Runaway (1984)

This is a great cop science fiction combo movie. If you liked Robocop or Blade runner then you will dig this movie. Tom Selleck plays a cop from the special Police Robotics division, like a bomb expert except with robots. It has some bad words, violence and complimentary nudity, so caution with kids under 16.

Wow I am surprised this movie is not more appreciated. It has great action for a 80s movie. And it is kind of set in the future where everybody has robots in their home. And even for the era the sci fi looked cool, even had some heat seeking mini missiles that were fired from a gun.

Tom Sellek does a good job and Gene Simmons takes a break from KISS and is a awesome bad guy. Even Kirsti Alley is young and hot.

Fmovies: 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.

This movie was in the same fashion as Robocop or other alternate reality movies. I don't berate it for bad effects or silly technology because that was cutting edge back in the mid 80's. There is plenty more to make this movie lose some points. The stereotyped and heavy handed police chief (Bailey) who rants at officers. The little boy played by Joey Cramer who couldn't be more stiff and robotic in his acting. Joey went from feature films to TV and now into obscurity. Poor dialog like, "Drop it, sucker!" or "...we got two dead giddy punks!". The movie has moments you question motives and direction. Tom Selleck and Gene Simmons did their best with the material they were given. The five lead roles have no last names and everyone else is just listed as professions, so the characters seem less than real.

This movie has some good points that make it worth watching, cool robots (RC puppets) from a farming bot that looks a lot like Wall-E to Dr. Luther's evil acid injecting spider bots that also explode. There is no CGI in the film which is always a big plus. The moral that robots are expected to be perfect, although built by flawed humans is a good adage.

Movies made that same year of 1984 "Terminator", "Ghostbusters", and "Temple of Doom" blew "Runaway" out of the water but I still like it as a nostalgic part of my father's generation and it is fun to watch.

Runaway fmovies. One of the biggest misconceptions about this classic scifi flic is that it is set in "the future" where robots are prevalent.

Quite the contrary. The premise of the movie is a world in which the development of robots evolved at the same rate as that of the home computer, becoming every bit as common-place and mundane. This is revealed in the opening scene where some small renegade field bots are described as using an "8088 microprocessor", the most common Intel CPU used in all IBM desktop PC's that year (1984). If this were the future, the writers would likely of made up some fictional processor of the future rather than date the film with currently available technology.

The cars in the film are no more futuristic than cars of the same year as the film, nor is the construction of any homes (no pools in the living room or places to plug in your nuclear toaster). Only items relating to computer technology are any different, and even that was no more advanced that was was currently available at the time (though of course what was DONE with that technology is pure fiction).

I think knowing this fact adds to the enjoyment of the film. Too many people seem disappointed that the movie doesn't seem "futuristic enough".

Like quite a few of these 'forgotten' films of the 80s and 90s, I read about this before actually seeing it. Having an interest in Kiss, I wanted to see if Gene Simmons could act. As bad guy Luther, he does pretty well, but there's nothing particularly remarkable about his performance.

The other performances are okay. Tom Selleck and Kirstie Alley are rather good in their roles. POLICE ACADEMY's G.W. Bailey has a straight role as the Chief of Police (the typical by-the-book type who always chews the hero out). The storyline is very good. As it's written by Michael Crichton, it's another tale of technology gone bad, although this time, it was a deliberate human act which caused the mayhem. The film book I read about RUNAWAY in said basically that between WESTWORLD and JURASSIC PARK, two of the best known sci-fi films ever, Crichton made this film. This is true, but while WW and JP are remebered, this film is largely forgotten.

Granted, this film is hardly a classic, but in my opinion, there are times when you go 'who cares' and just sit down to a good, entertaining picture. I recommend RUNAWAY for a viewing. Although, this movie, and some episodes of STARGATE SG-1 seem to confirm that some people find tacky-looking mechanical spiders scary. Which I don't.

A lot of critics complain about this movie but it was very well made for it's time. Not only does the movie show robots going out of control but it also shows a society of complete distrust and characters that are very cold. Gene Simmons from Kiss is perfect in the role with his looks and his voice as a sadistic villain that keeps managing to circumvent authorities. Chris Mulkey a bit actor is also good as an idiot that gets involved with Simmons. The script and soundtrack are excellent. Tom selleck also goes well as a frustrated cop who is fiercely determined to stop the bad guy and is humorously sarcastic to the people he deals with.