Around the World in 80s Movies

Revenge of the Nerds II begins with the nerds who formed Lambda Lambda Lambda at Adams College, leaders from an inclusive fraternity that overcame prejudice to become heroes, as witnessed in the first film. Now they must take their mission national at the United Fraternity Conference in Fort Lauderdale. There, they hope to increase the bonds of brotherhood, set new and less discriminatory guidelin...

Best friends Louis (Robert Carradine   and Gilbert (Anthony Edwards)   head off to Adams College together only to find that the jocks that belong to the fraternity called Alpha Beta have taken over the dorms after they burn down their own frat house.  In order to stop having to live in the gym, the former dorm residents must try to get into a fraternity or sorority of their own, but Lewis and Gilb...

Real Genius centers on several students at Pac Tech, an institution esteemed for its technological breakthroughs. They’re currently working on a project to build a high-powered laser. The project is led by an egotistical professor and TV science show host named Jerry Hathaway (William Atherton), who has been employed by a clandestine group within the Pentagon for Operation Crossbow, whereby...

Gary (Anthony Michael Hall) and Wyatt (Ilan Mitchell-Smith) are a pair of best friend suburban Chicago high school geeks tired of being everyone else’s doormat and wanting to have girlfriends of their own.  When the traditional methods prove to be of no avail, the duo decides to use Wyatt’s computer skills to work by creating a virtual girlfriend for them to ask questions to.  However,...

A San Francisco-based architect named Miles Harding buys a new computer to help him stay organized and on schedule, as well as to assist in the design of a brick that will hold a building together through an earthquake. Realizing that it has the potential to streamline everything in his life, Miles uses it to control everything in his apartment, providing a security system, making his coffee, and...

Demon Seed ‘s story is set 20 years in the future, Proteus IV is a new, highly advanced computer that scientists at the ICON Institute (International Control Corporation) spent eight years constructing as a massively powerful synthetic version of the organic human brain, hoping to use it for the financial success of the conglomerate funding the project. Proteus is capable of absorbing all hu...

In the future, Earth is a polluted wasteland. People have resorted to drugs and promiscuity while relying on off-world food production systems for salvation. Research chemists Major Adam (Kirk Douglas), his young assistant/lover Alex (Farrah Fawcett), and their dog Sally are the sole residents of the subterranean Experimental Food Research Station on Saturn’s third moon, Titan. Unable to mai...

Sometime in the future, humans establish a mining operation on Io, a volcanic moon orbiting Jupiter, a week’s distance from the nearest space station. The mining base is currently shattering records for productivity.  Sean Connery is William T. O’Niel (Sean Connery), in his second week of a one-year stint as the federal district marshal of this isolated space community. “Work har...

Set on Earth of the future, where we’ve already mastered the ability for space travel to through the solar system, and even set up colonies on Mars, Total Recall surrounds a lowly construction worker named Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger), who has recently been plagued by a recurring dream of being on Mars.  His doting wife (Sharon Stone)   tells Doug it’s just a dream, but there&...

This sci-fi actioner stars “Rowdy” Roddy Piper (yes, the ex-pro wrestler) as Nada, a drifter desperately in need of a decent job. He lands a temp job at a construction site, but strange doings in the church across the street cause him to investigate, and after the place is raided he discovers what looks like ordinary sunglasses have special lenses to be able to see the world for what i...

In this three-part TV miniseries sequel, the Resistance is fending off the pressing Visitors, who continue to fool the people of Earth by controlling the media, while depleting the planet of precious water and rounding up humans for food. The resistance scientists hope, hoping to find a weakness in the overpowering Visitor defenses that will help them turn the tide of the war. However, the Visitor...

The people of Earth are visited and befriended by a human-like race from outer space inhabiting massive spacecraft, 50 of them measuring three miles in diameter, hovering over cities throughout the world. These newcomers speak Earth’s languages fluently, though they have distinct electronic-sounding voices and are so sensitive to light that they frequently wear sunglasses. They’re call...

Set in the near future of 1991, it’s been three years since the landing of an actual flying saucer landed on Earth, containing a species of aliens (dubbed “Newcomers”) who had been genetically engineered as slave laborers.  The Newcomers are smarter and physically stronger than their human counterparts, which makes them more suitable to perform certain jobs, and the backlash agai...

In the story, five escaped alien refugees come to Earth like a bolt of lightning and find themselves in a remote North Carolina Victorian-style farmhouse inhabited by a newly-orphaned teenage girl Deirdre Clark (Ione Skye) and her grandmother Grace (Maureen O’Sullivan). Suspicions are high, resulting in the aliens taking casualties in a gunfight with the local yokels. They just want to be le...

A mute extraterrestrial resembling a black man (but with feet that have three toes) crash lands his spaceship near New York City. Not understanding where he is or what people are saying, he finds his way to Harlem’s 125th Street. Although derided as either crazy or homeless, others discover his worth when he can heal broken electronics and human injuries with a single touch. A concerned soci...

An alien race intercepts Voyager II, a space probe describing Earth, effectively inviting aliens to visit. These aliens take Earth up on the offer, sending a scout pod to see what we’re up to. American fighter jets greet it and the alien scout crashlands up in the American backwoods in Wisconsin. Using DNA found in the hair in recent widow Jenny Hayden’s photo album, he transforms hims...

E.T.: The Extraterrestrial  starts in a forest outside a California suburb. An alien spacecraft lands, and several extraterrestrials emerge, gathering flora samples.  Suspicious humans arrive, the aliens escape, leaving one behind.  He hides in a backyard shed, discovered by a 10-year-old boy named Elliott (Henry Thomas). Startled and scared, Elliott hides the alien, whom he dubs “E.T.,” in his ro...

Richard Dreyfuss stars as Muncie, Indiana electricity lineman, Roy Neary, one of many people in the world to experience a close encounter with a UFO.  Others experiencing the phenomenon exhibit the same odd behavior — radiation burns and an obsession with a mountainous shape. Roy’s obsession strains his relationship with his family, who think he is mentally ill. The eyewitnesses are compelled to c...

Virgil ‘Bud’ Brigman (Ed Harris) is the lead foreman of Deepcore, an underwater oil drilling rig 2,000-feet deep. Deepcore receives word of a downed US Navy nuclear submarine in the area near the Cayman Trough. As Russian subs are close by, foul play is suspected. The crew must escort Bud’s soon-to-be ex-wife Lindsay (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), the project engineer for Deepcor...

The plot of DeepStar Six involves a team of eleven scientists working for the US Navy is constructing a facility stationed six miles beneath the surface of the ocean for the launching of nuclear missiles. They discover they are building atop what appears to be a vast underground cavern. The Navy might scrap the project if they don’t complete it before their six-month stint is up. Once they d...

Scientists on the last few days of their stint in a deep sea mining operation stumble upon a mysterious Russian ship, “Leviathan”, which has sunk and perhaps was ambushed by their own navy.  They loot some cargo on board and inadvertently bring back the remnants of a genetic experiment gone awry, which they also set loose upon their own vessel, to gruesome and nightmarish results. Pete...

In a small coastal fishing village called Noyo in northern California, the residents are set to celebrate their annual salmon festival. The festival has been on the decline of late because the fish population has dwindled, leaving the town suffering  Doug McClure plays a fisherman and trusted community leader named Jim Hill (Doug McClure), doing what he can to keep harmony among his neighbors. Vic...

The story for Piranha II doesn’t connect to Piranha save for a reference to fish used as bioweapons for a top-secret U.S. Army experiment.  Those experiments continued into cross-breeding piranhas with grunions and flying fish to make them dangerous in both air and water. A ship has sunk and a container of their eggs breaks open in the area near Club Elysium, a posh Jamaican resort, on the v...

Bradford Dillman stars as Paul Grogan, a reclusive alcoholic living in a cabin out in the woods in an undisclosed part of the United States. He’s visited by a skiptracer named Maggie McKeown (Heather Menzies), who is out to find a couple of backpackers who have disappeared without a trace. Their search leads them to an abandoned Army research facility solely inhabited by a strange scientist,...

The Brody family, not led by the widow Ellen Brody (Lorraine Gary), continues to experience shark attacks, starting with when Ellen’s younger son, Sean. While mourning the loss, Ellen visits her other son, Michael (Lance Guest), in the Bahamas, where she meets the rascally Hoagie Newcombe (Michael Caine). Meanwhile, the same shark that got her boy appears off the coast of the island, and Ell...