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Thankfully, the long-married couple are joined by a motley crew of tenants, unsusceptible to all the bribery and intimidation tactics, in their fight against the big bad businessman. Nevertheless, they’re forced to start thinking about senior living (“Shuffleboard and pineapples filled with rum”) when their livelihood comes under threat from villainous developer Lacey (Michael Greene).Ĭinema’s cutest Frisbees. That includes Faye and her husband Frank Riley (Hume Cronyn) who, as managers of said apartment block and its nearby diner, are very much still vital members of their East Village neighborhood.

Instead, the first third of Batteries Not Included plays like a grounded drama about gentrification, community, and how society dismisses anyone past retirement age, whether they’re retired or not. In fact, they don’t even appear on screen for a good half-hour. Spielberg’s determination to keep a tight rein on the purse strings perhaps explains why the film’s frisbee-esque aliens, designed by George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic, are used so sparingly. It was his idea to base the brownstone on Alfred Hitchcock’s classic Rear Window, his job to ensure the picture came in below its modest $25 million budget, and his decision to bring regular collaborator Matthew Robbins on board as director - the pair had worked together on another Amazing Stories episode, “The Main Attraction,” and Spielberg’s proper debut The Sugarland Express. As screenwriter Mick Garris later recalled, Spielberg was heavily involved in the creative process. Indeed, the 1987 caper - initially titled Gramps and Grammy and Company - certainly wasn’t a mere vanity credit. Interestingly, Batteries Not Included was originally conceived by the director as an episode of another anthology, NBC’s Amazing Stories, before he realized its feature-length potential. Spielberg had previously toyed with the theme of aging in his contribution to The Twilight Zone: The Movie: “Kick the Can” centered on a group of retirement home residents who briefly get the chance to literally relive their youth. And secondly, the setting isn’t picturesque suburbia but a crumbling apartment block in the bustling city of Manhattan. Jessica Tandy’s Faye spends much of the film mistaking an unscrupulous property developer’s hired heavy for her late son.

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But while its cutesy critters failed to make the same cultural imprint as E.T.'s luminous-fingered alien and Gremlins’ luminous-allergic furballs, they did help steer the blockbuster king into uncharted territory.įor one thing, the protagonists aren’t a bunch of adventure-seeking kids with parental issues but an elderly couple, one of whom is in the full throes of dementia. There's a reason why the usual video game or theme park ride tie-in didn’t follow. Batteries Not Included is largely considered one of the least kid-friendly entries in executive producer Steven Spielberg’s '80s oeuvre.

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