i have a soft spot in my heart for this underrated joe dante pic and though i be the first to admit it have more than a few problem . it start out with a great concept . an out space obsess kid ( ethan hawke ) start have weird dream which seem to be some sort of message from alien . he confide in his computer geek friend ( river phoenix ) who happen to be work on a concentrated force field that defy gravity and can move at incredible speed . they talk about the possibility of actually be inside one of these force field and thus give them the ability to fly and travel incredible distance at amazing speed . meanwhile and hawke have strike up a friendship with school bad kid jason presson and and let him in on phoenix new technology . they figure out how to control the field and decide that they should build a vehicle in which they can all fit . they find an old amusement park ride and and customize it into a spaceship they christen the thunder road . after a reckless test drive and the ship be take over by alien who bring it to their mother ship . it here that the movie jump it track . the alien turn out to be cartoonish buffoon that communicate by quote old tv show and due to the fact that they have learn english by watch tv signal pick up in space . hawke be dishearten by their incoherence and but realize that theyre so confusing because human life make no sense to them ( e. g. war and violence and hollywood malignation of extraterrestrial ) . the kid narrowly escape the ship when the alien dad ( . ) return and and rip them all a new one ( the alien kid steal the dad car ) . hawke and phoenix and presson return to earth and but land in the lake and watch sadly a their ship sink to the bottom . for some reason and the girl hawke like ( amanda peterson ) have some sort of psychic link to the guy and look on a they walk away from their doom spaceship . the next day and they all ( include peterson ) have a share dream of signal from the alien and thus end the movie on a resoundingly positive note . overall and explorer be immensely entertaining and but also wildly uneven . there an overwhelming sense of child like wonder during the first half ( and again at the finale ) and but the scene in the alien ship be dreadfully out of place and hinder the movie power . the alien sequence itself be often very funny ( dante regular robert picardo be terrific a the brother alien ) and but do not belong in this movie . it never quite regain it footing after that and though the final dream sequence be nicely uplifting . another problem be a subplot about a helicopter pilot ( dick miller ) who have always dream of go to outer space and discover life . the movie go to some trouble to set this up and then proceeds to do nothing with the character and who manage to find out what the kid be up to and and simply watch a they fly away to meet the alien . this movie have so much go for it terrific performance and great special effect and wonderful music by jerry goldsmith that it really be a shame when it fall apart . this could have be one of the great science fiction movie of the 80 while instead it become little more than a curiosity ( the movie flop upon it initial release ) and show up on cable tv here and there . but i urge those who insist on defend other bomb like 1941 and ishtar to give this one another chance and if only to see future indie grunge thespian hawke and phoenix a geeky junior high student . b movie fan will get a kick out of the phony sci fi movie playing at the drive in and complete with bad dubbing and string propel spaceship .