While it has almost 100x the budget, this weekend’s Netflix blockbuster Rebel Moon shares many similarities with 1980’s Battle Beyond the Stars, which you can watch in the latest Everything Action Theater. Both movies are set on a peaceful planet threatened by an evil intergalactic empire and the citizens have to send someone out to gather a group of diverse warriors to defend them. Battle Beyond the Stars was influenced by The Magnificent Seven, and by extension Seven Samurai. It featured an ensemble cast that included Sybil Danning, Richard Thomas, Robert Vaughn, George Peppard, Darlanne Fluegel, John Saxon, Jeff Corey, Earl Boen, Morgan Woodward and more. Jimmy T. Murakami directed the movie under the banner of Roger Corman’s New World Pictures and future legends and collaborators James Cameron and James Horner worked behind the scenes on special effects and the movie’s score respectively. Bill Paxton was also employed as a carpenter before he truly started his acting career and that is where he met Cameron and the two became friends. The movie received mixed reviews but was a moderate box office success and has since become a cult classic. You can watch the entire movie below, thanks to YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnvhVZOHDX8