atomic_fungus (atomic_fungus) wrote,
atomic_fungus
atomic_fungus

#323: Runaway

I think it was 1984 when Tom Selleck starred in that movie. It was a good concept--a future in which robots were common, and Tom Selleck played a cop whose job it was to deal with malfunctioning robots.

Gene Simmons (AKA scary tongue guy from the '70s band KISS) played the villain rather effectively. He was a guy who made chips which turned robots into killers. The movie had other neato things in it, such as this nifty pistol which took an IR snaphot of the person you fired it at, and downloaded that into the bullet before firing it--and the bullet would then follow the target.

Anyway, one of the nice points of the movie was Selleck's character, Ramsay, and his interactions with his domestic robot Lois (voiced by Marilyn Schreffler):

Ramsay: What did you give [Ramsay's son Bobby] for dinner?
Lois: Hot dogs.
Ramsay: Lois, you can't keep giving him hot dogs!
Lois: It is all that he would accept.

The natural interaction between man and machine very nicely underscored the prevalence of robot technology in that world. As science fiction I think it was underrated.

And when the villain has kidnapped Ramsay's son and left the apartment and Lois in disarray, Lois gets the best line of the film when Ramsay asks her what happened:

Lois: I'm sorry, but the dinner will not be painted in time.
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