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Cloak & Dagger Universal Pictures, 1984 Directed by Richard Franklin (1948-2007) (Roadgames, Psycho II) Based on the 1949 film The Window Running Time: 101 minutes Rated PG for violence and mature situations. Cast Henry Thomas (Elliott in E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Samuel in Legends of the Fall) as Davey Osborne Dabney Coleman (Dr. McKittrick in WarGames) as Hal Osborne and Jack Flack Christina Nigra as Kim Gardener William Forsythe (Flattop in Dick Tracy) as Morris John McIntire (1907-1991) as George MacCready Jeanette Nolan (1911-1998) as Eunice MacCready Synopsis Davey Osborne is a kid trying to cope with his mother's death while his father Hal is too occupied in his job in military air traffic. This leaves Davey immersing himself into an espionage role-playing game called Cloak & Dagger, fantasizing himself living in an adventure with the game's hero Jack Flack. One day, while running an errand for his friend's video game store, Davey witnesses the murder of a scientist, who hands him an Atari 5200 cartridge of the Cloak & Dagger game. Inside the cartridge are top-secret documents pertaining to the SR-71 Blackbird. Davey fends for his life as spies all over town are after him, and no one believes him due to his fantasy play. Lowdown It was mentioned on a my film review thread for Flight of the Navigator that the '80s was filled with "kidsploitation" flicks that simply had kids as the main protagonists. It was also the decade where Hollywood first experimented with video game tie-ins. Cloak & Dagger was a result of Universal collaborating with Atari, when the latter company was developing a game titled Agent X. Hot off his role as Elliott in the 1982 blockbuster E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Henry Thomas does a good job playing a kid nobody would believe. Dabney Coleman plays Davey's father, but it's his role as Davey's imaginary friend Jack Flack that steals most of the show. Everybody else is rather average on their performance. The story itself is rather dark for a kid-oriented film. Very few movies of this kind directly deal with on-screen death. And because of an elderly couple that "befriends" Davey - only to reveal themselves to him as spies, many kids probably developed nightmares about old people. The Cloak & Dagger video game is somewhat misleading, as screenshots are from the arcade unit. An Atari 5200 version was never made due to the great video game crash of 1983. Overall, Cloak & Dagger is an '80s kids film that doesn't age well like The Goonies, but it still holds its own with its plot twists and Davey's interaction with Jack Flack. Makes a great rental for you and the kids to watch. "Jack Flack always escapes." Rating: B+ DVD Extras Saw it on late-night TV, so I haven't seen the DVD release yet to judge on the extras. Reference The Internet Movie Database