Mazes and Monsters

An American made-for-television drama film from 1982, directed by Steven Hilliard Stern and written by Tom Lazarus, based on Rona Jaffe’s novel and inspired by early 1980s public concern about role-playing games. The story centers on a group of college students who become deeply immersed in a tabletop role-playing game called "Mazes and Monsters," reminiscent of Dungeons & Dragons. The protagonist, Robbie Wheeling (Tom Hanks, in his first leading film role), gradually loses the boundary between the fictional world of the game and reality. Taking on the persona of his game character—a cleric named Pardieu—Robbie begins to detach from the real world, suffering from a mental breakdown rooted in personal trauma and social pressures. His friends—Jay-Jay Brockway (Chris Makepeace), Kate Finch (Wendy Crewson), and Daniel (David Wallace)—realize the severity of the situation and attempt to guide him back to reality before it’s too late. The film explores themes of mental illness, social alienation, coming of age, and the dangers of escapism through fantasy. Despite being a television production, it gained cultural attention and became notable for featuring Tom Hanks in a prominent early role.