<P> The Last Starfighter, along with Disney's Tron, has the distinction of being one of cinema's earliest films to use extensive computer - generated imagery (CGI) to depict its many starships, environments and battle scenes . It is one of the first films to use CGI to represent "real - life" objects instead of digital graphics . </P> <P> The Last Starfighter was Preston's final role on the big screen (though he would do cameos in TV movies afterwards until his death in 1987). His character, a "lovable con - man", was a nod to his most famous role as Harold Hill in The Music Man . There was a subsequent novelization of the film by Alan Dean Foster, as well as a video game based on the production . In 2004, it was also adapted as an off - Broadway musical . </P> <P> Alex Rogan is a teenager living in a trailer park with his mother and younger brother, Louis . After being disapproved for a scholarship application, Alex becomes angry at his go - nowhere existence . The only entertainment in the trailer park comes from an arcade game, called "Starfighter", in which the player defends "the Frontier" from Xur and the Ko - Dan Armada in a space battle . After Alex becomes the game's highest - scoring player, he is approached by the game's inventor, Centauri, who invites him to take a ride in his fancy car as a prize for winning the game . Centauri is actually an alien and his car a spacecraft; Alex is essentially abducted, and a doppelganger android named Beta is used to cover Alex's absence . </P> <P> Alex learns that the Starfighter arcade game represents a real - life conflict between the Rylan Star League and the Ko - Dan Empire; the latter is led by Xur, a native Rylan traitor to whom the Ko - Dan Emperor has promised control of Rylos . The game was designed as a test to find those "with the gift"; Alex, expected to be the gunner for a Starfighter spacecraft called the Gunstar, befriends a reptilian pilot named Grig . He also learns that the Frontier is a forcefield protecting Rylos and its surrounding planets from invasion; Xur has given the Ko - Dan the means to breach it . </P>

Recruited alex rogan video gamer to save the galaxy in the last starfighter