Who really voiced alien spaceship Max in the 1980s cult classic Flight Of The Navigator? The 1980s were something of a golden era for adventure films, including the likes of The Goonies, Back To The Future and The NeverEnding Story. Flight Of The Navigator joined that list in 1986 which follows a young boy named David, who is knocked unconscious in an accident and awakens to find that eight years have somehow passed. It turns out in the missing years David had an adventure onboard an alien spacecraft and the passage of time is due to the effects of time dilation.
Flight Of The Navigator also co-stars Sarah Jessica Parker and Veronica Cartwright, and while it wasn’t a big success upon release, its since become a beloved cult film. Colin Trevorrow (Jurassic World) was once attached to a remake of the film, which has seemingly fallen into development hell in recent years. While the show doesn’t have any overt references to Flight Of The Navigator, certain elements from Stranger Things - including children going missing and being experimented on by ambitious doctors - could be traced back to certain elements of the film too.
A big part of the fun of Flight Of The Navigator is the relationship between the spaceship’s robot Max - AKA Trimaxion - and David. Max takes on more human traits due to spending time with David and they form a sweet friendship during the story. The voice of Max is credited to “Paul Mall” in the credits - who doesn’t actually exist. The real voice behind the robot belongs to Paul Reubens of Pee-wee Herman fame.
It was actually Paul Reubens’ idea to make the voice actor behind Max in Flight Of The Navigator a mystery and since this was pre-internet or IMDb, there were few avenues to find out who “Paul Mall” really was. It was a neat touch, however, and director Randal Kleiser (Grease) would later work with Reubens on 1988 sequel Big Top Pee-wee.
Of course, Flight Of The Navigator isn’t the only movie to hide actors in plain - or not so plain - sight. Other examples include Daniel Craig playing a stormtrooper in Star Wars: The Force Awakens or Cate Blanchett playing Nicolas Angel’s ex-girlfriend in Hot Fuzz with a face obscuring mask. Paul Reubens’ performance adds a lot to the overall charm of Flight Of The Navigator, who infused Max with a lot of personality from just his voice alone.
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