Bullet Points: Death Machine (1994)

I randomly saw a short clip of this film the other day while perusing Twitter and thought that it was right up my alley. In just the 30 seconds of film I saw it had shades of Aliens, Blade Runner, and Hardware. To say that I was beyond excited to watch this hidden gem of 1994 is an understatement. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again; if you make a film even closely resembling the masterpiece of Aliens I will watch the shit out of it.

Synopsis: The Chaank company deals in military research and development and their latest attempt, the ‘Hardman Project’ has failed and brought them negative attention. New CEO Hayden Cale (Ely Pouget) fires the crazed scientist Jack Dante (Brad Dourif) and he unleashes his Warbeast killing machine on her and a group of tree-hugging terrorists who have infiltrated the building.

• The Near Future: Death Machine takes place in the year 2003 but I only know that because I read it somewhere. The film just says “the near-future”. The timing of the film only matters because some of the tech in this movie is a little beyond what 1994 had to offer and if you’re gonna watch a movie about killer machines then you need to have a little realism, I guess.
• The Ultimate Soldier: The film opens with a trio of elite-looking military dudes going into a small town cafe that is surrounded by Sheriff deputies. There have been a number of innocent people killed and when they get into the building they recognize that their Universal Soldier looking dude has glitched out and killed a bunch of folks. Bummer. They essentially write it off as a whoopsie and take the dude into custody. It clearly shows that this shadowy organization is powerful and doesn’t give a damn who they hurt.

• Mad Scientist: Brad Dourif plays Jack Dante. He’s the creator of all of these deadly machines and one crazy son of a bitch. Dourif meets Ely Pouget’s Hayden Cale, who is the CEO of Chaank and a person that he desperately wants to bang. So much so that he allows her to live for far too long in this movie. Dourif’s Dante brings the weirdness in this movie to a level that I haven’t seen in a while and it’s too fun to watch.
• The Terrorists: A trio of druggie nitwits break into the building in the hopes of destroying something with their explosives. Talk about bad timing, cause this just so happens to be the same night that Dante releases his new “Warbeast” on the building to eliminate those inside of it. None of the characters add much to the movie but it gives a few more people to be killed by the machine which is fine by me.

• What’s in a name: Stephen Norrington just doesn’t give a shit. The names of the characters in this movie are out of control. Let me just name a few of them: John Carpenter, Sam Raimi, Scott Ridley, Weyland, and Yutani. Those probably sound familiar to you and for good reason. Apparently, Norrington really wants us to know who he enjoys in the industry.
• The Games you Play: Much of the film is the surviving members of the building’s occupants trying to escape from the Warbeast. It busts through walls, slams through doors, and eats through people using it’s cute Edward Scissorhands-like fingers. I really enjoy the scenes of them unloading hundreds of bullets into the beast without it even flinching.

• The Finale: The survivors are forced to quickly adapt the flawed ultimate soldier tech from earlier to try and fight the Warbeast. It’s not the best situation, but it allows us to watch the two go toe to toe like Ali and Frazier. Hayden Cale gets to do quite a bit throughout the film as she and Dante spend some time together and we learn about them as the tension ramps up and the blood spills. Dante, of course, shows back up for the ending and gives us a little more creepster action before the credits roll.

The Verdict: Death Machine is the type of movie that I would have gone nuts for in the late 80’s and early 90’s but I’ve somehow never seen it until just now. It’s an unique film. Written and directed by Stephen Norrington, it has a feel a bit like Robocop or probably more accurately Hardware, but also doesn’t rehash things that we’ve seen in other films. I thought Ely Pouget was good as the lead and Brad Dourif is always creepy but the film seems a bit strange at times and never really settles in on what it wants to say. It has enough of Aliens in it for me to enjoy it but I think I enjoyed Hardware better as a “machine kills people in a shit future” kind of way. Check out the trailer and see if it tickles your fancy. Me, I could have used a bit more kills and a lot less chit-chat.