Themes: Robots and Androids, Post-Apocalypse, Technology Run Amok
Main Cast: Dylan McDermott, Stacey Travis, John Lynch, William Hootkins, Iggy Pop
Release Year: 1990
Country: US/UK
Run Time: 94 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Music video director Richard Stanley made his feature debut with this apocalyptic, post-industrial nightmare set in the distant future. Dylan McDermott stars as Moses "Hard Mo"' Baxter, a washed-up ex-soldier who spends most of his time in "The Zone" -- a scorched, ochre-colored desert littered with the radioactive debris of an unspecified war (or wars). Mo's recent Zone foray with war-buddy Shades (Jon Lynch) turns up an interesting find -- a pile of droid parts he purchases from a spooky "Zone Tripper" (Carl McCoy, frontman for goth-rock's Fields of the Nephilim), which he carts home to his reclusive artist girlfriend Jill (Stacy Travis) to serve as raw material for her latest work. Unbeknownst to them, the dismantled robot is the prototype of a controversial new battle-droid dubbed the Mark 13, which is designed to reassemble itself from available materials if damaged in combat. In short order, the Mark 13 proceeds to do just that, tapping into the power grid in Jill's fortress-like apartment and targeting her for death. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
Review
A nightmarish, post-apocalyptic voyage into man's deepest-rooted natural and technological fears, director Richard Stanley's bid for stateside success resulted in a jarringly disturbing film unfairly dismissed at the time as a rip-off of James Cameron's better-known and similarly themed The Terminator (1984). While those comparisons aren't entirely unfounded given the subject matter, Stanley seems to have been going for something entirely different here. Nowhere is this more evident than in the inclusion of one particular element that Cameron's sci-fi classic neglected to adequately address, nature. While the characters in The Terminator were attempting a last ditch plea to save humankind from extinction solely at the hands of machines, Stanley establishes early on that the human race has already marked their days due to their callous treatment of the Earth itself; technology and killer robots only serve to compound this fact. Stanley's argument regarding nature and technology seems to be that once mankind has destroyed their world and stripped it of its natural resources, they will have no place to escape to once a more adaptive life form rises. In addition to the external factors which threaten man (or, in this case, woman), Stanley also makes a strong case that as a result of such natural horrors, the human race would suffer internally as well. From the sexual predator that the heroine must evade to the fact that cannabis has been legalized so that humans can have momentarily escape from their moribund existence, it's obvious that humankind's rape of the Earth has had significant negative impact on their mental well-being. Frequently disturbing and unsettling in its unflinching, beautifully horrific view of a race on the brink of extinction due to its own reckless excess, Hardware may not have broken any new ground in terms of originality, though the stylized manner in which it's told and its harsh sense of desperation truly set it apart from the pack as an effective and horrific view of what may be in store for humankind if we don't pause to reconsider the effects of our actions on future generations. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Mark Northover - Alvy; Lemmy - Taxi driver; Barbara Yu Ling - Chinese Mother; Mac McDonald - Newscaster; Chris McHallem - Premier Boelgakof; Paul McKenzie - Vernon; Carl McCoy - Zone Tripper; Oscar James - Chief; Karen Lindsay-Stewart; Betsy Fels
Credit
Ray Corbett - Associate Producer, Joanne Sellar - Co-producer, Michael Baldwin - Costume Designer, Richard Stanley - Director, Derek Trigg - Editor, Nik Powell - Executive Producer, Stephen Woolley - Executive Producer, Trix Worrell - Executive Producer, Simon Boswell - Composer (Music Score), Joseph Bennett - Production Designer, Steven Chivers - Cinematographer, Nik Powell - Producer, Bob Weinstein - Producer, Harvey Weinstein - Producer, Stephen Woolley - Producer, Trix Worrell - Producer, Paul Trijbits - Producer, Image Animation - Special Effects, Richard Stanley - Screenwriter
The 21st century world is a radioactivewasteland as a result of a nuclear war. A travelling scavenger comes across the remains of a cyborg named Mark 13 in the desert, and salvages pieces of it. The cyborg head ends up with a metal sculptress, who is unaware of the cyborg's infamy as a governmental killing machine project that was scrapped due to its defects. Mark 13 reconstructs itself utilizing household appliances and metal parts, and goes amok.
The robot, capable of reconstructing itself if damaged in combat, can augment and rebuild its body using any machinery and metal parts available nearby. It also comes equipped with an anti-personnelchemical weapon in the form of an injectablecytotoxin that causes sensory distortion (hallucination) before death. The ultimate purpose of this weapon is to allow the government to commit mass genocide of its own citizens to alleviate overpopulation.
M.A.R.K. 13's Achilles' heel is a faulty insulation system, highly sensitive to moisture and humidity. Although built for fighting in arid terrain, this huge flaw in the droid caused its governmental project funding to be initially suspended. At the end of the film it is revealed the Mark 13 will enter mass production.[1]
Overview
Advertised as The Terminator for the nineties, the film's soundtrack features music from Iggy Pop (who, although never seen in the movie, has a cameo role as the radio personality known as "Angry Bob"), Motörhead (whose lead singer, Lemmy, has a cameo as a taxi driver), Ministry and Public Image Limited. Carl McCoy, the vocalist from Fields of the Nephilim played the 'zone tripper' who brings the Mark 13 into human contact, and GWAR is featured in a music video, although the song playing at the time is "Stigmata" by Ministry. The film features excerpts from the film Salo directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. Special effects were provided by Image Animation (Hellraiser, Highlander and Nightbreed).
Shok!
The film is based on a 2000 AD comic called SHOK! Walter's Robo-Tale.[2][3] In the comic version, the robot head part is recovered from the bloody aftermath of the Cursed Earth Saga (almost making Hardware the first Judge Dredd movie ever). The original theatrical release did not mention the comic book despite heavily plagiarizing its storyline. Following legal action a notice was added to later versions and the strip's creators, Steve MacManus and Kevin O'Neill, now get full writers' credits.
It is now considered to be the first 2000 AD movie spin-off, followed by the better-known Judge Dredd.[4]
