Dark Star

From John Carpenter (Halloween, The Thing) and Dan O’Bannon (Alien, Total Recall) comes this brilliantly clever and darkly funny parody of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Dark Star follows a dysfunctional intergalactic mission where four bored astronauts are assigned to destroy unstable planets – but end up filling their time with sun-lamp tanning, playing with a mischievously plastic-looking alien mascot, and conversing with their ship’s increasingly erratic AI. As the mission unravels, a rogue “smart bomb” gains self-awareness and starts questioning its existence, believing itself to be a god. With catastrophe looming, only one crew member – an ex-surfer – finds an unorthodox way to return to Earth: riding a piece of debris back home like a cosmic surfboard.