science fiction – Around the World in 80s Movies Podcast

Akira (1988) | Katsuhiro Otomo

May 26, 2019 qwipster Comment is Closed

In this breakthrough anime masterwork, Akira starts out in 1988, much of Tokyo is destroyed by a mysterious that spreads like a dome of energy over the city. The rest of the film is set in the year 2019, as we peek into the post-apocalyptic megalopolis that has been rebuilt as Neo-Tokyo, where the government is […]

The Terminator (1984) | James Cameron

April 26, 2019 qwipster Comment is Closed

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The simple premise: A killer android (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) is sent back to 1984 to assassinate the mother (Linda Hamilton) of a resistance leader of the future. A soldier of that resistance (Michael Biehn) is also sent back to protect her from harm, but the killer android is virtually unstoppable in its mission. This classic science fiction/action/horror/thriller […]

Hands of Steel (1986) | Sergio Martino

April 18, 2019 qwipster Comment is Closed

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Hands of Steel is an Italian-produced film obviously influenced by James Cameron’s The Terminator if combined with the basic plot of First Blood. Set in the near future, we find a beefy thug (Daniel Greene) has been brainwashed by the evil head of a pollution-spewing corporation called the Turner Foundation, headed by John Saxon’s Francis Turner, we soon learn, […]

Cyborg (1989) | Albert Pyun

April 11, 2019April 18, 2019 qwipster Comment is Closed

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In the future, New York, after the dreaded nuclear holocaust, is a wasteland of lawlessness and gangland thuggery. Jean-Claude Van Damme plays a skilled martial arts warrior named Gibson Rickenbacker, a “slinger”(aka, a mercenary for hire helping refugees), who fights for and rescues a woman named Pearl Prophet from a horde of marauders. It turns out […]

Batteries Not Included (1987) | Matthew Robbins

January 18, 2019April 18, 2019 qwipster Comment is Closed

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Real-life married couple Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy star as Frank and Faye Riley, the owners of a small diner in a dilapidated building that also houses their apartment in the slums of Manhattan. The rest of the tenants of the building are being paid off to evacuate ASAP, so that greedy land developers can take […]

Dreamscape (1984) | Joseph Ruben

September 20, 2018April 18, 2019 qwipster Comment is Closed

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Dreamscape stars Dennis Quaid as a psychic enlisted into a top-secret government experiment that puts him into the nightmares of another person in order to cure them. However, when the President of the United States becomes the subject, he finds himself embroiled in a plot to assassinate the world leader in his sleep. Kate Capshaw, […]

Brainstorm (1983) | Douglas Trumbull

September 15, 2018April 18, 2019 qwipster Comment is Closed

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Christopher Walken stars as a scientist out to protect his project, one that involves being able to experience the senses and emotions of another person, from getting into the wrong hands. Natalie Wood, in her final film role, co-stars as the wife he is about to lose, if only they could remember the love they […]

Explorers (1985) | Joe Dante

September 7, 2018April 18, 2019 qwipster Comment is Closed

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Joe Dante’s Explorers marks the big screen debuts of two future stars, Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix, who, along with Jason Presson, make up the three young boys with a thirst for adventure and scientific exploration. In their dreams, the boys have a connection to a circuit board that they eventually use to build their own little […]

TRON (1982) | Steven Lisberger

August 31, 2018April 18, 2019 qwipster Comment is Closed

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Disney’s first big foray into the realm of computer animation would prove to be a box office disappoiuntmen in 1982, but garner a legion of fans over the years for its revolutionary design work and the influence it still continue to have in science fiction today. Jeff Bridges stars as Kevin Flynn, video game programmer, […]

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) | Sidney J. Furie

August 10, 2018April 18, 2019 qwipster Comment is Closed

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Although he had claimed to be done putting on the red cape after SUPERMAN III, Reeve is lured back to make a fourth entry with a different studio from an idea he had written himself to bring back the series to respectability. Alas, it didn’t quite work out that way in the end. Superman makes […]

Supergirl (1984) | Jeannot Szwarc

August 3, 2018April 18, 2019 qwipster Comment is Closed

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Just as Kal-El was sent by his parents to Earth from a dying planet in order to save him, so too did Alexander and Ilya Salkind try to save their dying franchise by trying to spin it off with a new character with Kara, Superman’s cousin, better known as Supergirl! Things didn’t quite go according […]

Superman III (1983) | Richard Lester

July 28, 2018April 18, 2019 qwipster Comment is Closed

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Gone is Richard Donner, gone is Gene Hackman, and gone is the epic feel of the SUPERMAN series with SUPERMAN III, in which the creators finally wrest the controls away to make what they’ve been wanting to make all along: comedies! Richard Lester returns as director, as Superman, once again played by Christopher Reeve, has […]

Superman (1978) | Richard Donner

July 14, 2018April 18, 2019 qwipster Comment is Closed

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The granddaddy of the modern-day superhero flick, 1978’s SUPERMAN put together a truly epic experience befitting a popular hero on the magnitude of Superman. Richard Donner directed DC Comics’ legendary property from his infancy on the planet Krypton all the way to donning the cape and costume to right wrongs wherever he may find them […]

The Return of Swamp Thing (1989) | Jim Wynorski

June 28, 2018April 18, 2019 qwipster Comment is Closed

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Seven years after Wes Craven’s original adaptation of the DC Comics superhero, Jim Wynorski takes a stab by sending the whole thing up as a campy b-movie sci-fi/horror hybrid. Swamp Thing (Dick Durock again) is back as protector of a hot babe in the form of Abigail, portrayed by Razzie Award-winning actress Heather Locklear, to […]

G.I. Joe: The Movie (1987) | Don Jurwich

June 8, 2018April 18, 2019 qwipster Comment is Closed

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Rounding out this trio of Hasbro toy-based films put out by Marvel/Sunbow in the mid-1980s, “GI Joe: The Movie” has the dishonorable distinction of being funneled straight to video and subsequently syndicated on television due to the lack of success for the “Transformers” and “My Little Pony” movies at the box office the year before. […]