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Runaway (1984)
22 Plays1 month ago
This week on the Everything Actioncast, Zach and Chris hunt down malfunctioning robots and discuss 1984's Runaway, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary.
Written and directed by Michael Crichton, Tom Selleck stars as Jack Ramsey, the lead officer of the "Runaway" division in the far-flung future of 1991. Tasked with stopping out-of-control robots, Ramsey and his new partner Karen Thompson (Cynthia Rhodes) discover an evil scientist named Dr. Luther (Gene Simmons) has created chips that intentionally make robots go nuts and have to hunt him down and stop him before he can sell them to the highest bidder. Zach and Chris discuss Gene Simmons' terrible business sense, Tom Selleck's robot fighting armor, how the Runaway squad is animal control, the future technology featured that we use in real life now, and more.
You can watch Runaway on Tubi. Next week, we're heading back to Pandora to celebrate Avatar's 15th anniversary.
We want to hear your comments and feedback. Send them all to contact@everythingaction.com. Also, let us know your suggestions for movies for us to discuss.
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Transcript
Introduction to Everything Action Cast
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Everything Action Cast, the official podcast of EverythingAction.com.
00:00:18
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the Everything Action Cast podcast week of December 9th, 2024. I'm your host Zach. I'm your co-host Chris.
Exploration of 'Runaway' and its Technological Themes
00:00:27
Speaker
Yeah, and this week we are hunting down malfunctioning robots and talking about runaway The 1984 Tom Selleck movie, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary, came out ah December 14th, 1984, and is written directed by Michael Crichton, the you know the famous author, as part of his directorial run, started in the mid-70s with Westworld, and then when in he directed Koma and a couple other movies.
00:00:57
Speaker
kind This is kind of a spiritual successor to Westworld, of like exploring more about like robots going haywire in the future. Yeah, he has a thing about the dangers of science. Technology, yeah. Technology, yeah. ah Especially when it's about, I guess, mass production things. you know i mean like it His books are always about when things get into a manufacture level.
00:01:25
Speaker
Never like an experimental. It's like, oh, no, the baby stages are fine. And all of his hits books, it's like, oh, no, it's not about the discovery. It's all about what happens when you basically want to make a commercial on it. Yeah. ah Very, very like very futurist. Like there's a lot. i I was shocked by like how many.
Comparing 'Runaway' Tech to Modern Reality
00:01:44
Speaker
I don't know if we like invented the ideas and some of this stuff, but like some of the stuff that in this movie are like, oh, we have this like we just use it all the time now, like drones and like I like they have like tablets that are basically iPads and like like household robots, like everyone's got like but most people have like rubas and stuff. Yeah, it's totally a um ah future that was sort of like invented by the Jetsons. And instead of it working perfectly, all these robots are comically like, um Like they're they're like minor dangerous things, but the most that they can do is explode. Like they didn't make the robots like unexplodable proof. Well, I think, I think it's supposed to take place in the year 1991. I mean, this is according to Wikipedia, that's what it says. Um, so it's like, so this is saying, like, saying like, um, what seven, seven years from when this week got released, we're going to have like, like household robots running around and all this other technology.
00:02:46
Speaker
But in 1984 technology, things like the most awesome common tech was maybe the Casio like risk calculator. That was kind of like ah the iPhone of its day, you
1980s Robot Design in 'Runaway'
00:03:00
Speaker
know? Yeah. So I'm thinking, oh, they they skipped ahead and just went with um ah We basically would have vacuum cleaners with arms and they will be doing everything from answering the phone, making dinner, um doing agricultural jobs. Yeah, extremely, extremely boxy robots are gonna be like helping society. box Boxes with arms on them.
00:03:27
Speaker
That is the crazy thing is like I forgot how boxy these robots are. Yeah. And if you think about it at the time animatronics were basically these like a lot of it. They didn't figure out how to. Do like cybernetics yet in in movies so.
00:03:47
Speaker
No one figure out that they should add like a movable skeletal frame.
Film Plot and Society Impact
00:03:52
Speaker
Instead, they basically like duct tape wheels to a fax machine. And then that would be your your maid, like your cook, your nanny.
00:04:04
Speaker
um But yeah, it's something where as a kid, I always thought this movie was cool. But now as a rewatch, as an adult, I'm just like frustrated how ah how weird the like the society that like adapted the robots is in this.
00:04:21
Speaker
Because it seems like the police are tech support. and Yeah, yeah, it doesn't seem like they like where they are resting when robots sort of go haywire. It's like, all right, well, we got to call the cops. The cop can wrangle this robot that like went off its programming. Yeah, it is. It is like that dangerous. It's like.
00:04:43
Speaker
Oh, you just got to catch it, like flip a switch or like, uh, like do something to it. And then there's then eventually there's like the one, like, it's like, Oh, the first robot, they ever killed a human. yeah it It grabbed a gun. I still can't figure out how that robot was able to do that. But it's like claw. How was it like squeeze the trigger? like And then was it downstairs or all upstairs? I think it was, like ah it was seemed like it was like a single floor house. It was always like the one, just the one floor.
00:05:12
Speaker
Okay.
Robot Model Codes and Societal Influence
00:05:13
Speaker
Cause like one, why does that guy have a gun in his house? When he's like a, he's like an electrical engineer or something. Well, he's another like chip manufacturer guy. Yeah. But the problem I have with it is that,
00:05:29
Speaker
um Like I had no child safety lock, but a child in his house, like for his gun. Like, you ah you know what I mean? Like, was it, was the gun right next to like the motor oil or? like The robot was able to crack, it opened the safe that the gun was in, removed like move the safety lock and then helped, then picked up the gun. And I load it. But that was, it had to load it. Yeah. That was like a second choice after like, it it just picked up like a kitchen knife or like Michael Myers on but the rest of the family. Like just like stand them psycho style.
00:06:01
Speaker
i I mean it okay since that was like the historical thing because I think like that explains why society to them which is like oh killer robot cool um but like it's not the first one to kill killer because I think like it has its own code so they had to come up with like a number for it I think the code the code is like the model of the robot it's like a it's like model 9 1 2 is like it's like a domestic robot or something. alllthough All the robots have a certain code number. It's like that's what the but like model they are. OK, that makes sense. It's like when, because like Tom Selleck isn't mentioning like, oh, like his his like his like like home robot, Lois, is like a model 12 of whatever line that is. and then But there was like model 10s that were like, oh, yeah, they were terrible. Like they burnt toast and stuff. like
00:06:51
Speaker
but So it's it's like the like yeah the version number or something, I think, of the robots. OK, OK, so.
Character Dynamics and Tom Selleck's Role
00:06:57
Speaker
OK, I'm not getting hung up on the models because you'll none of these robots are iconic enough. Maybe Lois for just like how like, I don't know, like fake future tech it was because it looked like a stereo that they they put like an arm on and then. Yes, it like a speaker, like ah a bunch of like it's like a bunch of like amplifiers stacked atop each other, with like arm on it.
00:07:25
Speaker
I'm always a like speaker. I think it was like a tape deck ah sound like mixer and then like a final player like that's to me what like a 90s and 80s and 90s like stereo high end stereo set look like. Do you remember when people had like a fancy stereo like like a crazy high five or something with like, yeah, you had to dedicate a whole wall for that. And then you had to be in the mood to basically like play that because headphones back then sucked. Just had a blast that like I'm surprised there wasn't a killer sound system like like going back to the future like opening where that like that speaker glasses Marty through a wall. Yeah.
Gene Simmons as the Villain
00:08:11
Speaker
How do they not make an killer robot that was basically just a sound machine that was like
00:08:17
Speaker
tear like just destroy your ears. Yeah, she went more like back some overdrive or it's like, oh, all ah all these electronics are going nuts. Like everything, like everything's going crazy. They were. Yeah, like it hacks different machinery instead of like, OK, it has to have the special chip. Because like again, this movie also dumps in so much like different plots of like what the evil programmer scientist guy can do.
00:08:47
Speaker
played by Gene Simmons of Kiss in his first movie role ever. He's not bad on this. No, he's good. He's a good threatening. I guess I read on like INDB, like there's like trivia where like like but for like his audition, like my current tone was just stare at him for like a minute. And he's like, oh yeah, you're threatening enough.
00:09:06
Speaker
like It was kind of, it was just kind of a wild time where like Gene Simmons was like, he had this run in like this, like this time of like, I'm like just being like weird villains and like B movies.
00:09:18
Speaker
I think this wasn't a B-movie, right? I think this was like a high-pitched movie. Yeah, I think they wanted, I mean, it's a B-movie now, kinda, like, but yeah, they're kinda like, it's like Michael Crichton, Tom Selleck, Gene Simmons, this is gonna be like the biggest movie in 1984, and then it's like, too much before this, like, oh, this movie called The Terminator came out? Oh, The Terminator came out two years before this, or two months before this? Two months before this, yeah. Oh my god. So it's like, oh, yeah, here's here's like, one of the best killer movies of all time, and it's like, it's like, are compared to like,
00:09:49
Speaker
a ah vacuum cleaner with um but like our body it's like yeah people were just like um no like yeah that's super unfortunate i thought this came before terminator but Now that this came up. Oh, it's just like, I mean, Blade Runner was like two years before this too. So it's like, cause you think you hear the premise of like, there's a special police unit that like hunts out a malfunctioning robot. You think, Oh, this is a Blade Runner ripoff and the robots are not, it's not cyborgs. It's like literally like a, like a box, like a, a, a, a robotic lawnmower that goes haywire. They did like, you just had to chase through a cornfield and stop it. Yeah. Why is this movie not called haywire?
00:10:33
Speaker
I feel like wasn't, wasn't there like a movie called, I feel like there's a movie around the sign called haywire or something, the but yeah, that would, that that would make more sense. that's Haywire. So think about like malfunctioning or like, it's a short circuit again. Yeah.
00:10:52
Speaker
Uh, but the one thing I have about it is that like the scientists, like James Simms plays as evil scientists at this robotic company. Yeah. Um, I feel like they're gonna track this stuff down like the first few days. You know what I mean? Like it wasn't like it was a secret operation. He was building these robot chips like in his basement or, um, and, uh, like custom robots. Like he had to have a manufacturing facility to make all this equipment. Yeah. He's got like, I mean, how many of those ships does he have? He has like a, it's like a whole briefcase full of them. So was he just like off to a company time and whatever company was that just like making chips?
00:11:34
Speaker
Well, apparently making chips, making, uh, killer assassin spider bots that can inject you with acid and
Critiquing Technological Portrayal in 'Runaway'
00:11:39
Speaker
explode. And then also bullets, heat seeking bullets that can track down whatever target you probably have to them do. Where, how, what, you know, like, and then this guy just wants more money. Like I didn't make, so I mean, okay. So I think what the movie is trying to say is that like he needed.
00:11:58
Speaker
the initial got group right to like make the products and then he was killing them off. I think that's how the movie spoke like starts life. Yes, i think I think whatever company he's working at developed the chips or um like he whatever but all the technology they were developing. He's like, oh, I can steal this and sell this. So then yeah he took it all. like There's that scene where he kills like the other like that one scientist like with a spiderbot.
00:12:27
Speaker
and then the jot like That guy Johnson, that like his family gets killed by the robot with a knife. like He was also part like part of the companies, and he was like and he was like a witness to it, so that's why GCM was trying to kill him.
00:12:45
Speaker
so But then it's like, he's obsessed with these chips that'll like make robots go haywire. He's like, I guess silly he's a terrorist. it's like you've You've developed, if you want to sell stuff to terrorists, you've made a bullet that can target any person you want and it will like, seek them out and kill them. Sell that, sell that, Jesus. He's a good scientist, but he's a terrible businessman. Yeah. He's like, ah he's like, he's focused on entirely the wrong product. It's like, yeah, this, this gun, like um like that's fine. I'll i'll use it myself, but these chips, these chips that can make a
00:13:21
Speaker
a vacuum cleaner go crazy. That's the, that's the ticket. Like that's the real money. Yeah. Not the bullet that you don't need to be in the same room into you. Yeah. You can just fire off a roof and it's like, it'll kill whoever you want. I think, but they also later, like he's got like those, like, um, which I do.
00:13:41
Speaker
The way they describe it, because like they they know what they're called. They're like seekers. So I guess that's a common thing. There's this like, like ro like, like hunt down and blow up cars. Like those like like hover cars that like the little like micro hover bots that go and i blow up the police car. Yeah. So they can they can also like find a target. Like he had targeting stuff. He didn't need.
00:14:08
Speaker
rogue robots
Nostalgia and 80s Film Comparison
00:14:09
Speaker
that can just go from like household chores to killer mode. I feel like you just make killer robots.
00:14:19
Speaker
Yeah, because like all all the robots are like not like you know ah efficient or fast or like mobile. like It does doesn't seem like a great like weapon if you're going to try to like weaponize these robots that society has now.
00:14:36
Speaker
Yeah, again, like unless they were common household robots that they he weaponized, but he did that to like two, maybe one really. I i think just just just the one, the one with the gun, yeah. So then the rest he was making custom shit for. He didn't need, he just makes the spider robots because they were crazy efficient in this movie.
00:15:02
Speaker
Yeah, i don't yeah he's that's also like he's like, he's like, oh, yeah, by the way, I've been to these spider bots, but whatever I'm these like, I want to make this, this like, ah highly, ah highly immobile, like, century that like zaps you a little bit, like, I i want to make that into a weapon.
00:15:25
Speaker
Uh, you want to get into hold the Tom Selleck vertigo, uh, thing where it's like, it was, it was funny. Like, you know, we talked about the hundred, like a couple of weeks ago where like Tommy Jones had like vertigo a little bit, but then, and with those kinds of interesting, like character treatment.
00:15:41
Speaker
Topstalker really is like, he's got, he's like, literally like Jimmy Stewart in Vertigo, like Vertigo. Like he's like, if he gets like a stairs or an elevator, he's like totally freaks out, like can't move. It has that because like how they introduce his partner, it's just like definitely like, hey, Walt, hey, Officer Ramsey, here's your new love interest. Like, this is your new partner. It's like, oh, you guys are gonna make out. Like you guys have,
00:16:08
Speaker
like what I mean granted it's it's it's peak 80s Tom selling yeah it is I did find it hilarious how I find it hilarious like how like horny for top cellic like Karen was. Yeah. And then she's more turned on as she learns more about him. It's like, Ooh, just you have vertical. Ooh, that's attractive. question yeah you You have a so you're a single dad. Ooh. I love a scene where he's like, taos like hey, you want to come to the house and have dinner? And she's like, like, and you can tell she's like, oh, dinner. I mean, like, we can fuck. And then he's like, but we we just talk about the talk about the office, talk about office policies like policiesac and stuff. I can tell you about the boss.
00:16:46
Speaker
Oh, that real not really. No, No. Like, yeah, she's super not disinterested in like the work relationship they have. She wants to basically bed him. Like, is is he the runaway in her? And then when Kirsty Elliott shows up, she's like super jealous. Yeah, I. OK, so I as a kid, I used to catch this movie a lot on ah Pix 11, the local WB version of like Channel 11 in New York.
00:17:15
Speaker
Yeah. And it always started around the Christy Allen part, like whatever. I always caught this movie in that to the point where I did not know there was a beginning to the movie. So I always assumed it was like, OK, we need to go save Christy Allen from like the filing desk, the the guard robot that just like is like a giant like ah white column, white box column. So.
00:17:42
Speaker
Yeah, like but like I have childhood memories where like for the longest time, i that's how the movie started for me. And I was like, oh, you know is this the top? like you know ah they Look at this like blossoming relationship. They say, well, they
Society's Control of Robots and Police Squad
00:17:54
Speaker
won't they? And it's so like, she doesn't like him. He doesn't like her. They're going to fall in love. And then maybe 30 minutes later, she's dead. You're like, whoa, whoa.
00:18:07
Speaker
yeah krista she's just like Yeah, she's just basically just like a plot point of it's like you still like you stole the the part of the plans to like manufacture the chips, because you you wanted to sell them yourself, I guess, and cut a few things out, but then he wants he needs them back because he wants to manufacture the chips. Even though he has like like two dozen or like like a ton of the chips already, if they they need more of them.
00:18:37
Speaker
Yeah. He just wants to hoard it more. Uh, I was thinking like, was she in cheers? Oh she yeah. This is like before. Pre-cheer. It was, she she was, I think the biggest thing, biggest thing she was in, Christiana was in before this was like search for Spock or like, uh, Wrath of Khan. Yeah. Yeah. That was her like breakout role for a movie. and I think she was in a few TV shows before, but yeah, eighty early eighties where she really got her footing.
00:19:07
Speaker
I think her breakout thing was summer school and the movie roles.
00:19:15
Speaker
So, yeah, I always thought this is like hilarious because like for me. um Because she always put like the the like mom figure and things or or more of the motherly figure and like especially the who's talking when she plays the like business woman without like morals, I guess it's like a different Christy Allen that I was used to.
00:19:39
Speaker
Plus, um you know, like Tom Selleck, he also had chemistry. He was just like, oh, hey, she's hot. I got room in this police car for two.
00:19:53
Speaker
Also, let's let's let the um but like especially but Johnny Cab, you see him? I was like, it's so weird. He's like, how did the robot drive us? They they they did they they got it first. they Like totally recall it was 1990. So they probably got it too first. They got the the weird robot driver of a car.
00:20:15
Speaker
Why? Tom Selleck doesn't like robots. Why is he okay with a robot driver? It's just that one car? Because they're always driving themselves around. All of a sudden, it's like, oh, yeah, we have robot police officers that drive cars around. It's wet. Yeah. And then it's like, oh, I like to be chauffeured by the robot car so I can sit in the back with her and talk ethics.
00:20:44
Speaker
and And do our elaborate insanely dangerous elaborate scheme of like jumping from one car to the other car to try to escape like the the tracking from GCM's goons who we only appear in that one scene never appear again. Like just like two random guys that GCM's hired like launch like uh like secret bots at them.
00:21:05
Speaker
Yeah, you're right. I kind of forgot, though. That's the same Jim Simmons group, because I feel like Jim c Jim's sorry. Gene Simmons was a one man robot maker guy. Yeah, for most of its most movies, just just him bring around doing stuff that all just like once he's like, I hired two random goons to drive this car around and throw ah so so like robot cars at them. You know, it's crazy. ah For a robot scientist guy, he's very hands on.
00:21:36
Speaker
I give him credit because he goes to the scene of the crime. He's the one pulling the trigger. He's the one giving the speeches. He's the one he goes on to cover as a cop. And he somehow had a fake eye that was the copy of Tom Salk's eye. So he's able to get into the computer and look up his son's information. I don't know how he did that.
00:22:13
Speaker
has like Tom Selleck's son's like interest and stuff. It's like, he's into like Why is there like a dating profile on the cops family?
Plot Twists and Action Sequences
00:22:22
Speaker
Yeah. uter It's also like the, like, like John, like the guy Johnson, they go and they go like, uh, Vectra Tron, which is like the company that he worked for at G7 to work for. Um, when they're like, like, look up his like profile, it's the computer's like,
00:22:37
Speaker
He worked here for 10 years. He enjoys skiing. like So it everyone's just kind of interested in like this like public database now in the future with that candy one. I guess that's the the thing about like too much future, is that you can access way too much and think the fear's in there. but topss Look at Touch Dogs's profile. It's like, he suffers from vertigo. so lamp Don't let him get into high places.
00:23:08
Speaker
Yeah. His wife was murdered. No, was oh no she was a car crash. I actually thought it would be Gene Simmons again, where it's like he did that. I i thought, yeah, I thought it was go like Gene Simmons was gonna be like the guy that like, because they they mentioned like, oh, he tracked the criminal to like, ah somewhere high, but like, because it was vertically hit, let him escape, then the like the guy murdered a family, like, that was like,
00:23:34
Speaker
Oh yeah, that that guy that you let away get away was me. Like, remember that? Yeah, I thought I'll tie it in as like a campy, like, it's all citricle. Well, because there's a whole thing with like the police department psychic. Oh, yeah. that was like i Ignore that part. That is insane. Weird. And its like was the chief chief is just like so casually like, Oh, hey, ah the psychics here. She both talked to her.
00:24:04
Speaker
he's like, what? And then, yeah, then he like gives her the bullets like, Oh, yeah, you guys are you guys are karmic brothers, you're linked, you're gonna meet soon, you have something he needs. Like, you've you've done this before. like I, I just had his own out of that point. yeah I looked down on my phone.
00:24:20
Speaker
um But yeah, I forgot that because it's so goddamn forgettable. It makes no sense to include um all the technology things that logistically what would happen. Like logically, you want like 80s tech to kind of like, you know, like be bulky because that's what the time was. Yeah. Psychics and like premonition people like that. Michael Crichton, I don't think he's ever written fantasy like and no yeah he's not stephen king like he's out into like
00:24:52
Speaker
you know psychics and stuff with that um dark tower universe bullshit like you'renna meet a man in black and a cowboy like what it's yeah for a movie that's like so obsessed with like
00:25:06
Speaker
society does with technology it's just like oh and also like they they're like fully trust psychics like oh they're like that was like a police staff job like yeah that is what if the mental has worked like in your robot company your robot force like what and the movie doesn't really like focusing on it, which is good. But in the credit that they used it and it's just like a plot, like, I don't know. It's not even like a good plot point. I just think it's something that Michael Crine and like one of the like producers was like, can you add this? This is this is something we want to push.
00:25:47
Speaker
Or it's like, like we need we we didn't know like we like, it's kind of like, it's not clear why they needed like, ah like what Kirstie Ellie has or like why, what how they can get like, like get back to Gene Simmons or something. So like, have just like a second come in and just tell them like, oh, yeah, you'll meet him again. He's, you got something he needs. And it had tons of like, oh, I've got this computer blueprint thing or like I got the chip blueprints.
00:26:15
Speaker
If you see it like she doesn't even say that she does the whole. Yeah, you're like in a past lives, you were like brothers and then you'll see him again. It's like, well, he is the main villain. And. At this point, I think his file is like everywhere in the computer system because they did like a. They did a police sketch, they did like eye witnesses. Yeah, kar Karen did like they they had like the ah the future.
00:26:44
Speaker
sketch thing where they can like they make it make an image of like the of his face. then i also I also love the random like it's like Harry Potter where it's like the like all like the like criminal photos like move like it's it's video because they should they there's like the muck cuz like cuz Gene Simmons has been arrested before you like he's like he's like he had like they say that he had like a homicide he had like assault with the like weapons over that and then they pulled like his mugshot as much at like is it's like him he looks at the camera and looks back and looks at care like it's like a ah Harry Potter like moving picture
00:27:18
Speaker
Uh, so that, again, doesn't explain how that's made. That is just something like AI wasn't a word yet. So it makes sense now that you can kind of do that with certain photos, enough references. Yeah. It's very important to the future police that the mugshot moves and like she Simmons like looks at you like menacingly and like blinks.
00:27:43
Speaker
like
00:27:49
Speaker
i think you I think after they make the ah the ah like but like the sketch ah like those sketch like blinks after they trade, like, oh, hey, I'm here. Look, it's me, Gene Simmons.
00:28:03
Speaker
You know, it's just so like it's surprising. No, no tongue stuff. It's like he doesn't like doing sort of like weird, like sickest tongue out or do anything weird, like li anything or do anything. You think that would be like as maybe you try to like, you know, become a serious actor. But it's I mean, that that was a little trademark. That's true. I feel like at this point he was trying to be something else. He does it a good way. If you don't know who Jim Jim Siemens was at the point, it it It's not a terrible representation.
Movie Poster Analysis and Legacy
00:28:36
Speaker
I wonder, did the album where they like took all their makeup off, was that they come out already? So people like kind of knew what it looked like without like the crazy makeup? I don't know. I'm not a big kiss fan to know. like theyre They're like, bear. Wherever they versioned the album, they called it.
00:29:01
Speaker
Oh yeah, that was the year before. Lick It Up was the ah the album, where they appeared like without their makeup on. People were like, oh shit, Kissed With Their Makeup Off. like And they're just guys. there just like we They're They're kind of like homey looking dudes.
00:29:21
Speaker
But yeah, so basic guess I guess people like knew Jeets of the Lake. But yeah, yeah I feel like if you got like
00:29:30
Speaker
I'm not too many tongue stuff. I'm actor Gene Simmons. but
00:29:43
Speaker
so um Our technology, I thought that was kind of weird in the future. It didn't make any sense. um There's that scene where they have like like the the exchange where like, because Gene Simmons has kidnapped Karen and then Tom Selleck and Christy Ellier are also like, they're like together at like this rest outside restaurant. It's like like a full restaurant is just like outside. But then literally right next to the restaurant is like a like robot sushi plate thing that makes you sushi.
00:30:15
Speaker
Sushi bought. Yeah. And so it's like they or like or sushi and then they walk over. It's like, oh, hey, we're at Sicha's table now. It's like there was a sushi thing like is a sushi restaurant. No, it's like, it's like, no, it's a different restaurant. It's an Italian restaurant. Sushi thing is just like it randomly next to us for some reason. ah Yeah, I feel like that was just like a prop. Like they they didn't know what to do. And so they just made this stuff.
00:30:43
Speaker
But honestly, that scene is another like, oh, robots are there, but it's all about that fountain scene, which I feel like is a rip off of another movie, like a shootout by like a park. Like I've seen something like that before. I mean, this this movie is all I think it all like they'll shot it in like Vancouver. So if you if anything was shot like Vancouver, like you've probably seen that before. That that fountain seems like a like a very like, like iconic like location in Vancouver if you like know that city you probably know that oh it's like it's that fountain it's that fountain park like i can't tell that's like purely vancouver and it's just known for that like is the movie supposed to be in vancouver too i don't they don't they never mention what city it is it's like it's you know it's it's future city like yeah yeah i'm only saying that because
00:31:40
Speaker
feel like it's a combination of LA and Vancouver like it doesn't look East Coast. No.
00:31:53
Speaker
Oh, I do I do also love one of the other things I love about the movie is like, um I was like, gradually, they just like, like Tom Selleck and and um Cynthia Rhodes, they just like Just like just theyre like cuz like just the one scene where Tom Salk is in like that like crazy like You know like the armor basically he wasn't like the armor Yeah Fight to fight like the the gun robot and then like half with you're just like I'm not I'm not wearing I'm not even wearing my please don't you a foreign I'm just wearing it's like ah a jacket like slacks that like Like kerosene is just like a flowery dress. That's that's it's like it makes it it makes sense for the one see where they like I guess this would be like undercover, but it's just like rest of me leaders like
00:32:33
Speaker
Yeah, this we're just wearing this now. We're not wearing our police uniforms or like bulletproof vests or you know the armor we set up that's like for fighting robots. like
00:32:47
Speaker
which what what is What did that chainmail do? i guess It's an electromagnet. It's just to get zapped. I think they said electrostatic or something. Yeah, so it's like, but then like, I think it was because the robot could sense something like, like electrical signals or like some like, so like that suit like disrupted like the signals that sort like, perhaps luck could like sneak in easier and just fight it or something. And they just got like that laser that you never use this again, and which I guess is just just for like the sailing robots. Mm hmm.
00:33:21
Speaker
I mean, it seemed like pretty powerful. I mean, I feel like you said it up. You should like use that, like, like have them bring it to like the final battle or something to fight, like, like shoot, like the spider bots or something. Like, there's all this stuff they set up in the beginning where they just like totally just like toss aside for like the end. Just like, and we're not going to have, we're not going to have robot, like malfunctioning robots anymore. We're not going to have like this chain mail suit. We're not going to have the laser gun. We're just going to have like top silicon, like a brown jacket and slacks. We'll find a team Simmons on a rooftop.
00:33:49
Speaker
Yeah, that was like a weekend ad outfit that he was wearing. Mm hmm. Uh. It's funny you bring it up because the cover art uses that like chain mail suit. Yeah, that's that's like the iconic image of the movie is like Tops in that suit with like that, which he's using ah Gene Simmons gun, which like Tops like never uses that gun. But it's just like, oh, yeah, that's a cool gun. But that have to use that the cover.
Police vs. Runaway Robots
00:34:17
Speaker
Yeah, I don't think, I mean, um I miss the lost art of not understanding your movie, like the posters where you use the wrong everything. you um You can't really do that these days. You can't make a movie poster where it's like, hey, like that character is not in the movie. Or like, why is the good guy holding the bad guy weapon? and Or it's just like it's a character, it's like a a generic character that's as not even in the movie.
00:34:45
Speaker
You might get that in a reprint cover where like they can't get the licensing rights for some weird reason of certain characters like on the art maybe for like a modeling or whatever, like whatever agreement. You get that. yeah You get the whole like, hey, we threw a generic model on that. That happens sometimes for Kung Fu movies where they'll feature like some shirtless dude who's like obviously from like modern era and the movie's like from the 70s. You're like, what what is this?
00:35:14
Speaker
um Yeah, but the Tom Selleck thing is like a promo photo where like, were they just still in production and then they took this and then they then Tom Selleck saw it and which was just like, get this off me. I mean, it did it didn't seem that uncomfortable, but it's just like, yeah, you he literally only wears that, like the iconic, like the movie poster's outfit for like one scene and then that's it. He's just like, nope, I'll wear my copy to form for maybe two scenes and I'm just gonna like,
00:35:40
Speaker
pull like I'm gonna go home and pull this stuff out of my closet and like wear this. like my My Sunday like hanging around Los Angeles. like ah Well, that outfit kind of looks like he he stole it from Rollerball. It's got like shoulder pads and it's got like the like blue jersey look to it. Yeah, it's got like he's got hockey pad arms on it and stuff. It looks like Rollerball.
00:36:09
Speaker
But also the only had for one, like it didn't seem like you, it seemed like, Hey, if you're in a runaway squad, wouldn't everyone need to make this your standard outfit? Because what you're dealing with all the time is like killer robots or like man malfunctioning robots.
00:36:30
Speaker
Yeah, like he only they only use the like the laser gun once. The first robot, that they like just like tackle it, and like it blows up. And they're just like, oh, man, that was wacky. like so we start this like like the it was It was a robot that's designed to like pick pests off corn or something. It's like a pest control robot. and they went But that one went went nuts, and they just like jump on it. And then I think literally like the construction robot is throwing like cement bags off the roof.
00:36:56
Speaker
like Karen just runs up and flips the switch and turns it off. yeah This movie seems like they're like more pest control than renegade robots that demand freedom or like are are going blade running. Yeah, it's not blade running. It's not like these like super deadly robots that like are like... you know You need a specialized police unit with like all this special equipment to fight them. It's just like, oh, yeah, just like anyone could just go like up to the switch. like
00:37:30
Speaker
Yeah, that's the crazy thing. once you Once you see the whole scale of the robot society, how they integrate it, you realize the runaway team is just more of an animal control team where it's like, all right, hey, there's this like, you know,
00:37:46
Speaker
whole scrubber that went rogue. Can you, um, get in there and turn it off? It'd be, yeah it'd be like today, if like you had to call people like a a police department, like if like your Roomba like started like going nuts. like Yeah.
00:38:02
Speaker
And the police chief seems like the, like he comes down hard on the runaway squad, you know, especially Tom Selleck. He's just like a super man. It's like, wait, Tom Selleck is like a dedicated like police officer and, and like he was good at his job, stopping humans. It's like he taught himself like robots and computers.
00:38:25
Speaker
It became like, like the expert on like runaway robot, like malfunctioning robots. Yeah. He's like studying computer chips. He's doing very high tech shit that I'm like, wow, he's actually like a microchip scientist in the police squad.
Climax and Technological Themes
00:38:39
Speaker
Yet the police chief is just like, oh, you're always one track away from me kicking off the force. Like what is God damn runaway squad fuck ups like.
00:38:50
Speaker
Like that, like they ah Like the, uh, the pirate ship that like, uh, isn't that the one robot when they're examining it, like but it blows up, like it blows up. The chief's just like, ah, these idiots, like that robot was designed to explode. If you look at its separate with it, it's working. So that, that was just booby trap.
00:39:18
Speaker
Also the base chief never really does anything cool in the end. He never like, all right, you know, you got my, my backing or like, oh, this is like, we're going to do this like off the books, whatever. Like he just, like he sort of leaves the movie. Yeah.
00:39:33
Speaker
And they're, they're doing their job. They're, I mean, they're disabling these like rogue robots. So it's like, it's all like screwing up. I guess they screwed a screw up when they start like doing non robot stuff. Like they like, when they like try to like, uh, you know, arrest Gene Simmons in that deal at the hotel and they get like a bunch of people killed.
00:39:54
Speaker
And then not only that, but Gene Simmons, infiltration unit that he uses also gets a bunch of police people killed and they don't bring that up again.
00:40:06
Speaker
Oh, and in the bathroom when like yeah yeah the woman gets like the needle on the neck and then yeah there's another woman that comes check her out and then they explode.
00:40:17
Speaker
Pretty brutal. Yeah, they like, yeah. Like two cops he killed and like, it's just like, like Tesla's like, well, you guys screwed up that one. He's like, she's like, yeah, all right, fine. We screwed up. like
00:40:30
Speaker
No remorse just like yeah to be two cops that killed whatever stuff Robert in top cellic like you were right shut up Hey does Tom Selleck's like ah Office partner make it at the end of the movie it seems like he just sort of leaves too I don't think he ever leaves the lab I think he just stays in the lab and just examines things just like hey, I found this this weird ship like He's just a move before you top Selleck Like Tom Selleck and Cynthia Rhodes are like the like field of officers and he's like back in the, he's like the lab tech or something. It seems like, you know, they also, they also, there's, there's a running thing where like, um like Karen like mentions that she has always like different random jobs before she was a cop. And then they're never really like bringing any of those skills. It's like, like never do anything. Like she's like, Oh, I used to be a dancer. I used to be like a construction worker. I used to be like a data programmer. like Yeah. Yeah. She had a lot of jobs for, um, someone who ended up in the robotic field. I think the dancer thing was a joke because like, she was like a real dancer. Yeah. Like every other thing she's ever done is like, is it's like dirty dancing, staying alive, flash dance, like music videos. Like this is like your only like action movie. Wow.
00:41:53
Speaker
So it was like this weird anomaly of like, oh yeah, I'm in like, like totally music videos. And then um um i but this top selling action movie and then and i'm like flash dance. She didn't have like a long acting career. She was only in things.
00:42:21
Speaker
so but So the finale, finale which is at the construction site where they set up earlier. um And G. Simmons has kidnapped Tom Salk's son. And they're at and then um he's he's got like his army of spiderbots and his whole crazy elaborate ah sequence where Well, I like the spin on the, you know, it's like the factory of like sparks, but it's but it's like robots building the buildings. That's why the sparks like flying everywhere. Which they don't really like, they don't really do anything. Like I wish they had like done more of like those like construction robots. Like they had like fight like, you know, fight amongst them. Like they like dodged like the, cause like the construction robots would just like ignore them. Like so keep doing like their like jobs, but they they fight each other like within them.
00:43:11
Speaker
They kind of just like types like just like du ducks behind one when like when the heat seeking missiles tries to hit him. And then that's pretty much it. Yeah, it wasn't like a cool like confrontation with the robots after studying them and all that. Like he doesn't crack one open and then make like his own ally or it's not like a kill switch or something. Yeah. Or he figured out how to make a device to turn them off. Like it's very kind of like, okay, well, they're just wild robots and I, what's the best way to to solve this? Just not interact with them. Like just to walk around them. Um, which is hilarious because usually Michael Crichton things have a, um, like a lesson about the robots or like a lesson about the technology that goes wrong. Yeah. This one doesn't have that.
00:44:06
Speaker
Like Congo, Congo is like, don't mess with nature or like nature is better than telecommunication lasers. Yeah, I think well, it's it's it's it's a lot of like, it's always like hubris, it's like human hubris of like, oh, you think you can like bring dinosaurs back to life? Yeah, right. Like you think you can like, like, go like, take, take these diamonds from nature and like, like, interfere with these like, great gorillas? No, like, you think you can, uh,
00:44:33
Speaker
get entertained by androids and not have them be bad yeah okay okay but then this one's like oh just don't do bad business i guess she's saving his hubris because he's like he like you know thought he probably had this like bulletproof plan but then he's like undone by his own robots because he said he sets the spider bots to kill the first person that steps off the elevator and the construction site so it's like with with no off-switch, no like backup of like, oh, if well, if I accidentally step off the elevator at first, then I need to wait. I don't have no way to stop these but my own spider bots. Maybe because he's like he's psychotic. But at this point, it doesn't seem like he's super psychotic. He's very calm and stuff. But it's just a terrible plan. And it seemed like for a guy who did all this in this movie, he fumbles it right at the end.
00:45:31
Speaker
With like, I get it, that could happen. it's You're right, it's the hubris of the villainy of the guy who thinks it's going too smooth.
Final Thoughts and Film Reception
00:45:38
Speaker
um But of the issues he could have done, he should just put a spiderbot on Bobby. Like, just have it, like, attached to him, and whenever it, like, he doesn't get his way, have it kill Bobby. Yes, yeah, I mean, yeah, like make make that, it turn it turned like ah like a you bomber vest or something, or... Yeah, yeah.
00:45:59
Speaker
or like, um, he put a heat seeking target on Bobby. So even Bobby like goes away, he can always just fire that from anywhere on that roof building and it'll track Bobby. Yeah. Cause this, cause the whole thing they explained is like, he can like, do you say he was going to program the bullets with the, cause everybody has a unique like heat signature, I guess. So it's like your, your body is a like heat map. So he programs the bullets, like hot down that heat map.
00:46:29
Speaker
So you know what I mean? Like everything else but the spider bot is like way more deadly. Yeah. I don't know. The more like again, I just freshly saw his movie today when we record. So it's still in my head. But now I'm thinking about it. I'm like, Oh, yeah. Why was like his big plan like a bunch of spider bots he put on the face floor and it's like,
00:46:55
Speaker
He still has to come down like 40 stories to figure out like, all right, Ken, how do I avoid death? Like, how do I avoid these spiders? Well, he was going to have, he was going to have them kill Bobby. And then he was going to kill Tom Selleck with his heat seeking gun. So there'd be no witnesses that he would get away because the spider rights already killed the first person that got down the elevator, which is Bobby. And then he would just like walk away, I guess, with this plan.
00:47:23
Speaker
But then he, but he, he, let's, he, let's like, tops like, just like futz around on the, the elevator for like half an hour. Like it's like, there's that whole elaborate scene where it's like tops, like that goes up like to the top, top floor of the building. And then he's just like, like hanging around. He has like crawling on the elevator and like fight the spider bots off and Gene Simmons, I guess he's just standing on the same floor he got left on. Just be like, is he gonna come back? Like, I don't know, I'm gonna fight some more. I don't know what's going on. Like.
00:47:54
Speaker
Um, like doesn't, doesn't shoot like, cause I think by the time like, like Karen showed up and like rescued Bobby, but then just shoot them at them are always just like, damn it. Yeah. like It's sort of like, he forgets the plot of this movie. Yeah. He just was like, I guess I'll just wait here until someone comes and gets me. like
00:48:16
Speaker
And then, and then I guess like tops, like, like, uh, i don't know if you'd like rap I don't think he reported an elevator. I think he's just like... Is he able to control the elevator? A catapults Gene Sim is off the elevator when it's going down, because it's going down so fast, and he like ends up getting killed by his own spiderbots.
00:48:37
Speaker
Which, they inject acid, which kind of like wish he had a more like elaborate, crazy... like like his like skin cause So many of them like attack him. like if you He had like some sort of crazy... this like like His skin starts melting or something, or his eyeballs. He's just a more like gory, crazy death.
00:48:50
Speaker
Yeah, they sort of say acid, but then no one really melts. No. And then, like, one of them sprays Tom Selleck. I think he gets sprayed in the face by acid on both sides, and he walks away fine. ah s to any And he stands in the hand by one. Like, one of those, like, like, pitch, like, injects him in the hand. He's like, ow, that hurt, like. See, I don't, yeah i maybe I'm like, do I not know what acid is? Like, i I know what acid is. It's like, he wipes it off like it's nothing.
00:49:20
Speaker
Like his skin changes some color, but he's already dirty by that point. I will say those are some like gnarly like, like, and we're like, like facial like wounds that he has, like they're like pitch black bleeding, like it's like those are like instantly infected, like you're gonna have some like major scars on his like honest yeah
00:49:43
Speaker
But I mean, Karen is all about that at the end. She's just like, I don't care. And he's like, I need medical help. He's like, kiss me. Let's have dinner. like we'rerere dress We're dressed we're we're dressed in like normal clothes now. We can go have dinner at restaurants. We're talking off duty.
00:49:59
Speaker
And I do like the ah the Gene Simmons, like the like like he does that like last lunge and then like, was he just like, was he waiting for like, yeah like, uh, tops off like, you know, check his pulse or but was this like, that was like, it's like body, just like, like a reflex convulsion. I was like, ah I'll be back in the sequel.
00:50:23
Speaker
you can catch me in never too young to die in a few years. It's crazy to think that that movie somehow looks worse looking than this movie. Like, and this movie and then this is like Gene Simmons' first media appearance. Like, im not media, like movie appearance.
00:50:47
Speaker
Yeah. Cause I think like Gene Simmons, it was like, it was this and then it was,
00:50:54
Speaker
wanted Dead or Alive, which is the Rucker Howard movie, where he was like he was like the villain. And then he had never turned out to die. And I think and think he was a like trick or treat. like the six for I think he was like a villain or a, I don't know if he's a, I think he might have been a side character in that one, but like he definitely, like he like it was like his first three kind of like bigger movies was like he was like the the crazy villain in them.
00:51:26
Speaker
I mean, he has intense eyes when he wants to. So I get it. There's this really great scene at the end where Tom Selleck is riding the elevator and he's kind of cured or is vertical. Yeah. And Gene Simmons not says a word. He just smiles at him in the elevator.
00:51:43
Speaker
Is that when he's like, touch logs is like basic like like but like but he like passed out and like before the elevator and yeah like ah because comes back to the floor of G. Simmons is like, all right, you're back. I'm gonna kill you now. like Yep. Yep. Great. Great. Like visuals. It's, it's such a like menacing look. There's no one's talking. Tom Selleck is sort of just like, as ah, shit. Like, but he's too tired to like do anything at that moment.
00:52:08
Speaker
And Gene Simmons does the classic bad guy gloating like, let me just like step on you. Let me like position myself for like a kill shot, I guess. Yeah. Point, point, blank missile, heat seeking missile to your chest.
00:52:24
Speaker
Which sometimes, sometimes those missiles like do the crazy heat seeking and sometimes they're just like regular bullets. Because, because yeah we but so but we shoot those cops, like some of them, like sometimes they're just like,
00:52:38
Speaker
Uh, no, this, it's just like wherever you pointed it, they go to it, but then it's something like go fly on the corner. And then sometimes they just like don't explode because Karen gets one in your arm. And sometimes it's like do that surgery scenes, like move the bullet from her arm. Oh yeah. That's another like unnecessarily long plot point. Is that like, sometimes the bullets can just not explode and they're just like lunged in this woman's arm.
00:53:07
Speaker
And, um, Yeah, that doesn't happen again. No. you know It's not like the bullet is like, oh, there's ah there's a fifty chance that you can sort of survive this. Well, it's like an explosive missile. It's like ah like you know it's an explosive bullet. So it's basically you're taking an unexploded missile out of her arm, which you're like, oh, yeah, I could blow her arm off.
00:53:35
Speaker
And like, they're like live, stream like, they're live streaming on the news like the news is like, like, just like broadcasting all like, watch, watch Tom, watch this because of his perform surgery and his fellow officer like, which that's also weird thing like, they kind of, they don't really get into it like just this thing where like the the news is like, ah I guess more like ah intrusive, and there's a little bit of social commentary about the new like the news like wanting sensational violent stories. Yeah, I think that's that's kind of what it is. Because they send the care man into like the house, or the killer robot house, and he gets shot and killed by like the robot. The news company doesn't care. They're like, oh, this would be great coverage.
00:54:21
Speaker
Yeah, sentiment with, like, no bull profession, nothing. but they're But they're highly offended when Tom Selleck swears them when he drops an F-bomb. He's like, that was live TV. We're going to get sued.
00:54:46
Speaker
But ah yeah, any other any other final thoughts about ah Runaway Chris? Uh, you know, I'm almost like, I'm also like, as a fan of this movie, I kind of want like a remake in a way, like a more updated version. With like actual like seeker, like, oh yeah, that would, hey, where'd that be bad? like Yeah. Yeah. Like nowadays people want to make the robot that is like a Megan or a Megan Fox robot that goes rogue. Uh, I want something that's like this where it's like,
00:55:20
Speaker
kind of household that is something we hack and then be killer and you had to find the hack guy and then like stop him. It's been a while since we had one of those movies. yeah i mean Yeah, we got yeah we got to yeah like the you know driver's cars now, um sort of. We got the yeah rumors. We got drones. We got you know all kinds of like, such as in this movie that like we that could be like, you could update and have them figure out some sort of like way they could all go haywire and kill people. And then the specialized team, is police team has to come in and stop them.
00:56:03
Speaker
But yeah, it's kind of like, it's kind of like, Terminator came out and it's basically like obsolete. It's just like, oh, yeah, like Arnold Schwarzenegger as a killer robot. And then we're gonna like, it's like this box with arm. Yeah. Which was scarier. Yeah, I think because of the Terminator, this booth is out of the water. But if you told me in 1970, like,
00:56:29
Speaker
1979 this movie came out, and this would have been very like ahead of its time. Yeah. I definitely think Westworld is definitely a better movie this one. And Yule Brenner is like a way more threatening. ah He's the original Terminator, basically. which is which It's so so funny. Yule Brenner was basically like the model for the Terminator, because he was like the you know the first like killer robot, unstoppable killer robot. and it's like McGurk is like undone by the Terminator that he basically like helped inspire.
00:57:10
Speaker
But yeah, it's it's a fun it's a fun kind of like you know B movie. It's on 2B because obviously it's on 2B. So if you want to watch it, it's ah you can check it out there.
00:57:26
Speaker
And speaking of Terminator, ah we're going to be talking about another James Cameron and ah classic next week. We're talking about Avatar, because it's celebrating its 15th anniversary.
Conclusion and Next Episode Preview
00:57:41
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's yeah it's it's hard to believe it's been 15 years since we first went to Pandora, but it has been. and So we're going to jump back to the original. Avatar talk about all the, uh, all the crazy Pandora and animals and whatever, uh, the technology and unattainable stuff. So come back next week for all that, for all that, uh, how to recite for all of our usual, we got news, trailers, reviews, um, tons of shows. week I don't know. I think it was like, uh, I think it was like CC XP, like the Brazilian kind of cons or like, there's a bunch of big trailers from that and some other, like we got big movies coming out for Christmas. There's a bunch of trailers attached to those.
00:58:23
Speaker
And we're going to have our packs unplugged article up sometime in the near future. So keep an eye out for that. We'll have our also our inbox 2.0 where we'll talk about the games we played, video games we played for December. And ah also our commentary, our Christmas commentary is going to be up soon. We're going to be talking about Home Alone 4.
00:58:43
Speaker
which does that does have a subtitle. I think it's like, is it taking back the house or something? It's like you can back the house. yeah Yeah. So continuing our tradition of watching every Home Alone movie, we got two more left. So knock off four this year and then probably finish it off with five next year. But all of a sudden it's on site, Herrotrail itself out. And yes, I'm Zach and we will see you next week for more for every action.
00:59:11
Speaker
head to www.everythingaction.com. You can also find us on Facebook at facebook dot.com slash everything dot.action, and follow us on X at Evie Action. We're also on Instagram and threads at everything.action. Find more episodes of the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your at podcast epic choice and be sure to rate and subscribe.