Runaway

Runaway (1984)

IT IS THE FUTURE. Machines are being programmed to turn against us. Someone must stop the madman who started it all.

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.

Date of release
1984-12-14
TMDB
5.6 / 10 (303)
Runtime
1h 40m
Genres
Science Fiction, Thriller, Action
Director
Michael Crichton

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Box office: $6.8M
  • Budget: $8M
  • Earned 0.8× its budget

Runaway is a 1984 American science-fiction action film written and directed by Michael Crichton, and starring Tom Selleck, Gene Simmons, Cynthia Rhodes and Kirstie Alley. Selleck portrays a police officer assigned to track down dangerous robots, while Simmons is a scientist who hopes to profit from his manipulation of robots.

Production

The film was written and directed by Michael Crichton who said he deliberately made it vague how far into the future the film was set. "If you want my world view, I think it's about a year ahead," he said.

Crichton said the film "is not a cautionary tale" about technology but "an updated police story with every police cliche turned a bit. This is a movie, at least in part, about the difference between people and machines. We tried very hard to keep perspective. Machines are so visually interesting that a lot of times they threaten to take over a film."

Crichton wanted to ensure the film was visual and easy to follow. "Movies are about the here and now in things you see. To me, there's no point in writing a highly cinematic book or doing a very literary movie."

The star was Tom Selleck who had had a small role in Crichton's film Coma and since became a star on TV in Magnum, P.I.. Selleck later said, "With my TV series, I don't have the luxury of taking on a lot of projects. So when I got offered a movie and the timing's right, I say yes. I keep thinking if I don't say yes, then everyone will go away. And being a fan of Michael Crichton's helped, because I'm really very nervous doing this.

The film marked the first feature acting role for rock star Gene Simmons (he had been in Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park). Simmons had been interested in acting for a while, and had studied it since 1981. He turned down a TV series which wanted to exploit his KISS fame as well as parts in Flashdance and Doctor Detroit because he "wasn't interested in musicals or comedy. I wanted to start out in something serious.

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