Batteries Not Included

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  • batteries not included
Directed byMatthew Robbins
Written byMick Garris
Produced byKathleen Kennedy,
Frank Marshall,
Steven Spielberg
StarringHume Cronyn,
Jessica Tandy,
Frank McRae,
Elizabeth Peña,
Michael Carmine,
Dennis Boutsikaris
Music byJames Horner
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Running time
106 min.
LanguageEnglish
BudgetUnknown

*batteries not included is a family film directed by Matthew Robbins produced in 1987.

Story

The film is set in a (then) modern-day New York City. Frank and Faye Riley, an elderly couple who run an apartment and restaurant in a run-down neighborhood, come under threat by a nearby property development. The development manager, Mr. Lacy , sends a hoodlum named Carlos and his gang to aggressively "pay off" the couple and their boarders to move out. Things look bleak until the appearance of a pair of living machines (later titled "fix-its" by Faye) whose origins remain mysterious throughout the film. However, true to their moniker, they are incredibly skilled at repairing just about anything, including the broken lives of the dispirited people living in the apartment building.

Characters

*batteries not included is a notably character-driven movie. The story itself, though coherent, appears to be a backdrop for the development of its main characters.

Frank Riley (played by Hume Cronyn)
Frank is the owner of Riley's Cafe, as well as the apparent landlord of the attached apartment building. In contrast with his wife, he is a down-to-earth man who seems to be crumbling under the pressure of upholding both his businesses and the delusions of his wife when the story opens. As the story progresses, he becomes increasingly optimistic, and is the first to call the arrival of the fix-its a miracle.

Faye Riley (played by Jessica Tandy)
Frank's wife, Faye appears to be somewhat senile and living in her own world, in which the car accident that killed her beloved son Bobby never occurred (even going so far as to mistake Carlos for Bobby). However, she lets on in several places that she is not as helpless as her loved ones would believe, and seems to serve as a matchmaker for Mason and Marisa.

Harry Noble (played by Frank McRae)
One of the boarders in Riley's apartment. Formerly known as The Human Locomotive, Harry was a professional boxer in his heyday with a wonderful right hook. When the story opens, he is retired and appears to have suffered brain damage. The few lines of dialogue he speaks in the movie are jingles from various commercials. He appears to have a love of machinery, which comes in handy later as he uses his talent for tinkering to save the life of a stillborn fix-it.

Marisa Esteval (played by Elizabeth Peña)
A pregnant woman that patiently waits for the return of her boyfriend Hector, who is the father of the child. As the story progresses, she falls in love with artist and fellow boarder Mason (eventually choosing him over the negligent Hector), and appears to identify with both Faye and the female fix-it on a mother-to-mother basis.

Mason Baylor (played by Dennis Boutsikaris)
A model of the starving artist, Mason is left by his girlfriend at the beginning of the film, who has grown tired of his obsession with the decadent apartment. As the story progresses, he falls in love with Marisa, who appreciates his art, and apparently gets the building noticed by a restoration society at the end of the film (ironically, after the fix-its have restored it). Appears to be a problem drinker, and is prone to mood swings.

Carlos (played by Michael Carmine)
The leader of Lacey's thugs, Carlos is an ambitious young man who believes he will move on to bigger and better things if he succeeds in getting Riley and his boarders to move out. Though a thug, Carlos has serious compunctions against murder, and shows his nobler side by rescuing Faye from a burning building late in the movie. Although he is no longer working for Lacey at the end of the film, he appears to be the only one of the main characters that finds no resolution due to the arrival of the fix-its.

The Fix-Its
A race of living machinery. A pair of fix-its descend into the apartment of Frank and Faye Riley one evening, restoring the building, which was heavily damaged in the aftermath of Carlos's extortionist rampage. The two fix-its then take residence in the apartment, give birth to three baby fix-its, and later invite countless other fix-its to the apartment they have made their home for a mass restoration project after the building burns down. Though their origins remain a mystery, they are probably aliens, given producer Stephen Spielberg's love for friendly extraterrestrials.

Trivia

  • Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy, who play Mr. and Mrs. Frank Riley in the film, were in fact married in real life, and also starred together in Cocoon, among other films.
  • Originally intended to be a story featured in the TV series Amazing Stories. Steven Spielberg liked the idea so much he decided to make it a theatrical release.
  • The film is closely paralleled in the cartoon Hey Arnold!, in which a boy lives in an urban apartment with his cranky grandfather and senile grandmother, along with several other boarders. The plot of the Hey Arnold! movie also happens to revolve around a development company attempting to tear down the block on which the apartment building is located.
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