1982: A Remarkable Year In Film

E.T. on the left with Eliot on the right. Night sky with the moon and tree tops

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It has been a long 40 years, aided by immense technological improvement, and we still remember the movie-making marvels that we were treated with in 1982. So while this is definitely not an all-inclusive list, we will go back in time to look at some of our favourite American movies from 1982.

The highest-grossing movie in 1982 was Steven Spielberg’s much-endeared science fiction E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial, which showed the warm and selfless relationship between an alien and a little boy. The film was highly acclaimed by both audiences and critics and won four Oscars and two Golden Globes. However, a conversation on 1982 science fiction movies would remain incomplete without mentioning Ridley Scott’s cult classic, Blade Runner.

Blade Runner poster art

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Based on Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Blade Runner was not well received by fans upon its release and got mixed reviews from critics. However, in the years that followed, Blade Runner came to be regarded as one of the best science fiction movies of all time and has inspired the evolution of visual effects in movies, games, and other media.

Another science fiction gem from 1982 was the second Star Trek movie installment, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, considered one of the best in the series. 1982 also gave us the Steven Lisberger-directed cult science fiction action adventure movie, Tron. The film follows the adventures of the video game developer and computer programmer Kevin Flynn, who gets caught in a digital reality from which he needs to escape. 

Tron poster art

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Tron has been revered as a ground-breaking marvel in visual effects and one of the earliest films to use computer-generated graphics. The head of Pixar, John Lasseter, reportedly stated: “without Tron, there would be no Toy Story.” The epic sword and sorcery fantasy Conan the Barbarian was another 1982 cult classic directed by John Milius with Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Earl Jones in the lead roles.

The Dark Crystal, directed by Jim Henson and Franz Oz, was a 1982 dark fantasy film that opened to mixed reviews due to its darker tones but has since acquired a cult following, especially among fans of fantasy. Speaking of dark themes, John Carpenter’s science fiction horror film, The Thing, is another movie that has garnered a cult following over the years. The Kurt Russel starred is the story of a team of researchers who are put in a tight spot after encountering a parasitic alien organism that has the ability to imitate its host. On the spooky movie front, another Spielberg movie directed by Tobe Hooper, Poltergeist, did extremely well at the box office and is, to date, considered a horror classic. 

The Dark Crystal poster art

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Ted Kotcheff’s action film Rambo: First Blood was the first in the Rambo series and kickstarted the franchise, which included four sequels, video games, a comic book series, an animated television series, and novels. The film, the story of the Vietnam War veteran John Rambo (played by Sylvester Stallone), was a box-office success and was one of the top-grossing movies of 1982. Stallone also wrote, directed, and starred in the third installment of the sports drama Rocky franchise the same year. The theme song of Rocky III, ‘Eye of the Tiger,’ received a lot of praise and won an Academy nomination.

Sylvester Stallone as Rambo

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Though this article is limited to movies in science-fiction, fantasy, adventure, action, and horror, many other cinematic marvels are still revered by movie lovers. It is impressive how all so many ground-breaking movies were released in 1982. These movies continue to inspire cinema and the filmmaking process to this day.

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