A rediscovered 1985 time capsule from the absolute thick of the Gen X movie era — packed with Red Sonja, Rambo, The Goonies, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome and more, plus tantalizing glimpses of Hollywood’s coming attractions... when so many future favorites were still just that: the future.
Imagine walking into a newsstand in the summer of 1985.
Tina Turner and Mel Gibson are battling in and Beyond Thunderdome.
Rambo is going back to Vietnam.
A bunch of kids from Astoria are about to hunt for One-Eyed Willy’s treasure.
Two young actors named River Phoenix and Ethan Hawke are climbing aboard a homemade spaceship.
James Bond is heading out for A View to a Kill.
Sting is playing Frankenstein.
And a 21-year-old Danish model named Brigitte Nielsen is about to swing a sword across movie screens as Red Sonja.
Meanwhile, buried among the magazine’s Coming Attractions are tantalizing little glimpses of movies still somewhere over the horizon: Top Gun. The Princess Bride. Young Sherlock Holmes. Enemy Mine. Even a proposed sequel to The Terminator.
And one peculiar little movie about a teenager traveling back to 1955...
Back to the Future.
None of these movies are classics yet.
Some haven’t even been made.
Because it’s 1985.
And all of this is still the future.
Adventurers, I found us a time machine (and no, unfortunately, it’s not a DeLorean)
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Buckle up . . . the Time Machine is Leaving the Gate
Our time machine happened to only cost $2.95(in 1985 dollars. That’s about $3,000,000 in 2026 inflation-adjusted dollars.)
This is the July/August 1985 issue of Mediascene Prevue — a gloriously oversized blast of movie hype, interviews, behind-the-scenes photography and “Coming Attractions” from an era when some of the biggest adventure movies of our childhoods were still waiting in the wings.
And just look at that cover.
Mel Gibson. Clint Eastwood. Sylvester Stallone. Tina Turner. Sting. Roger Moore. Chevy Chase...
And planted right in the middle with sword drawn:
Brigitte Nielsen as Red Sonja.
I recently cracked open this 40-plus-year-old magazine and realized I wasn’t simply looking at an old movie magazine.
I was looking at 1985’s idea of the future.
So today we’re going back.
Prevue Magazine - a time capsule of 1980s cinema awesomeness
Coming Attractions . . . from 1985
And here’s where this old magazine becomes a time capsule.
Tucked into four unassuming pages is a snapshot of Hollywood’s future as it looked in the summer of 1985.
Some of the names are now cultural landmarks.
Others changed dramatically before reaching theaters.
Some took years to materialize.
And a few wandered off into that mysterious realm where unmade movies go to die.
Reading it forty-one years later is like finding somebody’s old map of the future — complete with roads that were built, roads that changed direction, and roads that never existed at all.
And boy, did I recognize more than a few names while wandering through these four pages! There’s Back to the Future, The Jewel of the Nile, King Solomon’s Mines, Commando, The Clan of the Cave Bear, Top Gun, Young Sherlock Holmes, Enemy Mine, and even The Princess Bride — mentioned here while William Goldman was still working on the screenplay!
Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories was on the horizon, too.
And then there are the wonderfully strange glimpses of roads Hollywood might have taken: a proposed Terminator II years before the sequel we eventually got, along with projects that would change titles, change hands, take years to materialize — or never make it to the screen at all.
Reading it now feels less like a list of upcoming movies and more like stumbling across Hollywood’s rough draft of the future.
🪦 LOST IN DEVELOPMENT
I remember buying and reading Battlefield Earth back in the late 80s. The cover of my copy was badged with “Soon to be a major motion picture!”. Maybe this Polonsky version was meant to be that movie.
Unfortunately, we never got to see that version . . . and even more unfortunately had to experience Travolta’s Travesty 15 years later.
🔮 1985 HAS NO IDEA... ...that this little Robert Zemeckis & Spielberg movie about a teenager traveling back to 1955 is about to become one of the defining movies of all cinema history.
Adventure was EVERYWHERE!
Mad Max. Explorers. The Goonies. Rambo. A View to a Kill. The Bride.
The visual argument almost makes itself: look how many wildly different kinds of adventure were occupying the same cultural space.
Kids building a spaceship.
Kids hunting pirate treasure.
Freaky little kids living alone in the desert.
Rambo returning to Vietnam.
James Bond scrambling across glaciers.
Frankenstein reinvented with Sting.
Sword-and-sorcery warriors running amok in leather and chainmail with little else.
But damn, was it glorious!
Anyone remember Grace Jones in Conan the Destroyer (1984)?
Or how about Tanya Roberts from Sheena (1984) and as Kiri in The Beastmaster (1982)?
Fun Fact: Tanya Roberts served as the inspiration for Lee MacLeod’s Huntress illustration! Read the full interview with Lee here: Lee MacLeod: Art, Ads & Avatars
Goonies was probably THE biggest inspiration for compelling kids to go on their own adventures (and seeking treasure!) for our entire generation. Attics were scoured for maps and artifacts, random holes were dug in the ground, metal detectors made the Christmas wishlist for several years running, jerky friends were kept long past their expiration date, abandoned buildings were eyed with lustful curiosity, and janky gadgets were constructed to assist in the entire process.
The following statement will prove how powerful the spell this movie cast on us and how sacred it was . . . we never even thought once about making crude jokes about the name “One-eyed Willy”. 👁️
And now, for our feature presentation . . .
Scarlet Fury. Blood Vengeance. Crimson Steel.
⚔️ AND THEN THERE WAS RED SONJA...
And now we arrive at the movie that landed pre-Flavor-Flav Brigitte Nielsen squarely in the middle of this issue.
Red Sonja was not destined to join Back to the Future among 1985’s universally beloved classics.
I don’t care.
I liked it.
It had swords. Sorcery. Arnold Schwarzenegger playing a definitely-not-Conan barbarian named Kalidor. Sandahl Bergman as an evil queen. Ridiculous costumes. Ancient temples. Talismans. Sword fights.
And 21-year-old Brigitte Nielsen looked every inch the larger-than-life beautiful fantasy warrior that the 80s demanded.
Sometimes that’s enough.
Here’s the complete interview with close-ups of the text for a better reading experience:
Back to the Future . . .Our Future
And with that, we close the pages on Brigitte Nielsen and Red Sonja and take one last look around 1985 before climbing back into the time machine.
There’s something strangely magical about seeing all of this before history and critics had decided what any of it meant.
The Goonies wasn’t yet a Gen X touchstone. River Phoenix and Ethan Hawke were just kids making Explorers. Rambo was heading back into action. James Bond was still Roger Moore, hanging tight with Tanya Roberts & Grace Jones. Brigitte Nielsen, at 21 years old, was preparing to make her movie debut with sword in hand.
And Mad Max was battling Beyond Thunderdome with Tina Turner as his nemesis.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in these pages, Hollywood’s future was taking shape in little paragraphs and tantalizing announcements.
No classics yet. No cult films. No box-office bombs. No nostalgia.
Just Coming Attractions.
Some would become movies we’d quote for the next forty years. Some would stumble. Some would change beyond recognition. Others would never escape Hollywood’s dungeon at all.
And somewhere in the summer of 1985, a kid could pick up this magazine, admire Brigitte Nielsen in totally-realistic-armor warrior-mode, flip past Rambo, Goonies, spaceships, secret agents and coming adventures...
...and wonder what all of it was going to be like.
That’s what I love most about this old magazine. For a few pages, we get to forget what happened next and experience these movies the way someone did in the summer of 1985:
. . . as adventures still waiting to happen.
But I suppose we’ve lingered in 1985 long enough.
So, reluctantly, we must climb back into our time machine, set the dial for 2026 or whatever other year you come from, and leave behind a summer when the future was filled with Goonies, badass warriors, secret agents, time-travelling automobiles, genius detectives & scientists, gentle-hearted giants, road warriors, hot-shot jet pilots, alien best-friends ... and who knew what else waiting just beyond the marquee.
Until next time, Adventurers...
Keep the Adventure Going Strong!
(...and a word of 1980s advice to any who find themselves on the other side of any upcoming apocolypses: “two men enter, one man leaves".”)
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💬Tavern Talk
❓What 1985 movie would YOU go back in time to see on opening night?
❓Did you see Red Sonja (1985) — and do you have any affection for it now?
❓What upcoming movie from your childhood do you remember being absolutely obsessed with before it finally came out?
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Ahhhh 1985. I got married too young in ‘83, and in ‘86 had my first child but still a great year for movies!!! I’d have to pull out pictures to remember what else I did that year, probably concerts, riding motorcycles, skiing, living on the beach…
Awesome issue and a real nostalgia kick. Thanks for the awesome commentary to really bring it to life.
Ahhhh 1985. I got married too young in ‘83, and in ‘86 had my first child but still a great year for movies!!! I’d have to pull out pictures to remember what else I did that year, probably concerts, riding motorcycles, skiing, living on the beach…