The Man Who Saved the World (1982): cast, story & where to watch

Released in 1982, The Man Who Saved the World is an action, fantasy, adventure and science fiction film directed by Çetin İnanç, running about 91 minutes.

What it’s about. The film follows the adventures of Murat (Arkın) and Ali (Akkaya), whose spaceships crash on a desert planet following a battle, shown by using footage from Star Wars as well as Soviet and American space program newsreel clips. While hiking across the desert, they speculate that the planet is inhabited only by women. Murat does his "wolf whistle", which he uses on attractive women. However, he blows the wrong whistle and they are attacked by skeletons on horseback, which they defeat in hand-to-hand combat. The main villain soon shows up and captures the heroes, bringing them to his gladiatorial arena so they can fight. The villain tells them he is actually from Earth and is a 1,000 year old wizard. He tried to defeat Earth, but was always repelled by a shield of concentrated human brain molecules, which looks like the Death Star from Star Wars. The only way he can bypass this impenetrable defense is to use a human brain against it.

Who’s in it. The Man Who Saved the World stars Cüneyt Arkın as Murat, Aytekin Akkaya as Ali, Hikmet Taşdemir as Sihirbaz and Necla Fide as Kraliçe, among others.

How it landed. With an audience score of 5.1/10, The Man Who Saved the World has proved divisive with audiences. It went on to earn $29.9K at the box office.

Where to watch. In US you can stream it on Cultpix. See the full, country-by-country breakdown on our where to watch The Man Who Saved the World page.

If you liked it. Fans of The Man Who Saved the World tend to enjoy The Dark Knight, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Inception and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.