# Batteries Not Included

Batteries Not Included (stylized as *batteries not included) is a 1987 American science fiction comedy-drama film directed by Matthew Robbins, produced by Ronald L. Schwary, and starring real-life partners Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy as a married couple. The film tells the story about small extraterrestrial living spaceships that save an apartment block under threat from property development.
The story was originally intended to be featured in the television series Amazing Stories, but executive producer Steven Spielberg liked the idea so much that he decided to adapt it into a film. It was the feature film screenwriting debut of Brad Bird.
The film was theatrically released on December 18, 1987 by Universal Pictures, and despite receiving mixed reviews from critics, it was a box office success, earning a total of $65.1 million against a budget of $25 million.

## Plot

Frank and Faye Riley, an elderly couple managing an apartment building and café in the East Village, come under threat by a nearby property development. The development manager, Lacey, sends hoodlum Carlos and other thugs to bribe the couple and their tenants to move out. When the tenants resist, Carlos and company punch through unsuccessful artist Mason Baylor's door, intimidate pregnant single mother Marisa Esteval, and break retired boxer Harry Noble's jar of tiles. After Frank Riley refuses to move, Carlos vandalizes the café.
Mason's girlfriend, Pamela is tired of living in that old building with him. She dumps Mason, packs up, advises him to get a steady job and leaves. The Rileys' friends, Muriel and Sid Hogensin, take Lacey's bribe and decide to move to a retirement home in New Jersey.
Two small living spaceships appear in the Rileys' apartment that evening and start repairing many items that were broken. They also repair the café, putting Frank and Faye back in business. The two aliens take up residence in the shed at the top of the apartment building and are dubbed "The Fix-Its" by the residents. Carlos returns to threaten the tenants again, but the Fix-Its lure him to the top of the building and into the shed where they scare him away.
The "female" Fix-It eventually gives birth to three baby Fix-Its, although one of them is stillborn. The next day, Harry succeeds in repairing it. There is a boost of business in the café from the demolition crew, while the Fix-Its help in the kitchen.
Meanwhile, Marisa's baby is due in two to three months. Marisa's boyfriend, Hector, who is a musician and the baby's father, eventually tells her that he and his band have found a steady gig in Chicago with good pay. Marina, in response, tells Hector to go without her, as their relationship is not working out.
With Carlos unable to prove the existence of the Fix-Its that had been foiling their plans, Lacey is furious with the delays in evicting the tenants and moves to replace him. Growing more unstable, Carlos breaks into the building's basement to sabotage the pipework and electricity, badly damaging the "father" machine in the process. After Harry throws him out, the tenants discover that the Fix-It children are missing and search them in the city while Faye stays behind with the "mother" machine as it fixes the "father". When the "father" machine is repaired, the Fix-It parents leave to seek out their offspring. After finding them with Harry, the machine family departs from the planet.
Tired of the delays, Lacey hires arsonist DeWitt. DeWitt attempts to burn down the building in an "accidental fire". Carlos discovers the plan and, furious, sabotages the arson to make the entire building explode, only to then discover that Faye is still in the building. While DeWitt flees, Carlos rescues her as the fire spreads. The tenants then return to find the blazing apartment block collapsing, and Faye being loaded into an ambulance.
By the next morning, the apartment block has been reduced to a smoldering wreck. The construction crew, out of respect for Harry, refuse to continue as he is sitting dejected on the steps. The mechanical family later recruit other Fix-Its for repairs. By the next morning, the entire building has been restored, ending Lacey's demolition plans and resulting in him terminating Kovacs. Mason and Marisa settle into a relationship while Carlos tries to start a friendship with the Rileys.
Years later, the developments have been built, but this time flanking either side of the apartment building. Frank's café is now doing a roaring trade as a result of the new employment brought into the area.

## Cast

* Hume Cronyn as Frank
* Jessica Tandy as Faye
* Frank McRae as Harry
* Elizabeth Peña as Marisa
* Michael Carmine as Carlos
* Dennis Boutsikaris as Mason
* Tom Aldredge as Sid
* Jane Hoffman as Muriel
* John DiSanti as Gus
* John Pankow as Kovacs
* MacIntyre Dixon as DeWitt
* Michael Greene as Lacey
* Doris Belack as Mrs. Thompson
* Wendy Schaal as Pamela
In addition, James LeGros and José Santana received opening credit billing as two of Carlos' goons.

## Production

Principal photography started in New York in August 1986, but location scouting began almost a year before. "Since the story called for a solitary building amidst rubble," explained producer Ronald Schwary, "we had to find a vacant lot with burned-out buildings all around it. We finally settled on an actual building on 8th Street between Avenues C and D on New York's Lower East Side (the building no longer stands, and was probably located on the site of the current Housing Bureau substation, or the building to the east. 40°43′27.33″N 73°58′40.49″W﻿ / ﻿40.7242583°N 73.9779139°W﻿ / 40.7242583; -73.9779139). Production designer Ted Haworth designed a three-sided, four-story tenement facade and oversaw its construction on a location that covered most of a city block. In the name of authenticity, he brought 50 to 60 truckloads of rubble to cover the once vacant lot. It was so remarkably realistic that the Sanitation Department came by and took away prop garbage one morning, potential customers stopped by to eat in the diner, and the business agent for the Plumber's Local of New York visited, demanding to know why there wasn't a permit down at City Hall for the construction."

## Reception

The movie gained a mostly mixed reception but debuted at #4 at the box office. It has a rating of 67% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 18 reviews. Gene Siskel described it as "a comic book with the best pages torn out" and accused the film of having "forced warmth." Roger Ebert defended the film, saying it "had a lot of good feeling in it, it had a few nice laughs, it had a few interesting special effects, and...it's better than most of the stuff out there."