Cloak & Dagger Became More than an Atari Game
Okay, this is one of those movies that fans have been pirating off Youtube for years in 11-minute chunks (it is on Netflix now). Cloak & Dagger is a cult classic in all sense of the term and it hit theaters 30 years ago, today. The interesting thing about this movie is that it had a game of the same name that was featured here and there in the movie too (at least the arcade version was). The Atari 5200 version of Cloak & Dagger was never completed, even though the stars in the movie are seen passing around an Atari 5200 cartridge in several scenes.
Now that we have that out of the way onto the movie itself. Davey is an average 11-year-old that has lost his mother and has a father that is far more engrossed in his job than being a father. To handle his daily routine, Davey plays video games, A LOT of video games. So much so that he loses himself in them and allows them to foster his creative imagination, which sets the movie up and the various scenes you will see him battle through.
One such imaginary friend, a super spy named Jack Flack, is there to offer advice and tips on how to handle challenges that Davey faces in the movie. Sometimes this advice is great and other times, Jack is nowhere to be found to warn Davey of troubles he is about to face which re-enforces the fact that Jack Flack is imaginary and can’t see the future. Davey tries throughout the movie to get closer to his dad but it is no good, his dad is not interested in hearing about games, imaginary worlds or generally what Davey is up to while they are apart.
Cloak & Dagger calls into question the power of imagination, fatherly duties and the strength of the family unit. There is a large, dedicated, cult following for Cloak & Dagger. For those that have not been able to legally obtain their copy we have collected some online retailers that carry it below.
eBay
Amazon