Solarbabies

1986 "From a distant star a powerful and mystical force comes to Earth. And for those brave enough to follow, it will change their lives forever."
4.7| 1h34m| PG-13| en| More Info
Released: 26 November 1986 Released
Producted By: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
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In a future in which most water has disappeared from the Earth, we find a group of children, mostly teenagers, who are living at an orphanage, run by the despotic rulers of the new Earth. The group in question plays a hockey based game on roller skates and is quite good. It has given them a unity that transcends the attempts to bring them to heel by the government. Finding an orb of special power, they find it has unusual effects on them. They escape from the orphanage (on skates) and try to cross the wasteland looking for a place they can live free as the storm-troopers search for them and the orb.

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Director

Alan Johnson

Production Companies

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

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Solarbabies Audience Reviews

VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.
TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.
Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.
Caryl It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.
Kyrasu I really like this movie. The story is good and well told, but I would love to see it remade with what they can do today...
crownofsprats OK, firstly, you are watching (or about to watch) a movie called 'Solarbabies'. If that doesn't deter you, then you are probably at least semi-aware of what you are getting yourself into, and why. Meaning: if you are not a connoisseur of badly-aged cheese, you probably shouldn't be here.As far as C-grade postapocalyptic movies from the 80s are concerned, this is one of the weirder ones, but very entertaining if you are into that sort of thing. The movie is for a younger audience, so no T&A or gratuitous blood & gore. However, its most audacious gamble is the way it channels postapocalyptic fascism, oppression, torture, truncheon violence (of note is the amazing Orwell-style "indoctrination" scene), and sexual desire through the prism of roller-skating, packaging it to the unsuspecting bunch of tweens & teens whose parents didn't allow them to see Mad Max when it came out. So yeah! This group of orphans calling themselves Solarbabies basically just wants to play a futuristic combination of roller hockey and lacrosse all the time, but they are jailed up in a postapocalyptic concentration camp/police academy for 'orphans', with a heavy roller- blading component. (They can sneak out, though - the rules are pretty lax, since they are in the middle of a desert wasteland and water is scarce.) If you are sufficiently cruel, you get to join the ranks of the E-Police. If you aren't E-Police material, you are probably going to end up a hard laborer (presumably on rollerblades as well), or worse yet, be sent in for 'surgical alteration'. Anyway, one of the Solarbabies finds a magical orb in a cave and befriends it. Of course, the E-Police hate the orb and wish to destroy it. There's also a guy that befriends crows and stuff...roll film!AWESOME: the locations (filmed in Spain, the sets give the scenery the expanse it needs to work); the level of heavy-handed oppression, courtesy of the head E-Police chief and his weird update on the Nazi commandant uniform; great chase-and-destroy scenes with armored vehicles and two shantytowns; the sexual innuendos; lasers; finally, the torture scene!! Remember, you are watching a children's movie about a magical glowing orb that befriends some orphans.LAME: the glowing orb; the feelings of good cheer the children experience when hanging out and playing roller hockey with the orb (by that, I mean they use the sentient orb as a puck); the eco-hippy stuff; the lame attempt to make this into a metaphor for growing up confused and trying to find your place in a vast and soulless world; the lack of more oppression and truncheons in the film.LACKING: T&A, David Carradine
kerndtsr How does someone actually sit down and write this? It was as going to be used as a torture device at Gitmo, but the CIA didn't want to violate the Geneva Convention on treatment of POW's. You would think Charles Durning would have enough sense to say "No thank you, I just ate". Why does every movie or TV show in the future have to involve a modern day sport getting screwed over? For goodness sake, find a freaking' football and toss it around. For a place with not a lot of water they sure make an effort to exert as much as possible. If I knew there was a lack of water, the most you would get out of me is scoring behind the building with a local girl.
Michelle8174 I remember watching this as a kid int he early 90s and being obsessed with roller skates!!!!! I used to play out this film with my brother and we would skate round my grans garden as it was concreted.I loved this movie at the time like i loved space camp.... now you realise how cheesy they were. but i have some affection for them. harmless family films... I cant remember much of the film or the story. I don't ever remember it being on TV since i saw it so many years ago.But its a great kids film, esp for all of us borough up in the 80s! Brought up on movies which relied a lot of imagination and not effects by CGI!Would love to see this movie again!