Super 8 is a 2011 Steven Spielberg film. There’s a reason Spielberg’s the go-to guy in film. This is a perfect example. It is flawless.
10 out of 10 stars. A great but somewhat scary family film. Viewing not recommended for children under 13.
If you watched The Goonies from 1985 then this is along the same lines, a coming of age film with young teenagers out to solve a crime.
It all starts with the funeral of Elizabeth Lamb, a factory supervisor who died in a terrible accident. Because she was working the shift of coworker Louis Dainard when she was killed, her husband Jack, who happens to be a deputy sheriff, hates Dainard, especially since he’s the town drunk and was drunk the day he was supposed to show for work and Elizabeth took his place. Jack and Elizabeth’s only son is Joe and he is the focus of the film.
Four months after the funeral, it’s the summer of 1979 in their small Ohio town. Jack wants to send Joe away to camp, but Joe wants to spend the summer with his friends Charles, Cory, Martin, and Preston making a zombie movie, especially when he learns Charles has talked beautiful Alice Dainard into participating. (Alice is Louis’s only child and he is raising her alone.)
On the night they sneak out to the train depot to film the train scene, they witness a horrific accident and the escape of a top secret military weapon–a captured alien. The crash was caused by their science teacher, Dr. Woodward, driving onto the tracks.
The train accident is absolutely terrifying and very realistic. It’s a miracle that the kids survive. Only Joe witnesses the creature’s escape and at the time, he’s not quite sure of what he’s seeing. He also finds little white metal cubes everywhere and takes one home.
The kids can’t tell anyone they were there because Alice drove them in her father’s car and she has no license. Then Alice quits and Joe tries talking her into coming back. They use the train wreckage as a backdrop for their new movie scene with Joe’s dad’s camera since Charles’s camera is broken from the train crash. And Joe recognizes the hooks on the train identifying them as Air Force train cars. Air Force soldiers are all over the train wreck and preventing Jack from investigating the crash.
Meanwhile, all over town people and pets are disappearing, including Joe’s dog. So are appliances and electronics equipment. The Sheriff disappears and Jack is now in charge. He hears the Air Force secretly talking on a different radio band about “Project Walking Distance”.
Louis gets drunk one night and kicks Alice out of the house. He chases after her and sees her abducted by the alien, but when he tells the police, Jack Lamb, he doesn’t believe him. Joe does and mounts a search and rescue operation for Alice.
10 out of 10 stars. This has a happy ending for everyone, even the alien.
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