*batteries not included (1987) (aka Miracle on 8th Street)
The Two "Fix-it" Robots
In this Steven Spielberg-produced sci-fi fantasy film from co-writer/director Matthew Robbins, the plot was about the arrival of mysterious, mechanical robots who aided a group of apartment dwellers faced with eviction. The film's tagline described:
Five ordinary people needed a miracle. Then one night, Faye Riley left the window open.
The film was a composite of E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and Cocoon (1985). The well-received movie was a success - with a budget of 25ドル million, it grossed revenues of 32ドル.9 million (domestic) and 65ドル million (worldwide). It was notable as the 6th major feature film co-starring real-life spouses Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy.
Visual effects for the robots in the film were created with a combination of wires, rod puppetry, and stop-motion animation. The two adult saucer-shaped robots were actually 12 inches in diameter, while the three 'baby' saucers were only 3 inches in diameter.
The alien mechanical life-forms came to the aid of elderly tenants, including two diner owners running Riley's Cafe on the ground floor of their 4-story apartment building, while living on the 2nd floor:
The older couple was being threatened with violence, sabotage and eviction from their soon-to-be-demolished New York Lower East Side apartment building by the Lacey Incorporated development company. The property development company, headed by Mr. Lacey (Michael Green), had intentions to build Lacey Plaza on the site, with a high-rise office tower and sports complex
The two animated, good-natured but shy adult fix-it robots were philanthropic, flying-saucer-shaped, living robots, nicknamed the "Fix-Its," because of their continual repair of broken items, including the Riley's damaged diner. The robots were constructed from various mechanical spare parts from common appliances. They also fed on small screws, nuts and bolts, and were activated or re-charged (by being plugged into an electrical outlet). They also helped the Rileys prepare cheeseburgers in the diner.
The two robots reproduced themselves, and had three babies ("living hardware"): Wheems, Jetsom and Flotsom. One was stillborn, but was repaired by the building's janitor Harry (Frank McRae), a retired boxer. In the film's concluding sequences, although the building was demolished, the robots (with other recruited other 'Fix-it" mechanical creatures) restored the building. Lacey was forced to build his shopping and business plaza around Riley's Cafe, that was thriving due to increased business.
Cherry 2000 (1987)
Cherry 2000, A Gynoid (Robotess or Fembot)
Director Steve De Jarnatt's (and Orion Pictures') low-budget, science-fiction, action-adventure and futuristic film told about the search for a 'perfect woman.' With a budget of 10ドル million, after a troubled release history, the film was difficult to market, received mixed reviews, and quickly disappeared from theaters before being released on home video. In theaters, it was reported that it only made 14,000ドル dollars. It eventually became a campy cult-classic and cable-TV viewing choice.
It had a number of taglines describing the title character:
After the Bond-like opening titles sequence, in the post-apocalyptic world in the year 2017, society had begun to rely on robotic technology that produced robotic (or animatronic) female gynoids as substitutes for wives. Romance and actual sex with human beings had been replaced with fembots or female robots.
Sam Treadwell (David Andrews), the head of an Anaheim recycling plant, possessed a perfect girlfriend -- a rare, irreplaceable, top-of-the-line, blonde-haired sex robot named Cherry 2000 (Pamela Gidley). She was programmed with a shiny personality and memory "chip" (similar to a quarter-sized mini CD) behind her ear.
In the opening scene, Cherry served Sam a meal of a hamburger and french fries, and then tried to humor him, asking: "I learned something today, too. What do these have in common: lightning rods, fig newtons, escalators, ballpoint pens and Vaseline?...They were all invented by Americans."
However, he found it difficult to replace her when she shorted out (wearing a tight red dress and yellow rubber gloves) as they were love-making on the wet and slippery kitchen floor when soapy water from the dishwasher overflowed.
When Sam went to a robot factory to repair Cherry and/or to get a replacement body for his girlfriend, his choices included Robby the Robot (from Forbidden Planet (1956) ) and Gort (from The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) ). The store-owner Slim (Michael C. Gwynne) told Sam that his robot was beyond repair, but that the Cherry 2000 model was exceedingly rare and no longer produced. He was hopeful when told that if he retained Cherry's memory chip, he could place it into a new Cherry 2000 model's body:
"Get you a Cherry, same make, right down to the year and model number, right down to the eyelashes. You stick in her memory chip and you got your girl back, exactly the way you had her before. Now, there's a tracker bar out of Glory Hole. Drive out there, find yourself a tracker named Johnson."
The only location to find a new Cherry 2000 was in a defunct desert warehouse in "Zone 7" (in a lawless and restricted area ruled by a ruthless overlord and pseudo-cult leader of a group of hedonists named Lester (Tim Thomerson)), so it was necessary for Sam to hire a tracker. He reluctantly teamed up with a female tracker named Edith "E" Johnson (Melanie Griffith), and later with her older mentor Jake "Six-Finger-Jake" (Ben Johnson).
The plot twist in the film was that Zone 7 was actually the abandoned ruins of Las Vegas (and its Famous Strip) and the gynoid "warehouse" (a robot graveyard or morgue) was Pharaoh's Casino. Inside the warehouse, Sam found a rare but suitable and functional Cherry 2000 model of the outdated gynoid, and activated her with the memory "chip".
But then by the film's end, Sam realized that the model was insufficient, and that he preferred the human interaction he had received from Edith instead. He ditched Cherry 2000 (who was unable to adjust to her environment), who subsequently joined Lester's (now dead) Sky Ranch commune, while Sam flew off with Edith.
Making Mr. Right (1987)
Ulysses
In Susan Seidelman's (and Orion Pictures') PG-13 sci-fi comedic romance, the lightweight, frivolous plot was about a relationship that developed between a life-like android (a duplicate of a scientist) and a human female. With a budget of 9ドル million, the film was a major flop, only grossing revenue of 1ドル.6 million.
John Malkovich played a dual role:
In the story, after creating his own android likeness, Dr. Peters hired the ChemTech Corporation, a design company in Miami, FL, to handle public relations for Ulysses. The Corporation's New Wave, stressed-out, over-achieving PR "image consultant" Frankie Stone (Ann Magnuson) was hired to promote, package, and "sell" Ulysses to the American public and to Congress, to promote future funding for deep space research.
Frankie had just dropped her cheating politician boyfriend - Congressman Steve Marcus (Ben Masters), who was found having sex with a beauty contest winner. When Frankie first met Dr. Peters' 'Ulysses' for the first time, the robot placed his hands on her breasts: ("What do you call these?"). As she shoved him away ("You've been in the slab too long, buddy!"), the android fell onto the floor and shut down. Dr. Peters entered the lab to remove 'Ulysses' detachable, spinning head and press his restart button. She was shocked by the resemblance between them:
Frankie: "My God, he looks like you!"
Dr. Peters: "What did you think he'd look like? An erector set?"
Specifically, Frankie was told to 'humanize' Ulysses, by teaching the android about emotions, sensitivity and love. In Frankie's South Beach apartment, she met up with her love-sick best friend Trish (Glenne Headly), who had also just dumped her husband Don (Hart Bochner), an actor on the popular nighttime soap opera New Jersey, after he was caught in an affair with another TV show actress.
During the early stages of Frankie's tutoring of Ulysses, the android admitted to Frankie that she was attractive: "I think you're attractive. I think you're the most attractive woman I know." She responded: "I'm the only woman you know." Shortly later on the sofa, he began to massage her sore feet, telling her: "Jeff taught me to massage the body part when I have a spasm in my mechanism." Then, she told him he needed to stop, and should learn rules for social etiquette:
"There are rules for social behavior and, uhm, well, relationships between people develop in stages. And, to get physical with someone, you have to get to know them first."
Regarding kissing (after she kissed him good-night on the cheek), she instructed: "People kiss when they like each other. It's a sign of love or affection."
When it had the chance, Ulysses impersonated his creator Jeff, left the lab, and entered the outside world of human society (including a shopping mall). While in the Barons clothing store trying on a tuxedo (to wear at Frankie's sister's upcoming wedding), it was conveyed through a store clerk that Dr. Peters had given Ulysses a rather large penis. Frankie asked Ulysses about his anatomically-correct appendage: "I've always thought of you as a child, if you know what I mean... I just don't understand why Jeff felt it was necessary to give you that - um - thing." Ulysses replied innocently: "Jeff felt it would give me confidence."
Afterwards, Ulysses was joined by Chemtec assistant Sandy (Laurie Metcalf) - who mistakenly thought Ulysses was Dr. Peters. After having a meal together, Ulysses was taken to Frankie's apartment, where he made love to an eager Trish. Once Frankie arrived home, she was shocked when Trish revealed to her what she had done: "We were making love and it was the most beautiful thing I've ever felt in my entire life." Frankie reacted: "He could do that?? With you!!?"...Did you show him how?...You just made it with my android!" After sex, Ulysses had flipped out, fallen onto the floor, and turned himself off. He needed to have his head removed to restart his sysem.
During the wedding of Frankie's sister, attended by both Dr. Peters and Ulysses, comic confusions (with mistaken identity) arose, especially when Trish's estranged husband Don and Frankie's dumped boyfriend Steve were also in attendance. At the reception during a struggle between the characters, Ulysses fell into the pool and short-circuited. The news was broadcast that Ulysses was a 'love-sick' android. However, Ulysses soon recovered and claimed he was ready to travel into space and exist in social isolation for years, even though Frankie and Ulysses were still in love with each other.
By the film's ending, it appeared that 'Ulysses' had been launched into space. Dr. Peters arrived at Frankie's apartment to speak to her - but she realized she was really in the company of Ulysses. It was evident that Dr. Peters had decided to participate in the space launch mission himself (because he was more suited to the task), leaving behind Ulysses who was by now in a loving relationship with Frankie. Frankie had ultimately fallen in love with the more evolved, socially-adept, and sexually-satisfying male robot.
Not Quite Human (1987-1992) (TV movies)
Chip
A series of three one and a half-hour TV movies (airing on the Disney Channel from 1987-1992), all sci-fi comedies ("coming-of-age") and family films, were based on the young adult book series of six novels (published from 1985-1986) by Seth McEvoy. The three TV movies were:
The stories told about a widower scientist, Dr. Jonas Carson (Alan Thicke), a single father who created a "not quite human" teenaged android named Chip (Jay Underwood). The series of films followed the boyhood (first in HS, then in college), and the efforts - in the developing plot of competitive rivals, first Dr. Carson's former employer-boss Gordon Vogel (Joseph Bologna), a defense contractor who had plans to kidnap the android and reprogram him into a military machine.
In the first film, as a test, the android posed as a high-school student, and possessed great strength, was impervious to fire, and had a photographic memory. His head movements were jerky, and he often took things literally. He attended high-school with Dr. Carson's daughter Becky (Robyn Lively).
In the third film in the series set at a robotics convention, Chip's father Dr. Carson was kidnapped by competitive rival Dr. Barrigan (Christopher Neame).before he was able to unveil an android prototype. Carson was replaced by a cloned android named Jason, who was then reprogrammed by Chip (and renamed 'Bonus'). Chip and Jason went on a rescue mission, with bellboy-thief Kyle (Adam Philipson) and small-statured female cop Kate (Rosa Morgan), to find his abducted father.
RoboCop; also ED 209
The first film in the series, by director Paul Verhoeven, was a graphically-violent film set in dystopic, crime-filled futuristic Detroit, with the tagline:
"Part man, part machine, all cop."
There were two sequels, RoboCop 2 (1990) and RoboCop 3 (1993), and two TV series in 1994 (in Canada) and 2001, plus a remake RoboCop (2014) directed by José Padilha, and starring Joel Kinnaman as the title character.
It featured a cyborg - a half-human (with repressed and fragmented human memories), half-robotic, bullet-proofed, crime-fighting supercop (Peter Weller/Robert John Burke), officer Alex J. Murphy's alter-ego. Alex was killed in the line of duty as a cop, and brought back as an invincible cyborg called RoboCop.
The robotic enforcer was built by the corrupt local law-enforcement organization called the OmniConsumer Products Corporation (OCP). RoboCop took various elements of past robotic designs, such as Gort's head, "Fake" Maria's legs, and C-3PO's body. Beneath its exterior, it had a human face. When in sleep mode (in a chair), it was battery-recharged and reconfigured.
The film also featured the stop-motion animated ED-209 (Enforcement Droid Series 209) robot - a giant, awkward, faceless, hard-surfaced, top-heavy, self-sufficient, law enforcement robot for "urban pacification" - heralded as:
"a self-sufficient, law-enforcement robot" and "the hot military product for the next decade."
During an experimental demonstration in the OCP boardroom, after the crouched, combat-stanced ED-209 gave a warning when a gun was threateningly pointed at it:
"Please put down your weapon. You have 20 seconds to comply."
It malfunctioned and killed its opponent Kinney (Kevin/Ken Page) with a violent volley of shots from its Gatling gun hands, even though the weapon was surrendered. The faulty robot was excused by corrupt OCP Senior President Dick Jones (Ronny Cox):
"I'm sure it's only a glitch, a temporary setback."
Spaceballs (1987)
Dot Matrix
Mel Brooks' science fiction comedy fantasy featured a wise-cracking character named Dot Matrix (Lorene Yarnell, voice of Joan Rivers).
Dot Matrix was Princess Vespa's (Daphne Zuniga) gold-plated, protective Droid of Honor for her wedding on the peace-loving planet of Druidia.
The robot resembled a female version of Star Wars' C-3PO. Her name referred to a non-laser type of serial dot matrix computer printer that printed dots within a grid pattern.
Back to the Future Part II (1989)
Griffin Thomas "Griff" Tannen
This sequel began where the first film ended. It was both more somber and dark, with a very complex and sophisticated plot involving time-travel.
The film opened with Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and girlfriend Jennifer Parker (now Elisabeth Shue) joining Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown (Christopher Lloyd) in time-travel ("back to the future") in his DeLorean to October 21, 2015.
Marty pretended to be his own son, Marty, Jr. (also Michael J. Fox) to stand up to Biff's 19 year-old goading grandson Griffin Thomas "Griff" Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson) in Cafe 80's.
Griff continued the tradition of the Tannens in bullying the McFly family, now with the reported aid of bionic implants (to give him enhanced strength, speed, and taller stature, and the ability to automatically block punches).
Cyborg (1989)
Cyborg Pearl Prophet
This post-apocalyptic martial arts sci-fi thriller followed in the wake of 80s-90s android-cyborg films, including The Terminator (1984) and RoboCop (1987).
Cyborg (1989) was the first of director Albert Pyun's kickboxing, martial-arts, killer cyborg films. This cyborg film was typical of many imitation, low-budget films that came out in the 1990s. The starring character was not the cyborg (it was basically a red-herring for a film title). Jean-Claude Van Damme starred as "the first hero of the 21st century," a mercenary (or "slinger") named Gibson Rickenbacker in a post-apocalyptic world. During his mission, Gibson was joined by a brave survivor named Nady Simmons (Deborah Richter).
His mission was the rescue of a beautiful, but abducted cyborg Pearl Prophet (Dayle Haddon) from evil and sadistic kidnapper Fender Tremolo (Vincent Klyn) and his marauding band of cannibalistic "flesh pirates." Pearl was a beautiful half human/half cyborg programmatically storing and transporting vital information that might help produce a cure for a plague ("The Living Death") that was slowly killing off humanity. A small group of the last surviving scientists and doctors in Atlanta, Georgia were working on a cure. She explained as she was rescued that she had volunteered to retrieve information stored on a computer system in New York City, by surgically becoming a cyborg: "They created me to retrieve data from the computer system here in the city."
The film was followed by two sequels, both directed by Michael Schroeder:
There was another group of cyborg-cop films starring David Bradley as Jack Ryan - a maverick loner DEA agent (transformed into a cyborg), in a series of Sam Firstenberg and Yossi Wein directed films:
Darkman (1990)
Dr. Peyton Westlake/"Darkman"
Director and co-scripter Sam Raimi's (and Universal Pictures') comic-book style superhero action-horror film was adapted from the director's own short story. It was Raimi's first big-budget Hollywood studio film hit, rendering him a bankable director. With a 14ドル million budget, it grossed revenues of 33ドル.9 million (domestic) and 48ドル.9 million (worldwide). Its tagline was:
They destroyed everything he had, everything he was. Now, crime has a new enemy and justice has a new face.
The character of "Darkman" borrowed from a host of earlier sources (print and film) including The Invisible Man, The Phantom of the Opera, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Batman, and The Shadow. The film character developed a cult following.
There were two unrelated sequels, without either director Raimi or star Liam Neeson's involvement:
In the original film's plot, vengeful burn victim scientist Dr. Peyton Westlake (Liam Neeson) was portrayed as a tormented hero with a disfigured face, who had been brutally assaulted by psychotic crime-boss mobster Robert Durant (Larry Drake) - his lab in his loft apartment was blown up with him in it after he had been tortured. The blast propelled his burning body into the air to a riverbank. It appeared that Westlake had been the target of revenge by Durant, although he was completely innocent and unfairly blamed for being implicated.
Westlake's DA girlfriend Julie Hastings (Frances McDormand) working for law firm Pappas & Swain had discovered that her boss - also Durant's associate: corrupt billionaire developer Louis Strack Jr. (Colin Friels), was engaged in criminal activity. She had found a memo-document (the "(Claude) Bellasarious Memorandum") that showed Strack had been paying off and bribing members of the waterfront zoning commission to accept his proposal. His plan was to build a "City of the Future" along the waterfront.
After the explosion and presumed death of Westlake in his lab, Julie had no idea why her boyfriend had been targeted in the horrific explosion, and believed that the incriminating documents that she had left in Westlake's loft had been destroyed (although Durant had retrieved them from Westlake's lab- loft just before its destruction).
The physically-scarred and comatose Dr. Westlake (a "John Doe" without an ID) was treated for his condition by an advanced burn ward unit, with nearly 40% of his body burned. After regaining consciousness and escaping from the hospital, the tormented anti-hero realized that he was now impervious to pain, prone to mental instability and violent outbursts, and was physically stronger due to his increased adrenalin levels.
Even before he was injured, he had been conducting experiments with a photosensitive, synthetic skin formula (his own invention) for burn victims. He had discovered that raw or synthetic skin only lasted about 99 minutes per application due to exposure to light, when it then became unstable and its structure disintegrated. Now, he was more determined than ever to create various disguises and masks (to hide his disfigured face, and to impersonate the criminals he was seeking in order to confuse them and create distrust) to vengefully target the criminals. Without contacting Julie at first, 'Darkman' reestablished his lab in a condemned and abandoned building, to continue his research work.
And then once he was reunited with Julie, he revealed his burnt face to her, as he told her how he now regarded himself as a "monster."
Don't you think I told myself that night after sleepless night? "It's just a burn. Skin-deep. It doesn't matter." And if I covered it, hid behind a mask, you could love me for who I was inside without pity. But a funny thing happened. As I worked on the mask, I found the man inside was changing. He became wrong. A monster. I can live with it now, but I don't think anyone else can.
In the film's ending, he eventually took the name "Darkman" as he sought vigilante revenge on his enemies, including the sinister Durant and his thugs, and Strack. As he walked away down the street, as Julie searched for him, he turned back (with his new disguise, as Bruce Campbell), and in voice-over decreed:
"I'm everyone and no one. Everywhere, nowhere. Call me Darkman."
Edward Scissorhands
Johnny Depp starred as shy, creative, white-faced, Frankenstein -like, unfinished Edward Scissorhands, an artificial life-form with unique scissor-hands - perfect for hedge and giant ice sculpting.
Reclusive, kindly Inventor 'father' (Vincent Price in his last film role) died before he could install real hands on the inherently-good 'son.'
Before being invited to live with a suburban family, Edward lived a lonely and naive existence in a castle overlooking the neighborhood.
Hardware (1990, UK/US)
M.A.R.K. 13 prototype killer combat droid
In writer/director Richard Stanley's low-budget, weird cyber-punkish sci-fi horror hybrid thriller, its script was developed by Steve MacManus and Kevin O'Neill from a story ("SHOK! Walter’s Robo-Tale") in the British comic "2000 A.D." On a budget of 1ドル.5 million, the film grossed total revenues of 5ドル.7 million.
Its tagline was:
Welcome to the 21st Century. Guess What's Become the Planet's Most Endangered Species? HARDWARE You Can't Stop Progress.
The setting was a dystopian 21st century - a post-apocalyptic world where Earth (after nuclear war) had become a radioactive desert wasteland (previously in an area of New Jersey before the apocalypse).
In the dried-up desert buried deep in the sand, an unnamed desert scavenger-Nomad (Carl McCoy) ("Zone-Tripper") found the remains of a robot - a dismembered cyborg skeleton (including an android head-helmet). He didn't realize that the cyborg's hand was slightly moving. He took the mechanism and its parts to a dirty and destroyed New York City (with vagrants and homeless), to sell them to an odd scrap metal dealer.
Space Marine Moses "Mo" Baxter (Dylan McDermott), who had returned home from a shady, off-world tour of duty, happened to be in the office of a junkyard dealer named Alvy (Mark Northover). While Alvy left the office for a few moments, the scavenger arrived and "Mo" expressed an interest in buying all of the nomad's junked cyborg-robot parts for a low-cost. Then, "Mo" resold the majority of the parts to Alvy for 10-times the price, while keeping the android head-helmet for himself. He give it as a Christmas gift to his struggling, metalwork artist/girlfriend Jill Grakowski (Stacey Travis). She planned to use it in one of her blowtorch and chain-saw sculptures. She was struggling as an artist - unconventional creations were not commercially sellable.
After presenting the cyborg head to Jill, she and "Mo" had sex together - not realizing that they were being unknowingly surveilled by Jill's creepy, foul-mouthed, obsessed, voyeuristic and perverted neighbor William Hootkins (Lincoln Wineberg, Jr.), who took photographs of them during the act.
Shortly later, Mo learned dark secrets from Alvy that the multi-limbed, intelligent military droid was originally part of a government experimental military research project, now abandoned. The prototype (a combat model) had been created and programmed to genocidally kill people, without prejudice, as a means of population control (via the 'Emergency Population Control Bill'). The 'killing machine' droid had been named after a Biblical verse, Mark 13 ("Let no flesh be spared"). The only defect in the machine was that it had a weakness to humidity.
The humanoid skull (with an American flag painted on its headpiece) came to life (on Christmas Day, significantly) in her sculpture in Jill's apartment as she slept. The droid fully reconstructed and repaired itself from the various pieces of junk hardware in her apartment. The android's head charged itself by draining her apartment's power-network. It now had glowing red eyes and a computer motherboard in the shape of a pentagram, claws, and a power-drill. The cyborg went on a killing rampage (with high-tech lasers and weapons) by attacking Jill.
When her neighbor Lincoln arrived and locked them together in her secure apartment, he began to make crude sexually-inappropriate comments toward her, not realizing that the deadly cyborg was about to brutally kill him. She hid in a refrigerator to avoid being detected by the cyborg's infra-red vision. Fortunately, "Mo" and two apartment security guards arrived and apparently blasted the cyborg into pieces. But then "Mo" was injected with a venomous toxin by the still-alive cyborg, and shortly later, he died. The other two guards also lost their lives.
Jill was left in her sealed apartment, battling against the misogynistic MARK 13. It targeted her and conducted a simulated rape by forcing a revolving metal drill between her legs. She learned that the droid's fatal flaw was its inability to insulate against moisture. With help from Mo's friend Shades (John Lynch) wielding one of the downed security guard's guns and blasting the cyborg, Jill was able to douse the killer machine in her shower with water. As it short-circuited, she then smashed it into pieces - it was finally deactivated.
The next morning, a radio broadcast announced the dire news that the MARK 13 had been approved by the government, and would be mass manufactured. The film ended with the Nomad continuing his scavenging in the desert wasteland.
Robot Jox (1990)
Giant
Mega Robots"
The Western Market's Red/White
Matsumoto-14 vs.
The Russian Confederation's Vovalefski-42
This Stuart Gordon directed film, another post-apocalyptic sci-fi film (the vogue in the 1980s-1990s) riding on the coattails of Transformers, was scripted by sci-fi author Joe Haldeman, based upon Gordon's own story. The film's title referred to giant mechanical mega-robots ("robot jox") who piloted and flew giant machines. The large-scale international battles were a substitute for conventional wars, as a way to settle territorial disputes. Its tagline was:
The Ultimate Killing Machine. Part Man. Part Metal.
The film faced a troubled production history, and was poorly received by critics and the public in theatrical viewings. On a budget of 6ドル.5-10 million, it only grossed revenues of 1ドル.27 million (domestic).
In the dystopian, post-apocalyptic world, warfare was strictly forbidden between nations following a WWIII nuclear holocaust 50 years earlier. As a result, the two surviving nations had decided that they could war against each other on large vast playing fields - but vicariously:
They could fight against each other by using giant mechanical robots, human-piloted by gladiator-like 'jockies' (or jox). The "Western Market's" champion fighter was Achilles (Gary Graham) - he was one of the "robot jox" who piloted the giant machines. He was challenged by the Soviet "Confederation's" robot jox Alexander (Paul Koslo). Each of the robot-jox pilots were contracted to fight only ten matches. Both had won 9 matches. There was also a training center where new genetically engineered robot jox ("Tubies") were being prepared, such as Athena (Anne-Marie Johnson).
The robots were equipped with various weapons, including lasers, missiles, and cannons. To be exacting, however, they were not really robots but anthropomorphic-controlled vehicles - that is, the movements of the giant robot mimicked the actions of the jox in a control harness, while weapons were fired by a combination of joy sticks, switches, and buttons.
The final match was scheduled to be held between the two champions, vying for the territory of Alaska. The contest ended up being a disaster, when an out-of-control projectile resulted in the deaths of 300 spectators, and Achilles accidentally crushed the stands. For a scheduled re-match, Achilles refused to fight again, and Athena was pitted against Alexander. However, Achilles changed his mind and agreed to fight. The infuriated Athena drugged Achilles before taking his place for the grand challenge. (Meanwhile, chicanery and charges of espionage were occurring between Matsumoto and Conway.) Athena was soundly defeated by Alexander. During a second battle, Achilles faced Alexander in a brutal one-on-one fistfight, ending with them declaring it a draw.
Spaced Invaders (1990)
Enforcer
Drones
Shortstuff
Director/co-writer Patrick Read Johnson's (and Touchstone Pictures') sci-fi comedy, expensively financed by Disney, was a box-office disaster. On a budget of 3ドル million, the film grossed 15ドル.4 million.
The parody alien invasion film was advertised with a few taglines:
It was another example that alien life
was no longer threatening, after the popularity of Close
Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and E.T.:
The Extra-Terrestrial (1982).
As the story opened,
a planetary warfare was occurring between:
The Martian military was kept in line by lethal robots called Enforcer Drones (voice of director Patrick Johnson) with laser beam zappers: ("To secure our complete success, all ships throughout the galaxy have been equipped with Enforcer Drones to remove any weak links in the command chain. Any deviation from the Master Invasion Plan will result in immediate disciplinary review."). When one of the Martian commanders complained: "I'll not send my boys out to Arcturas with an Enforcer Drone breathing down my neck," he was zapped into a charcoaled, smoking skeleton. The other commanders quickly complied and agreed to obey.
Meanwhile, in the story set in the rural Illinois town of Big Bean, a radio-station was re-broadcasting Orson Welles' 'War of the Worlds' 1938 radio play on its 50th anniversary (on Halloween). Because it was Halloween, all the resident children were costumed as Halloween trick-or-treaters. A few of the local town residents were introduced:
One of the civilian Martian asteroid patrol ships (CAP or "Civilian Asteroid Patrol"), lost in space, picked up the town's radio signal. They came to believe that Earth was the intended invasion target, and descended upon Big Bean. The aliens were short-statured (4 feet tall) with big green heads (and antennae), and possessed advanced technology. Five misguided Martians in the ship included:
The Martians crash-landed into Wrenchmuller's barn. At first, every local in town didn't suspect anything. The Martians were thought to be trick-or-treaters and joined in the fun. However, the town's Sheriff, his daughter, and Wrenchmuller became suspicious. Kathy became friends with the Martians' little robot Shortstuff (voice of Kirk Thatcher), nicknamed "Scout-in-a-Can." It could collapse into a sphere and was considered "smart, efficient, easy to use and expendable."
In the conclusion, the Martians determined that they had made a horrible mistake, and were attempting to leave, although the ship's Enforcer Drone wouldn't allow them until the humans destroyed it with dynamite. As they flew off, the Martians jettisoned their ship's sewage tank onto Wrenchmuller's field, super-fertilizing it, and causing it to produce 6-foot pods. The farmer was saved from real-estate developers with his tremendous crop.
Johnny Cab
Director Paul Verhoeven's big-budget, violent science-fiction action thriller was based on Philip K. Dick's story We Can Remember it For You Wholesale. In the film's futuristic world of 2084, taxi drivers were replaced by robotic automatons called "Johnny Cabs" (voice of Robert Picardo).
When asked by Mars virtual reality secret agent Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger), "Where am I?," the whistling 'Johnny Cab' replied: "You're in a Johnny Cab." When Quaid again asked: "I mean, what am I doing here?...How did I get in this taxi?," the 'Johnny Cab' robot replied common-sensically: "The door opened. You got in," and then rolled its eyes.
Later, when pursued in a car chase sequence, Quaid jumped in another Johnny Cab and in anger (after swearing at the robot), grabbed the robot and tore him from the gear mechanism attached to the floor, and threw him in the back seat. As the cab sped away amidst gunfire, the robot comically cautioned:
"Fasten your seat belt."
When Quaid escaped and left the cab, the robot chirped: "The fare is 18 credits, please," to which Quaid responded: "Sue me, dickhead," causing the robot to flare up and run the cab into a wall to create a fiery explosion. It was Johnny Cab's defense mechanism to prevent unpaid fares. The tactic was unsuccessful in this case.
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