Runaway (1984)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Truly Dreadful Film

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

A very under-rated actor and performance in this movie. You hardly hear about it, but his voice, his demeanor, etc Gene is a fantastic bad guy. Selleck of course is great as always. I really enjoyed this movie! If you've never seen it, you'll likely enjoy the suspense. A young Kirstie Alley is in this movie as well.

In the near future, robots are everywhere and malfunctioning robots are called Runaways. Sgt. Jack Ramsay (Tom Selleck) leads a specialized police squad which handles such incidents. New recruit Karen Thompson (Cynthia Rhodes) is his new partner. As they investigate a robot homicide, Ramsay discovers non-standard circuitry in the robot. They go up against Dr. Charles Luther (Gene Simmons) with his killer spider robots and guided bullets. The investigation leads to Vectrocon where executive secretary Jackie Rogers (Kirstie Alley) is cornered by a robot.It's been over 30 years since I first saw this movie. I remember liking it but not loving it. After seeing it again recently, some new holes appear along with the old remembered holes. First, it makes little sense that city cops would go out into the country to catch agricultural robots. It didn't really occur to me back then. There are some good ideas from Michael Crichton. He tries his best for advanced robots but this movie needed CGI effects. The robots don't scream needing specialized cops. They need mechanics. It would make more sense for a movie like iRobot and that needs a leap in movie effects. This is more or less a cop movie. Selleck is perfectly capable of playing a cop and Gene Simmons has functional menace. That part mostly works. It has some slow sections and Crichton as a director has his limitations. Also, some humor wouldn't hurt. This movie is before its time and falters sometimes due to it.

I have to say that 33 years after first watching this film, it still looks very good to me. Tom Selleck and Cynthia Rhodes are both very believable as future robot specialist police officials. Gene Simmmons plays a very good bad guy. It is very well written. The special effects for 1984 are very good and it's just an entirely believable and entertaining film. I think that sometimes we get caught up in the Montague of modern cinema and forget about what is important. That is the story, the acting, and the artistic way that that film is presented to the audience.If it does that, it doesn't matter when it was made. it's just good.Good movie. Enjoy it.

Tom Selleck, Gene Simmons and Cynthia Rhodes star in this 1984 sci-fi film. A cop must stop a madman and his killer robots. Jack Ramsay (Selleck) is a veteran cop who works a robotics shift and has a son. He meets his new partner, Karen Thompson (Rhodes) and shows her the ropes. They begin hunting runaway robots discovering they're created by madman, Charles Luther (Simmons) that begin killing people. Jack stops at nothing to hunt Luther which becomes a deadly game of cat and mouse. I've always liked this film and Gene is a great villain. I also like Jerry Goldsmith's excellent score and recommend this good, underrated 80's sci-fi flick.