Davey Osborne is an average 11-year-old boy with an overactive imagination. He spends his days playing video games and pretending to be a spy with his imaginary father-figure, Jack Flack - a substitute for his real father, who is struggling with the recent death of Davey's mother. However, fantasy becomes reality for Davey after he witnesses the murder of an FBI agent, who in his dying breath, gives Davey a mysterious video game cartridge called Cloak & Dagger, which in actuality contains top-secret government information. With the help of his younger friend Kim, the tech savvy Morris, and even a little help from his fictional secret agent mentor, Davey must stay one step ahead of pursuers as he tries to survive a real-life game of espionage in the streets of San Antonio, Texas.
Acting
Dabney Coleman playing dual roles—your imaginary cool dad vs. your actual sad dad.
Direction
Richard Franklin channels Hitchcock through a suburban Texas lens.
Practical Effects
Pre-CGI tension built on real locations and actual child peril.
Director
Richard Franklin
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was the second Atari 5200 game ever developed as a movie tie-in, though the cartridge prop in the film was non-functional. The actual Cloak & Dagger game released in 1984 was notoriously difficult and barely related to the plot.
Henry Thomas was fresh off E.T. when he filmed this, and his role here helped cement the 'sensitive 80s boy protagonist' archetype that dominated family adventure films until Home Alone broke the mold.
US
