Enemy Mine

A soldier from Earth crashlands on an alien world after sustaining battle damage. Eventually he encounters another survivor…

• Director: Wolfgang Petersen
• Genre:Drama / Sci-Fi
• Runtime:104 minutes

Cast

Dennis Quaid : Willis Davidge
Louis Gossett Jr.: Jeriba ‘Jerry’ Shigan
Brion James : Stubbs
Richard Marcus : Arnold
Carolyn McCormick: Morse

In the late 21st century, an interstellar war between humans (associated as the Bilateral Terran Alliance, or BTA) and Dracs (a reptilian humanoid race) is being fought. Human pilot Willis E. Davidge (Dennis Quaid) and Drac pilot Jeriba Shigan (Louis Gossett Jr.) engage in a spacecraft battle which results in both crashlanding on Fyrine IV, a hostile alien world with a breathable atmosphere, water, and dangerous animal life.

After initial hostilities, the two eventually learn to cooperate in order to survive. They work together to build a shelter for protection against intermittent bombardment by meteorites, and to satisfy their needs for food, water, and warmth. Over a period of years, they learn to overcome their differences, become friends, and learn each other’s languages and cultures. Each saves the other’s life on at least one occasion.

Davidge, haunted by dreams of spaceships landing on the planet, leaves in search of help. He finds signs of a human presence, but learns that the planet has been periodically visited by human miners who employ Dracs as slave labor. He returns to warn Jeriba (whom Davidge nicknames “Jerry”) only to discover that Jeriba is pregnant (Dracs are parthenogenic).

The combination of a blizzard and attack by one of the planet’s predators forces Davidge and Jeriba to flee their shelter. To pass the time Jeriba teaches Davidge his full ancestry, a necessity if his child is to be accepted into Drac society. Jeriba later dies during the childbirth, but not before making Davidge swear that if he ever escapes the planet to take Jeriba’s child back to Dracon (the Drac Homeworld) and recite his full ancestry so he can join Drac society.

Davidge raises the child Zammis (Bumper Robinson) as his own. Over the years, Davidge and Zammis form a very close bond, and although the young Drac refers to Davidge as its ‘uncle’, its emotional range towards Davidge is as a son would look up to a father — an emotion that Davidge shares as well. Davidge knows of the mining crews scouring the planet in search of minerals and ore deposits, and he knows that they have little regard for Drac life, so he remains on guard to keep Zammis from getting captured or killed should they run into any of the miners. However, Zammis does not realize the danger and goes off to get a closer look at such a spacecraft. Although Davidge follows and tries to rescue him, Zammis is abducted by the humans with Davidge hurt and left for dead. A BTA patrol ship finds Davidge anonymous, unrecognizable and apparently dead, and it returns him to the space station where he was formerly based. Read more

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