Never Surrender: A Galaxy Quest Documentary (2019) - full transcript

David Mamet said that?

That's amazing.

- "Galaxy Quest" is the

story of a group of actors

who were on a sci-fi

television series real similar

to the original "Star Trek."

- By Grabthar's Hammer

we live to tell the tale.

- And they get kidnapped,

brought into space

by a group of aliens who

have studied their TV show

as if it was an actual

recording of real life events.

- Since we first

received transmission

of your historical

documents, we have studied

every facet of your

missions and strategies.

- You've been watching the show?

- Lieutenant,

historical documents.

- We really wanna believe

that this stuff is real.

We don't wanna believe

that these are sets

and Styrofoam and people

pretending, and "Galaxy Quest"

basically takes that fantasy

and makes it writ large,

and this is the true

genius of "Galaxy Quest"

is the fans have made it real.

- It's such a charming

idea because of "Star Trek"

and because it's so beloved,

was such a wonderful

love letter to all those

actors and all those fans.

- It is a touchstone

for filmmakers

of a certain generation.

- For me, what I remember

most about it and

what I love most about

it is it didn't make fun

of the fans, it really

allowed you to have a sort

of point of view in the story.

This helped kind of usher in

a generation of storytelling

that both could keep the stakes,

but also not take

itself so so seriously.

- Somebody does something

first, and a small number

of people go wow, that's

amazing, and the larger culture

ignores it; "Galaxy Quest"

was way ahead of its time.

- I don't know when

it switched over to,

it wasn't always this

cult sort of favorite,

and then it became

that, and now it's huge.

- That's because of the fans.

- "Galaxy Quest" is actually

a big part of my childhood.

- Every aspect of it

is just wonderful:

the storytelling,

the writing, the actors.

- I thought it was funny.

They portrayed

cosplaying a little bit.

- When I watched it

when I was a little kid,

I liked it so much,

I thought, I was hoping

they were gonna do a miniseries.

- I was talking with a

coworker about it today,

we were quoting

lines back and forth.

- Someone goes, what?

We go, oh, we had to stop

what we're doing right now

and go watch it.

- I watch this movie

several times a year.

- Who hasn't seen

"Galaxy Quest?"

- And you can laugh and

say, oh, that's me!

- That whole meta take on

it, analyzing "Star Trek"

from the outside a little bit...

- They weren't making fun of

anybody, they were just, hey,

don't take yourself

so seriously.

- We all embrace it

together, it's just

something we all love

and experience together.

- The really irony struck

me when Tim forced me

to go to a screening,

and after the movie was over

and I walked out and I sit

down to have a Q and A,

and they turn the lights

up and the first three rows

are people dressed in

"Galaxy Quest" costumes,

who either understood

or didn't understand

the irony of that.

- I would make fun of people

that would dress up and go

to the openings of new movies.

It wasn't cool, but yeah,

it's never cool, it was never.

But then it became

okay to do it.

- Only if it was the

"Galaxy Quest" coming out.

- Yeah.

- It's one of those movies

that you can watch again

and again and again.

- I was thinking,

why do I like this so much?

It's because the moment

in a movie where he says,

"stop, it's real," and

the kid goes, "I knew it!"

That was me, that was

me, it's like, I knew it!

- It's all real.

I knew it, I knew it!

- "Galaxy Quest" happened

at this very unique period

of time, because it was

at this point where fans

were still a little

bit in the shadows.

- You know, when I think of

how people sort of behaved

about fan culture

in the late '90s,

I think of the Shatner

"Star Trek" skit on SNL.

- Get a life!

- Or he just says,

you're a loser, you're a

bunch of losers, and go home.

- For crying out loud,

it's just a TV show.

- When "Star Trek" became

really a hit, which was

in Syndication in

the early '70s,

that's when the fans started

calling themselves Trekkies,

that's when you had the

conventions, that's when you had

people turn out in record

numbers to these events.

- That fandom started to

coalesce over the course

of the next decade and

basically gave birth

to "Star Trek: The Motion

Picture," and then of course,

"Next Generation" and the

all the series that followed.

I don't think that there

has been a stretch of like,

two or three years where

there has been no Trek

being produced, and that's

only because of the fans.

- People loved it so much

that even when it was gone,

they needed to

still experience it.

- Spoiler alert, I was on

"Star Trek," and I meet people

every week who are

inspired by us.

- You know what,

we do these conventions,

occasionally have young people

come to my table and say,

I could only relate to your

character, it's overwhelming.

- Ladies and gentlemen,

I'm not here to ask a question,

I'm here to state a fact how

all of these wonderful people

on stage right now

changed our lives.

Aw.

- A lot of "Galaxy Quest" is

the truth about "Star Trek"

but it was said in a way that

was whimsical, beautifully

done, well-portrayed and

non-offensive to anyone.

- "Galaxy Quest"

is without a doubt

the best "Star Trek"

movie, because it's about

what makes "Star Trek" special.

It's about the fans.

- What I mainly felt watching

the film, and I felt it

all the way through, was,

why didn't we do this?

Why didn't we do this,

it would have been us,

and we would have gone

through that same journey.

We would have had

such a big hit.

- And the reason that "Galaxy

Quest" earns its space

inside the Trek canon

is it really does feel

like a Trek movie,

because it has all the hallmarks

of what makes a Trek movie work,

which is never give up,

never surrender, like,

you can overcome

sort of any problem.

- We kept saying as we were

making this, dude, it can't just

be a comedy, it has to be

a good "Star Trek" movie.

One,

two, three, action!

- In the late '90s, Steven

Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg

and David Geffen all

come together, and they

form Dreamworks, and they've

got something to prove, right?

These are three dudes

who are at the top

of their individual industries;

ever other studio head

wishes them well and tells

them how much they want them

to succeed and then

roots for them to fail

because that's the way

the industry works.

Dreamworks needs hits.

Dreamworks and we, meaning

our little production company,

optioned a script by David

Howard that had this concept,

this idea of actors being

mistaken by extra-terrestrials

as not being actors but

being, you know, the heroes

that they appeared

to be in the show.

We really took to the idea

and that it would be the basis

of a terrific comedy.

- It was sort of like

that moment where you stop

at the door and turn 'cause

someone says something,

and what if aliens that that

William Shatner was real?

I think that was the full thing.

- Which was the premise,

there was no other thing

in the script that

we held on to,

and we met with

many, many writers.

They all came in with this idea

that he hated being the captain,

he was trapped in this

role, and Bob Gordon came

into my office and he said he

loved being the captain, if

he could be the captain again,

it would be the greatest day

of his life, and that simple

adjustment changed everything.

- I said, well,

should I read the script?

And they said, no, they didn't

want me influenced by it.

I sort of assumed

some things about it,

that there would be kind

of a ship that they had

to operate in a certain

way, that each crew member

would have their own thing

that they had to now

deal with in real life,

and the moment that I really

felt like that I could write it

seems really super obvious now.

It's when they have to

admit that they are really

just actors and they're not

really heroes, and it all goes

to hell, and when that clicked

in, I said okay, I got it.

I know, I sorta know,

I know enough about it.

- And then it was Bob who

said, and he has to go

into outer space, right?

And we were like, what?

What are you talking about?

'Cause we had it sort of like

a, kind of a,

you know, like a comedy of

that era, like an Amblin comedy

of that era where the

aliens come to earth...

- And I think that Bob

Gordon did make it bigger

than we thought it

was going to be or

than we thought we could afford.

- It was Bob's brain that

blew it out like that.

- I think there were people

who sort of were scratching

their heads a little bit,

like Mark Johnson was sort

of like,

this is a lot of explosions.

- I would say in 1999, 2000,

things were still kind of

in their box; if it

was a sci-fi movie,

it was a sci-fi movie, if it

was a drama, it was a drama.

- In 1999, the vast majority

of sci-fi movies were action

movies, all of these

dark, gritty,

nihilistic sci-fi movies.

- You could call it

the end of the world.

- I think that more than

anything else, "Galaxy Quest"

is sort of like an

exercise in tone.

- It is a broad comedy,

of course, but it also has

a real heart and real sincerity.

- I would maintain that the

studio never quite understood

the tone of the movie,

that they were expecting more

an out-and-out comedy

a la "Spaceballs."

I

can't breathe in this thing!

- I'd never done a

movie like this before,

I'd never done a

science fiction film,

but they read it, and even

though it still needed work,

said okay,

we're making this movie,

so we started looking for

a director right away,

and that's when we

came up with Harold.

Harold Ramis is a big,

he's just an imposing, big guy.

And the one thing I will say

is, having worked

with a lot of directors,

they're all different shapes

and sizes, but the one thing

they all have in common is

they start talking and you go,

yeah, yeah, I'm behind you.

They're these

natural born leaders.

- Harold had a very,

I mean particularly wry sense

of humor, and I think that the

notion is that was certainly

gonna carry into the film.

- Do you have any hobbies?

- I collect spores,

molds, and fungus.

- He's one of the very

few directors in 1999

that can get people

into a theater.

- We were like,

wow, comedy genius,

it's gonna be a

great, funny film.

The relationship

that Dreamworks had

with the Stan Winston

Studio at the time

was very, very fruitful.

- It tells you a great

deal about how much

the studio cared about

"Galaxy Quest" that they have

Stan Winston do the practical

makeup effects and they have

Industrial Light and Magic

do the visual effects.

- I can't remember how

many "Star Trek" movies,

I worked on I think five total.

When we are brought

onto a project,

there are very very

high expectations.

Dreamworks felt this was

an important enough film

to get an industry

leader involved in it.

They believed in the project.

Immediately they knew that

there were certain things

they were gonna have to do,

like design the Protector.

And one of the interesting

things about that,

it's the only time in

my career doing design

where we had to have

the Dreamworks lawyers

involved with what

we were doing,

because they were

so deathly afraid

they were gonna get

sued by Paramount,

but one of our

production assistants

at ILM came up with idea,

because we were having

all this back and forth

with the lawyers, the number

should start off with NTE,

which stands for Not the

Enterprise, so we can stand up

in a court of law and say,

it is not the Enterprise,

it says so right here.

- The special effects in

"Galaxy Quest," they hold up.

When the Protector crashes,

it's like, those effects

are still really good.

- I think that all of the

visual effects people and all of

the makeup effects people got

a real kick out of the movie.

- The visual effects were

the straight man, in a way.

- You really want to state

to everybody at every phase,

how can we make this as

believable as possible?

I know we're dealing

with something

that seems inconceivable

but how can we make the

audience feel like it's real?

And that comes in the form of

the kind of production team

you put together

to make the thing.

- People saying, well this

is a comedy, it's supposed

to be campy, it's supposed

to be sloppy, it's like, no.

This has to be,

these effects need to look real.

- It's always a process and

it's always an exploration,

you know, you just do as many

ideas as you can possibly do

and kinda see what

they gravitate to.

- We started to come up

with design elements for it,

Linda Descenna was hired

on as production designer.

- I was a set decorator on

"Star Trek: the Motion Picture"

and "Blade Runner" and

"Back to the Future II"

and they called me up one

day and said, we're doing

this move "Galaxy Quest" and

Harold Ramis is the director

and we want him to meet

you, he's in Chicago,

can you fly to Chicago

tomorrow and meet Harold?

So we flew to Chicago,

Charles and Mark and I,

we met Harold.

- Harold's sort of collaborating

on that with the tone of,

the look of the spaceship

was going to be.

- It was to be a kind of

Star-Trekky-looking film,

so that we were basing

the design of the sets

on that 1963, '67,

really kind of cheesy, cheap,

funny TV sets,

and I thought it was

gonna be a breeze.

- The main thing they

were going through

at that time was casting.

- Before we did anything,

it was about finding Jason.

There has to be a leading man,

he has to be the protagonist

of that TV show,

but obviously they

need to understand

the comedy,

they have to have a funny bone.

- Harold had certain

aspirations for who he wanted

to cast in the film, and the

studio had other thoughts.

They sort of agreed on one

particular actor, if they

could get him, Harold would

be very, very happy with him.

- Who did he want?

- Well, Kevin also would

have been wonderful.

- Kevin Kline?

No, uh, eh...

- Nope.

- Possibly.

- It's really interesting,

'cause the casting choices

tell you where the

executives are at.

We want Kevin Kline in this

movie, so you want somebody

who's a slapstick comedic

actor who's really good

at embracing, like,

over-the-top physical comedy.

I love you,

Harold Ramis, but you

are all kinds of

wrong about that.

- We started building sets

and we were fairly far

down the line, and the actor

declined, exactly right,

he De-Kevin Kline'd, so.

- The people I remember

that we really talked about

were Bruce Willis...

- Bruce Willis, definitely

not, definitely not.

- Eh, no, Bruce

Willis, bad choice.

That's a bad choice!

Tim Robbins.

- I could see Tim Robbins.

- He's too goofy, too

boyish, maybe too boyish

in the face, I don't know.

Mel Gibson

was in there too.

- Take away Mel Gibson's

side-of-the-road DUI Mel Gibson,

let's just go back to 1999,

a safer, simpler Mel Gibson.

- And a lot of people that

you would be surprised

really pursued it

and wanted to do it.

- Alec Baldwin was

desperate to do it.

- He's got the look,

he's got the energy,

he's definitely got

the comedic chops,

or he now has the comedic chops,

good choice.

Actually a really good choice.

- You know what,

I've been watching this movie

for 20 years.

I can't imagine anyone

else in those roles.

- We offered it to a number

of actors, it was offered

to Steve Martin.

- Also Bill Murray,

Robin Williams...

- And for one reason or another,

they didn't want to do it.

And the one actor who wanted

to do it made it clear

that he wanted to

do it was Tim Allen.

- Yes, I've framed it.

Now I'll probably have to give

it back, 'cause I stole it.

I was a sci-fi junkie when

I was a boy and I read

pretty much everything that

came out when I was a kid.

There's freaks like me that

collect every piece of that,

I have one of the five

Gorts here at my office,

along with Robbie the Robot

from "Forbidden Planet."

It's very hard to do

high-concept stuff

that's meaningful.

- Tim Allen's name came up

very first from the studio,

and Tim was a big star,

had a number one TV show,

he'd been in Toy Story,

he'd had a book on the New

York Times Bestseller List,

I mean, he was a huge, big star.

- I think it was

Jeffrey Katzenberg

who felt very strongly

about Tim Allen, he loved Tim,

he thought he'd be

great in the role.

- I don't know how to

soften the story, it went,

Jeffrey Katzenberg

approached me, he said,

we have this idea,

and we sat down at lunch,

and it was kinda funny,

'cause I'm digging into

eggs and bacon,

and Ramis was not

eating, and I looked up,

and so am I missing

something here?

And he goes, well we're

just circling an idea

and I'm not sure that

this is right for you.

And Katzenberg looked at

Ramis and they kinda exchanged

a look, and I said,

so I don't have the part.

And then the forks go

down, and they're wiping,

and wasted some bacon

there, he goes no,

'cause we're looking at

rather than a comedian

to play an action hero,

we're looking at an action hero

that can play, to be funny.

They're going, and I said, wow.

And those two needed

a minute, and I said,

well yeah, definitely,

this is a little uncomfortable.

I'm not sure that that's

exactly what he was saying,

'cause he had other

comedians in mind.

Harold said this to me.

Harold had made "Club

Paradise" with Robin Williams.

There is no disputing that

Robin Williams is hilarious

and a big movie star and

a big comic movie star.

Harold thought that the

failure was Harold's,

that he didn't hear Robin's

comic voice clearly enough.

He was concerned that with

Tim, who he met with a couple

of times, that the same

thing was gonna happen.

- Next thing you

know, Harold Ramis

wasn't working on it anymore.

- It was definitely a first

for me to lose a director.

I'd never been in

that situation before,

and I just adored Harold,

but completely respected

and understood why he

departed the project.

- He understood the

Tim Allen casting idea,

it wasn't like he was

offended by it or anything,

he just was like,

there's a voice that's good

for the movie, maybe,

that's different

than the voice that's

good for me, and I get it.

Anybody who knows

Harold Ramis knows

he didn't hate anybody, ever.

He had a very clear

sense of his own art.

That was a sad day to lose

Harold Ramis on a movie,

because it's a big thing to

get, yeah.

- I mean,

I think it would've changed

the whole tone of the

film, really.

- 'Cause you know, "Groundhog

Day" has like a certain vibe

to it, it's very comedic, but

in a dry comedic kind of way.

- Harold Ramis has done

great work, but I feel like

no one else, any change to

this would have been worse.

- He left, and we were like,

well now what're we gonna do?

We kinda felt like, mm,

it's not gonna pan out.

- And you never know what's,

there are so many pieces

of the puzzle that switch and

change, and you get excited

about one, you know,

manifestation of it, and then

something changes, and it

starts to kinda let the wind

out of the sail a little

bit as you move forward.

- When I knew that Harold Ramis

was leaving "Galaxy Quest,"

that it was going to signal,

you know, probably put

a big question mark in

the minds of the studio.

- You never want to lose

momentum on a project

and have it go away for

some reason, so I think

the challenge really was

to keep the momentum going

in a way that the studio

felt comfortable, but at the

same time, that we would be

ready to start production.

- Mark was a little

stealthy, I have to admit.

- So I wanted to make sure

that we were well on the way

and that we were casting and

we were building sets and

that this movie was gonna

happen, come hell or high water.

- We did meet with maybe

eight directors, maybe ten,

I mean but like, really quickly.

- Dean read it and said to

me, why don't you offer things

like this to me?

- Never.

I haven't watched

it in a long time.

And it's not playing.

- I'm basically a

first time director,

I've done one movie, and it

did fine, it was all right,

but I wasn't in the

category of this movie,

et, as a director.

I would assume I became

possible because it was falling

apart and someone

needed to come on.

- Mark vouched for

Dean, and I think

that really made a difference.

- Mark has been

incredibly loyal, I mean,

Mark discovered Vince Gilligan

and stuck by Vince's work

for 30 years to get

"Breaking Bad" made.

He's just one of those guys,

who like, I like this guy's

work, I like what this guy does,

and you're in the

Mark Johnson camp.

- Now I know Dean well

enough that when it came time

for him to do it, when Harold

left the movie and we gave it

to Dean, he then had

some second guessing.

Well, let me reread it, and

let me make sure it makes sense

for me, and there were a couple

of us, me at the forefront,

basically said, no, you son

of a bitch, you're doing it.

- So then I got

this call from Mark.

If you say yes right now,

I can get you on this movie.

- Hi Bella, hi Lucas, hi Mommy.

Look,

this is what Daddy's doing.

We're way out in the

desert and there's lots

of sand and lots of

people and we're working

to make a movie.

Say hi Alan, my kids.

- Hi, kids.

This is what your wretched

father has made me put

on my head.

- Ow!

I think he

understood the movie,

he understood how to play it.

- I grew up with two brothers,

we all watched "Star Trek"

when we were kids,

I can watch "Star Trek" and

be absolutely invested in

it and still look at it

as a ridiculous thing.

- Commanding a star ship is

your first, best destiny.

Anything else is a

waste of material.

- I would not presume

to debate you.

That show, as a kid,

it opened up so

much possibility.

- You can tell

that the filmmakers

love science fiction television.

- It's very tricky

to work on something

that you have incredible

reverence for.

You have to start from a

place of I love this thing,

and the last thing I ever

wanna do is screw it up,

and to some degree,

particularly as it relates

to my work on "Star

Trek" or J.J.'s work

on "Star Trek" and "Star

Wars," they are giving us

hundreds of millions of

dollars to produce our fan fic.

Because when you

talk about the fans,

I just hear you talking to me.

We're one of you.

- And I think you have

to love the kind of story

and the world you're

in, it's a thin line

between a really successful

fantasy action show and a farce.

"Galaxy Quest" really was one

of the first films and stories

that celebrated the

relationship that fans have

with these kind of films

or these kind of stories.

- The first time I saw

it, I went, uh-oh.

Here we go, okay, I'm used

to this, being made fun of,

it happened when I was in

high school, but then I went,

wait a minute,

that's not what this movie is.

- By Grabthar's Hammer,

by the sons of Warvan,

I shall avenge you.

- By Grabthar's Hammer...

- Next.

- The original movie

they had was kinda goofy.

It was real goofy, and everybody

would have been goofier.

That's how I looked at it.

Dean Parisot came on and

literally turned it on its ear.

- No question about it,

it would have been a

very different film

if Harold directed it,

I don't know what the

film would have been,

it would have been, I'm

sure, very entertaining,

but that movie has a

DNA of Dean Parisot.

No question.

Once thing to know is

that Robert then did make

other writing adjustments

as the film progressed.

- A lot of the stuff that I

wrote for Harold was making

it bigger, we sort of brought

it back down after that.

- I remember coming

in on "Galaxy Quest."

Once the director was

changed and things

were sort of a little chaotic,

having there be some

days that were really

hard and very strange

and very strained.

- Dean was afraid of

it being too spoof-y,

so he was always

double-checking us.

- We did not want the movie,

the set to look cheesy.

We had somebody,

and I won't mention her name,

who kept on using that word,

and we all resented it.

- We were in the middle of

building them, having them look

like cheesy 1963, based on

"Star Trek" the TV series.

- That's not what it

was supposed to be.

- It kind of changed to look

more like "Buck Rogers."

We had to accommodate that,

trying to stay within our budget

with everything

having been designed

for a whole other look.

- It does a wonderful job

of creating what you expect

from a late 70's TV show,

but it all looks real.

- I looked at it like, oh,

I've got this great movie

that's smart and absurd

and has about 12 levels

of irony to it and fandom and

the whole the whole thing.

- Dean always understood it,

he understood it from the get.

- Dean directed "Galaxy

Quest" as a drama.

- To tell any story well,

you have to really believe

in the characters,

and you have to talk about them

and write them and

shoot them and cast them

in a way that makes everything

feel as real as possible,

and it's the thing that

allows us to connect.

- Tim is not the obvious

comedy choice, but Tim had

in his life, the experiences

that this character had.

Tim had just had a major

television show stop, and now he

was sort of out

there in the universe

with just a "Santa Claus"

movie, and that was it.

I think Tim

understood that world

of protecting

yourself from the fact

that you might be a

one-trick pony, right?

That that might have been

the only thing you ever did.

I really related to this guy,

this kind of a lonely guy,

'cause when he gets home,

he lives alone in this creepy

house up in the hills and

he's drunk most of the time.

- I think that he was the

perfect cast, because he plays

Buzz Lightyear,

and Buzz Lightyear is nothing

but full of himself.

- I can see how

they would be like,

the guy from "Home

Improvement" is, what?

But he did great.

- Oh yeah, he's phenomenal.

- He's perfect.

- He takes the very

best of William Shatner

as Captain Kirk and

then he combines it,

and I don't know if he

even did this on purpose,

with the very best of Patrick

Stewart as a human being.

Patrick was very much

the leader of our set.

And he would put his neck

out for people, and he was

our captain on-screen and off.

- Like if you squint a

little bit, he kinda looks

like William Shatner, it's

like, that is the perfect catch.

- Phew,

your commander is on deck.

I have a T-shirt,

had a big number one

on it, but I get to act

like that when I come in,

your commander is on deck!

It was just so much fun

to rib these people,

because no matter what they

did, I am number one

on the call sheet and

number one in this movie,

but it's not,

I never believed that.

- Tim was already on

board and nobody else was.

The hardest thing on this

movie was casting it.

Debbie Zane is fantastic

at bringing in people.

- Just people you wouldn't

necessarily expect

to see in those roles; it's

the cast from Mount Olympus,

it just couldn't be better.

- I think that one of the

things I would go to immediately

that I love about the film is

getting great, great actors

to do something like that.

And one of the things that

really began, I think,

to celebrate comic book films

was when amazing talent

decided that it was

okay to do those things,

that it wasn't gonna

be career-ending.

- Sigourney went

crazy with her part.

- My agent told me

about it and he said,

but I can't submit you, because

they don't want anyone who's

ever done any science fiction

to be part of this movie.

I don't understand that, I

mean, it's we who have lived

in science fiction who really

understand what we're doing.

- When I went to go see

"Galaxy Quest," I was certainly

aware of the fact that

Sigourney Weaver was

in the movie "Alien" but that

she also had comedic chops.

The fact that she's so

different from Ripley,

I think that if the

character that she played

on "Galaxy Quest" was

Ripley-esque, it probably

wouldn't have worked.

- And once I'd read it,

I thought, well I'm certainly

as close if not closer

to Gwen and Tawny

as I am to Ellen Ripley.

- I literally can't

imagine anybody else

in the part other than her.

- Look, I have one job on

- it's stupid,

but I'm gonna do it, okay?

- You cannot be an

actress in Hollywood

without having those Gwen and

Tawny thoughts, you know,

you can't be in that

atmosphere where it is so much

about what you look like

without getting some

of those insecurities.

I guess in the

end they relented,

'cause I forced my way in.

- My "TV Guide" interview

was six paragraphs

about my boobs and how

they fit into my suit.

No one even bothered to ask

me what I do on the show.

- It's real important for

everyone watching this

to understand that this

is before "Harry Potter."

Alan Rickman is known as an

incredibly serious actor.

- For there is nothing

lost that may be found.

- Alan Rickman is

who Bob wanted.

It would be Laurence Olivier,

you know what I mean,

like that's what you want.

- He's not a hard sell because

everyone respects his work,

he's a hard sell because

initially they see it as broad.

I'm now seen as

impedimented because I'm not

putting comedians in it.

- I played Richard the Third.

- Alan is unbelievable funny.

It's a different way

of looking at it.

It's people that

are funny because

they've committed completely,

and that's a hard thing,

it's a difficult thing, 'cause

not everybody's in that zone.

- Loved the script, and we sat

down with Dean and we chatted.

- Tony, to me,

is a silent comedian.

- He's physically

incredibly funny.

Everything he does feels

like Chaplin to me.

It seemed that Tony was

just made for this part,

because this part was

underwritten, I'm sorry Bob,

it was kind of underwritten,

so there was a lot

more invention and a

lot more physicality,

a lot more behavior

rather than dialogue.

- Man, where the hell is he?

And hour and a half late?

An hour and a half.

- Well, Darryl had been

in "Home Fries" with me.

The more irate he got,

the funnier he was.

- Damn man, come on,

this ain't Radioshack,

put the pickles on before

you put on the onions.

Three pickles, not four;

this ain't pickle burger.

- Shit, I was just

imagining what could happen

or what couldn't happen,

and then I'm saying to myself,

you know what, brothers don't

go outer space too often.

I've gotta talk to LeVar

Burton, and he loves it.

He loves the movie man,

he was like, you know,

it made him feel good,

because he felt like

he was as trailblazer.

- If I remember correctly,

I think because Dean wanted

Daryl Mitchell so badly,

and he was so much younger

than the group,

and it didn't make story sense

that he would be so much

younger, we had to come up

with a reason for like,

Corbin Bleu played him,

and he was like this boy

wonder, and then he went off

to have a pretty huge career,

it was almost like fly paper

where all the right

people just came, and then

it was like, stuck, and then

they all have big careers.

It's a fun movie to kinda

watch in the background,

even people like,

is that Rainn Wilson?

- Sir, I am Lahnk,

senior requisition officer.

- "Galaxy Quest" was one of

the very first auditions I did

in LA, and actually my part was

supposed to be a lot bigger,

but I'd also gotten cast

in the world's worst

television pilot on NBC.

- Yeah, yeah he did,

he had to leave.

Yeah, he would've gotten

more, he was great.

- Okay, nobody had

heard of Sam Rockwell.

- What's my last name?

- It's uh, uh, I don't know.

- Nobody knows!

- My head turned the most

was probably Sam Rockwell,

I just said,

this guy is brilliant.

I did not wanna do the

part originally.

- He said no a million times

and she just wouldn't let him.

- Finally, I said yes to

it, because I realized

that it would come out

probably around the same time

as "The Green Mile."

- The role in "Galaxy Quest"

and "Green Mile" would

be such a nice contrast,

I can't explain why

I would ever say no to

this movie, it was just

me taking myself

way too seriously.

- For me, it was my

introduction to Sam Rockwell

and how great Sam was as

an actor and as a person.

That's what I think of when

I think of "Galaxy Quest."

- Justin Long playing a

role, that honestly, I think

if you put him in it

today, he would look like

he's not aged a day.

- Yeah,

I was 20 at the time, 21.

What's your name, son?

- Brandon.

- There was no question

mark in the script.

- It really was not a very big

part, he was just so perfect,

like that little

crack in his voice.

- Ah, I mean, that, Doc,

that's from Michael J. Fox,

who was my idol.

Doc, are you tellin' me, you

know, it was that!

And Chris Farley, remember

Chris Farley going, you're...

- Evidently we had a little

miscommunication regarding...

he's so

nervous, he just,.

- I actually wanna,

just wanted to tell you

that I thought a lot

about what you said...

- There's also a comic

book guy in there.

I grew up watching "The

Simpsons," and so he was always

like best, you know, whenever

he was talking to somebody

was always a little bit

down to them, I was like,

I'm just gonna do what I

love, I'm gonna steal

from all the people that I love.

- Justin's a very gifted

actor and comedian

and he's got a great ear.

- I love Sam listening.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

- I've seen his impression

of me, it's very, yes.

It's slightly exaggerated.

- Brandon, honey, garbage.

- Ugh, mother I'm quite busy.

- It's one of the

best comedic cuts

in the history of modern

cinema is that they're trying

to get in touch with

Justin Long's character,

and they're like,

are you there, are you there?

- Brandon!

- And he's not answering,

and you cut to him taking

out the garbage.

- Mother, I cannot stress

enough the severity

of the commander's predicament.

- Don't forget the recyclables!

- Oh he still is a teenager who

has to take out the garbage.

His mom does not care that

the fate of all these people

up in space depends on him.

If you're a sports kid,

which I suspect you aren't

if you are watching this

"Galaxy Quest" documentary,

it's not enough to just

be in the NBA, you have

to win the championship

in game seven

with three seconds to go.

For us, for us it's getting

the call from Captain Kirk,

and he's saying the Enterprise

is in trouble and only you

and your nerdy friends have

the information required

to get the Enterprise out

of the situation it's in,

can you help me, Damon?

Like,

that's the fantasy that we had.

- There were all these

suggestions thrown out,

and one of them was to

remove entirely the subplot

of Justin Long's character,

which is the very heart

of the theme of the movie.

There was a little friction.

- I can't imagine what

"Galaxy Quest" would be

without Justin Long's character

and his little buddies.

And also, when you think about

'99, the internet culture

certainly exists, but the

fact that there is a fandom

and they all have

different schematic areas

of the Protector and

they've got vid screens

of each other up, this is

like, way ahead of its time.

- I don't think, for instance,

you could do a film today

about the teen nerd and

say he was the outcast.

Like, it wouldn't be true.

But when I was growing up

and I was the DM of my local

Dungeons and Dragons group

with a bunch of foreign

exchange students

it was a very different thing.

Then "Galaxy Quest" came

along and said, you know,

these people are heroes too.

They don't have to be

the funny sidekick.

They can actually be at

the center of the story.

- Brandon, where you goin'

with all those fireworks?

- Well, the Protector got

super accelerated coming

out of the black hole,

we're gonna help Laredo guide it

on the vox ultra-frequency

carrier and use Roman candles

for visual confirmation.

- I do think that that's

a lot more prominent now,

that sort of self-awareness

of one of the characters

that really reflects

the kind of people

that might watch the

show or see the movie.

You could really

draw a direct line

all the way back to a

film like "Galaxy Quest."

- And it's a terrific

character arc, where they go

from being a punchline

to being heroes,

and it mirrors very much the

journey of the characters

who are on the "Galaxy

Quest" show in the movie.

- In the end, it's the

fans that actually bring

the plot together and

actually save the universe.

- If you didn't have

that, then you wouldn't

have "Galaxy Quest."

- And one of the things

that I really like is

that there's a hero

within all of us.

- Fans in "Galaxy Quest"

are not just the people

who are attending the

convention or Justin Long

and his buddies,

the Thermians are the fans

in "Galaxy Quest,"

they just don't realize

that they're fans of

a television show,

but they literally say

that this television show

changed their culture,

they credit this television show

almost with religious awe.

- At ease.

- I'm a geeky nerd or a

nerdy geek, take your pic.

- La la la!

- Real fandom is about creating

this illusion that in some

way this piece of popular

fiction may in fact be real.

- I have always felt that

cosplay is the purest,

most wonderful

expression of love.

- We love this show, we need

this show, we want this show

to be real, and you need us.

The reason that there is a

convention is because of us.

- We relate so well

to the Thermians.

So naive about things,

in fact, why do we have

to be so crass when

we get to be adults?

Why can't we all just

stay kids and just,

things are what they are,

and we don't know that,

you know, lies, deception, yes.

- Deception, lies.

- It started out with two of

us because I made two costumes.

- If you look really close,

our costumes aren't awesome.

- They're not professional

quality, I sew my own costume,

but I put those uniforms on and

then I'm not me anymore, so.

- In this role,

we are the Thermians from Utah.

Yes.

- It's perfect that they're

octopuses, because an octopus

is real sensitive and really

smart and very willing

to sacrifice itself to

preserve its children,

and it's one of the reasons

I have an octopus tattoo,

so when they are revealed to

be octopuses, I'm not saying

that I get a little bit of

tear in the corner of my eye,

but I'm not not saying that.

- We thought, that's a really

unique, crazy out-there,

they're kinda funny,

but they're kind of, like,

no one's ever seen octopus

people in a long time.

When they were done actually

about three weeks before

they were needed to shoot,

and I got a phone call from

Stan in his car one day,

and he goes,

are you sitting down?

I go, no.

He goes,

maybe you should go sit down.

I go, why?

He goes,

Steven saw the test footage

and he thinks they're too ugly.

He'd like them to be like,

"Close Encounters" aliens.

I was like,

but they're done.

Yeah.

- They're done,

they shoot in three weeks.

- I like the octopus better.

- The octopus, quality.

- Ultimately it came back

that, okay, leave them as is.

So there was a fleeting moment

where those were almost cut

from the movie, and that would

have been really tragic I think.

- Mm-hm, yeah, totally.

- Hey, Fred,

oh that's not right, no!

- It's not right though!

- Oh, that's not right,

yeah, that is not right.

- I had some very

generic line in there.

Same is so respectful

and comes up and says,

you know, I was thinking

of playing this this way,

and I was thinking of

playing this this way.

- Did I really?

- Yeah.

- Phew, wow, that's great,

I'm glad I did that.

- I'm not exaggerating,

we were making it

up as we went along.

- Obviously I wasn't

there when Dean Parisot

was shooting the movie,

but my sense of the film

is that at every step of

the way, it was a little bit

like jazz, so they know kind

of what the story is that

they're telling, but they

have to take those risks, and

still all of that feeling like

a single orchestral thing.

It wasn't so well-planned as

you might expect.

- Dean, he was like the

great enabler of choices.

The bigger, the weirder,

it was all good.

- You have to play it

completely for real,

including Enrico and setting

the tone for the aliens.

- He auditioned,

and it was good, but it wasn't

what I was looking for,

and he got up to go,

he was like, he was

tentative, there was something

on his mind, I said,

what what what?

He goes, well I had

this voice I was trying.

Oh, what is it, what is it?

And that was the voice.

- There was a vocal

exercise that I was taught

at the Yale School of Drama,

and it was just hitting

all the resonators, touching

all your, you know, head,

there's seven different

resonators, so...

- I must speak to

you, it is a matter

of supreme importance;

we are Thermians

from the Klatu Nebula

and we need your help.

- And as soon as he did

it, I went, that's genius.

As I started casting other

people, we all started trying

to duplicate the voice.

- Debbie Zane was like,

I don't normally do this,

but I'm gonna show you

someone's audition.

'Cause I'd looked at the sides

and I wasn't really sure,

and then, so his audition was,

hello, you know like that,

and I was like,

oh I know what this is.

- Is that what happened?

- He basically invented

that whole thing.

- I didn't know I had the job

yet, so I'm glad I found this

out after the fact.

If I'd known that, oh,

we would have negotiated

a much bigger, better deal.

- As we had alien school every

day, they started growing

and getting more fun and

more interesting and having

their own particular

quirks and traits.

- And then just a

little one at the end.

Yeah.

- The part that made me laugh

unexpectedly when I first

saw it, I thought they're gonna

take me out of the theater,

was the limo scene where he's

looking at her and everything,

it's like, what,

she doesn't speak?

- Her translator is broken.

I can't even...

Don't hurt yourself.

- And then once the ball

was rolling, they're all

so brilliant, they just kept

taking it and inventing more.

- It had said that they were

like Disneyland employees

and they didn't

know what lies were.

Patrick came up with the

walking with the hands

and the legs together.

- They just got

it slightly wrong.

- They watched,

but they just didn't...

- Right, and I got that

from "Thunderball XL 5"

'cause they were marionettes,

and we destroyed every

extra on that show,

because they all had

to get that hammered in

anytime they were walking

behind the camera they all

had to be like...

- And sometimes if you were

really watching, you'd see

an extra that's just

like, uh, I don't know

what I'm doing,

I'm just kind of like...

They came in,

it was the longest day,

because no matter what we

did, once they knew

that we were laughing at it,

they never stopped with that.

- We were all kinda looking

at each other going,

maybe we're just

having too much fun.

We shouldn't be

having this much fun.

- They found every joke, they

found every exciting moment,

they had every great line you

could possibly have, no one

can explain lightning in

a bottle in the business.

- It became what

it was going to be,

there wasn't anybody

stomping on it.

- What you always wanna do

when you're making a movie

for a studio, you want the

studio to be making a movie

other than yours that's

either really expensive

or very high-profile or going

dramatically over budget

so all of their attention

is on that movie.

- The studio was making

another movie at the time,

this movie "Gladiator,"

which is a fantastic movie,

and it was shooting in Malta.

The actor Oliver Reed died

also while they were shooting.

So the most tragic thing

that could happen on a movie

happened on that other

movie that was shooting

at the same time we

did, so you know,

they weren't really paying

that much attention to us.

- There was no adult

supervision, or very little.

- The sets melted.

- No no,

there was a literal fire.

- And I wanted to shoot

anamorphic; anamorphic,

without getting too tactical,

requires a lot of light.

The only thing Steven Spielberg

ever sort of advised us

to do is to put down shiny

Mylar to make the floors

have some life, 'cause you're

trying to get some life

into everything, and this was

a little bit of a dead set.

So we put down all this Mylar

everywhere and turned the

lights on and it all

buckles like that,

like, the whole floor buckles.

- Never leave the set.

- "Galaxy Quest"

is very unique in

that there are three

formats in the film.

When it starts out, it's kind

of the square television format

that we're all familiar with.

Very small,

letterboxed on the screen,

and then it grows,

and then it becomes 1.85,

which is kind of the real world,

where we're at the convention,

we know we've gone from

one world to another,

but there's a second change

in the format that a lot

of people don't pick up on.

- When the doors open,

when he realizes he's

on the deck of the

spaceship, the doors open

us up into widescreen

CinemaScope.

That's why I shot

it in anamorphic,

so I could have this

giant widescreen.

- When the doors get to the

side of the 1.85 aspect ratio,

they open it up to 2.35

and it was symbolic

of him having his eyes

opened to what was really

happening and the rest

of the film is in 2.35.

It's pretty subtle, though.

- If you don't tell

the projectionist

in the theater that

that's happening,

then he opens it up for

1.85, and all of a sudden,

that great big effect is in

the curtains on the side,

which is really not good,

and that happened, apparently,

in hundreds of theaters,

it was the stupidest idea.

And then they started sending

out, I guess, little notes

on the cans, you know,

but yeah, great, great idea.

- I mean, I think one

of the amazing things

about great movies is that

ultimately everything happened

exactly the way it

was supposed to.

- We didn't know what

this was gonna be.

It was so eclectic,

the group of people we had.

- One of the things that helps

is when you go on location,

people become closer,

because they're not dealing

with their regular lives,

they're out in some weird place,

and we were in a very

strange location.

- One of the things that was

very unique was to be able

to shoot in Goblin

Valley in Utah.

It's a national monument, it's

protected by the government,

and Dean immediately

responded to that,

so we flew out from Los Angeles.

And this

is where we are,

we're in the middle of nowhere.

There's no stoplights,

there's no anything, it's

completely empty, just a lot

of sand and dirt and rocks.

We were all getting along

pretty well, we had a lot

of fun there, we had some

good parties in Goblin Valley,

and it was hot and people

were in latex suits

and it was hard,

but we had a good time.

- This is a horrible

MacGuffin to that movie.

- That shirt comes off on

the desert, and the way

it's written, I'm the rest

of the movie with no shirt,

and I said, you know what

Dean, if you read this script,

when do I get my shirt back on?

And he goes, I don't know

what to do about that.

Well, I'm not gonna do

the rest of this movie,

I don't mind a couple

of aesthetic scenes,

grease me up or

whatever you gotta do

to make me look manly,

but I'm not gonna do it,

so that shirt just magically

shows up on the control room.

Yes, 'cause it got

beamed up with him.

- Shatner was kind of

built at that time,

and it was supposed to

be, at least that part,

you wanted to believe that

he was an action hero.

So I had a trainer, and I

ate, I think, cat food most

of the time, 'cause I had

to stay at this weight.

- You know that Tim's experience

with his personal

trainer on the film?

- Yes, course I do.

- That's Janie, his wife now,

so she worked out with him,

he had a gym there and he

would work all the time

with Janie,

and she's now his wife.

- Tim would tell me every day

that we were going straight

to video; actually,

nobody tried harder than he did

secretly without

pretending like he wasn't.

Cut, cut rehearsal.

- The entire group of them

sort of became like a,

they were all working

off one another,

and they were all

working together.

- I think they work well

together as an ensemble,

the Thermians are fantastic...

- You can see the

chemistry, they had fun

doing the movie and

you can see that.

- That's my star moment

in that movie, man.

Pulling that spaceship

out that dock.

Somebody was going ee-ee-ee!

Yeah, I'm doing this

so yeah,

they're all reacting

to me making the noise

of that ship, kind of

exhausting after a while.

And we just can't get it out.

Ee-ee it

was terribly funny.

- We had the loveliest group

of people in this movie,

and you can tell that Dean

created this atmosphere

where we could thrive and we

could also be very vulnerable,

we could, you know,

we didn't have our shells on,

we didn't have our armor on,

and he allowed that to happen.

- Sigourney had been taken

so seriously in her parts.

She couldn't wait

to get into costume.

And she had these big

fake breasts that she kept

throwing at us, she wouldn't

take off the blonde wig.

I did,

I hated to take it off.

Sometimes I'd even wear it home.

Part of it was I

wanted to find out

if blondes really

do have more fun.

- All systems are

working commander.

- I guess for me, there but

for the grace of God go I,

I could've gotten on a series

and that would have been

what happened to me,

I was probably acting out

something I'd felt very

strongly in my career

that I never had a chance

to express, honestly.

- You often have a collection

of actors that come

from completely different

study of the craft.

You'll have a very method

actor like Sam Rockwell,

a sort of Sandy Meisner-style,

who's probably closer

to Tony, Tim would come to the

set usually a little bit late

and make vomiting

and farting noises.

Alan would come five

minutes early, would know

everybody's lines,

and you could look at him

in the corner going, ugh.

- I think just to say that

Tim Allen and Alan Rickman

exist in the same movie

together and they're gonna play

the Kirk and Spock avatars,

that shouldn't work.

Like, they shouldn't exist

tonally in the same universe,

and yet they do.

- Alan thought I

was such an asshole

because I'm doing cock, ball,

fart jokes right up to camera.

- I remember Alan telling

me that in the beginning,

I don't think he really

knew who Tim was.

Sort of looking at him

maybe slightly askance.

- Tim, if he had one

person paying attention

to his jokes, that was it.

If he just had,

it was usually Chill and me

just like,

laughing at everything he said.

- They called action

like two minutes ago,

and me and him is

over there acting up.

Man, anything you do,

it'd send him over the top,

and I mean, he got that stupid

laugh, so it make you laugh.

Yo man

- Just no professionalism

whatsoever, no.

But it was so different, that's

what made it so beautiful,

that we were so different,

all the way down

to Alan Rickman, god bless

him, that was hilarious.

He'd curse you out then

invite you for wine.

- 'Cause Alan was just

like, I won't laugh at him.

I refuse to laugh.

- He always was the more

respected actor, it's very close

to what was going on,

I'm just a comedian.

- It always took Sigourney to

sort of tap him just gently,

she was so good with

him, it's just like,

come on Tim, come on.

- I think the one moment in

"Galaxy Quest" that really

pulls everything together,

when Mathesar is being tortured

and they basically,

to continue the torture,

tell Tim Allen's character,

you have to tell him

that it's all fake,

that you're a actor.

- Mathesar, there's no such

person as Captain Taggart.

My name is Jason

Nesmith, I am a actor.

- I kept telling him that

that was the most important

scene in the movie and

it had to be absolutely

dramatic and real and

painful and horrible.

- I think he was worried that

I was gonna be this smart-ass.

- That was a piece of drama

that had to be a piece

of drama, and that was the

only day that Steven Spielberg

came to my set; Tim is going

through the take after take,

and he's starting to tear

up, he's starting

to get very emotional,

and all of a sudden I hear

this voice next to me,

'cause the monitor's right here,

oh yeah, oh wow, I'm like,

I'm about to turn and tell

this person to be quiet

and it's Steven Spielberg,

and he goes, Tim's really

great in this, I said,

yeah, I know,

he's doing a really good job,

and then I turned back and Tim

is just completely emotional,

heart-wrenching actually,

he says yeah, I don't like these

feelings I'm having, I'd like

to go back to the trailer.

I said, okay fine,

no, great, fantastic.

And Alan Rickman

no I can't tell this story.

- What did he say?

- I can't do it.

He said, oh my god, I think

he just experienced acting.

- And finding those real

emotional heart tugs,

that's "Galaxy Quest" gift

to all of us, it's why

it's not just a fun

movie but a great one.

- It was hard for me to be

that, because it was sad,

you know, that I had to really

get into it, and Spielberg

came around the corner

and he goes, wow,

that was really good, Tim,

like he was impressed.

He startles you, 'cause it's

Spielberg standing right there,

and he goes,

that was a really good scene.

And I didn't know how to

respond to that and I go,

come here you,

you know who this guy is?

And I wanted to pick one of

the movies I was unsure about.

Yeah, him going, hey

this guy is?

He directed "1941."

He would do that Spielberg,

and Spielberg like,.

- I never thought Tim

Allen was not a good actor,

so I thought he was just doing

a great job in the moment.

I love actors who still are

children and they can't hide it,

and Tim is a big child.

- Of all the films that

Tim Allen has done,

"Galaxy Quest" is his

crowning achievement.

It is his best role.

- You know,

Tim had a rough road.

We sat down and talked

a lot about that.

That dude been through it,

so for him to go from that

to this, to number one on

a call sheet, come on, man.

- I just don't

know how to hold on

to an experience like

that, I loved every second

of that, I hated

leaving, you know...

- Yeah, it was fun,

it was the most fun I've had,

I think, making a movie.

When we got into

post, all of sudden,

okay now there's the movie.

Another unsung hero of

the film is Don Zimmerman,

who was the editor of the film.

- Big Daddy D!

- I don't know if there

is a right rhyme or reason

to it, it's a feeling, you know?

- He's cut everything

from "Liar Liar" to some

of the finer Hal Ashby

films, and so he understood

quirky, he understood

authentic, and he and Dean

became a real team on that show.

- In "Galaxy

Quest," it was just,

it was a fun

collaboration, the music

and the actions and

emotions, you know.

- Hurry!

- Climb over!

- Dean was the kind of

guy that he would shoot,

and if he gets what he

wants, he would ask anybody

for an opinion, what do you,

you want to try something?

He would always open the door

for the actors to do things.

- I don't think I said,

I didn't no to that much, did I?

I just encouraged everybody

to try everything, usually.

- You know, sometimes,

90 % of the time it didn't work,

but on the occasion

it would be brilliant,

and you just go, wow!

- And so Don was a

good stabilizing force

to create a nice

environment, he'd come down

to the set and

talk about things,

hey maybe you want a shot

for this or a shot for

that, so it was really a,

it was quite a

good group effort.

- And the music, by the way,

it feels like it's a riff

on Trek music, but the

score for "Galaxy Quest"

is kind of great

in and of itself.

- I wasn't sure what to

do with the main title,

so I tried to do something

that was like the original

Alexander Courage main

title of "Star Trek."

And I played it for

Dean and everyone,

and they just cracked

up, and it was great.

Then the theme I wrote,

completely wrote,

which is what is in the

movie now, I played second.

So I played two opposite

things, and we discovered

that we wanted to make it

as heartfelt and glorious

as possible, a little bit,

maybe overblown here and there,

but not too much,

because in the end of the movie,

this becomes an extremely

meaningful situation

for the characters, but also

for the people watching.

- When I really like

what I'm doing, that just

carries you through, it's

like, oh, look what we're gonna

do today, let's do that,

oh, you just get so involved

in it that I forget about

the suits and briefcases

that might be looking

over my shoulder.

- You know, and there were

a lot of battles fought,

a lot of battles fought

in the editing room.

- That was the hardest

part of all of it, not the

screenwriting, not the Harold

leaving, not the production,

the post-production

was the hardest part.

- Dreamworks got very involved

in the edit of the movie

and it was a little contentious.

- We have this screening

where we think it's great,

and that goes really badly.

- I guess it was the PG-13

screening, there were

some families there,

and a woman followed me

into the bathroom,

and she was like, how dare you.

This is a Tim Allen movie.

- And the studio was

not crazy about it.

- We never recovered from

that, as far

as the studio was concerned,

they kind of thought,

like, oh,

well it's not that good.

- Everybody's afraid

when you make a movie

that it's not working

because they've read it

a million times,

they're so invested in it...

- None of the jokes

are fresh anymore...

- So, it's a very dangerous

thing after you make a movie

to screen it because

it's always a mess,

and then there's a whole

collection of people

that want to believe that

they fixed it, as well,

and none of it makes any sense.

- But neither of us are

responsible for the limo,

neither of us wanted the limo.

- That's right, Tim is in

the limo and he falls asleep,

and when he wakes up,

he's on the spaceship.

- Commander, commander,

I'm sorry to wake you sir,

but your presence is

requested on the command deck.

- That's how it was originally

conceived, and I'll admit

to you, I sort of saw it like

"The Wizard of Oz," right?

That could this

be a dream or not?

But ambiguous, you're never

told whether it is or it isn't.

That shot of the car going up

makes it completely literal.

I mean, I get it, they

were worried that there was

a logic problem, that ends up

being a lot of studio notes

end up often being about

believability and logic.

I think they were worried

that the kids wouldn't get it.

- They cut all these scenes to

make it a kid-friendly movie.

- And then they just said,

okay well now it's Christmas,

it's PG, it's Tim,

just finish it.

- The worst day on "Galaxy

Quest," the darkest day

on "Galaxy Quest" was when

"Rugrats: the Movie" came out,

because "Rugrats: the

Movie" was a G-rated film

and it made a

butt-load of money,

and so all eyes turned

to us and like, you need

to make this a G movie.

There's like, infamously that

moment where Sigourney Weaver

is like, she just goes

like, "this!"

But they put screw in her mouth.

- Chompers?

Oh, screw that!

- And if you look at her

mouth, it's like...

- That's not what she said.

- It was an F.

- She says another thing,

and you can tell what is,

but you didn't

shoot an alternate.

- It's hilarious, and obviously

we didn't even cover it,

like we didn't even

try not to do it.

- Well fuck that!

That was terrible.

- Man, I just want that

director's cut man,

'cause we cussed through

that whole movie.

- Sometimes you thought, well

why don't they appreciate us

more, why don't they

see what they have?

Don't they see

who's in this movie,

and haven't they

read the script,

and don't they see

who's directing,

and aren't they really

thrilled that they have this

very special movie,

and honestly, I don't know

the answer to that, but you

didn't get that feeling,

let's put it that way.

It's really a very

sophisticated movie.

- With eight-year-old audiences.

Dreamworks

pictures presents,

Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver,

Alan Rickman, "Galaxy Quest."

- What was in danger of

happening was that marketing

on that movie, which runs

usually the show, believed that

that was a Christmas movie

for, I would say,

eight to 12-year-olds,

and we believed we were

making a movie for everybody.

- Now, granted,

Dreamworks I think could've did

a better job promoting that

movie, but I got to give

them credit on the fact of,

when they cut all the profanity

out of that movie, it worked.

- When it comes to "Galaxy

Quest," you cannot deny

that the movie works, and I

wonder, although I acknowledge

that Sigourney Weaver saying

in that moment

instead of screw would have

been funnier, if that limits

the movie in any way,

Sigourney Weaver or Tim Allen

or any of the characters

cursing, is the joke worth it?

And I would say

I'm kind of siding

with keeping it

PG in that moment.

- The artistic process

of what makes a diamond

is the two pieces

of coal just rubbing

up against each other,

and two opposing forces

that really make

something great.

It's a horrible process

to go through sometimes,

but it really does,

you know, it's just like

when you don't have enough

money to make something,

it makes you be more

creative in a lot of ways.

- It was better

family-friendly as a PG movie.

I think it worked better.

- Those inside

jokes that you have,

you can have them with your

kids, like clapping weird,

or just, never give up, never

surrender, all of that stuff,

you can do that with your

children and it makes

a really good shared experience.

- When I saw it at the

Chinese Grauman Theater,

I thought the movie was gonna

be huge.

- Oh, not another sci-fi

boys in space movie,

where ugly aliens are

threatening our universe?

I'm afraid it is,

it's "Galaxy Quest."

- I went straight from

seeing "Galaxy Quest"

to a Christmas party, and I

was raving about the film.

I was like, guys,

you gotta see "Galaxy Quest."

It's got everything

you could possibly want

in a movie by any measure,

this movie's gonna

be a massive hit, but it wasn't.

- And I remember at the

premiere we had a premiere

it was on a weekend

day at the Grauman's,

and some people came out,

some industry people came out

who were well aware of

how a movie's being sold

and the expectation,

and turned to me and said,

well I can't believe how

good it is, I had no idea.

- If you think that this

is just a film for kids,

that would be the first

and biggest mistake.

Anybody who thinks

this a film just

for eight-year-olds,

big, big mistake.

- What I did particularly

like about this film,

Alan Rickman's wonderful

performance as the half-reptile,

- half-man.

- He does that well,

- doesn't he?

- His makeup is sort

of falling apart, Sigourney

Weaver's blonde wig, I mean,

wonderful things,

I think it's a lovely film.

- Do you know what,

I think it actually hits

what it aims for, which happens

very rarely with a film.

- Just more people should

have seen that movie.

- Dude, you made the perfect

gumbo, but you forgot

to invite people to dinner, man.

- You never got the sci-fi

crowd, you couldn't tell

what the movie was.

- They needed a kid's movie,

and they chose this one,

but it still managed

to find an audience,

and kind of become

a beloved movie.

- It wasn't a flop,

it looked like it was gonna

be a flop, it dug itself

out of being a flop

by the virtue of it being good.

- It did, in fact,

cover every single base.

It got serious, then it got

stupid, then it got funny,

then it got clever, then it

was more clever than you...

- I remember the feeling when

I saw it, I just kinda went,

phew, you know, good, that

actually came together okay.

- More than that,

it was just really satisfying

to hear, to get calls

or emails from people

who really, really got it and

it just went on their list

right away as one of

their favorites, you know?

- Patrick say it was blown away

by it, and what did he say?

He said to Dean,

let me say something to you.

I love this film.

- It wasn't until I got

older, like around I

became a teenager I really

just noticed all the writing,

all the jokes, all the

clever satire it pointed out.

- It's one of my favorite

films, I have it on my phone

so I can watch it anytime

I want on the airplane.

- There is a

symbiotic relationship

between artist and fan.

We love this thing and we

wanna honor it, and the artist

said we would not

be here without you.

- There's no doubt

that the relationship

between storytellers

and artists and fans

is a much more intimate one.

The meta-ness of something

like "Galaxy Quest"

was one of the first

stories to kind of really

shine a light on

something like that and

to really exploit it

and not be afraid of it.

- When J.J. and Alex and

Bob and Bryan Burk and I

first got together to

talk about whether or not

we should make "Star Trek"

as a movie, we talked

about "Galaxy

Quest" incessantly,

in fact, we all referred

to "Galaxy Quest" as the

second-best Trek movie.

So I'd say that "Galaxy Quest"

had a tremendous tonal effect

on certainly the first Trek.

- I've been working at Marvel

lately, and Kevin Feige

is a huge fan of "Galaxy

Quest" as are all

of the creative production

executives over there,

because why wouldn't they be?

- I mean,

Dean could have directed

"Guardians of the

Galaxy," I think.

- I loved "Guardians of the

Galaxy," I thought it was great.

- I'm just James Gunn and I

spoke about "Galaxy Quest"

and knowing James, I'm sure

It's a huge favorite of his.

- So I went to see "Guardians

of the Galaxy," which I liked

a lot, and I said, you

know, this is clearly sprung

from the loins of

"Galaxy Quest."

- What a great compliment

too, though, I mean like,

there's DNA from other

things in "Galaxy Quest,"

it's like that DNA

keeps getting passed on.

Just so long as you pull it

off, it's fine.

- And it made me go back

to "Galaxy Quest" and said,

let's re-examine it, let's

talk about what to do with it.

I wrote a pilot, and,

miraculously, everybody

wanted to do it,

including, I had heard, Alan,

- It's a great time to be a

'90's kid, a TV series based

oh, on "Galaxy Quest" is

officially in the works.

- I was gonna do

the Amazon thing.

- All the stars were

aligning to reestablish it.

Everybody said yes.

- And I had some scenes

with Alan, you know,

I had a couple scenes with Alan.

And then that just, you know.

- I saw him about six weeks

before he passed away,

he came to see a play that

I was doing in New York,

and we saw him backstage

and he was a little frail,

and he said he'd had a stroke,

and we were like, what?

But he was with his wife

and he came to the theater,

flew to New York and see

plays, and we went

to dinner afterwards and

he was just, you know,

funny and sweet

and was so lovely,

and then he died

like six weeks later.

He didn't want us to

know he was dying,

he'd said he'd had a stroke,

and so that the evening

was not in any way morbid or

sad, it was just another little

Alan's here,

he's getting better, and...

I don't he'd mind me saying

this, I hope not, Alan.

Forgive me, but he had to

drop out of a project because

of his illness, because

of the stroke, he'd said,

and he goes like, and I go

like, oh, who got the role?

And he goes like, Bill Nighy,

with great disdain.

- Well, I think his work

has, first of all

you knew right away that here

was such a brilliant actor

who didn't take himself

seriously, who probably

on some level, like me with

Tawny, felt he could have had

a very different career if

maybe times were different

or he'd had different

goals, that he could've been

a great King Lear or what

have you, and he brought all

that truth to it, and Alan

was such a truthful actor.

You know honestly I can't

imagine our little ensemble

without Alan particularly,

but without any one of us,

but I think the fact that Alan

Rickman had chosen to come

over and do this with us gave

us such legitimacy, you know.

- He just, he was funny and

sardonic and caustic and...

- His bedside manner would

seem sort of misanthropic...

- And the thing that I

remember most about him

is the day we were

saying goodbye I said,

thanks so much for

being in this movie,

and it's been great to

work with you, and he said,

it's been

fun intermittently.

- Actually,

he was the opposite of that.

He was such a kind-hearted,

affable, beautiful guy,

but he had this very

sort of dry, you know,

English thing where he

sort of seems like he's

over everything which made

him very funny, but actually

he was one of the

kindest people out there.

- Instead of judging me,

he accepted me, and acceptance

is a huge thing to have

somebody accept it, not only

accept it,

but then honor who I was.

- He was the first movie star

that wanted to be my friend.

- I did a play years later

that he was just leaving, so,

and I, such a huge regret,

we had a couple performances

where I could've entered the

play early and had overlap

and done it with him,

and I felt like I wasn't ready,

and I got a card in my

dressing room that just said,

in really like, flowing cursive,

and then there's a sunset,

it just said you.

It was really funny,

and then the stuff inside

was really sweet,

but it was the funniest,

he just had a great

sense of humor.

- By Grabthar's Hammer...

- When we meet Sir Alexander

Dane, he does not want

to say By Grabthar's

Hammer anymore.

- By Grabthar's

Hammer, Dr. Lazarus...

- Don't do that,

I'm not kidding.

- I'm sorry sir, I was only...

- Just don't.

- The whole movie is a setup

for, can we create a moment

where this actor in character

as Dr. Lazarus actually says

that line and means

it for the first time?

And that's the moment

in "Galaxy Quest."

- He just gets really

centered and he

gives Quellek this gift...

- By Grabthar's Hammer,

by the sons of Warvan,

you shall be avenged.

- And I got to, you

know, watch him do it,

it was just magical.

- Every time I see

that, I get chills.

I remember when I saw "Galaxy

Quest" in the theater,

the entire audience just

went quiet when it happened,

and it's like, we were just

laughing like 20 seconds ago,

'cause Tony Shalhoub blew

some dudes out of a door,

and now here we are in this

very intense emotional moment.

- He hates the line,

but yet then he understands,

he then understands

what it really means,

and that's his aha moment

in the movie, was like,

this really does mean

something, you know.

- That's "Galaxy Quest's"

enduring gift to all of us.

- The reason why we even did

the crew in the first place

was when Alan Rickman

died, I made Dr. Lazarus'

prosthetic head wearing

those costumes, and me

as Dr. Lazarus as

a tribute to him.

By Grabthar's Hammer, that's

when I'm doing Alan Rickman's

character, that's, you know...

- He never says it, but when

someone says it to him...

- I'm not saying that

line one more time, yes.

- There's a "Galaxy

Quest" viewing.

- Yeah, today at the Regent.

- I've put many shows

together here at this venue,

and I totally thought the upper

ceiling is like 200 people,

and then we sold out over

400 people in 48 hours.

- I mean, it's a family

affair, right?

You're gonna do something

crazy that makes it nice

if you do it together,

because then you have something

to talk about stop

it, you would just stop

for one second, I would be done.

- I get off work at

four, so I've been sewing

from five o'clock until

midnight for nine days.

- And he remade the

suits how many times?

- This is my fourth

generation suit.

- I'm excited to see the

screenwriter and the director...

- Mathesar, Enrico

Colatoni, yes he's my hero.

I mean, he is my hero

but if I never meet him,

I'll be okay,

but he is my hero, like.

The Thermian ones, Roxanne

and I will take these two, OK?

This is so much fun,

I love being a Thermian,

it's so much fun.

- It's more of an homage, kind

of like the film itself was.

It seems only fair to

say thanks, it's us

saying thank you for this

awesome experience, you know.

Dean?

- I think I'm most

excited about the fact

that people are still

celebrating "Galaxy Quest"

even though it's been years

and years, and it was just

a movie, it wasn't part of

a big franchise or anything,

but the fact that there's

an event like this going on

just makes my heart sing.

Everyone can

take your seats now.

- By the end of the movie,

you are celebrating that, right?

That is actually an amazing

thing that we do, that we can

just give up everything and

lose ourselves in this thing.

- For the most part, the nerds

have inherited the earth,

you know, so they were right.

- My whole pitch has

gone down in 18 years,

I don't think I can do that.

- Try it.

So we have Thermians

here in the audience,

how does this feel

to you to see that?

- This is like a

meta on top of a meta

on top of meta, yeah.

Did Harold regret

it, did he ever say?

- He saw the movie,

loved it, and he said,

the biggest mistake I made.

How do you see the

legacy of "Galaxy Quest?"

- Legacy?

Never give

up, never surrender!

- Every film has its own

personality, every film

has its own life,

and you can see the love

behind the camera on the screen.

- What is the value of

this silly thing we all do

about what movies are

and how we do them

and why they're worth

something and how

we can mock them all we want,

but eventually we fall for it.

- Being a nerd isn't

about the thing you love,

it's about the way

that you love it.

I think that a lot of people

who grow up as outsiders,

we can find a home in science

fiction, because it tells us,

that thing that makes you weird

in the world that you live

in, it actually makes

you incredibly valuable

and really special in our world.

- He's my hero.