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