Spaceballs

• 1. Introduction

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  Spaceballs arrived in American cinemas on the 24th of June 1987. Its director Mel Brooks had already reached a personal agreement with George Lucas, the creator of the franchise the film was about to mock at length. The terms of that agreement shaped the film's comedy before a single scene was written. Brooks co-wrote, co-produced, and directed Spaceballs. He also played two roles, including one whose character name is an anagram of his own surname.

  The film's parody extends well beyond Star Wars. It targets Star Trek, Alien, The Wizard of Oz, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Planet of the Apes, and Transformers. Bill Pullman, John Candy, Rick Moranis, and Daphne Zuniga lead the cast, with Joan Rivers, Dick Van Patten, and George Wyner in support. What each of them brought to the project, and what the film that resulted actually cost and earned, is a story with a few surprises.

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• 2. Lucas's One Condition

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  "Your action figures are going to look like mine," George Lucas told Mel Brooks when granting approval for the parody. The condition was clear: no action figures resembling Spaceballs characters could ever be manufactured. No mass-produced Spaceballs merchandise was ever made.

  Brooks wrote a scene directly in response. The sage Yogurt presents an entire room of fictional Spaceballs tie-in products, from placemats to toilet paper. The joke worked precisely because the real merchandise never existed.

  Brooks also arranged for some of the film's post-production to be handled by Lucas's own company. He described his reasoning plainly: he was "playing ball with the people who could have said no." When Lucas saw the finished film, he sent Brooks a note saying he loved the story structure and that he "was afraid he would bust something from laughing."

  Apogee Inc. handled the film's principal visual effects. Its founder, John Dykstra, had previously worked at Industrial Light & Magic.

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• 3. Finding Lone Starr

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  Before Bill Pullman was cast, Mel Brooks had tried to sign Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks for the lead role. Both declined. Brooks and his wife Anne Bancroft attended a stage production and saw Pullman perform. The decision came shortly after.

  Pullman later described how the final lineup fell into place. Brooks had first secured John Candy and Rick Moranis. "Once that was secured," Pullman recalled, Brooks told him: "Heck, I'll get somebody nobody knows!" Pullman was that somebody.

  Dark Helmet, played by Moranis, nearly wore a very different design. According to Moranis, the original script described the costume as "one gigantic helmet." The final version scaled that back to an exaggerated take on the Darth Vader helmet. Moranis plays the character as short-statured, bratty, and childish. George Wyner plays the subordinate Colonel Sandurz, whose character parodies Grand Moff Tarkin and whose name nods to Colonel Sanders. Dom DeLuise provides the voice of Pizza the Hutt, a crime boss modeled on Jabba the Hutt. That character eats himself to death before the story ends.

  Daphne Zuniga came to the project with reservations. She had initially found Brooks's film parodies "too crass and not too funny." Her view changed during production. She described Brooks as "totally wacko and out to lunch" while also calling him "really perceptive, real sensitive in ways that make actors respond."

  John Hurt, whose character Gilbert Kane had appeared in the 1979 film Alien, makes a cameo parodying that same role. Archival recordings of "Hello! Ma Baby" from the animated short One Froggy Evening play as the Xenomorph bursts from Hurt's chest. The creature then breaks into song and dance. Phil Hartman, Tress MacNeille, and Rob Paulsen were among the uncredited performers who provided voices for the alien Dinks. Paulsen also appeared on screen as one of Dark Helmet's soldiers. The film the cast and crew assembled had an estimated production budget of $25.5 million.

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• 4. Score and Soundtrack

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  John Morris, a frequent collaborator of Mel Brooks, contributed three score cues to the official Spaceballs soundtrack. Atlantic Records released the album on LP, CD, and cassette.

  "Raise Your Hands" by Bon Jovi is used prominently in the film. A second song, "My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own," became a chart entry years later. Sally Moore's recording reached number 42 on the U.S. Adult Contemporary chart in 1990, three years after the film's release.

  The Dinks perform the 1914 marching song "Colonel Bogey March" in their scenes. Rather than whistling, they sing only the word "Dink" in rhythm, a parody of the famous scene from The Bridge on the River Kwai. La-La Land Records released Spaceballs - The 19th Anniversary Edition CD in 2006, including alternate takes and tracks not used in the finished film.

  Michael Winslow plays a radar technician on Spaceball One. His role calls on his known ability to re-enact sounds vocally; his character produces the ship's radar signals with his own voice.

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• 5. From Critics to Cult

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  On its opening weekend, Spaceballs took in $6,613,837 at the domestic box office, finishing behind Dragnet. By the end of its theatrical run, the film had earned $40,306,483 in the United States. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave it an average grade of "B-."

  Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 2.5 stars out of 4. He enjoyed much of it but felt as though he were "at a revival." He added that the film "should have been made several years ago, before our appetite for Star Wars satires had been completely exhausted." Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune was more generous, awarding 3 out of 4 stars. He found "just enough funny visual gags to recommend this wildly uneven film." Variety called it a misguided parody that was not very funny. The Stinkers Bad Movie Awards gave Spaceballs Worst Picture for 1987.

  Tesla drew on the film's fictional starship speeds for its acceleration mode names, citing Spaceballs as the inspiration. Those speeds, as named in the film, are Light Speed, Ridiculous Speed, Ludicrous Speed, and Plaid Speed. Tesla's Ludicrous Mode and Plaid Mode were created in homage to the film.

  A Spaceballs clip was included in a promotional internet video for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. The clip appeared alongside footage from other Star Wars parody works to illustrate the cultural reach of the franchise.

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• 6. Second Lives

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  Spaceballs came to VHS and LaserDisc in February 1988, within months of leaving theaters. The first VHS edition used a 4:3 aspect ratio. A widescreen edition of the VHS followed in 1996. That same year, a LaserDisc reissue was released that included a commentary track recorded by Brooks.

  A DVD edition arrived on the 25th of April 2000, with a documentary about the film's making and a booklet. A collector's edition DVD followed on the 3rd of May 2005, featuring a video conversation between Brooks and Thomas Meehan about the production. A 25th anniversary Blu-ray was released on the 7th of August 2012. Kino Lorber released an Ultra HD Blu-ray and a remastered Blu-ray on the 12th of April 2021.

  R.L. Stine published a novelization on the 1st of June 1987, ahead of the film's release that same month. He wrote it under the pen name Jovial Bob Stine. The book also credited Mel Brooks, Thomas Meehan, and Ronny Graham.

  Spaceballs: The Animated Series debuted in September 2008, airing on G4 in the United States and Super Channel in Canada. Rick Moranis later reprised his role as Dark Helmet vocally in an episode of the sitcom The Goldbergs titled "Spaceballs."

  Grant McCune, who had also built models for Star Wars and Star Trek, created the scale model of Eagle 5 used in the film. The model was displayed at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry in the summer of 1988. It was shown alongside special effects artifacts from Masters of the Universe and Jaws: The Revenge. It was auctioned on the 11th of December 2018.

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• 7. Spaceballs: The New One

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  Spaceballs: The New One is scheduled for theatrical release on the 23rd of April 2027, distributed by MGM and produced by Imagine Entertainment. Josh Greenbaum directed the film. Mel Brooks, Josh Gad, Benji Samit, and Dan Hernandez wrote the screenplay together.

  Bill Pullman, Daphne Zuniga, Rick Moranis, George Wyner, and Mel Brooks are all reprising their roles from the original. Keke Palmer plays a new character named Destiny. Josh Gad and Anthony Carrigan appear in roles whose names had not been publicly announced at the time of the film's announcement.

  Lewis Pullman, the real-life son of Bill Pullman, plays a character named Starburst. Starburst is identified in the story as the son of Lone Starr and Princess Vespa. Bill Pullman and his son Lewis play characters who share a father-son relationship in the story. The casting mirrors their actual relationship. When Spaceballs: The New One opens in April 2027, Bill Pullman will return to Lone Starr after a forty-year gap.

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