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39 Years Later, the Best Sci-Fi Parody Ever Made Will Be Free to Stream Ahead of the New Sequel

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Some of the best satires will parody a film well, or maybe a few films well. This one? It did more than parody a film, or a genre; it broke into sci-fi’s house on Christmas Day and stole all the gifts under the tree. It is the silliest, loudest, most shameless rip off of some of the biggest movies and that is exactly why it’s one of the greatest comedy films ever made.

Spaceballs, Mel Brooks’ 1987 sci-fi parody, will stream for free next month on Kanopy. The film sends up Star Wars, Star Trek, Alien, and basically the entire late-20th-century sci-fi blockbuster machine through the touching and moving story of (checks notes) Lone Starr, Princess Vespa, Barf, and the evil Dark Helmet.

The cast includes Bill Pullman (Independence Day, While You Were Sleeping) as Lone Starr, John Candy (Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Uncle Buck) as Barf, Rick Moranis (Ghostbusters, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids) as Dark Helmet, Daphne Zuniga (Melrose Place, The Sure Thing) as Princess Vespa, Mel Brooks (Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein) as President Skroob and Yogurt, Joan Rivers (The Joan Rivers Show, Shrek 2) as the voice of Dot Matrix, George Wyner (A Serious Man, Fletch) as Colonel Sandurz, and Dick Van Patten (Eight Is Enough, Soylent Green) as King Roland.

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Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Personality Quiz
Which Sci-Fi Hero Are You Most Like?
Paul Atreides · Captain Kirk · Princess Leia · Ellen Ripley · Max Rockatansky

Five iconic heroes. Five completely different ways of facing an impossible universe. One of them shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of refusing to back down. Eight questions will tell you which one.

🏜️Paul Atreides

🖖Capt. Kirk

Princess Leia

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🔦Ellen Ripley

🔥Max Rockatansky

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01

How do you lead when the stakes couldn’t be higher?
The way you lead under pressure is the most honest thing about you.





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02

What is your greatest strength in a crisis?
The quality that keeps you alive when everything else fails.





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03

What is the thing you’d sacrifice everything else for?
Your deepest motivation is your truest compass.





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04

How do you relate to the people around you?
Who you are to others under pressure is who you really are.





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05

You’re facing a threat that no one else believes is real. What do you do?
How you respond when you’re the only one who sees it defines everything.





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06

What has your heroism cost you personally?
Every hero pays. The question is what — and whether they’d pay it again.





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07

How do you feel about the rules of the world you’re in?
Every hero has a relationship with the system. What’s yours?





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08

When everything is on the line, what keeps you going?
The answer is the most honest thing about you.





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Your Hero Has Been Identified
Your Sci-Fi Hero Is…

Your answers point to the iconic sci-fi hero who shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of facing the impossible.

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Arrakis · Dune

Paul Atreides

You carry a weight most people would crumble under — the knowledge of what you’re capable of, and the burden of what you might have to become.

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  • You see further ahead than others and you plan accordingly, even when the vision frightens you.
  • You are driven by loyalty to your people and a sense of destiny you didn’t ask for but can’t escape.
  • Paul Atreides is not simply a hero — he is someone who understands the cost of power and chooses to bear it anyway.
  • That gravity, that willingness to carry what others won’t, is exactly you.


USS Enterprise · Star Trek

Captain Kirk

You lead with instinct, warmth, and an absolute refusal to accept a no-win scenario — because you’ve always believed there’s a third option nobody else has thought of yet.

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  • You take the mission seriously without ever taking yourself too seriously.
  • Your crew would follow you anywhere, not because you demand it, but because you’ve earned it.
  • Kirk’s genius isn’t tactical — it’s human. He reads people, bends rules with purpose, and wills outcomes into existence through sheer conviction.
  • That combination of warmth, audacity, and relentless optimism is unmistakably yours.


The Rebellion · Star Wars

Princess Leia

You are the kind of person who holds the line when everyone else is losing faith — not because you’re fearless, but because giving up simply isn’t something you’re capable of.

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  • You lead through conviction. Your voice carries because your belief is unshakeable.
  • You gave up everything ordinary the moment you chose the cause, and you’ve never looked back.
  • Leia is not a supporting character in her own story — she is the moral centre of the entire rebellion.
  • That same fierce, principled, unbreakable core is what defines you.


The Nostromo · Alien

Ellen Ripley

You are not reckless, not grandiose, and not particularly interested in being anyone’s hero — you just refuse to stop when it matters.

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  • You see threats clearly, you document the truth even when no one listens, and when the time comes you handle it yourself.
  • Ripley’s heroism is earned, not performed. She doesn’t have a speech — she has a flamethrower and a plan.
  • You share her composure under the worst possible pressure, and her refusal to pretend the monster isn’t there.
  • When it counts, you don’t flinch. That’s everything.


The Wasteland · Mad Max

Max Rockatansky

You have been through fire that would break most people — and what came out the other side is something the world underestimates at its peril.

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  • You don’t ask for help, don’t need validation, and don’t wait for anyone to tell you the rules no longer apply.
  • Your loyalty, when it finally arrives, is absolute — but it’s earned in silence and tested in action, not in words.
  • Max is not a nihilist. He is someone who lost everything and found, against his will, that he still has something worth protecting.
  • That bruised, stubborn, ultimately human core is exactly yours.

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Was ‘Spaceballs’ a Hit?

You’d think from its cult status, Spaceballs was a monster success, but actually, its legacy has outgrown its original theatrical run. The original movie cost around $22 million to make and grossed $38 million domestically. It did make money, but it later became a much bigger cult favorite through home video and late-night cable watches. Like a lot of iconic satires, the film had a mixed critical opinion at the time. It currently holds around a 52% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, so it wasn’t treated like an instant comedy classic, but audiences have been much kinder over the years and critical reappraisal has now seen it recognized as one of the most beloved sci-fi spoofs ever made.

Which leads us to the sequel, titled Spaceballs: The New One, which is directed by Josh Greenbaum, written by Josh Gad, Dan Hernandez, and Benji Samit, and is currently set to open on April 23, 2027. Alongside Gad, new cast members include Keke Palmer as Destiny, Lewis Pullman as Starburst, and Anthony Carrigan.

Spaceballs will stream for free next month on Kanopy.


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Release Date

June 24, 1987

Runtime
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96 minutes

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  • President Skroob / Yogurt

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