At Senseless Cinema, we're well aware that there might be no other actor who can "do it all" like Cameron Mitchell, so today we will look at his science fiction action film Captive (1980), where he plays a despicable villain as well as any actor, living or dead.
Some of your universe's top critics have shockingly unfavorable views of Captive. For example, reviewer plan99 writes, "The worst acting is done by Cameron MItchell, and he had a lot of tough competition for this award. Special effects done badly on a Sinclair Spectrum and the "music" is just a variety of beeps also from a Sinclair Spectrum. Film making can't be any worse than this effort, watch it if you get the chance as it's awful to behold." Reviewer Curtis writes, "Captive is a very poorly constructed film. The direction is beyond bland, which is sort of amazing given that it has four listed directors." And reviewer Luke Thorne writes, "Overall, Captive is a terrible science-fiction film, due to the poor performances, direction, lacklustre script, slow pace and no tense atmosphere or character determination."
Read on for the truth about Captive (1980)...
After a mysterious opening set in outer space where a spaceship explodes, the film’s credits begin. Intriguingly, the credits are shown between scenes from the movie itself, including one where a bearded gentleman holding a shotgun is bonked over the head with a radio by Cameron Mitchell.
The film itself opens inside a small, yellow spaceship piloted by two men, Caleb and Stanyo, who, for unknown reasons, wear the same black-turtlenecks-with-gray-stripes uniforms as the Sandmen in Logan’s Run (1976). (Caleb is played by Alan Ladd’s son David Ladd, who would soon become a film producer and studio executive.) They are testing a new spacecraft called 898 (though the only identification on the ship is the numeral 4), which they pilot by typing commands on a keyboard. When they are done they are instructed to land and report for their new assignment.
In a futuristic city on the planet Styrolia, they are given their new assignments by a disembodied computer voice. “Stanyo-12, you will report immediately to Flight Command QD for transport to Mega Vector. Report to Master Commander Vilhelm. You are now dismissed. Caleb-7, you are hereby assigned to fly Earth reconnaissance with Space Major Gropper. You will command the mission. No weapons are assigned. Repeat, no weapons are assigned. We’re interested in obtaining close-range photographs. Security informs us that a new Earth weaponry base has been established in the southwest quadrant of the continental United States. This mission is vitally important to Styrolia and it will be security classified.”
Meanwhile, on Earth, a young woman and two young men staff a control center that keeps track of Earth’s forces in the Styrolian War. Their brown uniforms are emblazoned with the acronym ESF: Earth Space Force. One of the men asks the woman, Jet, if she wants company after their shift but she shoots him down, metaphorically: “One date with you is enough.”
“Hey, I thought we were compatible,” the man protests.
She counters, somewhat confusingly, “I’m sure. You figure you’re com and I’m pattable. No thanks.”
The two men then try to make plans after their shift with clever dialogue that really imparts the feeling of being in the future. “Why don’t we grab a couple alco six packs, we’ll jump in my semigrav and go into the city. She’s got 18 dirathium power boosters; she really moves.” He also suggests eating at the Orbit Room and hitting “a few pleasure centers on the way back out.” His friend Rodman, however, refuses because of their responsibilities related to the Styrolian War.
Helpfully, their conversation fills in some science-fictional backstory, revealing that the Styrolians started the war over 20 years ago and the Earth higher-ups appear to be in no hurry to end it. The ESF officers are monitoring for penetrations of Earth’s atmosphere, which haven’t occurred in five years.
As if on cue, their sophisticated radar picks up two spaceships heading toward Earth.
Of course, Caleb is piloting one of the approaching ships. Surprisingly, the other passenger on the ship is none other than Cameron Mitchell. Mr. Mitchell wants to blast a space station orbiting Earth, but Caleb countermands his order; only Caleb can give the order to use weapons. Instead of firing, Mr. Mitchell relates the glory days of the war to his younger pilot, whom he calls a “tuber” (referring to Caleb’s status as a “test tube baby”). Mr. Mitchell says, somewhat disturbingly, “Once, on a special patrol…four kills with my bare hands. Ah, what a sensation! Warm human blood flowing…firing a furnace of emotion. Oh, tuber…and when you agitate them! It’s a strange planet, Earth. Feelings never experienced elsewhere in the galaxy.”
Then Mr. Mitchell reveals that flight command allowed him to make a modification to their “flight itinerary.” He opens a panel and fires lasers. (It is unclear where the lasers go, as they do not hit the space station.)
Suddenly, two earth interceptor ships approach, leading to the film’s first space dogfight sequence, which consists of several space explosions. In the end, Caleb’s ship is hit by lasers, forcing him to pilot toward the Earth to save their lives.
The film cuts to a small cabin in the middle of nowhere, where a woman named Janet is putting her teenaged sister Cindy to bed. After talking about auto-canaries, Cindy goes to bed and Janet retreats to the living room to spend time with their grandfather. She tells him she is thinking about finding someone and starting a family of her own. “Night after night, I sit here after the kids have gone to bed and I just have these feelings.”
“We feel what we feel,” Grandpa says wisely. He adds, “This modern world of ours killed my son! Your daddy, killed your mama, that’s not something I want for you kids.” He explains more of the film’s backstory. “There was a time when this world was a good place to live for everyone. But the politicians, the corporations decided that what was out there was more important than what we had down here. The result, except for a few farms like our own, which I’ve done my damnedest to maintain the way a farm should be, the world is one long endless war, grabbing up all the resources to keep up with your world! People don’t know the smell of green grass in the spring.” (Here the camera moves slowly and touchingly toward Grandpa.) “The feel of cool dirt between their toes. All they want is the newest, shiniest, and fastest, whatever it takes to satisfy them.”
He also explains that the entire modern world runs on dirathium crystals, the source of the war with the Styrolians, and that his son and daughter-in-law were killed with dirathium lasers. Then he goes to bed.
Seconds later, Jimmy, the third sibling, returns to the house after taking care of the cattle. He wants to go down to a local pond because he has purchased an atom polarizer, designed to zap frogs for collecting frog legs. Of course, Grandpa would kill Jimmy if he knew he bought technology, so Jimmy has to use his frog murderer after dark.
In a thrilling sequence, Caleb and Cameron Mitchell shoot down an Earth ship and then crash-land near the same pond where Jimmy and his dog are murdering frogs!
The two Styrolians escape the ship as it burns. Mr. Mitchell is wounded and unable to walk. He bemoans, “Stuck here on this forsaken planet Earth, without a ship! Captive!” (Helpfully, he has given the film a title, though the two are not captive and have not yet been discovered by any Earth humans.)
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Jimmy and his dog (oddly named Vicious) immediately stumble across the Styrolians. Unfortunately, the aliens shoot the dog, killing him immediately. Mr. Mitchell raises his pistol to shoot Jimmy, but Caleb interferes. “The Earthling may be useful to us.”
As the Styrolians naturally speak English (with not so much as a mention of a translation device), Mr. Mitchell tells the boy, “Should you further annoy or irritate me, there will be instant termination.” They force Jimmy to lead them to Grandpa’s cabin.
Shockingly, when they reach the cabin, Mr. Mitchell hits Grandpa with a radio, forcing him to fire his shotgun, which hits Caleb in the shoulder. With Grandpa unconscious, Janet, Cindy, and Jimmy are hostages to Mr. Mitchell and the injured Caleb. Mr. Mitchell smashes a big telephone, explaining, “No more communication.” Then he forces Janet to tie a rope around Grandpa’s neck, which Mr. Mitchell holds tightly.
Later, Janet helps Caleb to her bedroom and examines his shoulder wound. When Mr. Mitchell enters, she tells him, “Your friend needs help. What have you done with Jimmy?”
“Jimmy?” Cameron Mitchell asks with great confusion. “What is Jimmy?”
“My brother. The boy.”
“Boy? Oh, the young thing. He’s safe enough, don’t worry about him. You help me with my tuber.” He sprays Caleb with a medical spray but it has no effect because he was shot by a shotgun instead of a laser. When Janet goes to get water, Mr. Mitchell follows her and, creepily, grabs her from behind, smiling. Fortunately for all concerned, he does not push his assault any further.
Minutes later, in perhaps the film’s most shocking scene, Mr. Mitchell examines the shotgun, then points it at the family’s canary in its cage and blows the unfortunate bird through the window.
Later, Janet continues working on Caleb’s shoulder wound as he lies in bed. In a brilliant example of science-fictional screenwriting, it is revealed that Styrolians do not have the same emotions as Earthlings. Caleb says, “Your sister, tell me what you feel about her. I want to know.”
“Well, naturally I love her very much, something you wouldn’t understand.”
“These are feelings I’ve never seen before,” he concludes. Then he reveals what it means to be a tuber. “I never had a mother or father.”
“What?”
“I was artificially created in a test tube. I was raised in a nurturing center. I never had a mother or father. I have no concept of parents, or parents and children, or sisters.” He continues as emotional synthesizer music plays on the soundtrack. “We are not permitted to interrelate on any level of Styrolian society. We are raised in a computerized technology until mature, then we become soldiers living a life of obedience. I am a tuber. That is all.”
“Do you have a name?” she asks.
“Yes, I have a name,” he replies.
“What is it?” she asks.
“Caleb,” he replies.
Shockingly, Janet tells him that she, too, is a tuber. She was also a test tube baby because her parents could not have children.
“But why do they love it?” he asks her, referring to the love between a parent and a test tube baby.
“Because of love,” she explains.
“Love. What is this concept ‘love’?”
Unfortunately, Janet has no time to explain the concept, as Mr. Mitchell bursts into the front room of the cabin with a tied-up Jimmy. He strangles Jimmy but Caleb stops him so the Styrolians can plan what to do in private.
The next morning, the sun rises before Mr. Mitchell is awake, and the film shows him sleeping on the sofa with his legs splayed in a less-than-becoming position.
Janet and Caleb walk outside to tend to the farm animals on the property. Janet tells him that her parents were killed in a Styrolian attack nearby. He says, “I’ve been very confused about the meaning of parents, but in the short time I’ve been here I’ve come to learn that there exists a strong bond between members of a family unit.” He tells her, again, that on Styrolia tubers are raised by computers.
Their conversation becomes even more philosophical. “But what of this concept…’love’?” he asks.
“Since life began on this planet, people have tried to explain love, with not much success.” After talking a little about oats and chickens, she continues, “Once there’s a sense of caring between two people, love begins to grow. That’s what you saw with Cindy and myself. And that feeling exists between parent and child…whether the child is created naturally or through a test tube. That feeling is love.”
They hold hands and walk through the barnyard.
Back in the cabin, Mr. Mitchell grabs Grandpa’s beard to force him to show Mr. Mitchell what he is looking at through the window. They both see Janet kiss Caleb among the chickens. Grotesquely, Mr. Mitchell watches them kiss, then tells Grandpa leeringly, “Wait till my turn comes!”
As soon as Janet and Caleb return to the cabin, Mr. Mitchell attempts to take Janet out to the barn. He punches Caleb and rips Janet’s clothes, then shoves her outside and attempts to assault her sexually. When he has her on the ground, however, Jimmy gets out of his ropes and gets a Styrolian laser gun, but he is unable to fire it. Of course, he throws it at Mr. Mitchell, ineffectually as it turns out. Mr. Mitchell advances on the boy and begins to strangle him.
Then Grandpa appears on the porch with his shotgun. “Now it’s my turn!” he cries, blasting Mr. Mitchell in the face.
Later at night, everyone including Caleb sits in the living room, reminiscing about the day’s adventures. Cindy sees someone outside, so Jimmy has a look as well. “As far as I can see, it’s an Earth Tactical Search Unit. I bet you they found the ship.”
The family jumps into action, finding jeans and a work shirt to disguise him as an Earthling.
Immediately, the front door opens and Captain Warner of Earth’s forces, wearing a becoming outfit that looks like red pajamas, bursts inside and asks if anyone has seen a Styrolian.
Grandpa tells them they took care of the alien, though he almost busted “Cal’s” head. Caleb appears, looking exactly like a normal human Earthling.
The filmmakers show a montage of Grandpa and Caleb fishing, chopping wood, etc. as he becomes a part of the family. “Earth,” he tells Janet, “so much different than I expected. So informal, so simple.”
Tragically, however, the Earth tactical forces return, having learned there were two Styrolians on the crashed ship. The red-uniformed men tell each other that the “farmhand” Captain Warner saw must be the lost Styrolian. Also, they quickly find Caleb’s old uniform in the cabin, confirming their suspicions.
Grandpa and Janet realize their only chance is to get Caleb to a local shuttle base, conveniently located five miles away, so he can take a spaceship and escape Earth. Leaving Cindy and Jimmy, they walk across a grassy field, evading the military forces chasing them with their laser guns and a “laser fence.” They shoot Caleb in the leg but he can still walk. Then Grandpa, Janet, and Caleb stumble upon the laser fence. Grandpa attempts to find a way around it, but the military finds Janet and Caleb. Fortunately for everyone except their captor, Grandpa sneaks up on him and threatens him with a knife. Caleb tells him, “What they did for me they did out of love and gratitude. If they broke any of your laws, it was my doing, not theirs.”
Caleb uses the soldier’s laser to destroy the laser fence. Then he drops the gun and the family continues their walk through a forest.
In the end, Caleb is forced to leave on his own. He walks across a stream while Grandpa and Janet console each other tearfully.
And the film simply ends.
Of course, Cameron Mitchell is the main attraction of Captive, but the film offers so much more, even with its low-budget science-fictional constraints. Its ambition is noteworthy, as it begins in space by setting up an interplanetary war before moving the action to a cabin and farm on Earth. Visually and thematically, Captive is one of the finest and most resourceful examples of post-Star Wars low-budget space thrillers. Even with hand-me-down costumes from Logan's Run and the actors' pajama closets, the film has a lot to say about "this concept...'love'." Its crystal clear message is that love can change the course of anything, even interplanetary war. Even though we never see anything change, we know that as soon as Caleb crosses the forest stream at the end of the film that he will find a spaceship, steal it, and return to Styrolia to tell the Styrolians the wonders of Earth love, which is surprisingly inclusive of both natural people and test tube babies. The only conclusion one can draw is that Captive is a touching piece of art of the highest order...and on top of everything it shows Cameron Mitchell sleeping on a sofa. What better message could a film communicate?