Cloak and Dagger

Calling all of you Top-secret Agents and Spies! 

Whilst sorting through all the clutter here at HQ, I found some old movies that I'm going to talk about sooner or later here on the blog.  I thought I'd start with a neat little "kid's movie" from 1984 called "Cloak and Dagger."

Fair warning:  I did not re-watch the movie for this entry; I'm going strictly off of memory here, so please bear with me.  

I first saw this movie in grade school.  I'm talking, like 4th, maybe 5th grade.  I don't remember why they were showing it.  It must have been the last day of school before some vacation or the end of the year or something.  I just remember it was extremely cool, and I was SO excited when I found it months/years later on...HBO or something.

The movie stars Henry Thomas, or as I knew him at the time, the kid from the E.T. movie.  Here, he plays Davey Osborne.  Davey lives in San Antonio, Texas, with his father Hal, who is an air traffic controller and played by Dabney Coleman!  I'm used to Dabney Coleman playing some sort of antagonistic role, and I guess he kind of is in this movie, too.

See, Davey's Mom passed away before the start of the movie, and now Hal and Davey have trouble relating to one another.  Davey seeks refuge in a role-playing game called "Cloak and Dagger," a very James Bond-inspired espionage game.  His main character is a super-spy named Jack Flack, who Davey also talks to as an imaginary friend.  In Davey's imagination, Jack Flack is modeled after his own father and is also played by Dabney Coleman.

Davey mostly plays Cloak and Dagger with his friend Kim, a girl around his age, who hangs out with him because he's not "boring like all the other boys are."  He also plays with his friend Morris, who owns a game shop in the mall.  

Morris sends the kids on a "real life" mission to obtain some catalogs from Textronics for him.  So armed with his water pistol (filled with red ink), a softball (to stand in for a grenade), and a pair of walkie-talkies, Davey and Kim go to achieve their objective.

In the office building where Textronics is located, Davey is "in character," running from pillar to pillar, must to Kim's embarrassment.  They split up, and Kim takes the elevator while Davey takes the stairs.  

Davey pauses at a window in the stairwell and notices the windows of the next building are acting as mirrors, and he can see what's going on in an office on the floor above him.  He sees one man shoot another man.  Then the shooting victim stumbles into the stairwell, gives Davey a copy of the Cloak and Dagger Atari cartridge loaded with military secrets, and instructs him to deliver it to the FBI.

He runs out of the stairwell screaming Bloody Murder, and although the security guards are skeptical, they investigate--and find an EMPTY stairwell!  Meanwhile, the murderer found Davey's softball...with his name clearly printed upon it.

Over the next few days, Davey is drawn into a game of cat-and-mouse with these murderers and spies who chase him down to get the cartridge back.  He, in turn, learns of their drop-off point at the Alamo and intercepts the game cartridge before the pick-up is made.  Kim gets kidnapped, the murderers hunt down Davey along the River Walk, and spies kidnap Davey and hijack a plane!

It's a wild ride!  Nobody believes Davey (until it's far too late, of course!), and his only reliable help through most of the movie is Kim, who is also skeptical for half the film, and his imaginary companion, Jack Flack, who wants to play a much more violent game than Davey is willing to play.

I once read somewhere (may on Wikipedia, I forget) that the director claimed he wanted to make a suspenseful Hitchcock-style film but for kids.  I'd say he hit his mark!  

In case you couldn't tell, I love this movie!  I think it's great!  A lot of fun to watch!  It seemed really relatable when I first saw it back in school.  I have this on DVD, and I do re-watch it every once in a while.  I heartily recommend it to anyone who likes a good adventure!

It is available to rent on Amazon Prime Video, but you'd probably have to check bargain bins and eBay if you wanted a VHS or maybe even a DVD.  But I'm sure they must be available somewhere! 

What about you, have you seen it?  If so, tell us your opinions in the comments below!  Meanwhile, I have to decide just what lost treasure to discuss in the next post...

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

Thongor at the End of Time

Hello to all you Terrific And Spectacular people! 

Well, I've been working on some upcoming projects (not quite ready to talk about them yet!), but I did take a little time to read another book.  As you probably surmised from the title above, the book is called Thongor at the End of Time and I'd like to tell you about it!

It was written by Lin Carter, published in 1968 by Warner Books, and is apparently the 5th book in the Thongor series.  You may recall that some time ago I told you about book 3, Thongor:  Against the Gods.  Of course, you may not recall, so I've put in a link for your enjoyment!

In the following There Abound Spoilers!

So...the story starts off with Thongor's death...hey!  I told ya there were spoilers!

But then it backs up two weeks to show the arrival of this guy called Mardanax, sometimes called the Black Druid, sometimes the Black Wizard.  Apparently, he is a surviving villain from the previous book, Thongor in the City of Magicians (which I have NOT read).

This guy Mardanax has come to exact his revenge on Thongor for winning in the last book.  He just walks right into Thongor's capital  city of Patanga (Thongor has been a king since the end of the first book--which I have NOT read--I think) and seeks out a minor nobleman named Dalendus Vool, who is secretly in cahoots with the wizards of the City of Magicians.

During some sort of religious ceremony in a public Temple, Thongor is struck down.  Mardanax then uses his magic to put Thongor's wife, the Queen, Sumia, into a trance and uses her authority to take control of the city and the kingdom.  Dalendus Vool is pronounced the Prince Regent, to rule until young Prince Thar comes of age.

Several of Thongor's allies, presumably first introduced in previous books, were arrested on trumped up charges.  The rest convened in a private meeting to discuss the suspicious situations.  This meeting was inconclusive, so Charn Thovis takes it upon himself to break into the Palace and see Sumia, to find out if this is all the product of her grief, or if something more sinister is afoot.

There, he finds Sumia in a trance and proceeds to rescue the Prince.  There's a daring chase across rooftops until they finally steal an Airboat.  However, whilst running from pursuing air patrols, they are attacked by a pterodactyl-like creature called a lizard-hawk.  They end up in the gulf far below, where they are eventually rescued by a passing pirate ship.

Charn Thovis saves the pirate Captain, Barim Redbeard, from a murderous crewman and from then on, he and the young Prince are endeared to the whole of the pirate crew.  Unfortunately, upon their docking in the pirate City of Tarakus, they are subject to the local pirate's laws and must be auctioned off as slaves.  

Redbeard vows to buy them at the auction so they can be part of his crew, but the Pirate King's wizard identifies young Thar as the Prince of Patanga and the Pirate King takes the boy as his own slave.  Charn Thovis and his pirate companions rescue the Prince and race for their boat in the docks...

During all of this, Thongor manifests in the spirit realm...which is not at all as he expected.  On a set of adventures of his own, he comes to the conclusion that he is not completely dead, but neither is he alive.  He learns the Three Truths and makes his way to Gorm, the Chief God of Lemuria.  He learns the century-spanning legacy of his Empire and is basically sent back to live the rest of his life.

Thongor is not completely dead because of a talisman one of his companions gave to him in the previous book.  It is some ward against the magic of the wizards from the City of Magicians.  Since he's still wearing it, Mardanax's magic did not have its full affect upon him.

With the young Prince stolen from them, Mardanax hatches a plan for Dalendus Vool to marry Sumia and directly become the new King of Patanga.  Charn Thovis, Prince Thar are picked up by a pair of Thongor's friends in an Air Boat, and they leave their pirate friends and rush to stop the wedding.

In the very Temple where Thongor died, the wedding is underway. The Air Boat crashes into the dome, heroes emerge, fight ensues.  Dalendus Vool is killed, Sumia's trance is broken, but Mardanax gets the upper hand on the heroes with his magic.  Then, Thongor emerges from his sarcophagus and battles Mardanax.

I don't want to just straight up spoil the ending, but I will say that there is another book after this one.

I liked the book, it was full of cheesy goodness.  The beginning was a little daunting, they name-drop a LOT of names from previous books, and they're ALL weird names.  It was a little confusing to keep straight, but after a couple of chapters, it was clear who we were actually following, and we could forget the rest!

I have only read two of these Thongor books, but I will keep an eye out for the rest!  Have you read this one, or one of the others?  If so, leave a comment telling us about it!  And I'll meet you back here next time!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell