In 1986 a sci-fi movie called Flight of the Navigator was released. It tells the story of David (Joey Cramer, we'll get back to him in a moment), a 12 year old kid living in Florida in 1978. Whilst looking for his younger brother in the woods, he falls into a ditch, is abducted by an alien craft and wakes up in 1986. His family has aged but he hasn't.

The lead actor is Joey Cramer, who gives an amazing performance. He's very believable and brings an amazing amount of emotion to the film. Considering most of the time he's acting with a giant robot arm/eye thing or creepy puppets, he does an exceptional job. In the hands of another actor it's easy to imagine it being awful, as I'm sure the rumored remake will inevitably be.



What happened to Joey Cramer?

So what happened to Joey Cramer? I discovered I'm not the first person to ask this. In 2004, someone asked on the website Answerbag, "Where is Joey Cramer from Flight of the Navigator (1986)?"

And there are some tantalising responses, one of which asserts he's now a teacher at Pemberton High School in British Columbia (Canada) and has five kids.

This however, is trumped by another comment (that also places Cramer in British Columbia), that says he's working in a sporting goods store. The comment left by Gordo (last seen on Answerbag in 2008), states

He is working in a sporting goods store in Sechelt in B.C (on the Sunshine Coast). I tracked him down ... I have a picture. He's not a teacher in Pemberton and does not have 5 kids

And here is the picture to prove it:



Left: Possibly Joey Cramer AKA David from Flight of the Navigator. Right: Probably Gordo holding a Flight of the Navigator DVD, or is that a video? Or... what the hell format is that?

So this could be the Joey Cramer from Flight of the Navigator, now working in Source of Sports sporting store way out in Sechelt, British Columbia (which is remote!)

I've done a little side by side comparison. Let's have a look shall we?



OK. Same little Kevin Bacon nose. Similar jaw line. Brown hair. Eye colour difficult to determine. Wait a minute.... same NASA cap! OK, that was a little photoshop fun, but the original photo does show Joey still has an apparent penchant for baseball caps.

Forget remake, how about a sequel? David had his memory erased by the craft and landed in a Canadian Sporting Store aged 35.