The Disney Plus original movie Crater tells the story of a group of friends who take a road trip across the moon in their last days together. With Isaiah Russell-Bailey‘s Caleb set to leave the moon following the death of his father, the group comes together to break all the rules and help Caleb fulfill a promise to his dad. Part road trip and part coming-of-age, Crater shines a light on just how important friends are during our most trying times.
Written by John Griffin, Crater feels nostalgic despite being set hundreds of years in the future. The group dynamic featured in the film calls back to classics such as The Goonies, The Breakfast Club and even Ferris Bueller’s Day Off as the kids break all the rules and put themselves at risk to help their friend get where he needs to be. For a film starring a cast who were all born in the 21st century, Crater is definitely a throwback and according to Russell-Bailey, he had to do some homework and watch another 80s coming-of-age film before he found his inspiration for Caleb.
“I watched Stand by Me in preparation for this film,” said Russell-Bailey. “And I watched it to kind of see who Caleb related to in the film. And I felt like he related to, you know, River Phoenix’s character and Will Wheaton’s character. And I tried to add a bit of their characters to Caleb, so I could make Caleb more well-rounded, as a character. And I love Stand by Me and all those old adventure movies,” he explained.
Adapted from a Stephen King novella and directed by Rob Reiner, 1986’s Stand By Me is a genre classic that follows a group of boys’ adventure searching for a dead body. Nominated for an Academy Award, Stand By Me is largely considered one of the best films not only of the 1980s but also of all time and seems to have clearly been an inspiration for Griffin’s script. Specifically, the film’s closing lines–“I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?”–seem echoed Russell-Bailey’s performance as Caleb in Crater. Griffins’ script for Crater was one of the top five best unproduced of 2015 according to The Black List, it won’t be surprising to see it join the ranks of coming-of-age classics once it starts streaming on Disney Plus on May 12th.
