Runaway (Michael Crichton, 1984)

Having trouble with your robot? You’d better call the cops. Sergeant Jack Ramsay (Tom Selleck) will undoubtedly come to your rescue. More of a glorified IT department than police, Ramsay and his team take care of “runaways” — robots who have gone awry.

For the most part, Ramsay’s job is a cake walk. He and his new partner, Officer Thompson (Cynthia Rhodes), go on calls to stop an agricultural drone that’s knocking down rows of corn, or to repair a construction machine that’s dropping goods in the wrong place. “Usually all you have to do is flip a switch,” says Ramsay. When Ramsay and Thompson have to take down a domestic model that has picked up a gun and is threatening a wailing baby, they begin to uncover a conspiracy by Dr. Charles Luthor, evil genius.

The highlight of the film, Luthor is played by none other than demonic KISS front man Gene Simmons in his first film role since Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park. Luthor’s got a wicked pistol that shoots heat-seeking bullets, a small army of insectoid assassin ‘bots, and a bad, bad attitude. As Ramsay and Thompson begin their investigation, Luthor works to kill the engineers who helped him develop his malicious computer chips. The only loose end he doesn’t snip in time is girlfriend Jackie Rogers (Kirstie Alley). In a scene that would echo in The Dead Pool, Luthor sends a few goons and a dozen homing drones to chase down the vehicle in which Rogers rides.

Written and directed by Michael Crichton, the film displays the concurrent love and fear of technology with which Crichton (Westworld, Rising Sun) so often employs. The characterization is nonexistent with Ramsay having a case of acrophobia that is a hollow aping of Scotty (Jimmy Stewart) in Vertigo. Even the Jerry Goldsmith score hits a sour note with an over reliance on electronic overtones. Only Stan Shaw (Darktown Strutters, Snake Eyes) as a police technician and the growling Simmons might make Runaway worth watching. — Mike White

Tags: Runaway, Tom Selleck, Cynthia Rhodes, Gene Simmons, Michael Crichton, Westworld