The Boy Who Could Fly landed on home video today in 1987, following its theatrical release on August 15, 1986.
Some movies linger in the imagination in ways that feel almost uncanny. Like E.T. or The NeverEnding Story, they don’t just exist as films we watched – they feel like memories, things we lived. After all, I, too, rode around with a basket strapped to the front of my BMX. I, too, skulked away into dark corners with books I couldn’t put down. And I’ve never been fully unconvinced that I could fly. It’s just a matter of putting in the effort. Some day.
But this movie has always had a special place in my heart. It’s about a teenage girl, Milly (Lucy Deakins), who moves to a new town with her struggling single mom and her G.I. Joe-obsessed little brother. Next door lives Eric, a quiet, autistic boy who doesn’t speak, doesn’t react, and spends his days sitting on a windowsill, arms outstretched, like he’s waiting for the wind to carry him away. The whole town thinks he’s lost in his own world. But as the story unfolds, you start to wonder – maybe, just maybe, he really can fly.
The Boy Who Could Fly plays it quiet. It’s mostly a study in grief and isolation, about kids navigating things way bigger than them. Fred Savage, in one of his earliest roles, plays Milly’s little brother, tormented by bullies and finding comfort in his toy soldier army. Meanwhile, Jay Underwood’s performance as Eric is haunting – never a caricature, always deeply felt.
Nick (The Last Starfighter) Castle’s The Boy Who Could Fly is one of those films where, if you saw it as a kid, you’ll always remember that ending – the kind that leaves you staring at the credits, wondering if what you just saw was even real.