American Cyborg

American Cyborg: Steel Warrior. Boaz Davidson, dir., story. USA: Global Pictures (prod.), 1994.

AMERICAN CYBORG: STEEL WARRIOR. Boaz Davidson, dir., co-script. USA: Global Pictures (prod.), 1993. **+Peter Gervei summarizes plot on IMDb, "After the nuclear war people are sterile and ruled by the artifical intelligences they created in this violent world. The only woman who was able to give life to a child has to take the child through the dangerous city to the ship to save it. She is followed by an immortal killer robot through all the dangers, and only one guy tries to help her survive and protect her from the killing machine." Cited by M. Lloyd, "The Loneliness of Cyborgs," as a cyborg movie set in a post-holocaust world run by a computer. Humans—supposedly all sterile—are "allowed to live out their natural lifespans inside of a controlled enclave." One woman, Mary, is discovered by a group of rebel scientists to be fertile. "She is impregnated, and the fetus is removed from her body and placed into a portable artificial womb for safekeeping. The plan is to take the fetus to the ocean, where a group of scientists from Europe will pick it up. The 'System' gets wind of these activities and sends a cyborg to destroy the rebels. Mary manages to escape, and convinces" a street fighter named Austin "to get her to the ocean. Along the way, Austin falls in love with Mary, and also discovers that he is a cyborg" (Pt. 2: 13). In a Washington Post rev., 10 Jan. 1994, Richard Harrington mentions an artificial womb, and suggests that the film might be useful as a compendium of post-apocalypse clichés (he did not intend that as a compliment); Harrington refers to only "machines" and machine-takeover, not AI. See for cyborgs, computer-rule, and the superimposition of the mechanical and electronic upon a human fetus. Cf. and contrast Children of Men by P.D. James and CHILDREN OF MEN (2006), the film made therefrom.

5. DRAMA, RDE, 26/09/06, 31/XII/08