Runaway (1984)

In the near future, Jack Ramsay (Tom Selleck) is a police officer who serves in a special unit that responds to malfunctioning robots.  Robots are common, providing office security, agricultural service, home care, and restaurant staff.  On this particular day, he has a new partner.  Karen Thompson (Cynthia Rhodes) is eager to learn the ropes.  There is immediately a call about a malfunctioning agricultural robot.  As they fly to the scene, they can see the maze-like pattern the defective robot has carved in the cornfield.  The chase is mostly comedic but gives an idea of what the job entails.  However, right out the gate, it is unclear why this is a police matter rather than a technical support issue.  Later robots prove to be more dangerous, even deadly.  Ramsay and Thompson soon discover that someone is sabotaging robots by inserting a chip on the motherboard.  The villain proves to be Dr. Charles Luther (Gene Simmons).  Not only can he sabotage robots, he has a rocket pistol with heat-seeking bullets that can differentiate heat signatures.  Can Jack and Karen stop Luther before he sells his killer chips to a terrorist?

Watching the movie today, some of the technology looks primitive.  However, much of what is shown did not exist at the time.  I didn't blink at the wireless headsets, signs of the internet, voice-activated computers, and camera drones.  The one cellphone that did appear was the large brick with a stubby antenna that was high-tech in the late 80s to early 90s.  The robots are all primitive, mostly rolling boxes with an extending arm or two.

Jack is a single father, which figures into the film when Luther targets his son, Bobby.  Karen is almost immediately smitten by him; he is Tom Selleck, after all.  She often seems more love-interest than partner.  Oddly, Jack is rather dense about her attraction to him and instead has eyes for Jackie Rogers (Kirstie Alley).  In fact, he does the stupid male bravado bit to rescue her from a security robot, getting repeatedly shocked in the process.  That diminished my view of him as an expert on dealing with robots.  You just beat them with a chair.  Right.

The Chief of Police is played by GW Bailey of all people.  Earlier in 1984, he had stared in the first Police Academy movie as the comically villainous Lt. Harris.  He reprised that role 6 times in the next 10 years.  As such, it was hard not to laugh when he would chew out Ramsay.  

Gene Simmons just glowers through the movie.  He is pure hostility.  He betrays everyone and has no hesitation in killing whoever gets in his way.  One wonders why anyone made deals with this obviously untrustworthy thug.

Both written and directed by Michael Crichton, it is much like one of his books.  The characters are mostly two-dimensional while the villain is one-dimensional, but the setting is amazingly well-developed.

Good popcorn fun.