Fugitive Alien (1986 TV Movie) User Reviews (19)

And the second part is supposed to be even worse!!!

[BA_Harrison · 2/10 · 1 April 2013]

In an alternate future universe where everyone is Japanese no matter what world they come from, Earth is under attack from hostile planet Valnastar whose marauding 'wolf-raiders' are sent to wipe out humanity; but when one of the alien attackers, a curly-blonde-wig-wearing wolf-raider by the name of Ken (Tatsuya Azuma), is ordered to kill a defenceless woman and her young son (also named Ken—must be a popular name throughout the universe of the future) he resists, accidentally killing a comrade in the process.

Branded a traitor by his own race, Ken (the alien, not the boy) flees for his life, but must abandon his craft in space when it is damaged in a fire-fight. Luckily for Ken, he is soon picked up by a passing Earth ship, the Bacchus 3, whose happy-go-lucky crew have no idea that he is a wolf-raider; they patch him up and make him welcome. Eventually, Ken comes clean to Captain Joe (Jô Shishido), who decides to keep schtum just so long as the fugitive alien joins his crew. Ken agrees, to the chagrin of moody pilot Rocky but much to the delight of cute computer boffin Tammy (Miyuki Tanigawa).

Ken's first mission with the Bacchus crew is to rescue a captive Colonel from a high-security alien prison, a task that takes every ounce of his incredible strength and all of his amazing fighting skills to overcome all obstacles (plus a few handy gadgets hidden on his fetching, red PVC, all-in-one space jumpsuit), including Ken's girlfriend Rita (was the writer of this nonsense a fan of UK soap Coronation Street, perchance?) who just happens to be the sister of the guy Ken accidentally killed and who is now gunning for revenge.

Cobbled together from a short-lived Japanese TV series, Fugitive Alien is hard to endure despite plenty of ridiculously bad action and lots of unintentional humour. The embarrassingly inept space dog-fights (clearly inspired by Star Wars, but severely lacking their technical excellence) and unexciting shoot-outs are extremely repetitive, the editing is random, the pacing stodgy, and the dubbing awful. Some of the model shots of the Bacchus are pretty cool but the ship's interior could have done with a little more attention to detail (the dashboard boasts dials that read 'Space Speed' and 'Cabin Air Presser'). After 100 or so excruciating minutes of incomprehensible rubbish, viewers are presented with the words 'To Be Continued' and the horrible realisation that this is only half of the story.

I've never seen an MST3K episode—I believe that all films, no matter how bad, deserve more a bit more respect than that—but I can understand how this sort of thing would prove irresistible to such a show. Fortunately, for movie purists like myself, Fugitive Alien is available minus comedic robot commentary as part of a 50 film sci-fi DVD box set, meaning it can be enjoyed exactly as enterprising American film distributor Sandy Frank originally intended when he snapped up the rights for a song.

A planet where apes evolved from Kens?

[Oosterhartbabe · 2/10 · 2 March 2005]

Ahhh...Sandy Frank. Who are you, and why do you continue to torment us with truly horrible Japanese movies? If not for you, these stinkers would never have seen the light of day in America. I'm sure the Japanese themselves writhe in agony every time they see one of these poorly dubbed cinematic abominations scrolling across an American t.v. screen.

Fugitive Alien is only one of the many quality films imported by the wretched Sandy Frank. It is a series of episodes of a Japanese t.v. show strung together to make an incomprehensible 'movie', a la Riding With Death. That is like taking Gilligan's Island, chopping it up so that it makes no sense whatsoever(that wouldn't take much) slapping some REALLY poor dubbing on it, and sending it over to foreign countries as representations of American culture. While this might, indeed, show a true sense of what American culture is really like(confusing, badly costumed, incoherent, and stupid)would we really want the whole rest of the world to see that?

Fugitive Alien tells(badly)the story of the ubiquitous 'Ken', a Valna wolf raider from Valnastar. On his planet, these ferocious warriors trick themselves out in more white face paint than Liza, stupid Rainbow Bright jumpsuits, and helmets that for some reason have curly blonde wigs attached. My theory is that they got laughed at so often for this look that they started killing people out of sheer annoyance. They attack the Earth(or Japan, anyway) and lay waste to Tokyo. Our 'hero' Ken kills his friend and fellow raider when he tries to kill a little boy named...you got, Ken. Apparently the entire universe is peopled with guys names Ken. Go figure. Is there a whole planet full of Barbies out there, too?

Now considered a traitor to his people(he refused to wear the splendidly awful outfit anymore) he hooks up with the human crew of the Baccheus 3, 'the Earth's oldest spaceship'. They set out to help another planet in distress, where the Japanese people wander about in shiny Arab headgear, and the world leader resembles Ghenghis Khan if he'd been a cross dresser. Ken leaves the ship against orders so that he can skip and prance across the landscape, and gets arrested for some reason(probably his red and white Power Rangers jumpsuit offended the locals). Captain Joe, who resembles a squirrel and looks like he's hiding nuts in his cheeks, decides to break Ken out so that he can help the alien band leader in his cell escape. A stupid escape attempt then follows, heavy on the blinking Christmas lights and idiots in bad costumes shooting at our hero with plastic toy guns.

Ken is injured, and is helped by his former girlfriend Rita(these are alien people, right? Do the Japanese consider Americans 'alien'? Well, I suppose that wouldn't be really surprising if they did) a girl in a long blonde wig. She's hunted him down to kill him because the guy he killed was her brother, and the law of their planet says that she has to kill him personally as next of kin to the victim. But of course she can't put us out of our viewing misery by just carrying out her orders like a good little girl. No, she dies and Ken continues to breathe. He and Sargeant Pepper get back to the ship and take off, and Ken moons over a pendant that belonged to the dead girl. And that's when a scroll comes up on the screen that says: To Be Continued. Aggghhh! Will the pain never cease?

Pretty awful Japanese sci-fi flick

[Red-Barracuda · 1/10 · 9 August 2013]

This unbearable, campy sci-fi action film was seemingly created by editing together several episodes from a Japanese TV series. The result is a very bad film. Its story thrusts you into things with little in the way of explanation. Some aliens called the Wolf Raiders wage war on humanity and attack the Earth. One of the Raiders called Ken refuses to kill an Earth child called Ken, and in doing so angers his people, hence making him...the fugitive alien! It's a nonsense plot but I've encountered way worse. The problem was it made me feel so bored. On paper, quite a lot actually happens in this film but in practice, it's never very interesting.

Matters aren't really helped by the dubbing, which is carried out by a group of extremely terrible voice actors. The voices in this film are heavy going on the ears and really try your patience. What doesn't exactly improve matters is the fact that the running time is 102 minutes, which is just way too long for something this crappy. The special effects and costumes are all bargain basement too. But the most disappointing thing about the entire film was the fact that the Wolf Raiders did not sport poodle perm hairdos. Bizarrely, and nonsensically, they seem to merely have wigs attached to their combat helmets. Why this should be is simply one of the mysteries of Fugitive Alien. A mystery I will never solve as I have no intention of revisiting this dreck ever again.

Cheesy indeed, but at least not boring.

[MikeisBored · 22 June 2003]

I very short lived TV series packaged into a movie brought to us by Sandy Frank; who has brought the Gamera films and Time of The Apes overseas. This movie(?) actually isn't all that painful. The plot makes sense, and you can actually tell who the characters are. So it is watchable, just rediculous. Several things aren't explained. Like who exactly these Wolf Raiders are, why they wear wigs to the battlefield, and several behavoiral patterns that just make you go "huh?". Also the hero has the strengh of ten men and can stop forklifts at full acceleration, yet falls down from a clean punch.

The most frustrating thing i found with this movie and plenty of the Sandy Frank films i've seen is this "failed plan" thats in each movie. Here's an example: Our hereo is trapped in prison, so he supports himself up against the top corner of the cell hiding from view. The guard is about to open the door to search the cell and inadvertantly let the captive go. But he spots his foot first, as says "get down from there." end scene. What was the point of that scene? Next he ties an explosive to a cell door to bust it open, and it fails. So we watch him carefully take his time and wire another two explosives to open the door. Another waste of time! It's just disguised film padding.

This movie stands on it's own as something to pass time on a rainy day, but the MST3K version is golden. Probably my favorite episode ever because of Joel Hodgson's dead on and hilarious impersonation of Captain Joe from the movie. No matter which version you watch I'll guarantee you'll be quoting "haa-hahahahahaha-haha-haaahahahaYOU'RESTUCKHERE!"

Running away from acting lessons. *SPOILERS*

[quamp · 1/10 · 10 May 2002]

Ah, Sandy Frank. The name conjures up a whole mess of bad Japanese films. Not surprisingly, this is one of them. The whole premise is a good idea - a marauding alien meets up with a kid that has the same name he does (Ken.) and then refuses to kill the kid. (Just what is Sandy Frank's obsession with the name Ken anyway? Many of his other imports have a male character named Ken as well.) A scuffle ensues between the alien and one of his partners, and he accidentally kills his partner. Then the alien is considered a traitor and runs away. He's found by the Star Force in Space, who take him in. The aliens wear extremely fake looking blonde wigs. The forklift scene is unintentionally hilarious. There's also a blonde woman who loves the hero Ken but has to kill him because he killed her brother. But the main problem with this film is the very bad acting. I think it would do better as a remake with a better cast, and maybe Jackie Chan in the lead role.

Avoid unless you're watching the MST3K version.

One for small children and small children alone

[Leofwine_draca · 2/10 · 20 July 2016]

FUGITIVE ALIEN is a film apparently edited together from episodes of an obscure 1978 Japanese television series hastily made on the cheap in the post-STAR WARS rush for sci-fi flicks. It goes without saying that the result doesn't make much sense, and it doesn't even have a conclusion - the antics would continue in STAR FORCE: FUGITIVE ALIEN II, which thankfully I haven't seen as yet. Not that I'll be rushing out to buy a copy, because FUGITIVE ALIEN is a pretty abysmal film. Abysmally dull, that is. Although there are space battles, lasers, and people killing each other with would-be light sabers, FUGITIVE ALIEN is one big bore.

For a start, it looks cheap. The interior of the ship is cheap, the planets are cheap, and the special effects are horrendously tacky and inferior. Sure, cheap effects can be a lot of fun, but not here. They just look cheap, poor and unremarkable, with little or no imagination being used on them. People are shot with lasers, flash blue for a couple of seconds and then drop down dead. An effect already clichéd by 1978, when the TV series was made. Watch out for the model spaceship which actually turns transparent for a moment when flying through space. There aren't even as many explosions as you would expect from a Japanese movie.

Another problem is the film's running time - at 103 minutes, it's overlong, and drags incessantly. It invariably feels episodic in nature, with three or four sub-plots (one for each episode) to make things that little bit more confusing. At points the film threatens to becoming an amusing sci-fi variant of the hit TV series THE FUGITIVE, but it always lapses back into mediocre sci-fi action the next minute.

Scenes are ripped off directly from STAR WARS (another bad scene, another guy coming up and saying "I don't like you") and gadgets are stolen from Bond and other assorted spy movies. Sure, a few things are weird - background turning blue, people shining white in dream sequences, the space raiders wearing blonde wigs for some reason under their helmets - but it's never enough. And with cardboard cut-outs for the characters, it's hard to keep watching. I would only recommend this to be watched by small children who are really easily pleased by what they see on television.

Who Tried To Kill You With A Forklift?

[boblipton · 3/10 · 11 April 2020]

This 'tv movie' was produced by taking episodes of a Japanese sci-fi show, stringing them together, and dubbing the voices -- and the plot -- using voice talent who sound like the guys on MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 This made the viewing very confusing, because I was watching this as an episode of that show. This made it even odder than usual, even for that show.

It seems to be about Tatsuya Azuma, a member of a military group of aliens. He's kicked out of the organization because he won't kill people from Earth. This doesn't seem to stop him from getting involved with other operations of this alleged organization, although he seems to compensate by occasionally killing one of his former associates.

The special effects are decent for television of the era. The only actor whom I recognized was Jô Shishido as "Captain Joe".

Ken's a good friend!

[InzyWimzy · 3/10 · 5 September 2003]

Yes, Sandy Frank folks!

Actually, this is definitely one of my favorite japanese B-movies...which was actually TV shows spliced together. The concept is really neat with renegade Star Wolf...Ken didn't want to kill Ken. Get it? Plus, the matchbox and subpar effects are great in a kampy way and the star wars "homages" are funny! It was definitely a show that fit right in on the SOL which kampy in its own way too!

You gotta love the conflict in this film...Ken and Star Wolves, Ken and Rocky..whereas this ragtag crew become earth's top defenders. Do not miss the infamous "forklift" scene and the sequel: Starforce: Fugitive Alien 2.

Still way better than Space Mutiny.

When I was a child, I had a fever...

[Torgo_Approves · 1/10 · 12 March 2007]

....and none of my feverish hallucinations ever came close to the sheer insane absurdity of this complete nonsense. This is definitely one of Sandy Frank's most entertaining - admittedly for all the wrong reason - efforts (although that is a little like saying that this is one of Coleman Francis' most fun-filled features); certainly better than the steaming pile of acidic manure that is Time of the Apes. Seriously, that movie made my eyes hurt. At least Fugitive Alien, for all its incoherent attempts at plot lines, for all its sloppily spliced together scenes from some cheesy Japanese TV series, for all its insanely awful dialogue ("You're stuck here!"), is unintentionally hilarious. And I mean HILARIOUS. As in, John-Cleese-eat-your-heart-out, knee-slappingly, air-gaspingly laugh out loud hilarious. If you have to choose between watching the latest shrug-worthy Adam Sandler/Vince Vaughn/Ben Stiller "comedy" or this... choose this. It's colourful, stupid as hell, and unbelievably entertaining for the most part. Wait, am I recommending a Sandy Frank movie? Oh well, I guess it's finally happened. I've gone insane. There is no hope left for me now. I guess I'll just go and watch Fugitive Alien again. It makes my brain... comfortably numb.

Seriously...why the blond wigs?

[Aaron1375 · 2/10 · 21 August 2012]

This film is not a pure movie, but rather a collection of episodes from a Japanese science fiction television show. Basically like that Time of the Apes and Mighty Jack which were also lampooned as this one was on MST3K. This one though, like those, jumps here and there and you at times cannot tell where the film is going or where it has come from. It has some elements of Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica in it and is basically about a ship captained by a man who has lost his wife and child to alien invaders.

The story is about one particular alien invader that goes against orders and accidentally kills one of his fellow troops. For reasons unknown, when you are a member of this ferocious team, you must where a blond wig and jump and roll every where even when it is completely pointless. Well he joins the ship, albeit begrudgingly, captained by the man who lost his wife and child and is now prone to mood swings. On the former bad guy's trail is his very own love from the invading planet because it was her brother that he killed. He seems to love her, but during the last portion of the film he kind of kills her. This movie is also a two parter and at the end we get a ...to be continued.

This one just is not very entertaining. About the best thing are the cute girls, but two cute girls is not enough to save this mess from being as bad as it is. During this movie there is virtually no action aside from the invading scene other than the fugitive alien running here and there and then getting beat up by a human after he stopped a forklift with his hands! If he could stop it with his hands I would think a human would be relatively easy.

So what you get to see here is another in a long line of smooshed together television shows into what sort of qualifies as a movie. Once again, it has lots of flashbacks and quick edits. Not a movie one should really strive to find suffice to say.

Just Weird And Not That Good

[Rainey-Dawn · 2/10 · 14 November 2016]

Well it's a fast paced Japanese sci-fi film. From what I've read, it's from several of the TV serials sorta smashed together to create this movie. It's not completely awful but it's not all that grand of a film either. It's watchable and tolerable if you are very much of a die-hard science fiction fan, but not so much for those that like an occasional science fiction movie.

The lead alien villain - the one that tells them to kill everyone on planet earth in the beginning of the film - is really cool and evil looking. He's neat.

What is up with the long-haired blonde wigs? I really wish they would have not worn them - it really makes the film look terrible and trashy. Just their space outfits would have been plenty.

2/10

A prime slice of hysterically silly Japanese sci-fi cheese

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 16 April 2013]

Nice guy alien Ken gets deemed a traitor by his race after he kills his buddy after he refuses to kill a little boy and his mother. Fortunately, Ken manages to make the best of a bad situation by joining the crew of a spaceship. Meanwhile, the vengeful Rita tracks Ken down so she can kill him. Boy, does this honey possess all the right wrong stuff to qualify as a real four star stinkeroonie: The ham-fisted (mis)direction, hilariously horrendous dubbing, ineptly staged action scenes, tacky (markedly less than) special effects, sloppy narrative, on and off erratic pacing, tin-eared dialogue ("The thought of killing anyone is just too horrible"), corny flashbacks, groan-inducing moments of sappy sentiment, broadly drawn characters, and the frustrating to be continued cliffhanger ending all provide a wealth of unintentional belly laughs. A total howler.

all it needed was William Shatner as the captain

[asinyne · 6/10 · 21 September 2012]

This is a Japanese production and a pretty good one. Its visually interesting and the plot is easy to follow. I found it to be reasonably entertaining despite a couple of slow spots here and there. There are some campy stuff like the way the characters shrug off tragedy in their lives. The love of Ken's life dies and he pretty much goes on about business without shedding a tear. Captain Joe loses his daughter and Wife and next day he is back at work, eager to get busy. Despite its flaws I enjoyed the look of the show. The ships and space battles look pretty nice, the bad guy looked nasty, and the English dubbing wasn't very distracting. I liked some of the costumes and locations as well. ,,,, You know, to be totally honest about it, if William Shatner had played Captain Joe, there would probably be tons of interest in this neat little science fiction flick. Definitely deserves a much better rating that it gets here. I give it a 5.5...its fun.

Rough!

[BandSAboutMovies · 3/10 · 9 May 2021]

Fugitive Alien is an example of how strange something is when it's translated into one language, then translated back into its original language. It's a Japanese TV series - Space Hero Star Wolf - that was based on an American series of science fiction novels by Edmond Hamilton - The Weapon from Beyond, The Closed Worlds and World of the Starwolves - that were then dubbed and sent back to America as two movies somehow summarizing multiple episodes into an amazingly condensed narrative.

There's a Star Wolf warrior named Ken - who supposedly comes from the planet Valna Star but was born on Earth - who is attacking our planet at some point in the near future. He doesn't fully believe in his mission and stops his best friend from killing a human. When his friend dies, he becomes a, well, fugitive alien and joins the crew of the Bacchus 3, which is made up of Dan, Billy, Rocky, Tammy and Captain Joe.

Tammy may be in love with Ken, but he already has a lover named Rita. It just so happens that the friend that he killed was Rita's sister, so now she's been ordered by Lord Halkon to avenge her brother's death. She tries to murder him, but their love is too strong, so of course, she gets killed in moments after that revelation.

If you watch this and it makes no real sense to you, remember how this movie basically played the telephone game with itself. And then realize that one of the writers was Keiichi Abe, who also wrote Time of the Apes.

Don't try to kill him with a forklift!

[JeffG. · 10 October 1999]

This "movie" is really just several episodes of a Japanese TV show stringed together, and it shows. It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever! This was obviously Japanese television's attempt to cash in on the success of "Star Wars." This movie is really badly dubbed as well. Although I think it would be bad subtitled as well.

On the positive end, it was turned onto a really funny MST3K episode. So it's not a total loss!

Science

[catpantry · 6/10 · 22 February 2020]

People can also die very slowly. Thats what happends in this one. Sid lays next to a 25 ft thick see through wall. On the other side is the other half. When one opens the fridge, out pours a water fall of dead roses. At least one of them sees this: Clint eastwood sitting next to dennys at night. He waves hellow/goodby for 16 hours a day out there. They say hardship makes you stronger but it can also cause a person to want no real reaction to anything. But people have to react to what they're suppose to react to, wheather they want to or not. God lvs us😊

YOU'RE STUCK HERE!

[Xarathos · 9 December 2003]

Yes, this story of Captain Joe and the Backus 3 (if I remember correctly) is one humdinger of bad film. I don't remember much except shots of the actors in the ship and stuff happening. Having them in a centrifuge or something to give the effect of massive g-forces on their bodies. Them walking around and fighting like they were the power rangers without the costumes and martial arts (if you can call it that). Of course, I saw it on the Mystery Science Theater 3000 so it was great thanks to Joel and the 'Bots. Watch for the forklift part. Joel does this great impression of chipmunked-cheeked Captain Joe. Wait until he laughs and says:"You're stuck here!" imitating the character. It's the only way to see this film and frankly, I dare not see it with the MST3K version. Find a tape of it. They trade them over the net. Also one of the early KTMA episodes of the MST3K that they did over. Just see the MST3K version. Seriously.

Look out, "Star Trek: Voyager"- Here comes "Fugitive Alien"!

[zmaturin · 21 October 2000]

Hey Network TV: Instead of beating the venerable "Fugitive" premise to death (a tv show based on a movie based on a tv show?), why not seek out a tv series that was flawed when originally produced but still features enough good stuff to salvage into a new, better series? Here's a good example- "Fugitive Alien" and it's sequel, "Star Force: Fugitive Alien 2" are goofy, sometimes-incomprehensible "features" made from re-edited episodes of a Japanese TV show. They're hard to watch in their current incarnation, but have interesting premises and fun plots.

The story is this: Our hero Ken is a Wolf Raider. Wolf Raiders are super-strong humanoid aliens who like to invade other planets and run around smashing things. For some reason they wear curly red wigs when they do this, which is pretty bizarre. Anyhoo, during a routine invasion Ken is ordered to shoot a little boy named Ken, and he refuses. In the resulting scuffle Ken accidentally shoots his best friend and flees the evil Wolf Raiders, ending up floating through space in his spacesuit, waiting to die (already this is hilarious!).

Luckily, Ken is discovered by the Bacchus 3, a Star Force spaceship commanded by the jowl-sporting, hard-drinkin' Captain Joe (possible come-back role for Ernest Borgnine here!). Ken is almost immediately adopted by Captain Joe, who hides Ken's Wolf Raider past from the rest of the crew and offers him a job. This delights Tammy, the navigator, and dismays Rocky, Captain Joe's first mate, who tries to run Ken over with a forklift. There are two other guys on the ship, I think one was called Dan or something. They don't do much. Anyway, the crew of the Bacchus 3 goes on one crazy adventure after another while Ken is pursued by Rita (who is Ken's ex-girlfriend and the sister of the guy Ken killed). They visit a lot of different planets, Ken saves everyone over and over again, and eventually he and Rocky get past the whole "forklift incident".

If this isn't a set up for a hit TV series or even a feature film, I don't know what is. It's certainly a more plausible premise a series than "Cleopatra 2525", that's for damn sure. So please, consider "Fugitive Alien". Maybe you could get Timothy Daly to star in the series version.