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Mazes and Monsters
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{{short description|1982 television film starring Tom Hanks}} {{about|the 1982 television film|Rona Jaffe's 1981 book|Mazes and Monsters (novel){{!}}''Mazes and Monsters'' (novel)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=April 2025}} {{Use American English|date=January 2025}} {{Infobox television | image = MazesMonstersVHSCover.jpg | caption = VHS cover | genre = {{plainlist| * [[Fantasy drama]] * [[Psychological thriller]] }} | based_on = {{based on|''[[Mazes and Monsters (novel)|Mazes and Monsters]]''|[[Rona Jaffe]]}} | writer = [[Tom Lazarus]] | director = [[Steven Hilliard Stern]] | starring = {{plainlist| * [[Tom Hanks]] * [[Chris Makepeace]] * [[Wendy Crewson]] * [[David Wallace (American actor)|David Wallace]] * [[Lloyd Bochner]] * [[Peter Donat]] * [[Louise Sorel]] * [[Susan Strasberg]] }} | music = {{plainlist| * [[Hagood Hardy]] * Judith Lander (song "Friends in This World") }} | country = United States | language = English | executive_producer = Tom McDermott | producer = Richard Briggs | cinematography = Laszlo George | editor = Bill Parker | runtime = 100 minutes | company = {{plainlist| * McDermott Productions * [[Procter & Gamble Productions]] }} | network = [[CBS]] | released = {{Start date|1982|12|28}} }} '''''Mazes and Monsters''''', also known as '''''Rona Jaffe's Mazes and Monsters''''', is a 1982 American [[television film|made-for-television]] film directed by [[Steven Hilliard Stern]] about a group of [[college]] students and their interest in a fictitious [[role-playing game]] (RPG) of the same name.<ref name=NYT>{{cite web|work=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/12/28/arts/tv-mazes-and-monsters-fantasy.html|title=TV: 'MAZES AND MONSTERS,' FANTASY|author=O'Connor, John J.|date=December 28, 1982|access-date=2018-05-21}}</ref> The film stars [[Tom Hanks]] in his first lead acting role.<ref name="Wired">{{cite news|last=Kushner |first=David |title=Dungeon Master: The Life and Legacy of Gary Gygax |work=Wired.com |url=http://archive.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/news/2008/03/ff_gygax?currentPage=all |accessdate=2008-10-16 |date=March 10, 2008 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20141031210259/http://archive.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/news/2008/03/ff_gygax?currentPage=all |archivedate=October 31, 2014 }}</ref> ==Plot== The film begins ''[[in medias res]]'' with a scene in which a reporter meets with police searching a cavern. He is told a game of ''Mazes and Monsters'' got out of hand. Robbie Wheeling starts college at Grant University and soon develops a group of friends, all of whom have personal problems and issues. Jay-Jay feels marginalized by his mother, who constantly redecorates his room since she cannot make up her mind about the best look. In his "self-decorating", he wears a variety of unusual hats. Kate has had a series of failed relationships, and suffers from her father leaving home; Daniel's parents reject his dream of becoming a [[video game designer]]; and Robbie's alcoholic mother and strict father fight constantly, and he is still tormented by the mysterious disappearance of his brother, Hall. They are fans of ''Mazes and Monsters'', a [[fantasy]] [[role-playing game]] over which Robbie was kicked out of his last school when he became too obsessed with it. Though he is reluctant, the other three students convince him to start playing again with them. Through the course of playing the game, Robbie and Kate begin a romantic relationship; he confides in her that he still has nightmares about his missing brother. Eventually, Jay-Jay, upset by feeling left out by his friends, decides to commit suicide in a local cavern. In the process of planning it, he changes his mind and decides the cavern would be better suited to a new ''Mazes and Monsters'' campaign. He kills off his character to force them to start a new campaign, in which he says they will be [[live action role-playing game|living out their fantasy]]. He proposes playing his new game in a disused and condemned cavern, and dismisses the warnings from his friends β who reluctantly agree to participate. During the actual spelunking, Robbie experiences a [[psychosis|psychotic]] episode involving the last time he saw his brother, and hallucinates that he has slain a monster called a Gorvil. From this point forward, Robbie believes he is actually his character, the cleric Pardieu. This leads him to break off his relationship with Kate (to maintain celibacy) and start drawing maps that will lead him to a sacred place he has seen in his dreams, the Great Hall. In his dream, the Great Hall tells him to go to the Two Towers, and he disappears. Robbie's friends report him to the police while concealing their trip into the caverns. They and police investigators suspect he is deceased. Robbie travels to [[New York City]], where he stabs a mugger whom he imagines to be a monster. He sees blood on his knife, then his bloodied clothes in a window, and breaks out of his delusions long enough to call Kate from a payphone. After he agrees to go to Jay-Jay's house, a delusion leads him into the subway. Not finding him at Jay-Jay's house, the friends deduce Robbie has equated the Two Towers with the Twin Towers of the [[World Trade Center (1973β2001)|World Trade Center]]. Robbie believes that by jumping off one of them and casting a spell, he will finally join the Great Hall. After a search, his friends spot him wandering in the South Tower lobby. They fail to get his attention before Robbie proceeds to the elevator and end up on the observation deck. Using the game's rules, they succeed in stopping him from jumping, once again pulling him out of his delusion. The film ends with the friends visiting Robbie at his parents' estate, hoping to pick up their friendship where they left off. Though he is now in regular counseling, it is implied that Robbie will live out the rest of his life trapped in his imaginary world, believing he is Pardieu, that his friends are their characters, and that he is living at an inn (actually his parents' home) and paying for his boarding with a coin that "magically" reappears in his pouch each morning. He then tells his shocked friends of a great evil lurking in the forest across the lake, believing that it threatens the lives of the "innkeeper" and his wife. The three, feeling sorry for Robbie and guilty for their role in his psychotic break, decide to engage him in a "game" of ''Mazes and Monsters'', letting Robbie dictate the events to them. In the end, Kate says, "And so ... we played the game again ... for one last time." ==Cast== * [[Tom Hanks]] as Robbie Wheeling * [[Chris Makepeace]] as Jay "Jay-Jay" Brockway * [[Wendy Crewson]] as Kate Finch * [[David Wallace (American actor)|David Wysocki]] as Daniel * [[Lloyd Bochner]] as Hall * [[Peter Donat]] as Harold * [[Louise Sorel]] as Julia * [[Susan Strasberg]] as Meg * [[Anne Francis]] as Ellie * [[Murray Hamilton]] as Lieutenant John Martini * [[Vera Miles]] as Cat * [[Chris Wiggins]] as King * [[Kevin Peter Hall]] as Gorvil ==Production== [[File:World_Trade_Center_Tower_Two-19831013-RM-154520.jpg|thumb|Inside the lobby of the [[World Trade Center (1973β2001)|World Trade Center]] South Tower (pictured in October 1983), where many of the film's climax scenes were filmed]] The film was adapted from [[Rona Jaffe]]'s 1981 novel ''[[Mazes and Monsters (novel)|Mazes and Monsters]]''.<ref name="NYT" /> Jaffe based the novel on inaccurate newspaper stories about the disappearance of [[James Dallas Egbert III]] from [[Michigan State University]] in 1979. Early media accounts overemphasized Egbert's participation in [[fantasy role playing]], speculating that his hobby of ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' might have been a factor in his disappearance. William Dear, the private investigator hired to investigate the case, explained actual events and the reasons behind the media myth in his 1984 book ''[[The Dungeon Master]]''.<ref name="believer">{{cite journal | last = La Farge | first = Paul | title = Destroy All Monsters | journal = [[The Believer Magazine]] |date=September 2006 | url = http://www.believermag.com/issues/200609/?read=article_lafarge |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080920141500/http://www.believermag.com/issues/200609/?read=article_lafarge| url-status = dead |archivedate=2008-09-20}}</ref><ref name="Dear, 1984"> {{cite book | last = Dear | first = William C. | authorlink = William Dear (detective) | title = [[The Dungeon Master|Dungeon Master: The Disappearance of James Dallas Egbert III]] | publisher = [[Houghton Mifflin]] | year = 1984 }}</ref> The public had received the novel amidst a climate of uncertainty regarding the new pastime of role-playing games. Jaffe's account was read by many as a legitimate depiction of role-playing games, as many of her readers had no prior knowledge of the subject. In fact, in 1985 [[psychiatrist]] and anti-[[Media violence research|television violence]] activist [[Thomas Radecki]] of the National Coalition on Television Violence cited a fictitious letter written by a character in the novel as "proof" that ''D&D'' had caused the death of gamers.<ref>Hicks, Robert D. ''In Pursuit of Satan: The Police and the Occult'' Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1991; p. 288</ref> Like the novel on which it is based, the film touches on the claim that playing role-playing games could be related to psychological problems. At least one protagonist is (or appears to be) suffering from [[schizophrenia]] (or some analogous condition).<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Lowrey |first1=Mike |title=Tales stranger than fantasy |magazine=[[Dragon (magazine)|Dragon]] |issue=75 |page=74}}</ref> ==Home media== The film has been available on [[VHS]], [[DVD]], and various streaming services. On September 19, 2022, Plumeria Pictures released a 40th-anniversary Blu-ray, the film's first high-definition release.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.dicebreaker.com/categories/roleplaying-game/news/mazes-and-moonsters-hd-re-release-exclusive-artwork-reveal|title=D&D-inspired movie Mazes & Monsters is getting a HD re-release for its 40th anniversary - here's an exclusive first look|last=Jarvis|first=Matt|website=[[Dicebreaker]]|date=July 20, 2022|access-date=September 25, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220720140101/https://www.dicebreaker.com/categories/roleplaying-game/news/mazes-and-moonsters-hd-re-release-exclusive-artwork-reveal|archive-date=July 20, 2022|url-status=live}}</ref> ==See also== * {{annotated link|Dark Dungeons (film)|''Dark Dungeons'' (film)}} * {{annotated link|The Dungeonmaster|''The Dungeonmaster''}} * {{annotated link|Dungeons & Dragons controversies|''Dungeons & Dragons'' controversies}} * {{annotated link|History of role-playing games}} * {{annotated link|Hobgoblin (novel)|''Hobgoblin'' (novel)}} * {{annotated link|Media circus}} * {{annotated link|Moral panic}} * {{annotated link|Sensationalism}} * {{annotated link|Skullduggery (1983 film)|''Skullduggery'' (1983 film)}} ==References== {{reflist}} ==External links== * {{IMDb title|id=0084314|title=Mazes and Monsters}} * [http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/reviews/rev_3410.html RPGnet review] * [http://ptgptb.org/0006/egbert.html "The Disappearance of James Dallas Egbert III"] by Shaun Hately * [http://www.rpgstudies.net/cardwell/attacks.html "The Attacks on Role-Playing Games"] by Paul Cardwell, Jr. {{Steven Hilliard Stern}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Mazes And Monsters}} [[Category:1980s American films]] [[Category:1982 drama films]] [[Category:1982 fantasy films]] [[Category:1982 films]] [[Category:1982 television films]] [[Category:Adaptations of works by Rona Jaffe]] [[Category:American drama television films]] [[Category:American fantasy films]] [[Category:CBS films]] [[Category:Films based on American novels]] [[Category:Films directed by Steven Hilliard Stern]] [[Category:Films scored by Hagood Hardy]] [[Category:History of role-playing games]] [[Category:Warner Bros. films]]
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