EDITOR’S NOTE: Adventures In Babysitting aired on USA Up All Night on October 14, 1995 and August 23, 1996. I’m kind of windblown that this more family-friendly movie played the show, doubling with Summer Job and Wild Malibu Weekend. 

The directing debut of Christopher Columbus, this stars Elisabeth Shue as Chris Parker, a 17-year-old who is forced to babysit the neighbor, Sarah Anderson (Maia Brewton) when her friend Brenda (Penelope Ann Miller) runs away from home and calls in a panic from the bus station. That means that Chris, Sarah, her brother Brad (Keith Coogan) and his friend Daryl Coopersmith (Anthony Rapp) must all head downtown to rescue her. But after a flat on the road, their two truck driver “Handsome” John Pruitt (John Ford Noonan) driving them to confront his cheating wife and being part of grand theft auto of a Cadillac thanks to car thief Joe Gipp (Calvin Levels), this is anything but a normal night.

And it’s just getting started, because soon a mob boss (John Chandler) and his henchman (Ron Canada) is after them too.

This is a movie packed with people, like Bradley Whitford, Lolita Davidovich and Vincent D’Onofrio, all in small roles. It’s also one of the first appearances of Thor, long before the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as Sara wants to be the God of Thunder. Columbus had wanted to draw comics before getting into movies.

Or maybe it’s for another reason.

According to Jon Mikl Thor — yes, the star of Rock ‘n Roll Nightmare — in an interview with Vice, “Years ago, I got a part in Adventures In Babysitting. Then the part was taken away from me at the last moment and given to Vincent D’Onofrio, who played Gomer Pyle in Full Metal Jacket. They paid me off and everything, but I would’ve rather have had that mainstream shot in movies.”Screenrant also dug up the fact that the Thor love in this movie was originally for He-Man and Teela, but it was changed by Columbus to be about Marvel, which wasn’t as big a deal back in 1987.

Jon Mikl also told Angry Metal Guy that “Stan Lee wanted to make a Thor movie so my management company set up a meeting and I entered Stan Lee’s office at Marvel Productions in NYC  blowing up a hot water bottle. Then the bottle exploded, knocking all these books and comics off his shelves and then he shouted out “Excelsior! You are more Thor than Thor himself!””

In case you wonder why get to see Halloween on the TV in one scene, other than being a great mnemonic for a joke, it’s because this was produced by Debra Hill.