Solarbabies (1986)

This has an interesting connection to “The Lost Boys” as both Patric and Gertz would go on to be romantically linked in that popular vampire film as well. This is very much a childhood favorite. I watched this a shit-ton in the late 80s. It was on HBO a lot, and I watched it over my uncle’s and grandmother’s house on weekends when I would stay over for a Friday night into Saturday. I read this was influenced by the likes of “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome” and “Dune”. I think you can also see some “Rollerball” in it early as the young cast (with the likes of James Le Gros, Peter DeLuise, and even young Haas) dress in skateboarder garb and rollerskates, engaging with rivals in a hybrid game of hockey and roller derby if the location of the ball’s “goal” was a long cylinder with a basket on top, set at an abandoned rink on the outskirts of an “orphanage prison” ran by Charles Durning. Richard Jordan and his storm troopers (the Star Wars influence on outfitting is obvious), dressed in 80s retro futuristic suits and helmets keep the young adults at Durning’s compound sealed in, as none of the “orphans” are allowed outside, forced into essentially labor camps with freedoms cut off. Patric is the young hero who will listen to Gertz, who begs him to pursue the whereabouts of Haas, having fled the compound after finding an orb, seemingly alien in nature (or possibly even omniscient) that was missing. Those considered “children of the sun” or “solarbabies” (the description mentioned by Jordan, in nauseous tone) are Le Gros (a brainy tech wiz), the enthusiastic Brooks, excitable DeLuise, defiant, freedom-seeking Gertz, and hunky Patric, with Haas, who had been deaf before finding the orb behind a wall in an old mine that was opened by a runaway coal cart and Pasdar (as the lost member of a tribe, complete with a pet owl and particular bond with birds) eventually becoming friendly with the group. The solarbabies escape the compound as Jordan and his footsoldiers pursue them. The orb is desired by Jordan (and Sarah Douglas who operates a hydroelectric water installation and prison) for whatever properties it might contain. Outside the compound are various outlaw sects such as Terence Mann’s (“Critters” series) tent-occupying desert dwellers and the Eco Warriors, led by Converse (revealed to be Gertz’ father) who has found an oasis within a cavernous idyll. Always on the prowl for the orb (and solarbabies) is Jordan. Sayle and Payne find the solarbabies at a Mad Max stylized industrial village called Tiretown (tires are there as are smokestacks that send off plenty of pollution into the air), and Mann coordinates followers living near a former wax museum.


 This is a critical punching bag. Just go and read a few reviews of this back when it came out…it took a pounding. I LOVE the Spanish desert locations used and the hydroelectric “future plant” explodes real good as its robotics soon go crazy as the solarbabies return to rescue the orb (confiscated by Jordan after taking Padar prisoner), as it is under a laser with Douglas (cast as a villain in plenty of 80s fare such as “Conan the Destroyer” and “Superman II”) hoping to penetrate the shell to realize what exists within it. All Jordan needs is a mustache to twirl; I thought he was fun as a power-driven heavy looking to embolden his control with some real “magic” the orb might provide. I think the film’s plot is just a derivative mess or rip-off of better films, with direction clearly going for something quite epic. If you grew up in the 80s, plenty of these films felt led to cast young faces as heroes to follow while their adults are either pushed mostly into the background or are looking to subvert them. The orb could very well be the film’s hokiest plot device, this alien ball of light that can bring rain and cure loss of hearing. There are scenes where the orb’s energy light “translate” over to the solarbabies, where the young cast “give off” the alien current to each other, as if the orb and the solarbabies are “as one”. The Edlund lighting effects are dated but I have always admired his work…we are spoiled today but at that time this was state of the art. Brooksfilm really bought the farm with this production. A lot of teams were brought in to build this film to grandeur but its story is just too familiar and the orb included with the desert action adventure plot really gives us the chasm of converging genres dueling out for supremacy. As a guilty pleasure, I enjoy it. But I always have to cut my brain off because the film really is a jumble of stolen ideas, themes, setpieces, and characters…it is just what they take from other films I find irresistible. A very kind 2.5/5