
Wanting to cash in on the success of Star Wars, legendary B-movie producer Roger Corman funneled a then-lavish $2 million into a 1980 space opera called Battle Beyond the Stars. And when the film's original production designer quit, he promoted a young modelmaker named James Cameron to the role. Cameron worked around the clock on the sets and special effects, stretching Corman's budget to its limit to make the movie work.
It was the first big break of a career that took Cameron to the furthest reaches of visual effects with groundbreaking movies like The Abyss and, of course, Avatar. That’s why Battle Beyond the Stars, which just got reissued on Blu-ray in a spiffy new 4K Ultra HD “collector’s edition,” is worth a rewatch today — even if the film itself, which was already of questionable quality, hasn’t aged particularly well.
Richard Thomas (The Waltons) stars as Shad, who ventures into space to recruit mercenaries to protect his home planet of Akir from the evil despot Sador (John Saxon). Shad’s volunteers include a literal space cowboy named, uh, Cowboy (George Peppard), the voluptuous Valkyrie warrior Saint-Exmin (Sybil Danning), and the deadly assassin Gelt (Robert Vaughn), among others. Yes, this sounds a lot like Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon, but both are riffs on Akira Kurosawa’s classic Seven Samurai (1954), filtered through a Star Wars aesthetic.
How Was Battle Beyond the Stars Received Upon Release?
There aren’t many contemporary reviews for Battle Beyond the Stars available online, but the film stands at 54% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes, while the audience response is at a dismal 41%. Many viewers seeing it for the first time now — as opposed to, say, seeing it as a 12-year-old back in 1980 – are considerably tougher on it.
The box office told a different story. Released in July 1980 in more than 300 theaters – a sizable launch at the time – Battle earned $11 million, making the film a profitable investment for the always frugal Corman, and helping to secure its niche as one of the producer’s more fondly remembered titles.

Why Is Battle Beyond the Stars Important to See Now?
Battle Beyond the Stars is not a great movie by any stretch, but it’s fascinating to see where James Cameron first dabbled in the realm of visual effects. According to Gale Anne Hurd — Corman’s then production manager, and his future producer and wife — she met Cameron when she ventured down to the VFX department to see why several effects shots were delayed.
According to SlashFilm, Cameron, who Corman had hired off the strength of a short film he’d made, impressed Hurd with the level of detail that was being poured into the movie’s many spaceships. When Hurd reported back to Corman, he was intrigued enough to speak with Cameron himself.
“I talked with him for a little while, and I said, 'Jim, this is something I've never done. I'm giving you a raise, and you're going to be the new head of special effects,’ Corman told The Ringer. Cameron even ended up doing some second-unit directing. “Nobody in Corman's outfit had ever made a film remotely that size,” Cameron later told Omni. “If they gave me the credits I should have gotten on that picture, I would have gotten five or six.”
What may have looked impressive and charmingly hand-crafted in 1980 seems quaint now. But Cameron’s relentless drive to expand the boundaries of visual storytelling — leading to pioneering efforts in The Abyss, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and the jaw-dropping Avatar — began on Battle Beyond the Stars. The B-movie also advanced the careers of screenwriter John Sayles and composer James Horner, whose score previewed his magnificent work two years later on Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

What New Features Does the Battle Beyond the Stars Blu-ray Have?
Shout! Factory’s previous Blu-ray release contained a handful of bonus features, including commentary tracks from Roger Corman, John Sayles, and Gale Anne Hurd, plus an interview with Richard Thomas and a documentary on the film’s visual effects and post-production process with many of the VFX principals, although sadly not Cameron.
Those have all made the jump to the new edition, which adds the new 4K scan of the movie, a fresh commentary track from pop culture historian Russell Dyball, a documentary feature about James Horner, and an interview with sound effects designer Alan Howarth. Maybe they can chat with Cameron for the next reissue — it would be great to hear from the man himself about this formative experience in what became a revolutionary career.
The Battle Beyond the Stars 4K Ultra HD Collector’s Edition is available now.