Cyborg (film)
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Cyborg is a 1989 action/sci-fi film directed by Albert Pyun. Jean-Claude Van Damme stars as Gibson Rickenbacker, an underdog street fighter who battles a group of sadistic outlaws led by Fender Tremolo (Vincent Klyn) along the east coast of the United States in a post-apocalyptic near future. While generally panned by critics, it did feature some dramatic cinematography, costumes, and hand-to-hand combat/hybrid martial arts scenes.
It was rated 'R' by the MPAA due to violent content. It was one of the last Cannon Films productions to be distributed by MGM/UA. Cyborg 2, starring Elias Koteas and Angelina Jolie was released in 1993. , a direct-to-video release followed in 1994.
Plot
Sometime in the 21st century, as a plague sweeps across a civilization already ruined by "anarchy, genocide and starvation", a small group of the last surviving scientists and doctors — located in Atlanta, Georgia — work on a cure to try and save what's left of humanity. They require information stored on a computer system in New York City to complete their work, and through surgery on volunteer Pearl Prophet (Dayle Haddon), they create a cyborg who will attempt the treacherous journey there to download the data and courier it back.
The cyborged Pearl, accompanied by her escort/bodyguard Marshall Strat, retrieves the data in New York, but is pursued by the vicious Fender Tremolo (Vincent Klyn) and his gang of "pirates" (including the gigantic Brick Bardo played by Ralf Moeller), who revel in the misery and suffering of the city, doing whatever they can to perpetuate and exacerbate it. Fender — whose incredible strength, and icy blue eyes hidden under dark glasses, indicate he is also cyborged in some way — wants to own the cure alone and exploit people with it. Strat, badly injured in skirmishes with the pirates tells Pearl to leave him and get to the Bronx to look for a "slinger" that can escort her to safety. She flees and happens upon Gibson Rickenbacker (Van Damme), a slinger, or mercenary who provides protection against pirate attacks. No sooner does she explain her situation to him than they are overrun by Fender's gang and Gibson is knocked out with a bullet from a pirate's gun. Fender, having slaughtered and beheaded Strat, dangles the severed head in front of Pearl and tells her that he will take her to Atlanta. There, she must deliver him the cure... or else he will "give [her] the horror show".
Fender and his gang slaughter a family by the seaside, steal their boat, and head south for Atlanta via the Intracoastal Waterway with the captive Pearl. Gibson, recovering and tracking the pirates, arrives at the scene of destruction late at night. A strange figure in the shadows moves to attack him, but with quick reflexes he launches a throwing knife that takes the attacker down. His attacker turns out to be Nady Simmons (Deborah Richter), a young woman who'd been hiding since the pirate attack and thought Gibson was one of their gang. After they camp and recover overnight, Nady reveals that her entire family's been wiped out by the plague and that she wants to follow the pirates and try to help the cyborg. Gibson, meanwhile, is less concerned with a cure for the plague than with finding Fender and eliminating him. He tries to persuade Nady to stay away, saying he doesn't want to see her die, but she insists that he will need her help.
In flashbacks that haunt Gibson, it is revealed that he had once fallen in love and settled down in an abandoned country house with a client, Mary, and her two young children after escorting them from the city. Fender found them there and terrorized them, killed Mary and her son and abducted her daughter Haley, forcing Gibson to take up the "slinger" lifestyle once again.
Gibson and Nady trek southwards through east coast wastelands, contending with various bandits and outlaws in hand-to-hand combat. One night on their journey, Nady offers her body to Gibson, but he refuses: destroying Fender is his only desire. Intercepting Fender and his crew ashore near Charleston, South Carolina, Gibson eliminates several of his henchmen in desperate fighting in an abandoned warehouse. He sees Haley, now a loyal member of Fender's crew. Nursing a fresh gunshot wound, courtesy of Fender, and chased by a dozen of his pirates, he outsmarts them and for a brief moment is alone with Pearl and Nady. Pearl refuses to go with him – she has calculated that Gibson is not strong enough to defeat Fender and will be unable to get her to Atlanta safely. She says she will go along with Fender and lure him to his death in Atlanta where she has resources at her disposal. Tired, wounded, and badly outnumbered, Gibson flees with Nady through an underground sewer — where he ambushes and kills Brick Bardo — and then into a deep salt marsh where they are pursued heavily by the rest of the pirates and eventually separated from each other in the boggy terrain.
Gibson is captured, beaten unconscious by Fender and crucified high on the mast of a beached, derelict ship (crucifixion is foreshadowed at the opening of the film when Pearl and Strat are running through the streets of New York). Haley lingers at the scene sympathetically, but must leave with Fender. Abandoned, Gibson spends the night on the cross. In the morning, near death, he kicks the mast repeatedly with his dangling feet in a last fit of rage. The mast snaps at his feet, sending him crashing to the ground, his arms still nailed to the cross. Finally, Nady appears out of the marsh to free him.
Gibson and Nady intercept Fender once again in Atlanta, and this time are better prepared. The rest of Fender's gang are taken down one by one until he and Gibson finally meet on equal terms. During their epic bout, Nady, having just wiped out several of the pirates, rushes Fender with a knife, but he gashes her with a blade of his own, killing her. Gibson downs Fender with a deep stab wound to the chest, and thinking him dead, turns his back and greets Haley who is finally free. However, Fender rises, and in a final battle in a nearby shed, Gibson leaves him impaled on a large meat hook. Gibson and Haley escort Pearl to her destination, where after rather nonchalant thanks and goodbyes they leave her and step back out onto the streets of Atlanta.
Quotes
- Fender Tremolo: "First there was the collapse of civilization: anarchy, genocide, starvation. Then when it seemed things couldn't get any worse, we got the plague. The Living Death, quickly closing its fist over the entire planet. Then we heard the rumors: that the last scientists were working on a cure that would end the plague and restore the world. Restore it? Why? I like the death! I like the misery! I like this world!!"
- Pearl Prophet: "Why did you help me?" Gibson Rickenbacker: "I thought it was somebody else."
Trivia
- It was originally intended as a sequel to the 1987 He-Man film Masters of the Universe, with a working title of Masters of the Universe 2: Cyborg, but was ultimately released as a stand-alone film with only some superficial similarities to He-Man.
- Several of the characters' names are obvious references to well known guitar manufacturers/electric guitars. The soundtrack itself is largely synthesized music with little or no electric guitar.
- *Gibson Rickenbacker: Gibson, Rickenbacker
- *Fender Tremolo: Fender, Tremolo arm
- *Marshall Strat: Marshall Amplifiers, Fender Stratocaster
External links
- [}}}] at Rotten Tomatoes
- Reviews
- [Gerry Carpenter, Scifilm.org] URL accessed 2006-06-24
- [Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times, April 7, 1989] URL accessed 2006-06-24
- [Richard Harrington, Washington Post, April 11, 1989] URL accessed 2006-06-24
- [Chris Hicks, Deseret Morning News, May 18, 1989] URL accessed 2006-06-24
- [Stephen Holden, New York Times, April 8, 1989] URL accessed 2006-06-24
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