Set in the 22nd Century, Supernova follows the voyage of the deep space medical vessel Nightingale, helmed by the irreverent cartoon academic Captain Marley (Robert Forster) and the ship’s calming super-computer Sweetie. The crew gears up to make contact with a routine distress signal on the far side of the galaxy when a multidimensional malfunction leaves them hurtling towards the titular exploding star and on a collision course with a mysterious stranger carrying perhaps the most significant cargo in human history. This imaginative gem did suffer from a troubled production and an antagonistic relationship between MGM and writer-director Walter Hill. Two further directors were eventually asked to step in after Hill quit most of the way through – Jack Sholder for re-writes and re-shoots, and Francis Ford Coppola for editing. While the final product only suggests at the encompassing psychedelic grotesquerie of Hill’s original vision, it remains a singular sci-fi thriller which will provide cosmic thrills hundreds of years into the future.
