MovieChat Forums > The Last Starfighter (1984) Discussion > The Translator chip (error)

The Translator chip (error)

posted 13 years ago by royale69
14 replies | jump to latest

Now, I will stand corrected if wrong here, but this is my take on this.

Firstly, I must say that I have always loved this movie, granted being born in 1978 it was a film that I grew up on. Having just watched it again today, at the tender age of 32, picked up on what I believe to be an error. Something I would never have picked up in my younger years.

When Alex is give the translator chip (albeit a digital watch circuit board), I am to believe that this allows him to understand all other alien languages in plain english? Fair enough...

What am I to believe when Alex returns to Earth and introduces his Family and Friends to Grig? In order for them to understand Grig, they would all have to have a translator chip under their collar to understand him??!!??

Somewhat convenient...

[–] holycow92883 13 years ago

I did notice that too but thought maybe Grig spoke "english" so everyone could understand him.

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[–] matt_shade 13 years ago

More likely it just has a wide radius since it's fixed to your clothes (inside helmet?), not your body. Or maybe the gunstar has a bigger one (if the thing can temporarily block out radar...).

[–] hoenija 10 years ago

He was speaking English, His lips were in synch with his voice while he was speaking. If a translation device was in effect, watching Grig talk would be like watching a foreign film dubbed in English, mouth and lips would be out of sync with his voice. It's kind of dumb if you think about it too much.

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[–] DeRo64 9 years ago

The others' lips were also in sync. I was looking at the woman's lips move as she said, "No, you hear English..."

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[–] BrickNash 7 years ago

Who says the translator doesn't send signals to the brain and lets the wearer perceive the mouth movements as being in the language that it is translating to?

That's my excuse for it.

[–] Your_Best_Friend_Paul 13 years ago

Yeah, I'm with holycow. I think we're to believe Grig spoke English based on his awkward intonations and stressed pronunciation of words. A little far-fetched, I know, but I suppose it's possible, considering Centauri spoke English.

[–] Stang5150 12 years ago

This is funny because I was just watching the blu-ray last night and wondered that exact same thing at the end which I have never noticed before.

My theory is that the translator chip lets the wearer hear and transmit their voice in the language of the person they are talking to. Notice Alex spoke to different alien races and had no trouble understanding them and was also able to converse with them as well (like the one starfighter pilot who told Alex not to trifel with the squid dude).

So the translator chip acts as both reciever and transmitter to the wearer and Grig must have been wearing one as well and that was how he was able to speak to the people of Earth in English.

[–] the_positive_one 12 years ago

I was just re-reading the book and it specifically states that Alex has taught Grig some English. I think this was glossed over in the movie version. Grig however would be able to understand what the people of the trailer park were saying because he still has his translator.

[–] rickert 12 years ago

Grig probably has a translator, too. Why wouldn't he?

[–] bugman160 11 years ago

It is clear that the translator chip only works one-way (translates a language spoken by others so that the wearer can understand and does not translate the what the wearer is saying for others) since he only understood Heather Locklear-see Wikipedia) once he got it. Otherwise he would have always understood them. What seemed strange to me (as an adult) is that they attached it to his clothing rather than it be a subdermal chip or something. Maybe the idea of a subdermal chip wasn't available to the writers as a plot device back then and seems strange since subdermal chips are now a reality. In anycase, it would be a real pain in the posterior to have to take the chip off of your clothes and put it on new clothes to understand people...but yet they somehow manage in the 24th century on Star Trek.

[–] sopclod 12 years ago

Also notice that the chip makes aliens' mouths move to form English words too... what a piece of tech!

[–] cljohnston108 10 years ago

Yep, I first saw this movie on the dorm closed-circuit TV in college back in '85.
When the Rylan woman says, "No, you hear English thanks to your translator device..." my roomate says to the TV, "Right, and that's why your lips are moving to English now..," and I shouted "Hey, yeah!'"

[–] MurphAndTheMagicTones 11 years ago

I don't suppose we can get away with saying it was just a way for the movie to be in English, just like why everyone on the Red October spoke English to each other or why they stopped speaking Polish and German in Mel Brooks' To Be or Not To Be?

Any chance? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

---
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[–] crockett_john 11 years ago

I think you're right about that. It's a plot convenience. I always thought the same thing about Red October (and Highlander for that matter) with the Scottish accent.

Sometimes, it's better not to explain it and leave some people to question it than to call it out and make more people question it. I remember in an episode of the old Wonder Woman TV series. In 1942, two Germans are discussing their plan to attack the US and one of them says something like, "Let's talk in English. Spies are everywhere!"