Explorers

Explorers (1985) is Joe Dante's family sci-fi adventure you can watch online on iFILM. Ben keeps dreaming about a strange circuit diagram, and his genius pal Wolfgang figures out how to build the real thing.

What the boys end up with is a homemade spacecraft cobbled together from junkyard scraps, an old carnival cockpit, and a glowing force field that holds the whole rig in one piece. Ben, Wolfgang, and tough-kid Darren lift off, circle their own neighborhood, then feel something outside take the controls and pull them toward an actual close encounter. Watching a teenage Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix in two of their first screen roles gives the backyard tinkering real warmth.

Dante built the movie around a simple gut-punch: kids dream of space the way comic books promise it, then meet a universe that's far weirder and goofier than any of that. The ending throws plenty of viewers, and that's the charm here, half wonder and half letdown. Stream Explorers (1985) online on iFILM.