Explorers

Ben Crandall (Ethan Hawke) keeps having a dream about traveling over a circuit board. He then draws it and shows it to his brainy friend Wolfgang, who builds the board which is able to create a force field bubble. The two boys, along with help from their new tough friend Darren, decide to build a spaceship out of old amusement park ride parts that when used with their new found technology gives them the ability to travel into space.

They create a spaceship and call it the "Thunder Road", and they fly into space. Not long afterwards, they explore an alien spacecraft that they get sucked into.

"Ben: So, what'd you tell them about the basement? Wolfgang: I told them it was a rocketry experiment. I just mentioned Wernher von Braun, and everything was OK."
 * Acting for Two: Well, five. The film is basically one huge showcase for Robert Picardo's comedic talents.
 * Ascended Fanboy: All three boys count.
 * Bizarre Alien Biology: And how.
 * Child Prodigy: Wolfgang.
 * Cool Spaceship: The Thunder Road, sorta.
 * Crazy Cultural Comparison: The aliens can only talk human using televison quotes.
 * Dream Land: The technological landscape over which first Ben, then the other boys,  fly to see the device designs the aliens are sending.
 * The Eighties
 * Girl Next Door: Lori Swenson.
 * Green-Skinned Space Babe: Neek, kinda sorta.
 * Hands-Off Parenting: Wolfgang's parents.


 * Humanoid Aliens: Two arms (unless you count the tiny ones where ears should be), two legs, one head...
 * Interspecies Friendship: The goal of the aliens, basically.
 * Interspecies Romance: What Neek seems to want with Wolfgang...
 * Jerkass: The.
 * The Mothership
 * Popcultural Osmosis: Pretty much how the aliens pick up stuff about Earth.
 * Puppy Love: Ben is just a hair too old for his crush on Lori to be precocious.
 * "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Ben's reponse to.
 * Shout-Out: Many many.  The movie is littered with them, mostly as a result of the aliens' absorption of Earth culture, starting with Wolfgang's mouse Heinlein, and the Thunder Road.
 * Space Pirates: The explanation given by Wak for  ship engulfing theirs.
 * Talking in Your Dreams: The alien communications.
 * The Unintelligible:
 * Younger Than They Look: The aliens.