Runaway (1984) – What Happened to This Sci-Fi Thriller?
The mid-80s were a great time for movies, especially science fiction. From Tron to E.T. to Aliens and Predator, we were eating good. So good, in fact, that some movies were lost in the awesome sauce. Today’s film is one of those little gems that should have been remembered but wasn’t. It’s the story of a film that had it all, from science fiction to action, to robot-fueled horror. It featured the greatness of Tom Selleck and his even greater mustache attempting to save his young son from a murderous member of the band KISS. Seriously. This weird, lovable, and sometimes frightening science fiction movie was written and directed by the man behind such properties as Jurassic Park and Congo; It features homicidal home appliances, gigantic future guns with heat-seeking bullets the size of a Taco Bell burrito, and a whole lot of 80s tech aesthetic. All these wonderful toys and yet… it would flop at the box office and fall into general obscurity due to some Terminator sized bad timing. Except for those of us who remember watching it fondly on television every once in a while a long, long time ago. It’s time to take out that VHS, blow the dust out of the VCR, and make up for lost time. This is what happened to Runaway.
When writing Runaway, famed Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton wanted to make a fun, dramatic action movie that showed the dark side of technology without becoming a boring cautionary tale. Where both the hero and the antagonist use the current technology of the world just a few short years into the future. One would use it for good and the other for greed (using microprocessors to turn robots into killing machines). Crichton wanted to depict the choices technology would offer us in the future and paint a picture of how they could lead us to both good and evil. It’s not necessarily a giant Nostradamus-sized prediction to say that technology could shape the future for better or worse. But as we currently fight with each other over AI morals on the cusp of it possibly taking over the world? It feels like he nailed it. Only in his future, instead of typing prompts into a website from your mother’s basement, the innovative industrial and domestic robot craze was in full swing.
One thing Crichton always hated about the movie industry was the time and manpower it took for a studio to figure out how much the budget for a prospective movie was going to be based on the script. So, for Runaway, the Harvard graduate who paid for his Medical degree while writing banger award winning novels on the side, hired some programmers to create a simulation program on an IBM. For example, when the studio wanted to see how much it would cost to film Runaway in Los Angeles, it took a team of humans around nine days to come up with a number. To figure out the cost of shooting in Canada (where they ended up filming most of the film), Crichton and his program were able to come up with a number in just a single day. The point is, this writer, filmmaker, anthropologist and programmer knew his stuff.
Regardless, Captain Genius Pants needed a cast. Crichton had met actor Tom Selleck on the set of the Michael Douglas thriller Coma, where Selleck had a small role. The actor’s steady job on the hugely popular Magnum P.I. seldom left him with the opportunity in his schedule to take on feature films. And so, though he found the role to be a risky one, Selleck took the job to play Ramsay (spelled with two “a’s” for what reason we’ll likely never know or understand), a no-nonsense but soft-hearted cop with an excellent mustache. A man who wouldn’t hesitate to use his dad voice if you were getting out of pocket. But afterwards, his face would relax, his eyes would be remorseful, and depending on the situation, he just may tenderly embrace you. Anyway, that got weird. The Ramsay character was written rather well because he’s not your everyday 80s action cop. He’s also a single dad if you don’t count his homemaker robot at home. The one that calls him at work to ask what he’d like for dinner and puts his kid to bed at night.
Ramsay is a morally sound officer of the law who took the job of handling all of the city’s robot calls instead of the human ones. A decision he made after his vertigo and deeply rooted fear of heights caused him to lose track of a criminal who would later end up murdering a family of six. As any good movie cop does, he blamed himself for their deaths and resigned himself to only handling robot matters. He went to some night classes about robotics and, much like Crichton, simply ended up knowing more about the robots than anyone else did. Little did he know that he’d later be fighting off a rogue toaster oven that just horrifically butchered members of its household like Michael Myers. Or trying to stop an evil Gene Simmons from murdering hundreds more.
That’s right, Freejack might have Mick Jagger, but Runaway gets KISS frontman Gene Simmons, who trades in his big tongue for an even bigger gun. Simmons had been looking for an acting role for a while but only if he could play against type. The roles he had been offered in the past glommed on too closely to his rock star persona, including an offer for a role in the film Flashdance. Simmons wanted to play something dark and serious, stating that he understood brooding characters more than splashy ones. To play Luther, Crichton advised Simmons not to memorize the script or train with his acting coach. He wanted him to feel natural and bring something unusual to the table. And that he did. When watching Runaway as a kid, I had no idea that was a rock god staring scaring the crap out of me on screen. I just saw an extremely frightening man sweating and doing evil. He freaked me the hell out. We never get too deep into Luther as a person, but as far as brooding bad dudes go, Simmons understood the assignment. He may have seen Luther as just a villain who becomes deadly only when someone gets in his way…but he looked and acted like someone who has unmentionable things in their basement at home.
Speaking of Flashdance, actress Cynthia Rhodes was cast as Selleck’s partner and soon-to-be love interest, Officer Thompson. The Dirty Dancing, Staying Alive actress (I think she liked dancing) brought Thompson to life as far more than just a damsel in distress there to watch Ramsay look awesome stopping crime. Particularly in a scene in which Ramsay has to extract a future bullet that could explode at any moment out of her arm. Her reactions were about as believable as any I’ve ever seen regarding a moment of pain and fear. Speaking of, this might be a breezy action movie, but there are some pretty horrific moments. From a Michael Myers microwave to an open elevator shaft at the top of an unfinished construction site through the eyes of someone with vertigo. And did I mention the spiders?
The rest of the cast is peppered with notable character actors who have made their way through some of your favorite eighties action movies. The token police chief who screams at everyone is played by Police Academy lieutenant G.W. Bailey, Chris Mulkey is a cracked out witness over his head, and then there’s Kirstie frickin’ Alley! Who, basically plays the film’s version of a Bond girl. The second Ramsay lays eyes on Jackie and her indoor chain-smoking habit, he’s hooked, and so are we. She plays half victim, half love interest to Luther, and all smoke show. Well, before she gets axed in a most heinous way. Finally, just as a fun footnote here, actress Anne-Marie Martin, who plays “hooker at bar” (blame IMDb, not me), went on to write the 1996 classic Twister with Crichton. It was the only film she ever wrote.
As far as the timeline of Runaway goes, Crichton had a rare opportunity where what was ingenious also happened to be convenient. The story obviously takes place in the future with new technology all around, but he didn’t have to create a whole new universe because he wanted the world around the robots to feel contemporary. He saw this as a world where the characters should be used to the technology by now. Therefore, he didn’t feel the need to make it too over the top and futuristic. He was also sick of the future being depicted as post-apocalyptic and bleak. So he toyed around with the idea that even with the inclusion of all this new technology, maybe nothing really changes all that much. As an audience, this creates an interesting mix on screen that looks and feels natural but also manages to have all these cool new ideas floating around in it. Watching Tom Selleck scoot past his home robot to grab his glasses while it cooks pretty gross-looking spaghetti feels strangely normal. All of these things feel very authentic. Even as we’re watching a malfunctioning mobile microwave shoot a .357 Magnum at a police officer while holding a baby hostage on the evening news. Or a KNEX set robot shaking its freaky little robot feet at you before it attacks. Haunting.
Each of the robots you see in Runaway are designed for a specific function. Most of these machines have a boxy type of charm that makes them feel more realistic. They also predicted more than a few of today’s technologies.
Though none of the technology is directly the same, Runaway semi-predicted the creation of the Roomba home vacuum, touch screens (though not the first), robot-assisted law enforcement such as bomb squad robots, AI-powered industrial manufacturing, and even micro drones currently used by the military and researchers. You know, the scene where we are forced to watch Kirstie Alley strip down to her underwear so we could get those damned trackers off her. How dare they! Not to mention the more obvious things like drones. Though these particular drones looked more like flying internet modems with jetpacks strapped to their under carriage. It was cool at the time and nostalgic to look back on now. The legendary Jerry Goldsmith added to the electronic suspense vibes with his first-ever all-electric soundtrack, while Chinatown cinematographer John A. Alonzo gave Runaway its futuristic yet blue-collar visual trademark.
Runaway was released to audiences worldwide in cinemas on December 14, 1984. Just two months after James Cameron’s The Terminator was able to grab the world’s attention. Unfortunately, there was only so much attention to go around in the futuristic robot action space. Not to mention the fact that Runaway released the same weekend as romantic Jeff Bridges sci-fi flick Starman and Dune. A week before came sci-fi thriller 2010: The Year We Make Contact. On the action side of things, even Beverly Hills Cop was still just a few weeks old. This was just a case of poor timing more than anything else. Which is a shame for Runaway. The film is charming, suspenseful, and even frightening at times.
The final set piece featuring Selleck fighting both his fear of heights and a deranged lunatic while trying to save his son has just about everything you’d want in an ending. Whether it be action, horror, or science fiction.
Critics were middling on the film, with some lauding it for being an entertaining if not silly flick with a thoughtful performance from Selleck. Others disregarded it as another paint-by-numbers 80s cops-and-robbers flick. To be fair, I always give critics a break when it comes to eighties and nineties movies. They didn’t know how good they had it. It seemed as though every week a new classic was coming out, and unfortunately, that meant that sometimes lovable, weird little movies would often become forgotten. This is one you should definitely dust off and give another chance. And that is what happened to Runaway.
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