Robot Jox
Encyclopedia
Robot Jox is a 1990 science fiction film
directed by Stuart Gordon
, and starring Gary Graham
, Anne-Marie Johnson
, and Paul Koslo
.
-style matches between giant robots
, piloted by "robot jox".
Market jox Achilles (Gary Graham
) is supported by robot designer "Doc" Matsumoto (Danny Kamekona) and strategist Tex Conway (Michael Alldredge
), the only jox to survive his ten-fight contract. Achilles fights the Confederation's Alexander (Paul Koslo
) in a battle that ends with Achilles' robot collapsing into bleachers full of spectators, killing hundreds. The referees order a rematch. Achilles insists the fight was his contractual tenth match and retires. The genetically engineered "gen jox" Athena (Anne-Marie Johnson
) is chosen to replace Achilles; concerned she may not win, Achilles agrees to fight, infuriating Athena.
Doc confronts Conway with his discovery that Conway's fights were rigged; he accuses Conway of being a spy who has leaked Market robot information to the Confederation. Conway murders Doc, unaware that Doc has recorded the attack. Conway tells Commissioner Jameson (Robert Sampson
) that Doc was the spy, and that he committed suicide.
The morning of the fight, Athena sedates and impersonates Achilles, taking his robot to the field. Achilles decides to help her and plays a training video Doc had prepared. When the video cuts to footage of Conway murdering Doc, Conway leaps down a maintenance shaft to his death.
On the field, Alexander overpowers Athena; Achilles rushes to get Athena out of the robot's cockpit. The referees order Alexander to stop fighting or be disqualified, but Alexander continues the attack. Achilles takes control of the Market robot and also ignores the referees' instruction to stop the match. The two jox continue their fight, with both robots eventually being crippled. Facing each other without their machines, Achilles convinces Alexander that a match does not necessarily have to end with the death of a jox. Alexander throws down his weapon, and they salute each other.
wrote the screenplay for the film and co-wrote the story with director Stuart Gordon
. Haldeman claimed his and Gordon's visions for the film clashed: the former wanted a dramatic, serious science fiction film while the latter wanted a more audience-friendly F/X-driven action flick with stereotypical characters and stylilized pseudo-science. In Haldeman's words, "I would try to change the science into something reasonable; Stuart would change it back to Saturday morning cartoon
stuff. I tried to make believable, reasonable characters, and Stuart would insist on throwing in clichés and caricatures. It was especially annoying because it was a story about soldiers, and I was the only person around who'd ever been one."
Several times, Haldeman feared that this clash would lead to him being dropped from the project, but producers of the film in pre-production sided with Haldeman. Haldeman says Gordon later recognized that Haldeman was "writing a movie for adults that children can enjoy" while Gordon had been "directing a movie for children that adults can enjoy."
carries the film's original PG rating, but includes instances of violence and gore previously unseen in the U.S. and Canada. After Achilles' robot falls on the spectators, there are more shots of both Achilles' bloody face and of the dead bodies in the stands. A news broadcast immediately following now opens with a badly burned man screaming in pain for a couple of seconds. Also, when the traitorous Tex shoots scientist Matsumoto in the head, blood sprays on the wall behind the latter. In the old version (released theatrically by Epic and on tape and laserdisc by RCA/Columbia), Tex pulls the trigger and it instead cuts to a recycled shot of an exploding robot on a video monitor; the bloodstained wall is never shown. The bits in question are included on the Japanese DVD. The MPAA database indicates that Robot Jox was originally rated PG-13, but trimmed to obtain PG. Evidently, Epic felt that children were the film's only audience, which makes one wonder why they did not also edit out Athena's brief nude scene.
(AKA Robot Jox 2: Crash and Burn) was produced and marketed in some countries as a sequel
, but despite the title, same opening theme, involvement of Charles Band, and reused cover art, the plots of Crash and Burn and Robot Jox are completely unrelated.
Robot Wars
, released in 1993, was also marketed in several markets as a sequel, but like Crash and Burn, it was unrelated story-wise.
Science fiction film
Science fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic...
directed by Stuart Gordon
Stuart Gordon
After the University of Wisconsin demanded future theatrical productions by Screw Theater be overseen by a University Professor, Gordon cut his University ties to form Broom Street Theater. Its first production, the new translation of the risque Lysistrata, premiered in May 1969. Gordon is...
, and starring Gary Graham
Gary Graham
Gary Graham is an American actor. He is probably best known for his starring role as Detective Matthew Sikes in the television series Alien Nation , which was followed by the TV movies Alien Nation: Dark Horizon , Alien Nation: Body and Soul , Alien Nation: Millennium , Alien Nation: The...
, Anne-Marie Johnson
Anne-Marie Johnson
Anne-Marie Johnson is an American actress and impressionist who has starred in film and on television. She is perhaps best known for her role as high school educator Althea Tibbs on the NBC/CBS television drama In the Heat of the Night. She is also known for her role as Nadine Hudson Thomas on...
, and Paul Koslo
Paul Koslo
Paul Koslo is a German-Canadian actor.-Career:Koslo started his career in such 1970's cult films as Nam's Angels a.k.a. The Losers, , Mr. Majestyk, Vanishing Point, Joe Kidd and The Stone Killer...
.
Plot
Fifty years after a nuclear holocaust, open war is forbidden by the surviving nations, which have merged into two opposing super-nations: the American-influenced Western Market, and the Russian Confederation. To resolve conflicts, the Market and Confederation hold gladiatorGladiator
A gladiator was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gladiators were volunteers who risked their legal and social standing and their lives by appearing in the...
-style matches between giant robots
Mecha
A mech , is a science fiction term for a large walking bipedal tank or robot, including ones on treads and animal shapes.-Characteristics:...
, piloted by "robot jox".
Market jox Achilles (Gary Graham
Gary Graham
Gary Graham is an American actor. He is probably best known for his starring role as Detective Matthew Sikes in the television series Alien Nation , which was followed by the TV movies Alien Nation: Dark Horizon , Alien Nation: Body and Soul , Alien Nation: Millennium , Alien Nation: The...
) is supported by robot designer "Doc" Matsumoto (Danny Kamekona) and strategist Tex Conway (Michael Alldredge
Michael Alldredge
Michael Alldredge was an American film and television actor. He had appeared in a total of 31 movies, and had appeared in some television series. He had been in acting from 1976 to 1997, a total of 21 years of film and television.-External links:...
), the only jox to survive his ten-fight contract. Achilles fights the Confederation's Alexander (Paul Koslo
Paul Koslo
Paul Koslo is a German-Canadian actor.-Career:Koslo started his career in such 1970's cult films as Nam's Angels a.k.a. The Losers, , Mr. Majestyk, Vanishing Point, Joe Kidd and The Stone Killer...
) in a battle that ends with Achilles' robot collapsing into bleachers full of spectators, killing hundreds. The referees order a rematch. Achilles insists the fight was his contractual tenth match and retires. The genetically engineered "gen jox" Athena (Anne-Marie Johnson
Anne-Marie Johnson
Anne-Marie Johnson is an American actress and impressionist who has starred in film and on television. She is perhaps best known for her role as high school educator Althea Tibbs on the NBC/CBS television drama In the Heat of the Night. She is also known for her role as Nadine Hudson Thomas on...
) is chosen to replace Achilles; concerned she may not win, Achilles agrees to fight, infuriating Athena.
Doc confronts Conway with his discovery that Conway's fights were rigged; he accuses Conway of being a spy who has leaked Market robot information to the Confederation. Conway murders Doc, unaware that Doc has recorded the attack. Conway tells Commissioner Jameson (Robert Sampson
Robert Sampson
Robert Sampson was a vice president at United Airlines. He was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy at age 5, and used a wheelchair for most of his life....
) that Doc was the spy, and that he committed suicide.
The morning of the fight, Athena sedates and impersonates Achilles, taking his robot to the field. Achilles decides to help her and plays a training video Doc had prepared. When the video cuts to footage of Conway murdering Doc, Conway leaps down a maintenance shaft to his death.
On the field, Alexander overpowers Athena; Achilles rushes to get Athena out of the robot's cockpit. The referees order Alexander to stop fighting or be disqualified, but Alexander continues the attack. Achilles takes control of the Market robot and also ignores the referees' instruction to stop the match. The two jox continue their fight, with both robots eventually being crippled. Facing each other without their machines, Achilles convinces Alexander that a match does not necessarily have to end with the death of a jox. Alexander throws down his weapon, and they salute each other.
Cast
- Gary GrahamGary GrahamGary Graham is an American actor. He is probably best known for his starring role as Detective Matthew Sikes in the television series Alien Nation , which was followed by the TV movies Alien Nation: Dark Horizon , Alien Nation: Body and Soul , Alien Nation: Millennium , Alien Nation: The...
- Achilles/Jim - Anne-Marie JohnsonAnne-Marie JohnsonAnne-Marie Johnson is an American actress and impressionist who has starred in film and on television. She is perhaps best known for her role as high school educator Althea Tibbs on the NBC/CBS television drama In the Heat of the Night. She is also known for her role as Nadine Hudson Thomas on...
- Athena - Paul KosloPaul KosloPaul Koslo is a German-Canadian actor.-Career:Koslo started his career in such 1970's cult films as Nam's Angels a.k.a. The Losers, , Mr. Majestyk, Vanishing Point, Joe Kidd and The Stone Killer...
- Alexander - Robert SampsonRobert SampsonRobert Sampson was a vice president at United Airlines. He was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy at age 5, and used a wheelchair for most of his life....
- Commissioner Jameson (sic) - Danny Kamekona - Dr. "Doc" Matsumoto
- Hilary MasonHilary MasonHilary Mason was an English character actress who appeared in a wide variety of roles, mainly on UK television....
- Professor Laplace - Michael AlldredgeMichael AlldredgeMichael Alldredge was an American film and television actor. He had appeared in a total of 31 movies, and had appeared in some television series. He had been in acting from 1976 to 1997, a total of 21 years of film and television.-External links:...
- Tex Conway - Jeffrey CombsJeffrey CombsJeffrey Alan Combs is an American actor known for his horror film roles and his appearances playing a number of characters in the Star Trek franchise.-Early life:...
- Spectator/Prole #1 - Michael Saad - Spectator/Prole #2
- Ian Patrick Williams - Phillip
- Jason MarsdenJason MarsdenJason Christopher Marsden is an American screen and voice actor who has done numerous voice roles in animated films, as well as various television series.-Early life:...
- Tommy - Carolyn Purdy-Gordon - Kate
- Thyme Lewis - Sargon
- Gary Houston - Sportscaster
- Russel Case - Hercules
- Stuart GordonStuart GordonAfter the University of Wisconsin demanded future theatrical productions by Screw Theater be overseen by a University Professor, Gordon cut his University ties to form Broom Street Theater. Its first production, the new translation of the risque Lysistrata, premiered in May 1969. Gordon is...
(uncredited) - Bartender
Production
Famed science-fiction author Joe HaldemanJoe Haldeman
Joe William Haldeman is an American science fiction author.-Life :Haldeman was born June 9, 1943 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. His family traveled and he lived in Puerto Rico, New Orleans, Washington, D.C., Bethesda, Maryland and Anchorage, Alaska as a child. Haldeman married Mary Gay Potter, known...
wrote the screenplay for the film and co-wrote the story with director Stuart Gordon
Stuart Gordon
After the University of Wisconsin demanded future theatrical productions by Screw Theater be overseen by a University Professor, Gordon cut his University ties to form Broom Street Theater. Its first production, the new translation of the risque Lysistrata, premiered in May 1969. Gordon is...
. Haldeman claimed his and Gordon's visions for the film clashed: the former wanted a dramatic, serious science fiction film while the latter wanted a more audience-friendly F/X-driven action flick with stereotypical characters and stylilized pseudo-science. In Haldeman's words, "I would try to change the science into something reasonable; Stuart would change it back to Saturday morning cartoon
Saturday morning cartoon
A Saturday morning cartoon is the colloquial term for the animated television programming that has typically been scheduled on Saturday mornings on the major American television networks from the 1960s to the present; the genre's peak in popularity mostly ended in the 1990s while the popularity of...
stuff. I tried to make believable, reasonable characters, and Stuart would insist on throwing in clichés and caricatures. It was especially annoying because it was a story about soldiers, and I was the only person around who'd ever been one."
Several times, Haldeman feared that this clash would lead to him being dropped from the project, but producers of the film in pre-production sided with Haldeman. Haldeman says Gordon later recognized that Haldeman was "writing a movie for adults that children can enjoy" while Gordon had been "directing a movie for children that adults can enjoy."
Alternate versions
MGM's US DVDDVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
carries the film's original PG rating, but includes instances of violence and gore previously unseen in the U.S. and Canada. After Achilles' robot falls on the spectators, there are more shots of both Achilles' bloody face and of the dead bodies in the stands. A news broadcast immediately following now opens with a badly burned man screaming in pain for a couple of seconds. Also, when the traitorous Tex shoots scientist Matsumoto in the head, blood sprays on the wall behind the latter. In the old version (released theatrically by Epic and on tape and laserdisc by RCA/Columbia), Tex pulls the trigger and it instead cuts to a recycled shot of an exploding robot on a video monitor; the bloodstained wall is never shown. The bits in question are included on the Japanese DVD. The MPAA database indicates that Robot Jox was originally rated PG-13, but trimmed to obtain PG. Evidently, Epic felt that children were the film's only audience, which makes one wonder why they did not also edit out Athena's brief nude scene.
Sequels
The 1990 film Crash and BurnCrash and Burn (film)
Crash and Burn is a 1990 science fiction movie.-Plot:Unicom is a powerful organization overseeing most of the world after its economic collapse...
(AKA Robot Jox 2: Crash and Burn) was produced and marketed in some countries as a sequel
Sequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...
, but despite the title, same opening theme, involvement of Charles Band, and reused cover art, the plots of Crash and Burn and Robot Jox are completely unrelated.
Robot Wars
Robot Wars (film)
Robot Wars is a 1993 American science fiction film directed by Albert Band and written by Charles Band and Jackson Barr.It has been listed sometimes as a sequel to Robot Jox, but is not a real sequel, story-wise...
, released in 1993, was also marketed in several markets as a sequel, but like Crash and Burn, it was unrelated story-wise.