Cloak and Dagger (film)

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Not to be confused with the trope Cloak and Dagger or the superhero duo Cloak and Dagger, Cloak & Dagger is a 1980s-era video game tie-in movie.

Davey is a young boy with a vivid imagination. He pretends to be a James Bond-esque superspy named Jack Flack in games with other kids, and likes to imagine that Jack is standing beside him in daily life.

One day, Davey is on a fire escape while playing a spy-game with his friend Kim and happens to see a real FBI agent being threatened by a few bad guys. The FBI agent flees, and tries to make it down the fire escape where Davey is playing. But the agent gets shot and collapses before Davey. The agent hands Davey an cartridge for a game called Cloak & Dagger. With his dying breath, he tells Davey to get a million points to unlock the secrets in the game.

Davey escapes with the Cloak & Dagger cartridge. With the help of his imaginary friend Jack, Davey has to keep his precious video game from falling into enemy hands, to protect the important national secrets it contains.

As in many other 80s movies, Cloak & Dagger features a non-traditional family: Davey's father is raising him, as his mother is recently deceased. But surprisingly, it subverts many classic family-movie tropes. In fact, the movie is full of Family-Unfriendly Aesops:

• Adults Are Useless: Davey's father, the police, and several other characters refuse to believe Davey and will not help him in any way. Even the grandparent-like elderly couple who help Davey escape the Mooks turn out to be Evil Old Folks.
• Davey's Imaginary Friend, who is also a Parental Substitute, gives Davey really dumb advice: run across gunfire, run through traffic, steal things, and overcome his nonviolence so he can shoot at the bad guys. Even more oddly, it works out well for Davey every time.

Tropes used in Cloak and Dagger (film) include:

• Adults Are Useless: Davey's father and the police don’t believe Davey and won’t help him.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Davey goes from playing spy games to getting entangled with a real plot.
• Fictional Video Game: The cartridge for Cloak & Dagger.
• I'm Dying, Please Take My MacGuffin: The FBI Agent gives the game cartridge as he dies, and tells Davey to get a million points.
• Defictionalization: The arcade game. A tie in game for the Atari 5200 was planned, but never released according to VG247.
• Imaginary Friend: Davey has an imaginary friend that gives him poor advice. The advice works out.
• MacGuffin: The video game cartridge for Cloak & Dagger contains national secrets.
• Missing Mom: Davey's mother is deceased.
• Mooks: These gun down the FBI agent? Kicking off the events of the plot.
• Parental Substitute: Davey's imaginary friend serves as one for his recently deceased mother, and his father who doesn’t believe him.