Nightflyers

1987 Directed by Robert Collector

Where they're headed isn't the mystery. What's taking them there is.

A scientific group set out on a journey into space to find a magical creature. What they find is a killer computer on the ship they chartered.

Catherine Mary Stewart Michael Praed John Standing Lisa Blount Glenn Withrow James Avery Helene Udy Annabel Brooks Michael Des Barres

89 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by dinosauroidable ★★★★ 2

I like how the spaceship has all these airy, polished granite interiors.
Review by MrSneakyMan ★★ 2

In the intro they refer to the ship as an "'old freighter that fit our limited budget."
Five minutes later they say "This ship is so advanced that is can be run by a single crewman."
Review by Artyficial ★★½

Nightflyers is a low-budget curiosity based on a novel by the today much applauded George R. R. Martin. I know nothing about the book, so I can't really say who should take the blame, but with its plot centered around a spaceship controlled by a mysterious entity who turns against its passengers, taking place on a stage of smoke covered sets drenched in color, the film plays like a shallow imitation of 2001: A Space Odyssey, where action has replaced any complex philosophical elements. As most films resembling another work too closely it's hard to see, from an artistic standpoint, why they bothered to waste time and energy creating the homage, and even more so than usual in this case…
Review by Tom ★★★★

A low budget scf-fi schlock George RR Martin adaption set on a killer ship, featuring an awesome synth score, squid-sniffing Uncle Phil and Catherine Mary Stewart being as gorgeous as ever. Therefore I very much enjoyed it.
Review by Curtis ★★★

That poster got my attention. I'm a sucker for big, screaming faces coming out of the dust, cosmic or otherwise.
Nightflyers probably didn't cost much. You couldn't be blamed for thinking it was a decently budgeted TV movie, except there's a few "fucks" here and there and when it gets bloody, it gets nicely bloody. But while it lacks polish, I had a lot of fun with this. The style of the ship is unusual, and the hair and fashion are hilariously retro.
The story unfolds, for the first hour, mostly as you'd expect, but then it just starts getting weirder and weirder. Anytime the Prometheus medical table comes out, it's going to do something interesting. Catherine Mary Stewart is…
Review by Joachim Andersson ★★

Badly dated scifliflick on a low budget does have some ambition but this story (based on a short story by George R R Martin) about a malignant spaceship computer is so poorly put together that it never once steps into "fun" territory in spite of an interesting script and a couple of nicely gory deaths. The score is an oddity too, space synths that I wouldn't mind having on a disc but it never really fits the atmosphere of the movie. Interesting but flawed as hell.
Review by LM_ ★★

“You’re a computer. Not my mother”!
Can you say mummy issues, and not your typical kind, as this spaceship’s mother computer with a mind of its own has one very twisted fixation on the ship’s captain. In the quest to find an advanced mythical life form, a small space crew charts out a spaceship where its mysterious captain only shows himself in hologram form. Instead of a peaceful journey they find themselves at the mercy of the ship’s main computer that goes on to release emotional(?) outbursts towards the crew. “NIGHTFLYERS” is a cheaply produced b-film adaption of George R.R. Martin’s (“GAME OF THRONES”) novel of the same title. It’s an atmospherically listless sci-fi outing with programmed horror shades in…
Review by theNomad ★★

"They opened up her head... and took her gifts away"
Jon the ships empath (Michael Des Barres)
Badly conceived b-grade adaptation of George R.R. Martin's (of 'Game of Thrones' fame) well regarded science fiction novel (which I'll be honest haven't read or heard of). It follows a space ships hazardous attempt to find a mythical space entity known as Volcryn. Only the ships onboard AI mainframe goes berserk and threatens to destroy their intended mission.
While not the worst science fiction movie ever made, its script is severally incoherent at times. The actings below par and the synthesizer music is abysmal. Its a real shame because theres brief moments the plot threatens to break through and turn it into a…
Review by Steven Millan ★½

Author George R.R. Martin is best known for the extremely super overrated HBO television series GAMES OF THRONES,although many that regularly follow his literary works know that he dabbles deeply in the science fiction and horror genre,with this richly colorful but heavily anemic adaptation of one of Martin's lesser known novels being one of the very few of his works adapted onto film. A mixture of the science fiction and horror genres,NIGHTFLYERS has a crew transported into a large spaceship that is manned by both a mullet sporting young man(Michael Praed[SON OF DARKNESS:TO DIE FOR 2,STAGGERED])who is often seen as a hologram(by the crew) and who has a domineering mother whose dead body is part of the spaceship and her…
Review by Heath Rhoads ★★

Horror Rewind 1987. 30th Anniversary. So this was based on a 1980 novella that was written by George R. R. Martin of all people! Sadly, this film just never lives up to its potential. A group of scientists are on the search for an alien creature and then it turns all 2001, as they are menaced by the ship's computer. This does have a fun cast. I love Catherine Mary Stewart's mid-80's hairdo in this film and late James Avery is in this (Uncle Phil from the Fresh Prince). Gets a 1/2 star bump for some fun model work and other practical effects but otherwise this was pretty terrible. At the very least, it was less than 90 min. And I want to mention the great score of this film. It was from Doug Timm, who I was sad to learn was stabbed to death in July of '89. Only 29 years old.
Review by Brian J. "Tyrannorabbit" Wright ★★½

Genre cross-pollinations from the time when such things were considered novel always make me curious. Even Alien was persistently described as like a haunted house in space, and this takes that descriptor and takes it a lot more literally, with candelabras and everything.
I'm watching the TV series while working out these days, and I have to admit I have no idea what's going on. (I can only hear half the dialogue over the bike anyway.) This movie adaptation of the same story is more compact, though not terribly more clear.
It's certainly very 80's. This is the mistiest spaceship I've ever seen, because "has the feel of a dream" and also, "hides some FX limitations". Those FX are plentiful,…
Review by Brooke Kamishlian

A scientist gathers a crew to go into space to study a strange transmission he's been tracking for years. The only spaceship they could afford for the mission has a few secrets that the crew discover as the trip progresses.
This film has some awesome kills, a plot that almost, allllmost, makes sense, and one of the greatest uses of a puppet I've ever seen outside of Evil Dead.
The ending confused the Hell out of me, but I thought it was a fun ride!
Based on a novella by George RR "I kill everyone" Martin.
IMDb and Wiki pages:
www.imdb.com/title/tt0093626/?ref_=nv_sr_2
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightflyers_(film)

Recent reviews

Review by DaveCaballero ★½

The best thing about the movie is the ship carefully decorated in neoclassical marble style .
I love the 80's
Review by Rod Thomas ★★★

Catherine Mary Stewart is a Vidal Sassoon Ripley in this unremarkable but pleasantly delightful space romp. Super low budget but oddly gorgeous. Also features Uncle Phil.
Review by Mauverunner ★½

The Blade Runnerish ost is the only positive aspect
Review by Andy Martin

STRONG Space Mutiny vibes with this one.
Review by Tim Allen ★★

Do yourself a favor and skip this. Instead watch the 1 season of Nightflyers from the SyFy channel which was based on the same novella. Much better.
Review by FilmGnome ★★½

BLADE RUNNER meets ALIEN meets 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. Heck yeah! NIGHTFLYERS has amazing production design and is a spectacle to watch. I hope this film gets a 2K restoration one day. Based on a short story by George R.R. Martin, it addresses interesting ideas, but suffers from a poor film adaptation. I understand there is a new TV series on Netflix that adapts Martin's original source material, also called Nightflyers. I think I'll check that out.
Review by Sarah Seember Huisken

This movie is so ridiculously boring, it's kind of amazing.
Review by nyckelly3 ★★

Even the gorgeous Mary Catherine Stewart couldn’t save this movie. It starts off with enough potential but gets more and more dull and ridiculous as if they were making up the story as they went along. I realize this is based on a George R.R. Martin short story and I think it should have stayed that way.
Review by Lou (rhymes with wow!) ★★★

The original premise of a ragtag bunch of misfits searching for some ancient space civilization sounded amazing. But than the whole thing turned into a crew vs evil spaceship movie. Such a missed opportunity (I understand it's not what the novella is about.. but still..)
The ship's interiour was awesome, very different from usual sci-fi fare.
The best thing here was the theme music which reminded me both of Blade Runner and Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Review by Brent Disney ★★½

Well my friend told me it was "80s as fuck" and it lives up to that description. Looked like a Tales From The Darkside episode. Convoluted as hell. Written by the guy who wrote Game of Thrones. Honestly, I just watched it and don't know what the actual plot was outside of the ships computers boyfriend is hot and bothered for Catherine Mary Stewart (can't blame him) and the computer decides to kill everyone.
Review by Brian J. "Tyrannorabbit" Wright ★★½

Genre cross-pollinations from the time when such things were considered novel always make me curious. Even Alien was persistently described as like a haunted house in space, and this takes that descriptor and takes it a lot more literally, with candelabras and everything.
I'm watching the TV series while working out these days, and I have to admit I have no idea what's going on. (I can only hear half the dialogue over the bike anyway.) This movie adaptation of the same story is more compact, though not terribly more clear.
It's certainly very 80's. This is the mistiest spaceship I've ever seen, because "has the feel of a dream" and also, "hides some FX limitations". Those FX are plentiful,…
Review by wildestpenfield ★½

Sub-par space horror notably not helped by inexplicably shoehorning in telekinesis.