Cloak & Dagger (1984)

August 1, 2024 5:19 PM

A young boy and his imaginary friend end up on the run while in possession of a top-secret spy gadget.

A nostalgia trip for me: when I was 10-12 years old, the local library had a film projector and about four movies appropriate for kids, so this, Condorman (coming soon to Fanfare!) and The Devil & Daniel Mouse were in near constant birthday party rotation for several years.

I'm legit impressed by Cloak & Dagger: young Henry Thomas was a hell of an actor, and Dabney Coleman does deft work as both a beleaguered single dad and the imaginary action hero friend who gets increasingly glibly sociopathic as the movie rolls along. Even a baby Louie Anderson as an irritable and unhelpful cab driver.

Tom Holland could get it done in the '80s: this, Fright Night, the underrated Psycho II, OG Child's Play -- having watched them all more or less recently, Holland (no relation to Spider-Man) has a deft hand with flipping goofy premises and genuine Hitchcock-tilted suspense. There were long sequences here where I was on the edge of my seat, wondering how things would play out -- always sure that Davey would make it, but with the body count mounting, not entirely sure about anyone else.

Some real tonal whiplash as we see Young Davey get PTSD hard (climbing into a trunk with a corpse!?!) and then jumping back into the wackier action.

On the whole, interestingly, I think the whole movie could have done without Jack Flack and maybe even been better? I think Henry Thomas could have carried the load of being conflicted between being an imaginative kid and the real consequences of real-life death; ultimately, the final "shoot me!" crossover into the real world hurts more than it helps.

And finally -- what a time capsule! As a Nerd of a Certain Age, I spent chunks of the movie wanting to time travel back to the Game Keeper store of 1984 in this Very '80s San Antonio mall. Kids just... taking the bus everywhere, hanging out with a game shop owner that looks like he could close the store and open a red flag factory, the most latchkey children that ever keyed a latch, children complaining about being pursued by strange men just being brushed off. My wife dropped in periodically as I was watching, and we both marvelled at how utterly, completely, impossible it would be for this movie to be made today. Well, except for white men open carrying heavy firearms everywhere. That still holds.

And -- sorry! I know I'm going on! -- who sets a movie in San Antonio? Leaning into it, too, with local scenery, significant Hispanic secondary characters, etc.

A kids' movie of the kind they just don't make any more. Maybe not the perfect film, but much, much better than I expected it to be. Kinda dreading Condorman now.

posted by Shepherd (10 comments total)

apparently young me was film buff enough to want to see this because that's the kid from ET! and that's the guy from Wargames! I don't think I've watched it since, but i remember enjoying it as a child.

also, Henry Thomas is great in Fall of the House of Usher and the Haunting serieses.
posted by kokaku at 5:40 PM on August 1 [2 favorites]

Yeah! I remember this from watching it on VHS between grades 1 or 2 at afterschool daycare. I think.
posted by porpoise at 8:01 PM on August 1 [1 favorite]

The old couple on the boat tour who seem like helpful elderly folk then turn out to be homicidal spies... oof, that was jarring to me as a kid.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:47 PM on August 1 [1 favorite]

That Very '80s San Antonio mall was actually the Glendale Galleria in California. The mall is still there, but the Game Keeper sadly is not.
posted by wanderingmind at 8:55 PM on August 1

I was acquainted with Henry Thomas's dad around the time this was made. IIRC the reason this was made in San Antonio was because he and Henry lived there; he didn't want his newly-world-famous son growing up in L.A.
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 5:47 AM on August 2 [3 favorites]

I loved this movie when I was a kid. I kind of want to watch it with my kids to see what they make of it.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 1:10 PM on August 2

Kinda dreading Condorman now.

IMO, mostly a waste of source material (The Game of X by the perennially-underrated Robert Sheckley) and actors (Oliver Reed, Barbara Carrera, and Michael Crawford, who sadly does not sing in it).
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:32 AM on August 5 [1 favorite]

I've also not seen this movie since I was a kid - not sure I want to watch it again and spoil it - kid me liked it.
posted by The_Vegetables at 2:45 PM on August 6

I really liked this at the time, and the arcade game is really good. One of the few instances of two-fold quality like that.
posted by rhizome at 10:45 PM on August 8

I haven't seen this in a long time but did like it when I was a kid. It felt like a kid's movie, but not a patronizing kid's movie, a bit more serious than you'd expect, with some real peril.
posted by AzraelBrown at 9:10 AM on August 9