D.A.R.Y.L. (1985)

At what point must one consider an artificially created entity a life form? The questions director Simon Wincer raised about artificial intelligence in 1985 would seem more relevant today than ever.

Daryl (played by Barret Oliver of The NeverEnding Story) is a seemingly normal young boy found abandoned on a mountain road without any memory of his identity or family.

After a spell in a children’s institution, he goes to live with foster parents Andy and Joyce Richardson, played by Michael McKean (Lenny from Laverne and Shirley) and Mary Beth Hurt.

Andy is a hearty guy with a construction business and a Little League team. Joyce is a pretty, genteel piano teacher. They live in a white-shingled, black-shuttered two-storey house on a tree-lined street with well-tended front yards.

A chubby neighbourhood kid called Turtle (Danny Corkill) – one of two children of Howie and Elaine Fox (Steve Ryan and Colleen Camp) – becomes Daryl’s best friend. Turtle has a big sister – Sherie Lee (Amy Linker), nicknamed “Hookie” – who is ripe for teasing.

Gradually, the Richardsons and the Foxes discover that Daryl is a highly unusual child with exceptional abilities.

He is a whiz with video games, he hits home runs at will, he fixes overdrawn bank accounts with a few taps on his computer, he solves complex mathematical problems in his head, and – without a single lesson – he sight-reads Mozart.

But when word of his genius gets around, an older couple (Josef Sommer and Kathryn Walker) arrives claiming they are his parents and joylessly take him away.

It transpires that Daryl is not really human. His name is an acronym – Data Analysing Robot Youth Lifeform (D.A.R.Y.L) – and he was cooked up in a government lab for the military, a test-tube baby with a mini microcomputer packed into his skull.

The brass wanted a ruthless, superefficient warrior, but what the scientists created was a little boy whose diction is perfect, whose manners are flawless, and who is just a whiz at computer games.

Daryl had been spirited away from his laboratory birthplace by a sympathetic scientist. He escaped when they were hunted down by a helicopter – which is when he was discovered in the mountains. His recently reunited “parents” are scientists from the research facility that created him.

The movie shifts gears and before too long we’re knee-deep in car chases, shootings and the spectacular theft of a Top Secret military jet plane.

This debut American feature film of Australian director Simon Wincer was a flop at the box office. With a budget of ten million dollars, the joint production from Paramount and Columbia EMI-Warner grossed just $7.8 million.

Joyce Richardson
Mary Beth Hurt
Andy Richardson
Michael McKean
Daryl
Barret Oliver
Ellen Lamb
Kathryn Walker
Elaine Fox
Colleen Camp
Dr Jeffrey Stewart
Josef Sommer
General Graycliffe
Ron Frazier
Howie Fox
Steve Ryan
Mr Nesbitt
David Wohl
Turtle Fox
Danny Corkill
Sherie Lee Fox
Amy Linker
Mr Bergen
Ed Grady
Mrs Bergen
Tucker McGuire
Dr Mulligan
Richard Hammatt
Melanie
Jessica Johnson
Trudi
Danielle LeMoine
Mart Bennet
Patrick Branner
Andrea
Susan West
Bull McKenzie
Hardy Rawls
Arkoff
Dalton Poole
Hannibal
Sean Hower
Major Willows
Blain Fairman
Colonel
Robert Arden
Umpire
Wayne Shindoll
Catcher
Brian Stafford
Basketball Kid No.1
Charlie Gudger
Basketball Kid No.2
Stacy Woods

Director
Simon Wincer