The Earthling

Patrick Foley, dying presumably of cancer, returns from America to his outback country town. There, after the briefest of conversations with long-lost acquaintances, he sets off over the mountains to a remote and hidden valley where his father once carved out a small farm. On his way, he comes accross Shawn Daley, who has just seen his mother and father die in a campervan accident. Lost, angry and afraid, Shawn seeks Patrick’s help but is coldly rebuffed. The irascible Patrick wants nothing to do with anybody else and tells the boy he must fend for himself. Shawn has no choice but to keep hounding Patrick, and the rest of the film is the changing relationship between this dying man and a dependent child. Cast includes William Holden, Ricky Schroder, Jack Thompson and Olivia Hamnett.