The multi-talented Michael Crichton is responsible for some of the biggest and best properties to come out of Hollywood. Crichton will forever be known as the idea man who brought us RISING SUN, DISCLOSURE, TWISTER, CONGO, THE 13TH WARRIOR, JURASSIC PARK, and THE LOST WORLD. Mainstream Hollywood forgets that he once directed a series of motion pictures adapted from his own stories, including the excellent WESTWORLD, COMA, LOOKER, and RUNAWAY. Though Crichton garnered critical acclaim with his first few directing projects, RUNAWAY’s box office failure nearly spelled the end of his directing career. As it is, he only directed small scale projects sporadically, throughout the rest of his career. However, Michael Crichton will always be held in high regard for his screenwriting talents. The reasons for the failure of RUNAWAY are many, but the film does hold some cult fascination with genre fans. 15 years after RUNAWAY’s premiere seems like a good time for Columbia Tristar to revive the film for the DVD generation.

RUNAWAY stars Tom Selleck as Jack Ramsay, a brave Police officer with a geek streak. The gorgeous Cynthia (CURSE OF THE CRYSTAL EYE) Rhodes plays Ramsay’s new partner, Thompson. Gene (WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE) Simmons is the evil genius, Charles Luther. Kirstie (STAR TREK 2: THE WRATH OF KAHN) Alley plays Luther’s stubborn squeeze, Jackie. Joey (FLIGHT OF THE NAVIGATOR) Cramer is Jack Ramsey’s precocious son, Bobby. RUNAWAY also features the familiar faces of Chris Mulkey, Stan Shaw, and G.W. Bailey.

In the not too distant future, robots have been effectively employed in society for menial labor and for tasks considered too dangerous for people. Occasionally, a robot will malfunction and pose a threat to society. To deal with the ‘runaway’ robots, each Police district has a Runaway squad, who risk life and limb to track down and contain (or destroy) the Runaways. Jack Ramsay is a robotics expert and Runaway officer at the top of his profession. Jack use to have plenty of time on his hands, but lately there has been an increasing number of malfunctioning robots, hence a need to add new Runaway officers. Ramsay’s superior (Bailey) introduces Ramsay to the newest member of the Runaway team, Thompson (Rhodes). Immediately, the Runaway squad is called into action, and Thompson gets on-the-job training assisting Ramsay in tracking down and controlling the rogue robots.

When a domestic house robot goes berserk and shoots the family members, Ramsay is called into action to defuse the situation. After a tense showdown, Ramsay deactivates the robot and saves the life of an infant. Runaway technician Marvin (Shaw) inspects the robot’s remains and discovers a microprocessor chip was planted inside. This chip contains the programming that made the robot run wild. After conducting more investigations, the trail leads them to a shady hi-tech weapons dealer, Dr. Luthor (Simmons). Dr. Luther is also a whiz with computers, programming, and electronics. He is also a man without morals or scruples.

Dr. Luthor is seeking the templates that he needs to make more microprocessors. His girlfriend Jackie had absconded with the valuable templates, and Dr. Luthor will do anything to get them back. Ramsay saves Jackie from a Runaway robot and places her in police custody. He knows she is the central piece to the puzzle, but Ramsay has to play her a bit, because she won’t cooperate (she is afraid Dr. Luthor’s robot spiders and smart bullets will get her if she talks). Ramsay uses Jackie as bait in an attempt to flush the crooked electronics dealer out into the open. After several confrontations, Dr. Luthor kidnaps Ramsay’s own son to use him as a pawn to get to Ramsay. Dr. Luthor orders Ramsay to meet him at a high rise tower to trade the templates for Bobby’s life. Ramsay must overcome his fear of heights of he is to face Dr. Luthor and save the life of his son.

RUNAWAY was a mess because there was just too many things going on that we’ve seen before. So the end result was a predictable patchwork of events we’ve seen before from better films. For example, we find out in the first five minutes that Ramsay has vertigo. We know later on this will be used against him somehow. Ditto for his son, Bobby. There is no exploration of their relationship. The kid has a total of like two minutes screen time the entire film, whereupon we know he’s going to be used as a plot device later on. Ditto for the relationship between Ramsay and Thompson. The spin on their relationship is that Ramsay’s wife died a couple years ago. He seems to forget all about his wife when Thompson is around. How convenient for Crichton to kill off the wife before the movie even begins. Then there are the annoying, prying reporters who follow Ramsay on his assignments. Are we supposed to feel bad for them when they are shot? And Ramsay’s boss is the usual ball-busting police chief that we see in every American cop film. It’s this predictability factor that hurts RUNAWAY.

One of Crichton’s strengths is in creating fantasy worlds and concepts based on existing technology for his stories. JURASSIC PARK, WESTWORLD, and DISCLOSURE are good examples of his creativity and talent. For RUNAWAY, he creates a world which could be 1985 or 2025. This world is just like ours, except that robots have found a place in society to benefit mankind. Crichton’s robots are all square and box-like with only a few wheels to get around. Only a handful even have appendages. Or his robots are small and unintelligent (like the infamous spider-bots). Most of the robots in RUNAWAY look like colorful ashtrays, and have about the same personality to match. A far cry from C3PO and R2D2, the Transformers, or even Robby the Robot. Crichton wisely avoids that other cliché that you cannot ignore when discussing robots; Issac Asimov envisioned our world eventually overrun by mechanical men, and he pondered the outcome if the machines ever rose up against mankind (like in the future world of THE TERMINATOR). Crichton stages the malfunctioning robots as isolated cases, instead of a full scale robot-rebellion cliché.

But Crichton is able to successfully combine our world (or at least the world of 1985) with the age of the machines. There is a lot of things he failed to pull off in this film, but establishing his futuristic concepts realistically is not one of them. Though RUNAWAY borrows elements from other (and better) films like BLADE RUNNER (the main character hunts down robots for a living), the world of RUNAWAY looks like our world. There is no sprawling megalopolis or futuristic landscape. Though the film is very formulaic by conventional means, Crichton keeps the plot moving and tosses in plenty of action to keep you awake. Key scenes include the robots running amok, the spider-bots in action, and the scenes where flat robots chase after the heroes, threatening to explode underneath their police vehicles. Another weakness is with Crichton’s dialog. He’s does a decent enough job when the dialog is of a technical nature, but Crichton just stumbles when depicting everyday interaction between the characters. Crichton is known for his shallow characters, so that explains the dialog. Though RUNAWAY fails on the surface, there is still some entertainment value found beneath.

Tom Selleck provides some believability in the role of the hi-tech cop who suffers from vertigo. When he is forced to face his fears and literally climb up a skyscraper, the audience shares his nervous perspective. He is also believable in the role of single parent, except for some truly ridiculous things like allowing a robot to act as the kid’s guardian. Of course, Bobby’s screen time is minimal at best so don’t expect a whole lot of character development between father and son. There is a lot more development between Ramsay and Thompson, though not much. But that doesn’t stop Crichton having them fall in love by the end (very sappily, I may add). Can’t say I blame him though; Cynthia Rhodes looks like a young Bo Derek. Kirsty Alley was at the apex of her sex appeal in RUNAWAY. Kiss bass player Gene Simmons left rock and roll for a few years do to some films, and he was quite good in all of them, though he usually played bad guys only. Here he plays an insane electronics genius with a quiet, over zealous glee. He definitely turns in one of the most memorable performances in RUNAWAY.

- Tony Mustafa