Runaway (1984)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Director:

Michael Crichton

Writer:

Michael Crichton (written by)

Release Date:

14 December 1984 (USA)

Genre:

Sci-Fi | Thriller | Crime

Tagline:

IT IS THE FUTURE. Machines are being programmed to turn against us. Someone must stop the madman who started it all.

Plot:

In the near future, a police officer specializes in malfunctioning robots. When a robot turns out to have been programmed to kill, he begins to uncover a homicidal plot to create killer robots... and his son becomes a target.

Plot Keywords:

Robot | Future | Killer Robot | Police | Bullet

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Tom Selleck	...	Sgt. Jack R. Ramsay
Cynthia Rhodes	...	Officer Karen Thompson
Gene Simmons	...	Dr. Charles Luther
Kirstie Alley	...	Jackie Rogers
Stan Shaw	...	Sgt. Marvin James
G.W. Bailey	...	Chief of Police
Joey Cramer	...	Bobby Ramsay
Chris Mulkey	...	David Johnson
Anne-Marie Martin	...	Hooker at Bar
Michael Paul Chan	...	Vectrocon Security Guard
Elizabeth Norment	...	Miss Shields, Reporter
Carol Teasdale	...	Sally (as Carol Teesdale)
Jackson Davies	...	Jerry, Inspector
Paul Batten	...	Harry
Babs Chula	...	Construction Foreperson (as Babs Chulla)

Also Known As:

Bekstvo (Serbia) [sr]
Fora de Controlo (Portugal) [pt]
Gyilkos robotok (Hungary) [hu]
Karkuri (Finland) [fi]
Runaway - Fora de Controle (Brazil) [pt]
Runaway - L'évadé du futur (France) [fr]
Runaway - Spinnen des Todes (West Germany) [de]
Runaway, brigada especial (Spain) [es]

Runtime:

99 min | Germany:100 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Alphacine)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Australia:M | Canada:14A (Ontario) | Iceland:16 | Finland:K-16 | Norway:15 (re-rating) | Norway:16 (original rating) | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:PG-13 | Singapore:PG | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Moses Lake, Washington, USA

Company:

Delphi III Productions

Trivia:

The pistol used by Ramsay is a custom-built Detonics 1911 9mm with the muzzle belled to look like a .45.

Goofs:

Miscellaneous: When Ramsey goes into the house to rescue the infant from the killer robot, he steps on the mini bush, the supposedly real plant is obviously a fake.

Quotes:

Luther: Drop it, sucker!

Movie Connections:

Featured in Shooting the Police: Cops on Film (2006) (TV)

"Good" robots made "Evil" by replacing their stock chips with altered ones

An under-appreciated vision of the future, unique for it's time, and now another example of how wrong we were in the 80's about what the future would be like. We don't have the robot servants in our homes, or the radars in our cars, but this is still the sort of movie you can watch again every few years. It's just a good movie by any definition, and I recommend it to anyone. Gene Simmons obviously had fun playing the role of the main villain, and like Mick Jagger and Deborah Harry(Blondie) he performs even better as an actor than he did as a musician, and that says alot. But on to the review: Tom Selleck is some sort of cyber cop specializing in rowdy robots that have gone out of control, and finds an adversary in Gene Simmons, who is making robots evil by substituting evil microchips for their regular ones. This movie is just plain good. Might even be the first instance of Kirstie Allie playing a part that would normally have been assigned to Meg Foster. Whatever happened to her?