The new movie Stay Alive
is about video games that kill people. But we think the time for such movies has passed, since
the best movie you'll ever see about fatal video games already came out in
1984.
In Cloak & Dagger, Jack Flack (Dabney Coleman) is the imaginary friend of
Davey Osborne (Henry Thomas). Jack Flack spends the entire film convincing little Davey
to be courageous and brave, and never let little things like heavy car traffic get in his
way. Here's a simple scene where Flack tells Davey the basic truths in life:
Click here to see the best friend a kid could have. (mpg size: 1.9MB)
But their friendship and outlook on how to not be killed by cars are tested when Davey
walks into a video game company building looking for an Atari catalog, but comes across
this bleeding man's hard sell instead:
Click here to see how desperate the sales people are at Best Buy. (mpg size: 1MB)
So the mysterious man gives him a video game cartridge of "Cloak & Dagger" shortly before
two men come and shoot him dead. When his body falls down the stairs,
we realize Davey was actually talking to a formless,
skeleton-less
monster who utters a guttural scream not unlike the Rancor's. Either that or it was a
mannequin the producers tossed down the stairs to a bad sound effect,
one is as likely as the other.
Click here to see and hear the banshee monster turn to putty. (mpg size: 1.7MB)
Oh, and just to make sure you realize it was a stuffed dummy, the director then
has an extended scene of Davey running down the stairs, as you see the dummy crumpled up
with his floppy legs clearly folded under him.
Anyway, Davey tries to tell the police, but they don't believe him.
Clearly shaken by the sight of a man being murdered in front of him,
Davey is sent home, where he happily plays with his war toys, before he
shows his dad (also played by Dabny Coleman) the cool Atari game he got
from a dead man.
But then the movie shows you the boy's human side. The next scene is where Davey - scared that the armed
men who just called to notify him they're going to kill him may intend him harm -
asks his dad if he can sleep with him. The dad tells the boy (played by Thomas,
who's 13-years-old by the release of the film), why of course.
The father unbuttons his shirt, and then they go off to bed together. Aw.
If that's not creepy enough for you, turn to the next page to see how
this guy comes into the film.
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