Directed by: Mike Hodges
Starring: Max von Sydow, Sam J. Jones, Topol, Melody Anderson
In a galaxy far, far away, the evil Emperor Ming the Merciless is bored. His right hand man, Klytus, offers him a brand new toy. The planet Earth. So Ming has fun creating earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, tidal waves... general climatic chaos really.
Flash Gordon is one of two passengers flying home on a charter airplane (the other passenger is the cute chick & female lead Dale Arden). The plane is struck by lightning and crashes into Dr Zarkov's laboratory along with fragments of moon rock. Now Dr Zarkov has this unbelievable theory that the planet is under attack and he decides to hop into a rocket he happens to have handy, go into orbit and take a look. His assistant refuses so he half-kidnaps Dale and Flash. While unconscious in their rocket, drifting through space they drift too far and end up in Mondo, Ming's universe.
When Ming meets Dale, he instantly decides she will be the next Empress. She's not too keen, perhaps because Ming's marital history makes Henry VIII look positively monogamous (M does have a habit of blasting wives off into space when he gets bored with them).
Anyway, the basic plot is that the trio from Earth have about 24 hours to save their planet (the moon is on a collision course). Dale is kidnapped, Flash is sort of executed but gets revived by Ming's daughter, escapes and plots a coup to overthrow the Emperor. Flash hijacks war rocket Ajax and flies it into the imperial palace during Ming and Dale's wedding, running him through with the pointy spear thing on the ship's nose. Prince Barin, chief cheese in charge of the kingdom of Arboria, is made king of the universe and Prince Vultan, ruler of the Hawk people, is made head of Mondo armed forces. We never find out if Flash, the future Mrs Dale Gordon and Zarkov escape.
Continuity mistake: There are a couple of instances in the movie where the models do not correspond with the actual sets. When Klytus arrives at the Hawkmen city he lands near the top of the city. Yet in that very hall there is a pit with a deep void underneath. Such a room could only exist at the bottom of the city. Also, when the Hawkmen start to land on Ajax, its engine section appears to be missing. (01:10:10 - 01:14:30)
Dr. Hans Zarkov: We are only interested in friendship. Why do you attack us?
The Emperor Ming: Why not? Pathetic earthlings. Hurling your bodies out into the void, without the slightest inkling of who or what is out here. If you had known anything about the true nature of the universe, anything at all, you would've hidden from it in terror.
Trivia: The tree person that gets locked into the cage with Flash (Fico by IMDB credit list), that "stole" the key to the cage, is Richard O'Brien, who is known for creating the Rocky Horror Show.
Question: Why did Prince Barron hate Flash so much? His burning desire to kill this complete stranger left me somewhat baffled.
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Chosen answer: Prince Barin was the fiance of Princess Aura, who took a shine to Flash. He was quite simply jealous.
Ioreth