
like a modern president without any supernatural powers. His name is an anagram of "Brooks," but also resembles the verb
to screw (to cheat) and
Ebenezer Scrooge.
- Dark Helmet, the Space Balls' second-in-command, is an obvious parody on Darth
Vader.
Helmet resembles Darth Vader in his appearance but is much shorter, his helmet is much larger,
and he wears a tie. (However, he changes into a khaki uniform and a terribly oversized pith
helmet during the desert scene.) Helmet speaks in a deep bass voice and breathes audibly, as the helmet hinders his
breathing. This often causes him to lift his visor, revealing his bespectacled face and his intentionally incredulous
high-pitched voice.
Helmet is the commander of the Spaceballs' "Imperious Forces" (a parody of the Imperial Forces in Star Wars, as well as the
Imperious Leader from Battlestar
Galactica), and commands the flagship Spaceball One (see below). He uses The
Schwartz to discipline his subordinates but not by force grip (as Darth Vader) but by
zapping their crotches with a green beam.
He enjoys playing with Spaceballs action figurines, taking special pleasure in
acting out a scenario in which he seduces Princess Vespa, but is embarrassed when anyone notices his playing.
Vader's relationship to his nemesis Luke Skywalker is parodied by Helmet declaring
himself Lone Starr's "father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate", which he sums up as making them "absolutely
nothing."
- Colonel Sandurz is a parody of the leading Imperial Officers from Star Wars, such as Veers and Piett. His name is a pun on KFC's founder Colonel Sanders. (Indeed,
this is noted in a line where Dark Helmet says to him, "What's the matter, Colonel Sandurz? Chicken?")
- Snotty, who is operating the transporter beam on Spaceball One, is a direct reference to Star Trek's engineer
Scotty. His thick Scottish accent, stereotypical Scottish attire (kilt and hat) and his
referring to "Loch Lomond" also point to Scotty's Scottish
background.
Spaceball One
The Spaceballs' weapon of conquest, Spaceball One, is a powerful space ship. Its shape resembles Battlestar Galactica and the Super Star Destroyers,
while its name is a pun on Air Force One, the U.S. president's airplane. The Spaceballs'
attitude towards others is expressed by the ship's large bumper sticker: "We brake for
nobody."
The ship's absurd size is a frequent point of references:
- the ship is so large that it contains a shopping mall, a zoo, and a three-ring circus (complete with a freak
show).
- the ship takes about 1 minute and 47 seconds to cross the screen at the beginning of the film. This is emphasized by the
music theme which stops and resumes again several times, each time growing louder and louder, as if the orchestra is getting
frustrated with its seemingly endless length.
- President Skroob is once forced to jog to the bridge in order to arrive before the end of the film.
Spaceball One is capable of traveling at four different speeds: sub-light speed, light
speed, ridiculous speed, and ludicrous speed. When going into ludicrous speed all crew members must use a seat belt for
their own safety. Ludicrous speed results in the ship leaving a trail of plaid,
parodying the "warp trail" seen in the first few Star Trek films.
Spaceball One's secret weapon is its ability to transform (in a sequence reminiscent of the climax of Transformers: The Movie) into Mega Maid, a colossal cleaning woman holding a
gigantic vacuum cleaner used to extract air from other planets and take it back to planet Spaceball.
The ship's destruction resembles the destruction of the Death Star in Star Wars: Lone Starr's ship flies through Mega
Maid's ear to reach the self-destruct button.
Mega Maid's head and the hand holding the vacuum cleaner crash into a nearby planet, with the pieces resembling the
Statue of Liberty as seen in the final scene of Planet of the Apes.
Other villains
The Schwartz
FAO Schwartz is the toy store chain which distributes the Star Wars toys, therefore it is
yet another parody on film merchandising, as in the entire first Yogurt scene. The lightsabers emanating from the Schwartz rings held in front of their crotch also form a phallic symbol, a play on the word Schwantz/Schwanz which is Yiddish/German slang for penis.[3] The Light and Dark sides of the Force
are parodied by being called the "up side" and the "down side".
Sequel
Breaking the fourth wall, the possibility of a sequel was
already included in the film itself: "God willing, we'll all return for Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money", though
this was probably merely poking fun at sequels in general. In September 2004, news about a sequel (possibly hoaxes), parodying
the Prequel trilogy, appeared on the internet.[4] In January 2005, it was revealed that Spaceballs would be turned into an
animated television show.[5] On September 21, 2006, Mel Brooks announced that he was indeed developing an
animated TV series based on Spaceballs, set to debut in autumn 2007.[6] The series would begin with a one-hour pilot, followed by an initial batch
of 13 episodes of Spaceballs: The Animated Series.
See also
References
- ^ "Trivia for Spaceballs." IMDB.
Retrieved on September 21, 2006.
- ^ "Business Data for Spaceballs." IMDB.
Retrieved on September 21, 2006.
- ^ Sex-Lexis October 09, 2007
- ^ Slashdot September 29, 2004
- ^ Elizabeth Guider, "'Spaceballs' rolls to TV", Variety,
January 19, 2005.
- ^ "'Spaceballs' to become TV cartoon", CNN, September 21, 2006.
External links
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