Galaxy Quest


Galaxy Quest is a 1999 American satirical science fiction comedy film directed by Dean Parisot and written by David Howard and Robert Gordon. It stars Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Tony Shalhoub, Sam Rockwell, and Daryl Mitchell. A parody of and homage to science-fiction films and series, especially Star Trek and its fandom, the film depicts the cast of a fictional cult television series, Galaxy Quest, who are drawn into a real interstellar conflict by aliens who think the series is a documentary and have shaped their society around the show.
Galaxy Quest was released by DreamWorks Pictures on December 25, 1999. The film grossed $90.7 million against a $45 million budget and received positive reviews. It won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and the Nebula Award for Best Script, and was nominated for ten Saturn Awards, including Best Science Fiction Film and Best Director, Best Actress for Weaver, and Best Supporting Actor for Rickman; Allen won Best Actor.
Galaxy Quest achieved cult status, especially from Star Trek fans for its affectionate parody. Several Star Trek cast and crew members praised the film. It was included in Reader's Digests list of the Top 100+ Funniest Movies of All Time in 2012, and Star Trek fans voted it the seventh-best Star Trek film in 2013.

Plot

The cast of the 1980s space-adventure series Galaxy Quest attend fan conventions and make trivial promotional appearances. Though the series' vain former star, Jason Nesmith, thrives on the attention, his co-stars Gwen DeMarco, Alexander Dane, Fred Kwan, and Tommy Webber resent him and their stalled careers. At a convention, a group calling themselves Thermians approaches Jason for help. Thinking they want him for a promotional appearance, he agrees. Jason also overhears two attendees mocking him and the fans. Despondent, he brusquely dismisses other fans, including Brandon, before going home to drink and watch reruns of the series.
The next morning, when the Thermians pick him up, a hungover Jason does not grasp that they are actual aliens who have transported him to a working re-creation of the Galaxy Quest starship, the NSEA Protector. Jason believes he is on a set, and performs in character as he confronts the Thermians' enemy, Sarris, who demands the "Omega 13", a secret super weapon with unknown capabilities mentioned but never used in the show's finale. Giving perfunctory orders, Jason fires on and temporarily defeats Sarris.
After the grateful Thermians transport him back to Earth, Jason realizes the experience was real and attempts to convince the other cast members. In his excitement, Jason bumps into Brandon again, accidentally swapping Brandon's toy communicator with a real one Jason acquired from the Thermians. When one of the Thermians, Laliari, seeks Jason's help again, the cast joins him, along with the convention emcee, Guy, who had played an ill-fated extra in one episode. Aboard the Protector, the cast learn that the Thermians, who possess no concept of fiction, believe the episodes of Galaxy Quest are true "historical documents." Inspired by the crew's adventures, they have based their society on the virtues espoused by the show.
Sarris returns and demands the Omega 13 device. He attacks the Protector again, and the ship barely escapes through a magnetic minefield. However, the ship's power source, a beryllium sphere, is severely damaged. The humans travel to a nearby planet and take a replacement sphere from ferocious, childlike alien miners. Jason is temporarily left behind and fends off a rock creature until Fred beams him up. Back on the Protector, the crew discovers that Sarris has seized the ship. After Jason confesses they are just actors, Sarris forces him to explain the truth to the disillusioned Thermian leader, Mathesar. Sarris activates the Protectors self-destruct mechanism and returns to his ship.
Jason and Gwen contact Brandon via the swapped communicator, and Brandon and his superfan friends guide them to abort the self-destruct sequence. Brandon also explains that the Omega 13 is either a universe-destroying bomb or a "matter re-arranger" that sends the user 13 seconds back in time. Meanwhile, Alexander leads a Thermian revolt against Sarris' forces and takes back control of the Protector. With renewed confidence, the crew challenges Sarris and draws his ship into the magnetic minefield, destroying it. As they return to Earth, Sarris, who narrowly escaped his ship's destruction, ambushes them on the bridge and fatally wounds several crew members. Jason activates the Omega 13, which sends everyone 13 seconds back in time, allowing Jason and Mathesar to thwart Sarris before he attacks.
The Protectors bridge separates from the main vessel to return the humans to Earth, while the main vessel carries the Thermians into interstellar space. The Protector bridge crashes into the Galaxy Quest convention, and the dazed cast emerges to the cheers of their fans. Sarris awakens and levels his gun at the cast, but Jason shoots and destroys him. The crowd assumes it was all a display of special effects and cheers wildly. Jason, with newfound humility, invites his co-stars to share the stage with him and the crew basks in their newfound glory.
Sometime later, Galaxy Quest is revived as a sequel series, Galaxy Quest: The Journey Continues, with the cast reprising their roles alongside Guy and Laliari as new cast members.

Cast

  • Tim Allen as Jason Nesmith, who played Commander Peter Quincy Taggart, the commander of the NSEA Protector and main character of the series. He is initially a smug ham actor who thrives on his attention within the fandom but is more interested in partying than keeping his schedules.
  • Sigourney Weaver as Gwen DeMarco, who played Lieutenant Tawny Madison, the ship's communications officer and the only officer aboard who can give orders to the ship's computer. She resents how she was more of a sex-object than a character on the show.
  • Alan Rickman as Alexander Dane, who played Dr. Lazarus, the ship's science officer and a member of the Mak'tar, an alien species known for their superhuman intelligence and psionic powers. As a Shakespearean actor, he is the most resentful of his character, and especially his catchphrase: "By Grabthar's Hammer, by the Suns of Warvan, you shall be avenged!"
  • Tony Shalhoub as Fred Kwan, who played Tech Sergeant Chen, the ship's chief engineer. He is completely unfazed by the insertion into a real alien environment, and enters a relationship with Laliari.
  • Sam Rockwell as Guy Fleegman, the cast's handler at conventions who also played "Crewman #6", a short-lived minor character, in a single episode. In the revival, he gains a part as Security Chief "Roc" Ingersol.
  • Daryl Mitchell as Tommy Webber, who played Lieutenant Laredo, a precocious child pilot.
  • * Corbin Bleu as a younger Laredo during the original TV series.
  • Enrico Colantoni as Mathesar, the leader of the Thermians.
  • Robin Sachs as Roth'h'ar Sarris, the general of a group of reptilian humanoids who seek to destroy the Thermians.
  • Patrick Breen as Quellek, a Thermian who forms a bond with Alexander Dane.
  • Missi Pyle as Laliari, a Thermian and love interest for Fred. In the revival at the end of the film, she goes under the name of Jane Doe, playing a fictionalized version of herself.
  • Jed Rees as Teb, a Thermian and Mathesar's second-in-command.
  • Justin Long as Brandon, a dedicated fan of Galaxy Quest.
  • Jeremy Howard as Kyle, Brandon's friend
  • Kaitlin Cullum as Katelyn, Brandon's friend
  • Jonathan Feyer as Hollister, Brandon's friend
  • Heidi Swedberg as Brandon's mom
  • Wayne Péré as Lathe, Sarris's second-in-command
  • Samuel Lloyd as Neru, a Thermian
  • Rainn Wilson as Lahnk, a Thermian
  • Kevin McDonald as Announcer
  • Joe Frank as the voice of the Protector computer

    Production

Development

The original spec script by David Howard was titled Captain Starshine. Howard stated he got the idea while at an IMAX presentation, where one of the trailers for an upcoming "Americans in Space" film was narrated by Leonard Nimoy, a leading actor from Star Trek. The trailer got Howard thinking about how the other Star Trek actors had become pigeonholed in these roles since the cancellation of Star Trek, and he then came up with the idea of "What if there were real aliens involved?" From there, he considered that the rest of his script, "in a lot of ways, just wrote itself, because it just seemed so self-evident once the idea was there".
Producer Mark Johnson, who had a first-look deal with DreamWorks, did not like Howard's script but was fascinated with its concept of space aliens who misconstrue old episodes of a television series as reality. Johnson purchased the script and had Bob Gordon use the concept to create Galaxy Quest. A fan of Star Trek, Gordon was hesitant, believing Galaxy Quest "could be a great idea or it could be a terrible idea" and initially turned it down. Gordon, who did not read Captain Starshine until after the film was completed, started from the premise of washed-up actors from a sci-fi series involved with real extraterrestrials. Gordon's initial drafts added elements of humor to Howard's script, such as the Protector scraping the walls of the space dock when Webber pilots the real ship for the first time. The scene with the "Chompers" leading into the Omega 13 came from Gordon's viewing of the horror film Event Horizon, which featured a rotating tunnel lined with sharp blades leading into the ship's engine room. Gordon became more confident when he completed the scene where Nesmith confesses to the Thermians, which he felt he nailed. He submitted his first draft to DreamWorks in 1998, and it was immediately green-lit.
Johnson wanted Dean Parisot to direct. Parisot had directed another film Johnson produced, Home Fries. However, DreamWorks favored Harold Ramis because of his experience and hired him in November 1998. Ramis wanted Alec Baldwin for the lead role, but Baldwin turned it down. Steve Martin and Kevin Kline were also considered, but Kline turned it down for family reasons. Ramis did not agree with the casting of Tim Allen as Jason Nesmith and left the project in February 1999. Parisot took over as director within three weeks. Allen said that the version of the film pitched to him by Ramis and Jeffrey Katzenberg felt more like Spaceballs, and that they wanted an action star to do comedy rather than a comedian to do an action film. Sigourney Weaver, who had worked with Ramis on Ghostbusters, said that he also wanted actors who had not appeared in science-fiction roles before, a choice she thought odd since veterans of the genre would know what was humorous. After seeing the film, Ramis said he was impressed with Allen's performance. Johnson named the main villain after film critic Andrew Sarris, while admitting he also considered "Haskell" after Molly Haskell, who was married to Sarris. Once Sarris discovered this, he mocked "This guy wants to insult me? Oh, boohoo. As long as they spelled my name right, I'm okay."