Flight of the Navigator

On the night of July 4, 1978, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 12-year-old David Freeman walks through the woods to pick up his 8-year-old younger brother, Jeff, from a friend's house when he accidentally falls into a ravine and is knocked unconscious. When he comes to, he discovers that eight years have passed and it is now 1986. Police are shocked to see David fits exactly the same photo on a missing child poster, having not aged at all. David is reunited with his aged parents and the now 16-year-old Jeff.

Meanwhile, an alien spaceship crashes through power lines and is promptly captured by NASA. David is taken to the hospital for tests, where his brainwaves reveal images of the spaceship. Dr. Louis Faraday, who has been studying it since its arrival, persuades David to come to a NASA research facility for just 48 hours for extra tests, promising him that they can help him learn the truth about what happened to him. There, Dr. Faraday discovers that David's mind is filled with alien technical manuals and star charts covering expanses of the galaxy far exceeding NASA's research. It tells the scientists that he was taken to a planet called Phaelon, 560 light years away, in just over 2.2 hours. They realize that he has experienced severe time dilation as a result of having traveled faster than the speed of light, explaining why eight years have passed on Earth, but not for him. He is unable to comprehend what Dr. Faraday tells him and flees the room, making Dr. Faraday decide to keep David confined to finish his investigation.

The next morning, following a telepathic communication from the spaceship, David secretly boards it and meets its robotic commander, "Trimaxion Drone Ship" (or "Max" for short), which refers to David as the "Navigator". After they escape from the facility, Max tells David that his mission was to travel across the galaxy, collect biological specimens, take them to Phaelon for analysis, and then return them to their homes. Phaelon's scientists discovered humans only use 10% of their brain and, as an experiment, filled the remainder of David's with miscellaneous information. This includes all of the star charts discovered by Phaelon's astronomers, some of which were shown to the NASA scientists during David's interrogation. Max then returned him to Earth, but did not take him back to his own time, having determined that a human would be unlikely to survive a trip back in time. Before leaving Earth, Max accidentally crashed the spaceship, erasing all the computer's star charts and data. Therefore, he needs the information in David's brain to return home.

While Max programs the spaceship for a mind transfer, David is shown the other remaining alien specimens on board, and bonds with a "Puckmaren", a tiny bat-like creature that is the last of his kind after a comet destroyed its planet. Max performs the mind transfer on David to reacquire the star charts, but in the process also contracts human emotional attributes, resulting in Max behaving eccentrically and making goofy laughs. He and David start bickering, and their antics trigger several UFO reports in Tokyo and the US. Meanwhile, NASA intern Carolyn McAdams, who has befriended David, contacts David's family and tells them about his escape in the spaceship; as a result, Dr. Faraday has them confined to the house, and Carolyn is sent back to the facility.

When the spaceship stops at a gas station in the Florida Keys, David calls Jeff and asks him to send a signal to locate their new home, and Jeff sets off fireworks on the rooftop. David and Max arrive at the house, but NASA agents, having tracked the spaceship's every move, get there first. Fearing that he would be institutionalized for life if he remains in 1986, he orders Max to return him to 1978. Max warns this could vaporize David, but David accepts the risk. After the journey back in time, he wakes up in the ravine, walks home, and finds everything as he left it. During the Fourth of July celebration, Jeff is surprised to see the Puckmaren in David's backpack; David tells him to keep it secret while Max flies home across the firework-lit sky, remarking "See you later, navigator!".

• Joey Cramer as David Scott Freeman
• Paul Reubens (Credited as "Paul Mall") as Voice of Max
• Veronica Cartwright as Helen Freeman
• Cliff DeYoung as Bill Freeman
• Sarah Jessica Parker as Carolyn McAdams
• Matt Adler as Jeff Freeman (16 Years Old)

• Albie Whitaker as Jeff Freeman (8 Years Old)

• Howard Hesseman as Dr. Louis Faraday
• Jonathan Sanger as Dr. Carr
• Iris Acker as Janet Howard
• Richard Liberty as Larry Howard
• Raymond Forchion as Detective Banks
• Keri Rogers as Jennifer Bradley

The Trimaxion Drone Ship was rendered in computer-generated imagery (CGI) by Omnibus Computer Animation, under the supervision of Jeff Kleiser, the brother of director Randal Kleiser.[5]

The music score for the film was composed and performed by Alan Silvestri. It is distinct from his other scores in being entirely electronically generated, using the Synclavier,[6] one of the first digital multi-track recorders and samplers.

1. Theme from "Flight of the Navigator"
2. "Main Title"
3. "The Ship Beckons"
4. "David in the Woods"
5. "Robot Romp"
6. "Transporting the Ship"
7. "Ship Drop"
8. "Have to Help a Friend"
9. "The Shadow Universe"
10. "Flight"
11. "Finale"
12. "Star Dancing"

The film received mainly positive reviews. Rotten Tomatoes rated it a fresh rating of 84% based on 31 reviews with the consensus: "Bolstered by impressive special effects and a charming performance from its young star, Flight of the Navigator holds up as a solidly entertaining bit of family-friendly sci-fi."

Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times said its biggest plus was "its entirely believable, normal American family."[7] The New York Times described it as "definitely a film most children can enjoy."[8] People declared it "out-of-this-world fun."[9] Empire gave it 3/5 stars, saying it was "well-made enough to keep the family happy, but it certainly won’t challenge them."[10] Variety was more critical, announcing that "instead of creating an eye-opening panorama, Flight of the Navigator looks through the small end of the telescope."[11] Dave Kehr gave it 3 stars and described it as "a new high for Disney."[12]

In May 2009, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Disney was readying a remake of the film. Brad Copeland was writing the script and Mandeville partners David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman would serve as producers.[13] In November 2012, Disney hired Safety Not Guaranteed's director Colin Trevorrow and writer/producer Derek Connolly to rewrite the script.[14]

In September 2017, Walt Disney Pictures announced that a reboot of Flight of the Navigator is in pre-production with Joe Henderson from TV's Lucifer writing the script.[15] Shortly after the Lionsgate/Henson announcement, in November at the same year, Neill Blomkamp tweeted that Oats Studios has began developing a reboot as its first feature film.[16][17][18] However as of 2021, no remake has appeared. Instead the feature documentary "Life After the Navigator" was released in 2020 which profiles the rollercoaster career of actor Joey Cramer who played the central character David Freeman in the 1986 movie.

• Official website
• Flight of the Navigator at IMDb
• Flight of the Navigator at the TCM Movie Database
• Flight of the Navigator at AllMovie
• Flight of the Navigator at Box Office Mojo
• Flight of the Navigator at Rotten Tomatoes