I think it was 'Explorers', starring a very young River Phoenix as the computer nerd... all the schematics for the devices which produced oxygen for them, surrounded them with a force field, and allowed them to translate from position to position all came to them in dreams... I loved the space aliens in it (obviously brother and sister) who had stolen their parent's space vehicle... the brother talked in sound bites from old tv shows... It comes on once in awhile on HBO (or can be rented)...