Death Machine

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Movie
German title Death Machine - monsters of steel
Original title Death Machine
Country of production United Kingdom
original language English
Publishing year 1995
length Theatrical version: 117 minutes,
Director's Cut : 111 minutes,
Final Cut : 128 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Stephen Norrington
script Stephen Norrington
production Dominic Anciano
music Crispin Merrell
camera John de Borman
cut Paul Endacott
occupation

Death Machine (Alternative title: Death Machine - Monster Steel ) is a British sci-fi - horror film director and screenwriter Stephen Norrington from the year 1995 . The film was released on video in Germany on May 2, 1995.

action

The action takes place in 2003. The leading and controversial armaments manufacturer Chaank Industries conducts secret experiments with a combat robot under the code name Warbeast . The machine tracks down its victims through their sweat ( pheromones in the air), increased heart rate and noises and destroys them with close combat weapons such as steel claws and teeth. This makes it resemble a predatory dinosaur made of metal in appearance and gait. The machine was designed by Jack Dante, the psychotic head of the design department.

The new manager Hayden Cale learns of ethically reprehensible projects that Chaank is carrying out, which she initially believes to be false accusations by the public and the press. When she learns from the other managers that the allegations are true, she demands the suspension and disclosure of all affected projects and also that Dante - the leading capacity of the engineering department - be fired for constantly ordering material on his own initiative, not filing reports and never going to meetings appears. Some managers want to talk her out of it and think that Dante is pure capital, others, on the other hand, that it is better to let him do it because he is so dangerous and has something in vault 10 that is very dangerous. She turns to top manager Scott Ridley to get help with the clarification, but he refuses her out of fear of Dante. She then steals his access authorization card from him in order to find out for herself, since two cards, i.e. from two people, are always required for such purposes.

Meanwhile, Cale is watched by Dante, who is furious at the news that he is about to be fired and starts snooping into Cale's life by hacking into her personal information. At the same time, the company's building is infiltrated by three militant eco-activists from the “Humanist Alliance” who want to destroy vault 10, including the databases, new types of processors and company securities worth millions. Dante now thinks Scott Ridley is helping Cale fire him and put the reprehensible projects on hold. When Scott denies this and tells him that Cale stole his access card, Dante becomes even angrier because he has fallen in love with Cale and he doesn't want to hear her being called a thief. In his anger, Dante has Scott Ridley killed by his combat robot from Vault 10. When Cale revokes all of Dante's access authorizations using her and Ridley's card on the computer and seals vault 10, Dante tries to shoot Cale, but at that moment the ecoterrorists appear and take Dante, Cale and the manager John Carpenter hostage, who is also still inside Building to show Cale Scott's body and show her that Dante was behind it. Dante, angry that he has lost all authorizations and was fired, now wants to help the ecoterrorists out of revenge and self-interest to get to the coveted vault 10 faster and easier. When the vault is welded open, Dante jumps into it and uses a remote control to activate the combat robot, which then kills the terrorist Weyland. His companion Sam Raimi has to flee and goes to his buddy Yutani, who is guarding the hostages.

Arriving at the hostages and Yutani, Sam tells them what happened. Now the two remaining ecoterrorists Sam and Yutani have to admit that they have no chance against the combat robot because their assault rifles are only loaded with blank cartridges because they are a humanitarian eco-activist group. Carpenter takes advantage of this opportunity to gain control of everyone, as he had secretly pocketed one of Dante's pistols when he was disarmed by the eco-activists. He forces her to get on a freight elevator. While it was moving, the elevator was suddenly attacked by Dante's robot. After a fierce battle, the robot falls down the elevator shaft and pulls Carpenter down with it. Deflated, the group escapes from the elevator to a secret level where another sinister project is located, that of Hardman . You will find wounded veterans who were falsely reported missing during the war and put into cold sleep and are now gradually being fed into the project. The veterans' entire memory is copied onto floppy disk so that, in conjunction with novel, artificial exoskeletons , weapons and a military computer program, they are supposed to make the supposedly perfect infantrymen. This transformation has side effects, however, because these soldiers repeatedly suffer from violent interruptions in which they lose control. Despite certain doubts, the group decides to turn Sam Raimi into such a soldier and send them on a mission to destroy the combat robot and protect them. Since Dante's combat robot reacts primarily to human fear, it initially leaves Raimi alone, who is now looking for the machine like a callous, programmed robot.

Meanwhile, Dante kidnaps Cale in order to get her to become his mate, to forget everything that has happened so far, to reinstate him with all powers and to keep in contact. Cale manages to stab Dante in the right hand with a knife and flees when suddenly the injured Yutani stands in the door to save her. Together they make their way outside, where they have to flee from Dante's robot. Finally, Raimi arrives and takes up the fight with the machine. When Yutani uses an assault rifle to secure the group's exit from the Hardman project, when he tries to leave the room, he bumps his head against a steel bulkhead, falls half senseless and becomes the next victim of Dante's robot. Raimi, who has now regained his own self after a few dropouts, continues with Cale on the way outside. Towards the end, Dante manages to hold the robot in a vault and lock it in. In a fit of rage, Dante accidentally activates the countdown of an explosive device, which Cale gleefully tossed him so that he could destroy the machine. Cale, who has taken over the remote control of the robot, now lets go of the circuit in front of the vault - "for all children" who should be spared from such a machine in the future, which ensures that the robot inside the Without control attacks everything that is in its vicinity. Then the explosive device goes off. Dante and his machine are destroyed.

Reviews

The magazine TV direkt 12/2007 wrote that the film was an “imaginative shocker with a bad joke”.

Richard Scheib criticized in the Science Fiction, Horror & Fantasy Film Review Database that some characters were named after famous directors, which would affect the "credibility" of the "otherwise realistic" film. He praised the performance of Brad Dourif.

The lexicon of international films concludes: "A speculative horror thriller that enriches its half-baked story with numerous perversions in order to illustrate a future life on the verge of madness."

Awards

In 1995 the film received an award from the Italian Mostra Internazionale del Film de Fantascienza e del Fantastico di Roma for its special effects .

Trivia

Despite the sometimes brutal elements, the film is not meant to be taken seriously and is characterized by some exaggerations and exaggerations. All weapons, for example, are oversized and, like the combat robot and the entire plot, rather quotes from other films of similar genres, such as RoboCop , Alien - The uncanny creature from a strange world , Aliens - The Return , Terminator or Universal Soldier . This was clearly done on purpose, two of the ecoterrorists (Weyland and Yutani) are named after the company Weyland Yutani from the film Aliens - The Return . Many people in the film (and even devices) bear the names of well-known directors who have made similar films. This is the name of the top manager of Chaank Scott Ridley after Ridley Scott , the director of Alien - The uncanny creature from a strange world . Further references to well-known Hollywood directors are the characters John Carpenter and Sam Raimi.

The film was shot in London , Los Angeles and Pinewood Studios , UK .

The actress Rachel Weisz can be seen in a small supporting role . At the end of the board meeting, she advises Cale not to mess with Dante and to find out what happens to those who criticize Dante.

Age rating

The film was unindexed in January 2017. A re-examination of the unabridged version by the FSK resulted in a release from the age of 16.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ TV direkt 12/2007, p. 142.
  2. ↑ www.moria.co.nz , accessed June 22, 2007
  3. ^ Death Machine in the Lexicon of International FilmsTemplate: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used , accessed December 27, 2012
  4. ^ Filming locations for Death Machine , accessed June 22, 2007