Runaway

The fourth sci-fi inspired film directed by well-known novelist Michael Crichton – who also wrote the screenplay – revisits most of his favorite themes, first and foremost the inherent dangers of the unfettered technological advancement underway in the contemporary western world. Much as he has done on other occasions, the director makes a point of emphasizing that the true threat doesn’t lie so much in the products of human ingenuity, but rather in the evil intentions of the people who make and use those inventions (“Relationships don’t work right. People don’t work right. People make machines, so why should machines be perfect?“).

Even the classic theme of control resurfaces, approached first by a critique of mass media, portrayed as inopportune, interfering, and suffocating, and then further addressed through the existence of a network of instruments set up to constantly monitor, record, and generally spy on the lives of citizens. Nevertheless, looking back at Crichton’s directing oeuvre, “Runaway” is perhaps his least successful effort, not for its message, but rather due to a certain narrative fragility and a screenplay devoid of interesting characters. In particular, Gene Simmons’s “Luther”, with his permanent expression of contempt, is hardly a credible antagonist, coming off almost like a comic-book character. Then there’s Tom Selleck’s habitual wooden performance with his perpetually flat, fixed expression.

Box-office bomb: costing about 8 million dollars, the film took in less than 7 in the US, basically ignored by audiences far more interested in the competing release of “The Terminator” (1984). Well, who could really blame them?