''Batteries Not Included'' (stylized as ''*batteries not included'') is a 1987 American

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

comedy-drama Comedy drama (also known by the portmanteau dramedy) is a hybrid genre of works that combine elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. In film, as well as scripted television series, serious dramatic subjects (such as death, il ...

film directed by Matthew Robbins, produced by Ronald L. Schwary, and starring real-life partners

Hume Cronyn Hume Blake Cronyn Jr. (July 18, 1911 – June 15, 2003) was a Canadian-American actor, screenwriter and playwright. He appeared in many stage productions, television and film roles throughout his career, and garnered numerous accolades, includ ...

and

Jessica Tandy Jessie Alice Tandy (7 June 1909 – 11 September 1994) was a British actress. An icon in the film industry, she appeared in over 100 stage productions and had more than 60 roles in film and TV, receiving an Academy Award, four Tony Awards, a BAF ...

as a married couple. The film tells the story about small extraterrestrial living spaceships that save an apartment block under threat from property development. The story was originally intended to be featured in the television series ''

Amazing Stories ''Amazing Stories'' is an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction. Science fiction stories had made regular appearance ...

'', but executive producer

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg ( ; born December 18, 1946) is an American filmmaker. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, Spielberg is widely regarded as one of the greatest film directors of all time and is ...

liked the idea so much that he decided to adapt it into a film. It was the feature film screenwriting debut of

Brad Bird Philip Bradley Bird (born September 24, 1957) is an American filmmaker, animator, and voice actor. He has had a career spanning over four decades in both animation and Live action, live-action. Bird was born in Montana and grew up in Oregon. He ...

. The film was theatrically released on December 18, 1987 by

Universal Pictures Universal City Studios LLC, doing business as Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or simply Universal), is an American filmmaking, film production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered at the 10 Universal Ci ...

, and despite receiving mixed reviews from critics, it was a box office success, earning a total of $65.1 million against a budget of $25 million.

Plot

Frank and Faye Riley, an elderly couple managing an apartment building and café in the East Village, come under threat by a nearby property development. The development manager, Lacey, sends hoodlum Carlos and other thugs to bribe the couple and their tenants to move out. When the tenants

resist A resist, used in many areas of manufacturing and art, is something that is added to parts of an object to create a pattern by protecting these parts from being affected by a subsequent stage in the process. Often the resist is then removed. For ...

, Carlos and company punch through unsuccessful artist Mason Baylor's door, intimidate pregnant single mother Marisa Esteval, and break retired boxer Harry Noble's jar of tiles. After Frank Riley refuses to move, Carlos vandalizes the café. Mason's girlfriend, Pamela is tired of living in that old building with him. She dumps Mason, packs up, advises him to get a steady job and leaves. The Rileys' friends, Muriel and Sid Hogensin, take Lacey's bribe and decide to move to a retirement home in

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

. Two small living spaceships appear in the Rileys' apartment that evening and start repairing many items that were broken. They also repair the café, putting Frank and Faye back in business. The two aliens take up residence in the shed at the top of the apartment building and are dubbed "The Fix-Its" by the residents. Carlos returns to threaten the tenants again, but the Fix-Its lure him to the top of the building and into the shed where they scare him away. The "female" Fix-It eventually gives birth to three baby Fix-Its, although one of them is stillborn. The next day, Harry succeeds in repairing it. There is a boost of business in the café from the demolition crew, while the Fix-Its help in the kitchen. Meanwhile, Marisa's baby is due in two to three months. Marisa's boyfriend, Hector, who is a musician and the baby's father, eventually tells her that he and his band have found a steady gig in Chicago with good pay. Marina, in response, tells Hector to go without her, as their relationship is not working out. With Carlos unable to prove the existence of the Fix-Its that had been foiling their plans, Lacey is furious with the delays in evicting the tenants and moves to replace him. Growing more unstable, Carlos breaks into the building's basement to sabotage the pipework and electricity, badly damaging the "father" machine in the process. After Harry throws him out, the tenants discover that the Fix-It children are missing and search for them in the city while Faye stays behind with the "mother" machine as it fixes the "father". When the "father" machine is repaired, the Fix-It parents leave to seek out their offspring. After finding them with Harry, the machine family departs from the planet. Tired of the delays, Lacey sends DeWitt, an arsonist, to burn down the building in a staged "accidental fire" using a makeshift bomb. Carlos discovers the plan and in a rage attempts to sabotage the arson to make the entire building explode, only to then discover that Faye is still in the building. While DeWitt flees, Carlos unsuccessfully attempts to pose as her late son Bobby to get her to leave, but ends up rescuing her as the fire spreads. The tenants then return to find the blazing apartment block collapsing, and Faye being loaded into an ambulance. By the next morning, the apartment block has been reduced to smoldering rubble. The construction crew, out of respect for Harry, refuse to continue with demolition and clean-up as he is sitting dejected on the steps. The mechanical family later recruit other Fix-Its for repairs. By the next morning, the entire building has been fully restored to brand new, permanently ending Lacey's demolition plans and resulting in him terminating Kovacs. Mason and Marisa settle into a relationship while Carlos tries to start a friendship with the Rileys. Years later, the developments have been built, but this time flanking either side of the apartment building. Frank's café is now doing a roaring trade as a result of the new employment brought into the area.

Cast

In addition, James LeGros and José Santana received opening credit billing as two of Carlos' goons.

Production

Principal photography started in New York in August 1986, but

location scouting Location scouting is a vital process in the pre-production stage of filmmaking and commercial photography. Once scriptwriters, producers or directors have decided what general kind of scenery they require for the various parts of their work ...

began almost a year before. "Since the story called for a solitary building amidst rubble," explained producer Ronald Schwary, "we had to find a vacant lot with burned-out buildings all around it. We finally settled on an actual building on 8th Street between Avenues C and D on New York's

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Historically, it w ...

(the building no longer stands, and was probably located on the site of the current Housing Bureau substation, or the building to the east. ). Production designer Ted Haworth designed a three-sided, four-story tenement facade and oversaw its construction on a location that covered most of a city block. In the name of authenticity, he brought 50 to 60 truckloads of rubble to cover the once vacant lot. It was so remarkably realistic that the Sanitation Department came by and took away prop garbage one morning, potential customers stopped by to eat in the diner, and the business agent for the Plumber's Local of New York visited, demanding to know why there wasn't a permit down at City Hall for the construction."

Reception

The movie gained a mostly mixed reception but debuted at #4 at the box office. It has a rating of 67% on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

based on 18 reviews.

Gene Siskel Eugene Kal Siskel (January 26, 1946 – February 20, 1999) was an American film critic and journalist for the ''Chicago Tribune'' who co-hosted a movie review television series alongside colleague Roger Ebert. Siskel started writing for the '' ...

described it as "a comic book with the best pages torn out" and accused the film of having "forced warmth."

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

defended the film, saying it "had a lot of good feeling in it, it had a few nice laughs, it had a few interesting special effects, and...it's better than most of the stuff out there."

References

External links