1984, A Most Excellent & Totally Tubular Year in Movie History

We remember the movies that turned 40 in 2024 (which doesn't even make sense because we're all still 30, but whatevs)

If you were more than 5 years old in ‘84, you remember this most epic year. I was 9, a scrappy 4th grader who was tying bandana bows in her hair ala Madonna and still collecting scratch & sniff stickers. 1984 was THE year to see films on the big screen, and how much those movies made a cultural impact can’t be overstated: the ripple effect can be seen even today.

But let’s start with some trauma dumping, because what else would you expect on a GenX Substack. Longtime readers are already aware that 1984 released the most disturbing films I saw as a child, but I’d forgotten to mention in that piece how watching those zombified people in Night of the Comet fucked me up and witnessing Artax sink into the quicksand on the big screen in The Neverending Story cemented my fear of quicksand (a common GenX fear, I’ve since learned).

Turns out this is an allegory for depression, which makes this movie deep AF (no pun intended)

Speaking of horror, 1984 introduced some of the most iconic terrifying films of all time like A Nightmare On Elm Street, Children of the Corn, and Ghostbusters. Okay I know Ghostbusters isn’t actually a horror movie but I couldn’t have been the only GenXer around my age at the time who was frightened out of their wits by the scary librarian ghost in the opening sequence, right? Not to mention, this is the film that had us dreading someone replying “Ghostbusters!” the next time we ask someone who they’re going to call.

Then there’s Gremlins, in a class all its own. Seriously, what the fuck genre does this movie belong in? When I got a job in a video store as a teenager, the company made us put stickers that warned “THIS IS NOT A KIDS MOVIE” on the VHS box. Okay, so we can scratch that genre off the list, but that didn’t stop parents from bringing their kids to see it on the big screen in ‘84. So does the scene with the gremlins in the blender and microwave make it a horror movie? Not to most adults, but it’s horrifying enough that many would scratch it off the Christmas movie genre even though it’s set during the holiday. The tone of Gremlins is a unique mishmash of several genres, one reason it was one of the blockbusters of 1984.

Marketing a Gremlins cereal for kids proves its a kid’s movie, we just need to accept they didn’t give a flying frog about our emotional health back then

1984 gave us the Purple One’s chart-topping album and biopic Purple Rain, a film I’d written about in this piece titled “Prince Used To Frequent the Frozen Yogurt Shop I Worked At”. Go ahead—take a peek—I’ll be here for you when you get done reading.

The Karate Kid has been one of the juggernauts of ‘84. It led to an enormous spike in karate lessons across the country (one of my best friends at the time started taking lessons with her entire family), several sequels and remakes, and crane-kicked its way into the 21st century with the awesomely nostalgic Cobra Kai series. If you haven’t watched Cobra Kai I highly recommend it, watching Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence in the prime of middle age struggle to leave their baggage in the past and become competitors and then frenemies while teaching a new batch of karate kids is sentimental fun.

One of the most triumphant moments in movie history is when Daniel-san clocked Johnny in the face with his foot, homie fucked around and found out

I previously delved into my particular love for Beverly Hills Cop, the Year of Perpetual Blockbuster Entertainment’s highest grossing film. It catapulted Eddie Murphy to A-list status, proving to the studio they made the smart casting choice when they replaced Sylvester Stallone with Murphy, flipping it from a sullen action film to an action comedy. The result was a chef’s kiss blend of laughs, mystery, and shoot-outs.

1984 produced some cinematic masterpieces (too much?) I didn’t watch until at least a few years later. The Terminator, Amadeus, This Is Spinal Tap, Footloose, Sixteen Candles, Romancing the Stone, Muppets Take Manhattan, 2010: The Year We Make Contact, Breakin’, and Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo.

It looks like off-the-charts cheese and you’d be correct