Jeff Bridges and Karen Allen in Starman (1984)
Vitals
Jeff Bridges as “Star Man”, an alien taking the humanoid form of Scott Hayden
Wisconsin to Arizona, Spring 1984
Film: Starman
Release Date: December 14, 1984
Director: John Carpenter
Men’s Costumer: Andy Hylton
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Happy 75th birthday to Jeff Bridges, born December 4, 1949. The actor received his third Academy Award nomination for Starman, an interdimensional dramedy considered by director John Carpenter to be his sci-fi twist on romantic classics like It Happened One Night and Brief Encounter. Released 40 years ago this month in December 1984, Starman remains Carpenter’s second-highest grossing movie.
The movie begins seven years after NASA launched the Voyager 2 space probe designed for diplomatic contact with extra-terrestrials when the eponymous “Star Man” crashes to Earth outside the remote Chequamegon Bay in northern Wisconsin. He takes refuge in the lakeside home of young widow Jenny Hayden (Karen Allen) while she skims through memories of her late husband Scott, inadvertently providing the opportunity for our Star Man to assume his likeness.
After initially freaking Jenny out by morphing from an alien-looking child into the form of her deceased husband standing nude before her, Star Man uses his loose grasp of language—despite knowing how to communicate “greetings” in 54 of them, including English—to compel her to drive him to his designated meeting point somewhere in “Arizona maybe”, at the wheel of the burnt-orange ’77 Mustang she had shared with Scott. (An appropriate set of wheels to kick off this winter installment of BAMF Style’s semiannual #CarWeek segment!)
Starman qualifies as one of my favorite cinematic subgenres, which is “Jeff Bridges clearly having a great time being charmingly weird.” Evidently, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences agreed, as Bridges’ Academy Award nomination for his performance makes Starman the only film directed by John Carpenter to have received an Oscar nomination.
What’d He Wear?
Star Man dresses in the late Scott Hayden’s clothes, including the red-and-black buffalo plaid flannel shirt he was wearing in the home videos that Jenny was watching before bed, transforming him to resemble the blue-collar Midwest house painter that Scott had been in life.
Jenny watches home video of her late husband Scott.
The red-and-black buffalo check was developed in the mid-19th century when the Pennsylvania-based Woolrich mill adapted it from the Scottish “Rob Roy” tartan, and the hardy plaid became indelibly associated with rugged American outdoorsmen and lumberjacks for more than a century to follow.
Scott’s shirt “borrowed” by Star Man follows a traditional work-shirt design with its largepoint collar, front placket, single-button cuffs, and two chest pockets. Each covered with a single-button squared flap, the pockets rotate the cloth 45°. All of the buttons are black plastic with four sew-through holes.
Star Man (and later Jenny) also wears Scott’s leather jacket, trimmed with a dark-brown fur collar to resemble the classic G-1 flight jacket developed for U.S. Navy aviators and popularized later in the decade by Tom Cruise in Top Gun.
The shell is a dark-brown leather, with a silver-toned straight-zip front reinforced by a storm fly that fastens with an additional silver-toned snap at the top and bottom. The waist-length blouson has dark-brown wool ribbing around the waist hem and cuffs. The shoulders have epaulet straps (which naval officers would use for rank insignia) and set-in sleeves. The large patch-style hip pockets each have a gently pointed flap that closes through a single snap; these snaps and the ones on the front fly are painted over in dark-brown to match the rest of the jacket.
Scott’s khaki cotton gabardine trousers are another military-informed staple, having widely caught on during the mid-20th century after American servicemen continued wearing their comfortable yet hardy khaki slacks during civilian life. These flat-front trousers have belt loops (which remain unused by Star Man), slightly curved side pockets, jetted back pockets (with a button through the left), and plain-hemmed bottoms.
His shoes are the classic black-and-white high-top Converse Chuck Taylor All-Star basketball sneakers, characterized by the round leather patches reinforcing each ankle. These white patches are detailed in blue with Converse’s five-pointed logo star, flanked on each side by Chuck Taylor’s signature and the red-printed “CONVERSE” and “ALL STAR” text above and below it, creating patriotic red, white, and blue imagery that reinforce these sneakers’ all-American style.
The shoes have been generally unchanged since they were introduced in 1922, at which time they were the first celebrity-endorsed athletic footwear. The soft cotton canvas uppers have flat white woven laces pulled derby-style through nickel eyelets, contrasted against the white rubber toe-caps and outsoles. Star Man wears his black Chucks with light-gray socks.
Decades before Succession redefined the “stealth wealth” factor of plain-looking baseball caps, Star Man wears Scott’s simple bright-red cap. Rather than the canvas twill used on most baseball caps, Scott’s cap is made from a napped cotton flannel shell that likely kept its wearer slightly warmer. The cap otherwise follows the traditional six-panel structure with a small ventilation hole through each panel and a cloth-covered button on the top.
The Gun
Jenny “greets” Star Man by drawing the same Colt M1911A1 pistol that Scott had been demonstrating how to shoot in the home video, thus also giving Star Man some instructions on how to use it himself. This venerable semi-automatic pistol was designed by John M. Browning and found immediate success as the standard American service pistol for much of the 20th century following its 1911 introduction and a subsequent redesign in the 1920s.
Though many other manufacturers were contracted to create M1911A1 pistols during World War II and even more have designed their own iterations in the decades since, the slide markings on the Haydens’ blued pistol suggest a genuine .45-caliber Colt M1911A1.
Star Man keeps Scott and Jenny’s M1911A1 on his lap.
Weighing nearly two-and-a-half pounds even with an unloaded magazine, the mil-spec M1911A1 is equipped to fire .45 ACP ammunition fed from seven-round box magazines. The single-action design means a round must be chambered and the hammer cocked in order to fire a shot.
The Cars
Star Man learns to drive by watching Jenny (“Red light, stop. Green light, go. Yellow light, go very fast.”) at the wheel of her “vista orange” 1977 Ford Mustang Cobra II, described in dialogue as a “hopped-up orange-and-black 1977 Mustang”.
Ford debuted the iconic Mustang for the “1964½” model year, essentially creating the “pony car” market segment alongside the Plymouth Barracuda that debuted two weeks prior. After nearly a decade of redesigns, the Mustang increased in size while it decreased in sales through the early ’70s, sending Ford president Lee Iacocca back to the drawing board.
Redesigned for the 1974 model year, the new “Mustang II” returned to the philosophy that drove the development of pony cars as sporty, compact, and affordable rather than the bulky muscle of latter first-generation Mustangs. The fall 1973 launch coincided during the oil embargo that drove fuel shortages around the world, fortuitous timing for the arrival of the smaller and more fuel-efficient Mustang II. Nearly 500 pounds lighter and 19 inches shorter than its predecessor, the 1974 Mustang was the first model year without a V8 offering, powered only by a base 140 cubic-inch (2.3 L) straight-four or an optional 2.8-liter V6.
With nearly 300,000 units sold and Motor Trend‘s 1974 Car of the Year award among its accolades, the Mustang II was a market hit. By the second year of production, Ford again was able to emphasize performance as the oil crisis began fading from consumers’ memories and added a 302 V8 that was unfortunately ill-suited to the new Mustang’s dimensions. While sales fell nearly 50% from the previous year, Ford still sold nearly 200,000 Mustangs in ’75.
For 1976, Ford introduced the “Cobra II” appearance package with a black grille, simulated hood scoop, front and rear spoilers, quarter window louvers, and dual over-the-top racing stripes with matching lower rocker stripes and cobra emblems on the front fenders to echo the first-generation Shelby Mustangs. In tandem with better engineering to handle the V8, the Cobra II package improved sales across 1976 into 1977.
Ford offered the Cobra II package regardless of engine: the 2.3 L straight-four, the 2.8 L V6, or the improved 4.9 L 302 V8. Each engine could be mated to either a four-speed manual transmission or the three-speed “Cruise-O-Matic” automatic. Though it features the latter transmission, no other indication is given of the motor powering Jenny’s Cobra II in Starman, aside from the dialogue describing it as “hopped-up,” which could suggest the most powerful V8 option.
1977 Ford Mustang Cobra II
Body Style: 2-door hatchback coupe
Layout: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive (RWD)
Engine: 302 cu. in. (4.9 L) Ford Windsor V8 with Motorcraft 2-barrel carburetor
Power: 132 hp (98.5 kW; 134 PS) @ 3600 RPM
Torque: 228 lb·ft (309 N·m) @ 1600 RPM
Transmission: 3-speed Ford Cruise-O-Matic automatic
Wheelbase: 96.2 inches (2443 mm)
Length: 175 inches (4445 mm)
Width: 70.2 inches (1783 mm)
Height: 50 inches (1270 mm)
After the Mustang II’s success continued in 1978, Ford rode the momentum into crafting the model’s third generation that would be introduced on the “Fox” platform for the 1979 model year and the entirety of the following decade.
While consumers clearly responded to the economical Mustang II, automotive enthusiasts have retrospectively criticized it for abandoning aspects of what made the original Mustang so special, exemplifying the “Malaise era” that negatively impacted American automotive design through the 1970s and early ’80s.
After using his extraterrestrial talents to score a major jackpot on a Las Vegas slot machine, Star Man wins he and Jenny a brand-new silver 1984 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz coupe to ride in style for the last leg of their journey, approximately 300 miles southeast to Winslow, Arizona.
Of this generation of Cadillac’s venerated Eldorado, the 1984 model year was the most popular with just over 74,500 sold. While a diesel-powered 5.7 L V8 was optional, the base engine was a 4.1 L V8 that generated 135 horsepower and was mated to GM’s four-speed Turbo Hydramatic transmission. (If you’re a fan of seeing silver Eldorado Biarritz coupes from the early ’80s in Vegas, you may also be interested in the explosive opening scene of Casino.)
How to Get the Look
Jeff Bridges in Starman (1984)
From the late Scott Hayden’s closet, Star Man builds a ruggedly casual look rooted in American staples, from military-inspired classics like his fur-collared flight jacket and khakis to sporty touches like a baseball cap and basketball sneakers, anchored by the outdoorsy red-and-black buffalo plaid “lumberjack” shirt. Everything he wears would have existed to some degree by 1944, still looked great when Starman was produced and set forty years later in 1984, and continue to be stylish yet another forty years later.
- Red-and-black buffalo plaid flannel long-sleeved work shirt with large point collar, front placket, two chest pockets (with single-button flaps), and single-button cuffs
- Dark-brown leather flight jacket with dark-brown fur collar, shoulder epaulets, straight-zip front (with top and bottom snaps), two patch hip pockets (with single-snap flaps), and dark-brown ribbed wool cuffs and waist hem
- Khaki cotton gabardine flat-front trousers with belt loops, gently slanted side pockets, jetted back pockets (with button-through left), and plain-hemmed bottoms
- Black-and-white Converse Chuck Taylor All Star high-top basketball sneakers with black cotton canvas uppers, white laces, and white rubber outsoles and toe caps
- Light-gray socks
- Red flannel baseball cap
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the movie.
The Quote
You are a strange species—not like any other. And you’d be surprised how many there are. Intelligent but savage. Shall I tell you what I find beautiful about you? You are at your very best when things are worst.
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