Starship Invasions (1977)

An advance team from a dying, far-off civilization seeks a new world to conquer and inhabit -- Earth.

Director:

Ed Hunt

Writer:

Ed Hunt

Stars:

Robert Vaughn, Christopher Lee, Daniel Pilon

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Robert Vaughn	...	Prof. Allan Duncan
Christopher Lee	...	Capt. Rameses
Daniel Pilon	...	Anaxi
Tiiu Leek	...	Phi
Helen Shaver	...	Betty Duncan
Henry Ramer	...	Malcolm
Victoria Johnson	...	Gazeth
Doreen Lipson	...	Dorothy
Kate Parr	...	Diane Duncan
Sherri Ross	...	Sagnac
Linda Rennhofer	...	Joan
Richard Fitzpatrick	...	Joe
Ted Turner	...	Zhender
Sean McCann	...	Carl
Bob Warner	...	Air Force General

Storyline

Captain Rameses and his Legion of the Winged Serpent brigade are out to claim Earth for their dying race. Out to save Earth is an alien guard patrol located in the Bermuda Triangle, the League of Races. LOR leaders warn Rameses that he's breaking galactic treaty rules. The alien villain responds by launching an invasion which telepathically drives Earthlings to suicide. The LOR implore UFO expert Professor Duncan to help them. Eventually, the two alien forces battle. Will the Earth be saved?

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Plot Keywords:

conquering | evil alien | alien invader | flying saucer | humanoid alien | 

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Taglines:

We know they are there - advanced beyond our imagination. Why have they come?

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Genres:

Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 October 1977 (USA)

Also Known As:

Alien Encounter

Filming Locations:

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

CAD 2,150,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Hal Roach Studios, Warner Bros.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

89 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film had to be re-titled twice. It originally was titled "War of the Aliens," which closely resembled the blockbuster Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977). The title was then changed to "Alien Encounter," which resembled the blockbuster Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977).

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Goofs

Early in the movie the alien leader reveals that he is keeping a fleet hidden behind the Moon. He then attacks the friendly alien base through subterfuge, which does not go particularly well. This is in spite of his fleet outnumbering them by many times, and that they could have just attacked the Earth directly.

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Connections

Referenced in Best of the Worst: Our VHS Collection (2019)

User Reviews

so bad it's good

I have to agree with the people who say this movie's bad, but disagree with the ones who say it isn't so bad it's good. This movie is completely hilarious! I can only hope warner pulled SI out of distribution because they're working on a 30th anniversary DVD edition with lots of making-of featurettes where the director details how much crack he was on while he was making it. (It's out of circulation now and amazingly it's going for 150 bucks on amazon, this movie. Fortunately my video store happens to have an old copy.) Wait till you see the part with the pocket calculator! In this movie a guy uses a 70s style pocket calculator to compute flightpaths for a flying saucer. I rather would have thought that interplanetary trajectories would be a bit complicated for a pocket calculator, but what do I know? I remember when SI came out pocket calculators were a huge fad, along with digital watches. Everybody was all, now we can finally achieve world peace, because there are pocket calculators.

And the overacting family in the huge car! "look! it's a flying saucer! For god's sake DON'T MAKE THEM ANGRY!!" And the robots who look like trash cans...

And the sadistic kid who squashes the tomato...

Believe it or not I remember seeing this thing 29 years ago when it came out. I was all, wow, that really sucked, mommy. And my mom was like, yeah, I don't know what to tell you. So hilariously stupid and trashy. it's got goofy flying saucers, lots and lots of cheesecake, christopher lee losing every scrap of his dignity, tons of mind-controlled people acting really zombified and stupid, space battles that look like they were lifted straight out of "mars attacks!", possibly the most ridiculous costumes of all time, and the real coup de grace -- one actually extraordinarily talented actress (Helen Shaver, the wife of the UFO researcher guy) caught in the middle of it all, trying valiantly to salvage this whole mess. oh, and the soundtrack kicks. and yet is completely inappropriate for the subject matter.

I know, I know, you probably didn't find this review helpful.