50 Fun Facts About Spaceballs

Spaceballs was released in which year?

MGM/UA put it out on 24 June, a decade after the first Star Wars.

Which studio released Spaceballs in June 1987?

Its 2027 sequel comes from Amazon MGM Studios.

Which two roles does Mel Brooks play in Spaceballs?

Yogurt breaks the fourth wall to flog Spaceballs merchandise: the flamethrower, the lunchbox, the toilet paper.

Who plays the hero, Lone Starr?

Brooks had tried and failed to sign Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks; he spotted Pullman in a play.

Which big-name actors did Mel Brooks unsuccessfully try to sign for Spaceballs?

Bill Pullman got the part instead after Brooks and Anne Bancroft saw him on stage.

John Candy plays Barf, who describes himself as what?

He is Lone Starr's own best friend, tail and ears included.

Who plays Dark Helmet?

In the original script the whole costume was meant to be one gigantic helmet.

What do the Spaceballs need in order to steal Druidia's atmosphere?

Skroob's plan would destroy the planet in the process.

Who plays Princess Vespa?

She initially thought Brooks's parodies were 'too crass and not too funny', then changed her mind on set.

Who provides the voice of Princess Vespa's droid, Dot Matrix?

Mime Lorene Yarnell was inside the costume.

Vespa flees an arranged marriage to a narcoleptic royal named what?

He is her father King Roland's choice; she has already rejected every other suitor.

What is the name of the Spaceball president?

'Skroob' is an anagram of Brooks.

Why do the Spaceballs want to steal Druidia's air?

The film opens in a galaxy 'very, very, very, very far away'.

What kind of vehicle is Lone Starr's spaceship, Eagle 5?

A scale model of it was auctioned in December 2018.

Which crime boss is owed one million space bucks by Lone Starr and Barf?

He later eats himself to death, wiping out the debt.

How does the crime boss owed a million space bucks die?

Lone Starr and Barf learn the news on TV, absolving them of their debt.

On which desert moon does Eagle 5 crash-land after running out of fuel?

There the heroes meet the tiny robed Dink-Dinks and are taken to Yogurt's temple.

What is the name of the mystical power that Yogurt teaches Lone Starr to use?

He channels it at first through a ring, but learns in the end that 'the Schwartz is in you'.

Who rescues the stranded heroes in the desert and takes them to Yogurt?

The diminutive robed aliens are Brooks's take on the Jawas.

How does Dark Helmet track down Princess Vespa's location?

He then uses the Schwartz to disguise himself as her father and lure her out of Yogurt's temple.

How does Dark Helmet force King Roland to hand over the air-shield code?

Roland caves instantly.

Spaceball One transforms into what to suck the atmosphere off Druidia?

Lone Starr uses the Schwartz to flip the vacuum from suck to blow.

How does Lone Starr finally win the ring-beam duel inside the giant robot?

Helmet flies straight into the self-destruct button.

Why are the three Spaceball leaders left behind on the exploding robot ship?

The three end up marooned on the Planet of the Apes.

How does Lone Starr learn he is a prince, allowing him to marry Vespa?

He arrives just in time to stop the wedding to Prince Valium.

Who plays Colonel Sandurz, Dark Helmet's second-in-command?

He is one of the cast reprising their roles in the 2027 sequel.

Which actor cameos in Spaceballs as a parody of his own chest-bursting character from Alien?

The creature that pops out then performs 'Hello! Ma Baby' like the frog in One Froggy Evening.

What condition did George Lucas place on Mel Brooks in exchange for letting him parody Star Wars?

Brooks turned the ban into the joke, writing Yogurt's 'Merchandising' scene in response.

How did George Lucas react to the finished film?

Lucas's own company handled some post-production, and he said he was afraid he 'would bust something from laughing'.

Which Spaceballs-branded products appear in the film as Brooks's merchandising gag?

Yogurt's merchandising speech name-checks the flamethrower too.

Which film beat Spaceballs to number one on its opening weekend in June 1987?

Spaceballs took $6.6 million that weekend.

How many stars out of four did Roger Ebert give Spaceballs?

He said he kept thinking he was at a revival, since the appetite for Star Wars satire was already exhausted; Siskel gave it three.

Which car company named its acceleration modes 'Ludicrous' and 'Plaid' in homage to Spaceballs?

Spaceball One goes from light speed to ridiculous speed to ludicrous speed, and finally 'they've gone to plaid'.

Spaceballs: The Animated Series debuted in 2008 on which US network?

Brooks, Zuniga and Joan Rivers returned; Pullman, Moranis and Wyner did not.

Spaceballs: The New One, announced in 2025, is co-written by Brooks and which Frozen star?

Josh Greenbaum directs, and Bill Pullman's real-life son Lewis was cast as Lone Starr and Vespa's son.

In Spaceballs: The New One, Lewis Pullman plays Lone Starr and Vespa's son, named what?

Keke Palmer was cast as Destiny.

Which Brooks regular, star of his Blazing Saddles and History of the World, has a cameo in Spaceballs?

He voices Pizza the Hutt; Rudy De Luca is the other cameoing regular.

Besides Star Wars, Spaceballs parodies all of these EXCEPT which?

It also takes shots at 2001, Planet of the Apes and Transformers.

Which 1987 'award' did Spaceballs win, at odds with its cult status?

Rotten Tomatoes has been kinder since.

Who plays King Roland of Druidia?

The Eight Is Enough star hands over the shield code, which is famously 1-2-3-4-5.

Where did the actors playing Dark Helmet and Barf first work together before Spaceballs?

Both were part of Toronto's Second City television troupe.

The actor who plays Dark Helmet largely stepped away from acting from 1997; why?

He was announced in 2025 as returning to on-camera work for the Spaceballs sequel.

Mel Brooks is one of the few people to have won which set of awards?

Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony; The Producers alone won 12 Tonys on Broadway.

The actor who plays Lone Starr made his film debut the year before Spaceballs in which comedy?

He later played the President in Independence Day.

The actress who plays Princess Vespa later starred as Jo Reynolds on which 1990s soap?

She was announced in 2025 as returning as Vespa in the Spaceballs sequel.

The Spaceballs soundtrack was released on which label?

It included three score cues by Brooks's regular composer John Morris.

Which future Goosebumps author wrote the Spaceballs novelization under the pen name 'Jovial Bob'?

The Goosebumps author shared credit with Mel Brooks, Thomas Meehan and Ronny Graham, and the book came out on June 1, 1987.

What was the estimated production budget of Spaceballs?

The film took just over $40 million in the United States, including $6.6 million on its opening weekend.

Which comedian plays the radar technician who can mimic the radar's sounds with his mouth?

Winslow's vocal sound effects were already famous from the Police Academy films.

Who composed the three score cues included on the Spaceballs soundtrack album?

Morris was a frequent Brooks collaborator; La-La Land Records issued a '19th Anniversary Edition' of the score in 2006.