Flight of the Navigator is a 1986 American science fiction adventure film directed by Randal Kleiser and written by Mark H. Baker, Michael Burton, and Matt MacManus. It stars Joey Cramer as David Freeman, a 12-year-old boy who is abducted by an alien spaceship and transported from 1978 to 1986. It features an early film appearance by Sarah Jessica Parker as Carolyn McAdams, a key character who befriends David in a time of need. The film's producers initially sent the project to Walt Disney Pictures in 1984, but the studio was unable to approve it and it was sent to Producers Sales Organization, which made a deal with Disney to distribute it in the United States. It was partially shot in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Norway, being a coproduction with Norwegian company Viking Film. The film is notable for being one of the first Hollywood films to use extensive CGI effects. Specifically, it was the first use of image-based lighting, and an early use of morphing in a motion picture. It is also known to be one of the first Hollywood productions to feature an entirely electronic music film score, composed using a Synclavier, one of the first digital multi-track recorders and samplers. The film has since become a cult classic and has a large cult following among science fiction and Disney fans. In September 2017, Walt Disney Pictures announced that a reboot of it is in the works. Plot On July 4, 1978, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 12-year-old David Freeman walks through the woods to pick up his 8-year-old brother, Jeff, from a friend's house when he falls into a ravine and is knocked unconscious. When he comes to, eight years have passed and it is now 1986. He has not aged, and his appearance exactly matches his missing child poster. He is reunited with his aged parents and the now 16-year-old Jeff. Meanwhile, an alien spaceship crashes through power lines and is captured by NASA. Hospital tests on David's brainwaves reveal images of it. Dr. Louis Faraday, who has been studying it, persuades David to come to a NASA research facility for just 48 hours, promising him they can help learn what happened to him. Dr. Faraday discovers that his mind is full of alien technical manuals and star charts far exceeding NASA's research, and that he was taken to the planet Phaelon, 560 light years away, in