Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
A group of scientists are sent on a mission to destroy unstable planets. Twenty years into their mission, they have to battle their alien mascot as well as a "sensitive" and intelligent bombing device that starts to question the meaning of its existence.
Dark Star is John Carpenter and Dan O'Bannon's lo-fi debut, a genuinely singular piece of anarchic sci-fi comedy that punches far above its micro-budget in terms of ideas. The plot is loose and episodic — deliberately so — capturing the mundane existential dread of deep-space boredom with dry wit that predates many similar works. Acting is amateurish even by low-budget standards, though it suits the deadpan tone. Cinematography is primitive and constrained by budget, though occasionally inventive. Where the film truly earns its place in history is Novelty: the bomb that debates phenomenology before detonating a planet is a one-of-a-kind concept executed with surprising philosophical weight, and the film's entire tone — absurdist, nihilistic, low-key — is utterly distinctive. The ending, in which Doolittle surfs a piece of debris into a planet's atmosphere, is iconic, melancholic, and genuinely unforgettable — well above average for any film of any era.