Battle Beyond The Stars/Fun Facts

• Robert Vaughn plays essentially the same character he played in The Magnificent Seven (1960).

• The main character, Shad, hails from the planet Akir. The natives of Akir are known as the Akira. This is no doubt a tribute to legendary director Akira Kurosawa (whose film Shichinin no samurai (1954) served as the inspiration for this film).

• Gelt is modeled closely after the character Lee from The Magnificent Seven (1960) (both of whom were played by Robert Vaughn) and some of Gelt's dialogue is lifted almost verbatim from "The Magnificent Seven".

• Most of the model shots were reused Space Raiders (1983).

• Screenwriter John Sayles had originally envisioned the character of Cayman as a brooding dark humanoid, not the lizard alien seen in the final product.

• This was Roger Corman's most expensive feature up to that time, costing $2 million. Most of the budget was spent on salaries for Robert Vaughn and George Peppard, who both had high asking prices.

• The main body of the Hephastus space station was made from a plastic terrarium salvaged from a garbage dumpster

• Not only are the effects re-used in Space Raiders (1983), but the entire James Horner score is used as well.

• Not one of Sador's fighters manages to gain a kill during the movie. All of the hero's vessels, which are destroyed, are destroyed by the flagship's actions or sacrificed by the pilot.

• Future director James Cameron and future producer Gale Anne Hurd met on this film and decided they wanted to work together (the deal was that James would direct and Gale would produce). This would lead up into making The Terminator (1984), their marriage in 1985 before they did Aliens (1986), and their divorce to both marriage and creative partnership during making of The Abyss (1989).

• One of the assistant editors on this movie was promised the gig after a rough stint playing a Humanoid in "Humanoids from the Deep".