Runaway

1984 "IT IS THE FUTURE. Machines are being programmed to turn against us. Someone must stop the madman who started it all."
5.9| 1h40m| PG-13| en| More Info
Released: 14 December 1984 Released
Producted By: TriStar Pictures
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

In the near future, a police officer specializes in malfunctioning robots. When a robot turns out to have been programmed to kill, he begins to uncover a homicidal plot to create killer robots... and his son becomes a target.

Genre

Drama, Thriller, Crime

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Director

Michael Crichton

Production Companies

TriStar Pictures

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Runaway Audience Reviews

Diagonaldi Very well executed
Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic
Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
Hattie I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.
weasl-729-310682 I was led into "Coma" (personal 8 rating) by IMDb's reccos for me. Loved it, and went from there to "Star Chamber" (personal rating 7). That led me to "Runaway". Thanks, IMDb!I'm a long-time reader of Michael Crichton, but had not realized he had also plied his hand at directing. Not many people are lucky enough to have so many facets to their talent.This movie was gripping from the first. I meant to just bookmark it for tomorrow when I was not supposed to be sleeping. No dice. Not only did I finish watching this excellent movie, but now I find myself writing this review. It's that good.Not only do you get treated to a young Tom Selleck, who also appears in "Coma", but also Kirstie Allie, both of whom are youthful and trim in this movie. It's not just eye candy though, and I'm not really a fan of either of these actors, but they both did a very fine job here. The suspense is taught throughout.I could not get over the fact that I kept comparing Gene Simmons' (again not a fan) Luther character to Javier Bardem's Academy award winning Anton Chigurh's character in "No Country For Old Men". They are both unemotional psychopaths, and, to me, similar demeanors. I can highly recommend this movie to any fan of Sci-Fi and suspense.
callanvass This movie had all the potential in the world. That being said, the execution was decent at best. The story is interesting enough, but I felt it lacked excitement at times. It can be pretty talky, making it difficult to maintain your interest at times. For the 80's, I was pretty impressed by how the robots looked. I also liked the look of the guns and the special kind of bullets they used. The effects were mighty impressive for the time. Some of them were outdated, but they impressed me for the most part. I didn't mind the explanation, about why the robots were evil, but I would have kinda liked to see them as "pure evil" I felt the explanation detracted a bit from the impact. I did like the tribute to Hitchcock's Vertigo. It was cool to see Selleck suffer from Vertigo. I thought that was pretty nifty. The acting is solid. Tom Selleck comes through like usual. He gives his typical "You behave" style when he's annoyed, but he does it more emphatically. Seriously, he was pretty good. Kirstie Alley isn't in the movie all that much. She was fun in her part though. Cynthia Rhodes is OK as Selleck's partner/love interest. I didn't think she was that special. Joey Cramer is annoying as the kid. Typical for the 80's. Gene Simmons acts with his scowl a lot as the villain. I thought he was OK at best. The finale is pretty exciting. Watching Selleck overcoming his fear of heights was intense. I'm picky with futuristic movies, but Michael Crichton did a relatively good job as the director. If he worked on the pacing and the story a bit more, this could have been a dynamite film. In lieu of that, we get a film that's watchable with flashes of brilliance. It's worth a watch, but that's about it. 5.8/10
Vincent Black 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.
enilenis I watched this movie with my father when I was little. For its time it was a masterpiece. The robot movies and early cg assisted sci-fi were becoming a trend (Short Circuit, Flight Of The Navigator, The Abyss). The filmmakers were experimenting with animatronics and many plots seemed to have been written solely for the purpose of showing off the latest and greatest. Each new movie pushed the envelope.Sure, the action, suspense, script and choreography - everything pales in comparison to today's films and this one, probably, can only be enjoyed by someone who was growing up at the time it was made. I still give it a full 10. I work in film business now, I also make robots and animatronics and if you want to know what inspired me it were gems like this.