These Movies Turn 40 This Year

These Movies Turn 40 This Year — 2026 Edition

I wanted to highlight our collective old age today here at Life After Gateway.

Each year, I spotlight the films that are both forty years old and fifty years old. Here is the first of the two posts, showcasing the films that are forty.

I was fifteen-turning-sixteen years old. It was an important year for me, as I was living the teen life, forging the most important relationships of my life, and also reading pivotal works and watching incredible genre films. You’ll see several of them in the below list. My preferred genres are Science Fiction, Thriller, Suspense, Horror, and Mystery, so I’ve focused on those. Other movies, like Pretty in Pink, aren’t really on my radar, but I included some of them in this list to recognize their significance to pop culture. However, you might notice that a film or two that you expected to be here, is not.

Read my story about films that turned 40 last year, here.

Read my story about films that turned 50 last year, here.

Further down, you’ll find some random thoughts and observations about these films. Enjoy!

These Films Were Released in 1986 — Forty Years Ago

Aliens
April Fools Day
Big Trouble in Little China
Black Moon Rising
Blue Velvet
Cobra
Critters
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Friday the 13th Park VI: Jason Lives
From Beyond
Gung Ho
Heartbreak Ridge
Highlander
Hoosiers
Iron Eagle
Karate Kid Part II
Labyrinth
Manhunter
Maximum Overdrive
No Retreat, No Surrender
Platoon
Police Academy 3: Back in Training
Poltergeist II
Pretty in Pink
Psycho III
Quicksilver
Raw Deal
Short Circuit
Stand by Me
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2
Top Gun
The Best of Times
The Delta Force
The Fly
The Hitcher
The Mosquito Coast
The Manhattan Project
The Name of the Rose
Witchboard

Observations:

According to IMDB, Aliens is the highest rated of the cohort, with a user rating of 8.4 from 833,000 reviewers.
In second place is Stand By Me, with a rating of 8.1, and is tied with Platoon.
Rob Reiner directed Stand By Me. I wrote some thoughts following his murder here.

There are seven sequels in the list.
There are a few notable cult classics, specifically: Big Trouble in Little China, No Retreat-No Surrender, Labyrinth, Highlander, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
Stallone and Schwartzenegger only appeared in one each (Cobra and Raw Deal, respectively).
Kurt Russell appeared in two this year: Big Trouble in Little China and The Best of Times.
Sean Connery is also in two, and both are classics: Highlander and The Name of the Rose.
There are two Stephen King properties here, and they couldn’t be more different: Maximum Overdrive and Stand by Me.
Last year, the notable 40 year-old movies featured a glut of action films and sequels. This year, there is a distinct lack of actioners.
Star Trek IV was a perfect capstone to the unofficial trilogy that included The Wrath of Khan and The Search for Spock. It was funny and lighthearted, which is exactly what fans needed after the heaviness of the previous two films. Leonard Nimoy recognized this, and spearheaded the entire project, including once again taking on the directorial duties.
Black Moon Rising starred Tommy Lee Jones before he was a household name. An interesting note is that the film’s writer was John Carpenter, whose film Big Trouble in Little China also came out this year.

Big Trouble in Little China famously failed at the box office, which I wrote about here. This event steered Carpenter into his “Low Budget Era” of filmmaking, during which he held more control over every aspect of his films’ productions. In the Summer of 1986, BTILC competed with Ferris Bueller and Aliens, and at the time, people just didn’t understand that Jack Burton was not the hero — Wang was. Jack was the sidekick. Big Trouble failed horribly, and as with most other Carpenter films, it found its audience much later.
Aliens is James Cameron’s fantastic follow-up to Ridley Scott’s Alien. He went in a different direction — action instead of horror — and it was a brilliant decision. Audiences loved it. It is also included in my list of The Best Movie Sequels Of All Time.
Two of the movies in the list are currently being remade: Highlander, starring Henry Cavill, and Labyrinth.
Top Gun is a notable film from 1986. The recent sequel was magnificent and is also included on my list of the The Best Movie Sequels of All Time.
The Hitcher is widely considered one of the most suspenseful films of the era, but famous reviewers Siskel & Ebert absolutely hated it. Rutger Hauer portrayed the psychotic killer.

The Fly is one of the best remakes in film history. David Cronenberg directed. Strangely, Mel Brooks, the famous comedian behind Spaceballs and History of the World, produced it. It wasn’t my introduction to Jeff Goldblum, however; I’d seen him before, in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978).
Iron Eagle was a fun movie, though clearly utterly unrealistic. I had seen Lou Gossett Jr. the previous year, in Enemy Mine.
Critters is considered a Gremlins knock off, which came out the year before, but with a more gory and violent angle. Director Stephen Herek disputes this, saying that the script for Critters was written before Gremlins.

Many people credit Friday the 13th Part VI as being the best of the series. (This is the one where a lightning bolt reanimates Jason’s corpse.) Personally, I prefer Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, starring Crispin Glover and Corey Feldman.
Maximum Overdrive was directed by Stephen King, who was also prominently featured in the film’s trailer, saying, “A lot of people have directed Stephen King novels and stories … and I finally decided, if you want something done right, you outta do it yourself … I’m gonna scare the hell out of you.” Strangely, his other film that year, Stand By Me, is largely considered the best adaptation of his work, alongside The Shawshank Redemption, and not Maximum Overdrive.
Manhunter was the first appearance in film of Dr. Hannibal Lecter, who later became a household name after The Silence of the Lambs. Manhunter was based on the novel, Red Dragon, which was filmed again in 2002.
Hoosiers is widely considered one of the great sports movies of all time. Gene Hackman, during filming, thought it was going to be terrible and often questioned/criticized the first-time director, David Anspaugh. After viewing the final product, Hackman apparently approached Anspaugh to congratulate him; he couldn’t believe that what they had shot turned out so well.
Heartbreak Ridge is one of my favourite Clint Eastwood films. In it, he mentors a collection of recruits and forges them into a cohesive unit.
Karate Kid Part II was a feel-good sequel. It was a huge hit at the time among my peers — as was the movie’s featured song by Peter Cetera, Glory of Love.

In those years, everyone loved slasher films. April Fools Day was marketed as such … and yet, when we saw it in theatres, audiences were dismayed to discover that the entire film was in fact a prank. I’m sure the filmmakers had fun with that, but filmgoers were generally not amused.
Ah, Stand By Me. It is tough to write about this film, because I feel it on such a visceral level. It’s about the loss of childhood and innocence, and how boys grow to men and largely lose the lighthearted nature of those early times and, due to escalating responsibilities of manhood and work and growing families, abandon connections with friends from those days. Perhaps it’s why I work so hard at maintaining close relationships with my childhood friends. I’m unsure. However, it’s a wonderful film that every child — at the cusp of becoming a teen — should see. (I felt the same heartbreak and loss at the end of Stranger Things, at the final D&D campaign. You can read about my emotions during that scene here.)

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A Blanket of Steel by Timothy S. Johnston and from Fitzhenry & Whiteside, LTD. is the recipient of the 2024 GLOBAL Thriller Award GRAND PRIZE and the 2024 CYGNUS Award First in Category.

— Timothy S. Johnston, 21 January 2025

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Praise for Timothy S. Johnston’s A Blanket of Steel

“Fans of Clive Cussler’s NUMA Files will be delighted with Timothy S. Johnston’s undersea novels. Truman McClusky and Dirk Pitt are cut from the same adventurer’s cloth.” — Nick Cutter, author of The Deep and The Troop

“Action that ranges from close range combat to torpedo-fueled attacks. The result is a thriller that keeps moving from confrontation to confrontation … with constant danger and the vast depths of the ocean as a setting, there is always reason to keep reading.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Read the book and prepare to be blown away by one of the best writers I have ever had the pleasure to read. Timothy S. Johnston is simply amazing.” — FIVE Stars from Readers’ Favorite

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“Innovative technology, Mac taking risks no one else would dare and thinking his way through to brilliant solutions … But the stakes are higher than they’ve ever been before. This is it. The countdown to the final battle … Johnston does an excellent job of keeping the tension taut as he plays with the reader’s perceptions of characters we thought we knew and trusted …” — SFcrowsnest

“Expect to be left breathless. Trust me here. Please. I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN.” — Michael Libling, author of The Serial Killer’s Son Takes A Wife and Hollywood North: A Novel in Six Reels

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A BLANKET OF STEEL is out now!

WATCH THE GRIPPING BOOK TRAILER HERE.

FOR PURCHASE OPTIONS CLICK HERE

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A Blanket of Steel from Timothy S. Johnston and Fitzhenry & Whiteside, Ltd.

Book Cover & Jacket Copy:

AN UNSTOPPABLE THREAT!

A mysterious assassin has murdered Cliff Sim, Chief Security Officer of the underwater colony, Trieste. Cliff was a mountain of a man, highly trained, and impossible to defeat in combat. And yet …

Someone brutally beat him and left his broken body in a secret Chinese facility at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.

And included a calling card for Truman McClusky, Mayor of Trieste.

Taunting him.

Mac has led the underwater colonies in their fight against the world’s superpowers. Climate change has devastated the surface; nations suffer famine, drought, rebellion, rising waters, and apocalyptic coastal flooding. But now, as Mac leads the underwater colonies to freedom and independence, he’s faced with the gravest threat of his life: a Russian assassin, hellbent on killing Mac and everyone he cares for. Now Mac must uncover the identity of the killer, face him in combat, and at the same time lead people in battle against the largest underwater force ever assembled. It’s Mac’s final test, and to win the war, he must use every tool at his disposal, including the most surprising and devastating underwater weapons ever invented.

If Mac fails, all hope is lost for the future of human colonization on the ocean floors.

But the assassin could be anyone …

Watch your back, Mac.

A Blanket of Steel is the most gripping thriller yet in The Rise of Oceania.

FOR PURCHASE OPTIONS CLICK HERE

The other books in The Rise of Oceania series by Timothy S Johnston:

The War Beneath 9781771484718
The Savage Deeps 9781771485067
Fatal Depth 9781554555574
An Island of Light 9781554555819
The Shadow of War 9781554556007