Rim Of The World: Each ’80s Movie It References

Post-Stranger Things, nostalgia has become a heavily marketable commodity for teenage-oriented films and shows. A recent example from last year can be The Vast of Night, a thrilling throwback to vintage science fiction.  A year before that, director McG and screenwriter Zack Stentz joined forces to offer their take on sci-fi adventure films from the 1980s.

Just like The Goonies, Stand By Me, or even the aforementioned Stranger Things, the Netflix film, Rim Of The World, focuses on a rag-tag bunch of young misfits who are compelled to deal with an extraterrestrial threat as the rest of the world burns down.

It treads on familiar ground, exploring themes of friendship and survival, with its dialogues brimming with a plethora of pop-culture references. The script references diverse films, ranging from Toy Story to Grizzly Man. Some scenes are directly inspired, like one scene, in particular, imitates the ‘raptors in the kitchen’ scene from Jurassic Park. And then, of course, the film has its fair share of 80s nostalgia.

8 Predator (1987)

Predator is one of those iconic films that epitomized the hypermasculinity of 80s action to its highest extent. From the action heroes, like Carl Weathers and Arnold Schwarzenneger, engaging in a ‘bro-fist’ to quotable lines like ‘Get to the CHOPPA!’ Predator is truly a product of its times.

The landmark element of the sci-fi action classic is however the titular creature itself. Bearing its trademark helmet and pincer-like mandibles, the so-called Predator hunts down its prey with infrared vision. The creature can easily distinguish heat signatures between different living creatures in the vicinity.

Similarly, in Rim Of The World, the primary antagonist is shown to chase the lead characters by detecting their heat differentials. Whenever the viewers get a glimpse from the creature’s point of view, it always appears from a heat vision lens.

7 Star Wars Original Trilogy

Even though the first Star Wars installment released in 1977, the film and its sequels’ collective legacy went on to define a large part of the decade that followed. Star Wars references are in plenty in Rim of the World. When the friends have an emotional moment while having their supper, some of them start delving into their insecurities to which Zhen Zhen (Miya Cech) says, ‘You can’t choose your family but you can always make a new one’. Dariush (Benjamin Flores Jr) laughs on adding that they’ve got ‘a young Yoda’ with them.

Even though Dariush mentions the wise, green Jedi Master, he clearly is not well-versed in the franchise, later confusing Star Wars with Star Trek as the group finds a few lightsaber-holding mannequins in a shopping mall. The soft-spoken, socially-awkward protagonist Alex (Jack Gore) goes on to make a pun, referring to them as ‘Mannequin Skywalker’.

6 Cujo (1983)

While the film isn’t as acclaimed as Stephen King’s horror novel, Cujo still managed to gain a following of its own as a creature feature. With sharks and dinosaurs already being used as deadly beasts, Cujo makes use of the titular rabid St Bernard, who turns into a feral killing machine.

The extraterrestrial creature in the film appears with a dog attached to its slimy body. The parasitic dog-like organism is as lethal as its host and chases the protagonists.

At one point, Dariush compares the ‘dog’ to Cujo. The creature becomes the subject of many other references by Dariush, who also mentions Beethoven, the 90s family film that yet again features a St Bernard dog. When the ‘dog’ is killed, the alien rages even more, prompting Dariush to compare it with John Wick, who is the hitman brought out of retirement after his dog’s death.

5 The Thing (1982)

While the chief alien is designed and animated in a familiar way (one might think of it as being visually similar to the creatures in A Quiet Place), comparisons can be drawn with John Carpenter’s sci-fi horror The Thing. Boasting advanced practical effects for its time, the ‘thing’ in the film referred to an other-worldly life-form that can easily take on the shape of any creature it clings on.

In fact, the symbiote first plunges on a husky dog in the film’s Antarctic research facility, developing into some sort of hybrid canine. If not direct inspirations, the tentacled creature seems to be inspired by Alien and The Thing. The accompanying ‘dog’ creature is another nod to the latter.

4 Aliens (1986)

As aforementioned, many movie-goers have felt that there were some parallels to Aliens (or the franchise overall) when they look at the opening montage. At the beginning of Rim of the World, the audiences see many people on a space station, scrambling around and panicking about an unknown entity on board. After hearing a growling sound, spectators are led to believe that everyone has been killed.

This was similar to the way most of the movies in the Alien franchise pans out as there is always a set of people trying to prevent these Xenomorphs from trying to escape or reach the planet Earth.

3 E.T., The Goonies, Stand By Me, And Various

The 80s were a great decade for classics that revolved around friends embarking on high-stakes adventures, notably in the absence of any adults. E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial, The Goonies, and Stand By Me are all vastly different in their themes, but deal with the common themes of children bonding with each other in the face of disaster.

Stand By Me‘s four heroes are children who embark on a trip to find a dead body while dealing with older bullies. E.T. finds the protagonist and his siblings trying their best to help an alien reach his home, while The Goonies find themselves on a quest for pirate treasure.

In Rim Of The World, the stakes are similarly high as the young campers try to save the world from alien threats. The few adult characters that are introduced, are soon decimated in face of the ongoing violence. As the children pave their path to survival and ride minuscule-sized bicycles, one can get reminded of several friendship-themed films from the 80s.

2 Red Dawn (1984)

Red Dawn is another film that Rim of the World seems to thematically resemble, if not reference directly. As Cold War was still a prevalent theme in the American action genre, the film takes place in the heart of a Soviet and Cuban invasion in Colorado. A group of teenagers seeks shelter in the mountainous wilderness while strategizing to wage an all-out guerrilla war against the Soviets.

When the alien invasion in Rim of the World begins, the characters find fighter planes flying over a lake. Deducing that a war is in full swing, Gabriel (Alessio Scalzotto) suggests that North Korea might have attacked American soil. Some may not be aware of this, but Red Dawn had been remade in 2012 – this time with the invading forces being North Korean paratroopers, rather than the Soviets.

1 The Breakfast Club (1985)

Although this film may not make a direct reference to The Breakfast Club, there were quite a few film fanatics that felt its vibe in the beginning. Unsurprisingly, there was a reason for this as Stenz admitted that the dynamics between the group was partly inspired by the John Hughes coming-of-age drama.

“We all love The Breakfast Club and the way it traps very, very different teenagers together and forces them to work out their issues,” he admits. “I wanted to do something like that, only in the context of a road movie/quest adventure where the stakes for the characters are physical as well as emotional.”

About The Author

Shaurya Thapa
(736 Articles Published)

Shaurya Thapa is an Indian freelance journalist who mostly dabbles in writings on cinema, music, and human interest features. When it comes to Screen Rant, he writes lists on a wide array of subjects ranging from international films to mainstream Netflix series and comic book trivia. He also hosts a podcast called ‘BhindiWire’, an Indian parody of IndieWire.

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