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As it turns out, Wak and Neek are brother and sister they've taken their father's ship out for a "joy ride", sending the dreams to the boys in the hopes of meeting humans. They are in the process of doing so when they're interrupted by a gigantic brown extraterrestrial, this one bearing a close resemblance to the other two, who gestures furiously while grinding out barely-comprehensible alien language. Feigning an attack by space-pirates, Wak urges the boys to leave. The young explorers hit it off with their extraterrestrial hosts, but then the alien ship is suddenly intercepted by a larger-still alien vessel.

The boys venture out to meet their "captors", Wak and Neek: two green-skinned aliens whose knowledge of Earth comes almost entirely from junk culture, particularly television reruns. The Thunder Road is beamed light years away into deep space and is tractor-beamed aboard a much larger spaceship. Shortly after breaking Earth's orbit, something overrides the boys' personal computer-controls. The boys complete lift-off, despite interference from the authorities (one of whom silently wishes them well). They finalize their plan to explore the galaxy in search of alien life. They construct a rudimentary spacecraft out of an abandoned Tilt-A-Whirl car they name their ship the Thunder Road, after Bruce Springsteen's song of the same name.Īfter Ben receives more dreams about the circuit board, Wolfgang discovers a means of producing unlimited sustainable oxygen this means longer flights, whereas previously they were limited to whatever a typical oxygen tank could hold. As the boys discover, the bubble is capable of moving at near-limitless distances and speeds without the usual ill effects from inertia. The chip enables the generation of an electromagnetic bubble which surrounds a pre-determined area. Wolfgang builds an actual microchip based on Ben's drawings. Both boys meet punkish-but-likable Darren Woods, with whom they share their circuit-board concepts.

At school, Ben develops a crush on Lori Swenson, but he is not sure whether it is mutual. Ben shows the sketches to his friend, child prodigy Wolfgang Muller. Every night, upon waking from the dream, he draws the circuit board.

Ben Crandall is a young teenage boy living in a fictional Maryland suburb, who experiences vivid dreams about flying through clouds and over a vast, city-like circuit board, usually after falling asleep watching old sci-fi films ( The War of the Worlds is a favorite).