FilmSkool — a free film school
Flash Gordon
A football player and his mates travel to the planet Mongo and find themselves fighting the tyranny of Ming the Merciless to save Earth.
1980 · Directed by Mike Hodges · 111 min · Science Fiction · Adventure · Action · Family · Screenplay in the scene database · 15 frames
Tagline
Pathetic earthlings...who can save you now?
Plot
To relieve his boredom, Emperor Ming the Merciless of the planet Mongo begins Earth's destruction by remotely causing natural disasters. On Earth, football star Gregory "Flash" Gordon boards a small plane and meets travel agent Dale Arden. Mid-flight, the cockpit is hit by a meteor and the pilots die. Flash takes control and manages to crash land into a greenhouse owned by former NASA scientist, Dr. Hans Zarkov. Zarkov believes that the disasters are being caused by extraterrestrials pushing the Moon towards Earth. He has secretly constructed a spacecraft to investigate the attacks. Unable to do it alone, Zarkov lures Flash and Dale aboard. He flies with them to Mongo, where they are captured by Ming's troops.
After looking at the trio, Ming is smitten with Dale and orders Flash executed. At the last minute, Ming's daughter, Princess Aura, saves Flash, with whom she fell in love at first sight. While they escape, Zarkov is brainwashed by Klytus, the head of the secret police. Aura and Flash flee to Arboria, kingdom of Prince Barin. Locked in Ming's bedchamber, Dale escapes, and Zarkov is sent to intercept her. However, Zarkov reveals he resisted the brainwashing, and escapes Mingo City with Dale. They are quickly captured by Prince Vultan's hawkmen and taken to Sky City.
Aura and Flash arrive at Arboria. Aura asks the Prince to keep Flash safe. A distrustful Barin, in love with Aura, agrees not to kill Flash, but then forces him to play a deadly game of chance. With the odds stacked against him, Flash uses this opportunity to escape. Barin follows him, and they are both captured by the hawkmen.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Screenplay: Lorenzo Semple Jr.
- Cinematography: Gilbert Taylor
- Edited by: Malcolm Cooke
- Music: Howard Blake
- Produced by: Dino De Laurentiis
Cast
- Sam J. Jones as Flash Gordon
- Melody Anderson as Dale Arden
- Max von Sydow as The Emperor Ming
- Chaim Topol as Dr. Hans Zarkov
- Ornella Muti as Princess Aura
- Timothy Dalton as Prince Barin
- Brian Blessed as Prince Vultan
- Peter Wyngarde as Klytus
- Mariangela Melato as Kala
- John Osborne as Arborian Priest
Production
- Country: Italy, Netherlands, United Kingdom, United States of America
- Language: English
- Studios: Starling Films, Universal Pictures, Famous Films Productions, Flash Gordon Productions
- Budget: $35,000,000
- Box office: $27,100,000
- Themes: fighter, emperor, solar eclipse, prince, deception, alien planet, duel, scientist, space opera, evil dictator
Own the film
FilmSkool earns a small commission from qualifying Amazon purchases, at no cost to you.
More by Mike Hodges
On this film
This is the plain index, shown because JavaScript is off. Every lesson here is a free video published by the channel credited on it and plays through that channel's own embed — FilmSkool hosts nothing.