Howard the Duck

A sarcastic humanoid duck is pulled from his homeworld to Earth where he must stop an alien invader.

• Director: Willard Huyck
• Genre:Action / Adventure / Comedy / Romance / Sci-Fi
• Runtime:109 minutes

Cast

Lea Thompson : Beverly Switzler
Jeffrey Jones : Dr. Walter Jenning
Tim Robbins : Phil Blumburtt
Ed Gale : Howard T. Duck
Chip Zien : Howard T. Duck (voice)

Howard (voiced by Chip Zien) lives on Duckworld, a planet inhabited by anthropomorphic ducks. One night, as he reads the latest issue of Playduck Magazine, his armchair begins to quake violently and propels him out of his apartment building and into outer space, where he eventually lands up on Earth, in Cleveland, Ohio. Upon arriving, Howard encounters a woman being attacked by thugs and decides to help her out with his unique brand of “Quack Fu”. After the thugs scamper, the woman introduces herself as Beverly (Lea Thompson), and decides to take Howard to her apartment and let him spend the night. The next day, Beverly takes Howard to a supposed-scientist by the name of Phil Blumburtt (Tim Robbins), whom Beverly hopes can help Howard return to his world. After Phil is revealed to be only a janitor, Howard resigns himself to life on Earth and rejects Beverly’s aid. He soon winds up landing a job cleaning up at a local romantic spa. Due to unfair treatment by his boss, Howard ultimately quits his job and returns to Beverly, who plays in a band called Cherry Bomb. At the club where Cherry Bomb is performing, Howard comes across the group’s manager, and confronts the manager when he bad-mouths the band. A fight ensues in which Howard is victorious, before getting the manager to force Cherry Bomb out of their contract.

Howard rejoins Beverly backstage after the band’s performance and accompanies her back to the apartment, where Beverly chooses Howard to be Cherry Bomb’s new manager. The two begin to flirt and almost engage in sexual intercourse, but are interrupted when Blumburtt and two of his colleagues, Doctor Walter Jenning (Jeffrey Jones) and Larry (David Paymer), arrive and reveal how Howard came to Earth: earlier, the scientists had been working on a dimensional-jumping device that just happened to be aimed at Howard’s universe and brought him to Earth when it was activated. They theorize that Howard can be sent back to his world through a reversal of this same process, so they drive Howard to the lab with the intention of sending him back. The device malfunctions upon being used a second time, and Jenning’s body is taken over by a lifeform from another alternate dimension. When the police arrive, the resulting chaos leads Howard, Beverly and Jenning to escape from the police as Jenning’s transformation becomes more apparent. After eluding the police, they arrive at a Sushi diner where the lifeform introduces itself as the “Dark Overlord of the Universe” and demonstrates its developing mental powers by causing the table condiments to explode. Chaos ensues when a group of truckers in the diner begin to insult Howard, resulting in a fight. This results in Howard’s capture and near-decapitation at the hands of the diner chef. Meanwhile, the truckers are scared off when the Dark Overlord destroys the cafe, kidnaps Beverly, and escapes in an articulated truck. Read more

Watch full Howard the Duck online streaming for free