(1994)

Submitted by Tornado Dragon

After defeating Jay (Pablo Irlando) in a skateboarding match with his Starduster board, powered by Zeno (Turhan Bey) and his spirit, Sammy (Trenton Knight) tells Jay that he will be entering the upcoming World Class Pro-Am Skateboard Competition (mainly in the hopes of making some money so he and his family won’t be rendered homeless). Jay tells his father Burt (Bruce Davison) – a real estate developer planning to build high-rises in place of Sammy’s house and who has been harassing his mother Lois (Dee Wallace) to make a deal with him before the bank foreclosed the mortgage – about how Sammy beat him with a special skateboard and will be competing in the Pro-Am, and fearing that Sammy might win and get money through a national sponsorship deal, which will ruin his plans, Burt comes up with a scheme. On the night before the competition, he will take Lois out to dinner under the pretext of discussing a way that she can keep her house, and Jay will have his friend Dan (Andrew Keegan) take Sammy’s sister Tilly (Andrea Barber) out to the Autumn Dance at their school, which will enable Jay to easily steal Starduster from Sammy. After Dan asks Tilly out at her house, Sammy’s friend Mickey (Brooke Stanley) comes out of a nearby hiding place and senses something fishy about this.

Burt’s dinner with Lois ends with her rejecting his offer again and then embarrassing him when he makes lecherous advances towards her, but Dan and Tilly have a great time and even kiss when he drops her off back at her house. Just moments before their arrival, Jay sneaks up into the sleeping Sammy’s bedroom and snatches Starduster, but is unaware that Mickey witnessed him doing it, and she tails him as he makes his escape. The next morning, Sammy sees that Starduster is gone and leaves the house in a panic, but Mickey comes up to him and says she knows where his board went. She takes him to where Jay is, and Jay tries to flee on Starduster, but Mickey bumps into him with her bicycle and knocks him off of it. The collision causes Mickey to fall and hurt her head, but before Sammy runs to fetch help, he punches Jay in the face and breaks his nose. Due to the injury, Jay is a no-show for his match in the Pro-Am and gets disqualified. Sammy finds a policeman and brings him to Mickey, and he in turn gets an ambulance to come and get her. After Sammy is assured that she will be fine, Mickey tells him to get down to the auditorium where the Pro-Am is being held before it is too late.

After Sammy tells Zeno through Starduster that it will take a miracle to make it to the Pro-Am in time for his match, Zeno tells him to get on the board, and then he makes it fly Sammy all the way to the auditorium. However, before Sammy’s match can begin, Zeno informs him that the flight drained him of all of his energy, so he will have to win this competition on his own, and tells him to put his heart into it. Starduster then shuts down, and Sammy is given a standard skateboard to use after he tells Ken (Andrew Stevens) – a tournament bigwig who had taken a mutual liking to Lois when he visited her house to give Sammy information on the tournament – that his current one is busted. Much to his surprise and the surprise of everyone else, he displays incredible skateboarding skills and ultimately wins the Pro-Am.

As Sammy exits the venue with Ken, Dan, and the latter’s friend Mike (Willy Santos), Lois and Tilly show up to congratulate him, and Lois invites everyone present over to her house for a party to celebrate. Jay and Burt then appear, and Burt tells Ken that Sammy used a customized skateboard and ought to be disqualified, but Ken shows him that he used a standard board. Lois tells Burt that she will be keeping her house, and she, her children, and Ken take off. Dan and Mike start to leave in their direction, and when Jay objects to this and insults Sammy and his family, the duo ditch Jay and keep on walking, refusing to tolerate his bossy attitude any longer. Jay is left to get scolded by Burt for not winning the contest and for acting like a “wise guy.”

At the party, Lois and Ken arrange a dinner date together, and as Sammy is hanging around the backyard swing wishing that his late father could have seen him perform, Zeno appears and gives him his praise. When Sammy tells him that Starduster is broken, Zeno replies that it isn’t; the only power it ever needed came straight from Sammy himself, which is why he skated so impressively. He then informs Sammy that he has to leave his life now, and Mickey appears a moment later with a Polaroid camera. Sammy introduces Zeno to her, and she takes a picture of them both. After Sammy takes a gander at it, he tells Zeno that they will take a second one for him to keep, only to discover that he has suddenly vanished. Sammy then looks at the developed photo and sees his deceased father in Zeno’s place, revealing that Zeno was really his father the whole time. Sammy then walks back inside hand-in-hand with Mickey, and the Starduster blinks its lights while Zeno narrates that the people you love never really leave you.