Backdrop fallback

Explorers

Explorers

Share

Explorers

"The adventure begins in your own back yard."

1985

1h 49m

6.3(513 votes)

Science Fiction

Adventure

Family

Overview

Middle schooler Ben spends his free time watching sci-fi films, playing video games and reading comic books. Surprisingly, his affinity for all things fantastical yields a real result – when he has a vivid dream about technology, his prodigy best friend Wolfgang manages to create a working spacecraft. Joined by their buddy Darren, the boys take off into outer space and encounter some very odd extraterrestrial life.

Where to Watch

Rent

Amazon Video

Links & Resources

Social & External

Production Companies

Paramount Pictures

The people behind it

Cast & crew

10 featured cast members

Starring

Ethan Hawke

Ethan Hawke

Ben Crandall

River Phoenix

River Phoenix

Wolfgang Müller

Jason Presson

Jason Presson

Darren Woods

Amanda Peterson

Amanda Peterson

Lori Swenson

Bobby Fite

Bobby Fite

Steve Jackson

Dana Ivey

Dana Ivey

Mrs. Müller

James Cromwell

James Cromwell

Mr. Müller

Dick Miller

Dick Miller

Charlie Drake

Bradley Gregg

Bradley Gregg

Steve Jackson's Gang

Georg Olden

Steve Jackson's Gang

Creative team

Directed by: Joe Dante
Written by: Eric Luke
Produced by: David Bombyk
Edward S. Feldman

Similar Movies

Earth vs. the Flying Saucers

Earth vs. the Flying Saucers

Test space rockets exploding at liftoff and increased reporting of UFO sightings culminate in a direct attempt by alien survivors of a dead, extra-galactic civilization to invade Earth from impervious flying saucers, using ray-weapons of mass destruction.

Spatula Smackdown!

Spatula Smackdown!

Six aspiring chefs battle it out in the kitchen! This season, three new judges step into the spotlight. Will their critique inspire culinary greatness—or their untimely demise? Who be crowned The King of The Golden Spatula, and who will be devoured? Find out on Spatula Smackdown—where the food isn’t the only thing that’s killer!

District 9

District 9

Thirty years ago, aliens arrive on Earth. Not to conquer or give aid, but to find refuge from their dying planet. Separated from humans in a South African area called District 9, the aliens are managed by Multi-National United, which is unconcerned with the aliens' welfare but will do anything to master their advanced technology. When a company field agent contracts a mysterious virus that begins to alter his DNA, there is only one place he can hide: District 9.

Anne of Green Gables

Anne of Green Gables

At the turn of the century on Prince Edward Island, Matthew Cuthbert and his sister Marilla decide to take on an orphan boy as help for their farm. But they get an unexpected jolt when they're mistakenly sent a girl instead: Anne Shirley.

Shin Ultraman

Shin Ultraman

The Japanese government sets up a special task force to fight the giant creatures suddenly appearing across the country. Soon, the squad unexpectedly meets a giant silver humanoid who starts appearing every time a space monster attacks!

Zone Troopers

Zone Troopers

American soldiers, led by The Sarge, are stuck behind Nazi enemy lines. As they make their way across the Italian countryside, they come across an alien spaceship that has crash-landed in the woods. The alien pilot is dead, but one of the ship's passengers is on the loose. As the GIs hunt down the alien by splitting into smaller groups, they're not only tracked by the Nazis, but also a whole host of other aliens come to save their stranded party.

The Silent Star

The Silent Star

A mysterious magnetic spool found during a construction project is discovered to have originated from Venus. A rocket expedition to Venus is launched to discover the origin of the spool and the race that created it.

Deceit

Deceit

Two outer-space aliens visit Earth with the intention of blowing it up, but they meet a hot blonde and decide to postpone the planet's destruction in order to try to score with her.

Koi... Mil Gaya

Koi... Mil Gaya

A developmentally disabled boy's life changes after he encounters an extraterrestrial being.

The Puppet Masters

The Puppet Masters

The Midwest USA is invaded by stingray-shaped alien slugs that ride on people's backs and control their minds in order to spread their dominion. Government agency reps Sam Givens, Andrew Nivens, and Mary Sefton must stop the aliens.

Drive

Drive

A prototype enhanced human, on the run from Chinese-hired hit men, hooks up with a dread-locked bystander, and the two of them elude their pursuers narrowly each time.

The Sleepover

It's going to be the perfect sleepover! The only thing that could ruin it? Aliens from outer space!

The Return of James Battle

The Return of James Battle

James Bataille is in love. He attempts to stage an elaborate motorcycle stunt to impress the girl, but when it goes sour, he ends up in prison with a 133-year sentence. Bataille escapes from behind bars to make an appointment to fix the car of music biz tycoon, as well as watch the love of his life take part in the town's annual talent show.

Sex Files: Pleasureville

Sex Files: Pleasureville

Aliens masquerading as owners of a small town video store distribute tapes that cause anyone who watches them to pleasure themselves and whoever else is nearby.

Destination Moon

Destination Moon

A team composed of an aerospace scientist, an ex-Air Force general, and an industrialist conceives an ambitious plan to land Americans on the moon. From their base in the Mojave Desert, they construct and successfully launch a spacecraft named "Luna" that contains a cargo of four astronauts. But a critical miscalculation of needed power to escape the moon's gravitational pull may put the astronauts' lives in danger.

Alien Invasion

Alien Invasion

The police confirms the presence of a "86-Code" in the National Park. A beast, coming from another world, could have woken up from its lethargy.

Turtles Forever

Turtles Forever

Whoa, dude! Worlds collide when the Turtles from one dimension meet the Turtles from another dimension! What the shell is going on? The two Turtle teams must work together to find the Technodrome and undo this multi-dimensional mess!

Cargo

Cargo

The story of CARGO takes place on rusty space-freighter KASSANDRA on its way to Station 42. The young medic LAURA is the only one awake on board while the rest of the crew lies frozen in hibernation sleep. In 4 months will Laura's shift be over.

Elio

Elio

Elio, a space fanatic with an active imagination, finds himself on a cosmic misadventure where he must form new bonds with eccentric alien lifeforms, navigate a crisis of intergalactic proportions and somehow discover who he is truly meant to be.

Signal Void

Signal Void

After scanning for potential communication from the void of space, the ISS is hit by an alien force that causes a transformation of one of the crew members.

Recommended Movies

Crater

Crater

After the death of his father, a boy growing up on a lunar mining colony takes a trip to explore a legendary crater, along with his four best friends, prior to being permanently relocated to another planet.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

When an unidentified alien destroys three powerful Klingon cruisers, Captain James T. Kirk returns to the newly transformed U.S.S. Enterprise to take command.

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension

Adventurer/surgeon/rock musician Buckaroo Banzai and his band of men, the Hong Kong Cavaliers, take on evil alien invaders from the 8th dimension.

Star Trek

The fate of the galaxy rests in the hands of bitter rivals. One, James Kirk, is a delinquent, thrill-seeking Iowa farm boy. The other, Spock, a Vulcan, was raised in a logic-based society that rejects all emotion. As fiery instinct clashes with calm reason, their unlikely but powerful partnership is the only thing capable of leading their crew through unimaginable danger, boldly going where no one has gone before. The human adventure has begun again.

Power Rangers

Power Rangers

Five ordinary teens must become something extraordinary when they learn that their small town of Angel Grove — and the world — is on the verge of being obliterated by an alien threat. Chosen by destiny, our heroes quickly discover they are the only ones who can save the planet. But to do so, they will have to overcome their real-life issues and before it’s too late, band together as the Power Rangers.

Earth to Echo

Earth to Echo

After a construction project begins digging in their neighbourhood, best friends Tuck, Munch and Alex inexplicably begin to receive strange, encoded messages on their cell phones. Convinced something bigger is going on, they go to their parents and the authorities. The three embark on a secret adventure to crack the code and follow it to its source, and discover a mysterious being from another world who desperately needs their help. The journey that follows will change all their lives forever.

Chaos Walking

Chaos Walking

Two unlikely companions embark on a perilous adventure through the badlands of an unexplored planet as they try to escape a dangerous and disorienting reality, where all inner thoughts are seen and heard by everyone.

The Adam Project

The Adam Project

After accidentally crash-landing in 2022, time-traveling fighter pilot Adam Reed teams up with his 12-year-old self on a mission to save the future.

Flight of the Navigator

Flight of the Navigator

12-year-old David is accidentally knocked out in the forest near his home, but when he awakens eight years have passed. His family is overjoyed to have him back, but is just as perplexed as he is that he hasn't aged. When a NASA scientist discovers a UFO nearby, David gets the chance to unravel the mystery and recover the life he lost.

Titan A.E.

Titan A.E.

A young man finds out that he holds the key to restoring hope and ensuring survival for the human race, while an alien species called the Drej are bent on mankind's destruction.

Star Trek Into Darkness

Star Trek Into Darkness

When the crew of the Enterprise is called back home, they find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization has detonated the fleet and everything it stands for, leaving our world in a state of crisis. With a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction. As our heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and death, love will be challenged, friendships will be torn apart, and sacrifices must be made for the only family Kirk has left: his crew.

Tomorrowland

Tomorrowland

Bound by a shared destiny, a bright, optimistic teen bursting with scientific curiosity and a former boy-genius inventor jaded by disillusionment embark on a danger-filled mission to unearth the secrets of an enigmatic place somewhere in time and space that exists in their collective memory as "Tomorrowland."

Home

Home

When Earth is taken over by the overly-confident Boov, an alien race in search of a new place to call home, all humans are promptly relocated, while all Boov get busy reorganizing the planet. But when one resourceful girl, Tip, manages to avoid capture, she finds herself the accidental accomplice of a banished Boov named Oh. The two fugitives realize there’s a lot more at stake than intergalactic relations as they embark on the road trip of a lifetime.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

In the 28th century, Valerian and Laureline are special operatives charged with keeping order throughout the human territories. On assignment from the Minister of Defense, the two undertake a mission to Alpha, an ever-expanding metropolis where species from across the universe have converged over centuries to share knowledge, intelligence, and cultures. At the center of Alpha is a mysterious dark force which threatens the peaceful existence of the City of a Thousand Planets, and Valerian and Laureline must race to identify the menace and safeguard not just Alpha, but the future of the universe.

I Am Number Four

I Am Number Four

A teenage fugitive with an incredible secret races to stay one step ahead of the mysterious forces seeking destroy him. With three dead and one on the run, the race to find the elusive Number Four begins. Outwardly normal teen John Smith never gets too comfortable in the same identity, and along with his guardian, Henri, he is constantly moving from town to town. With each passing day, John gains a stronger grasp on his extraordinary new powers, and his bond to the beings that share his fantastic fate grows stronger.

Elio

Elio

Elio, a space fanatic with an active imagination, finds himself on a cosmic misadventure where he must form new bonds with eccentric alien lifeforms, navigate a crisis of intergalactic proportions and somehow discover who he is truly meant to be.

Mission to Mars

Mission to Mars

When the first manned mission to Mars meets with a catastrophic and mysterious disaster after reporting an unidentified structure, a rescue mission is launched to investigate the tragedy and bring back any survivors.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

The starship Enterprise and its crew is pulled back into action when old nemesis, Khan, steals a top secret device called Project Genesis.

*batteries not included

*batteries not included

In a soon to be demolished block of apartments, the residents resist the criminal methods used to force them to leave so a greedy tycoon can build his new skyscraper. When tiny mechanical aliens land for a recharge, they decide to stay and help out.

Oblivion

Oblivion

Jack Harper is one of the last few drone repairmen stationed on Earth. Part of a massive operation to extract vital resources after decades of war with a terrifying threat known as the Scavs, Jack’s mission is nearly complete. His existence is brought crashing down when he rescues a beautiful stranger from a downed spacecraft. Her arrival triggers a chain of events that forces him to question everything he knows and puts the fate of humanity in his hands.