Synopsis[]
According to the 1982 movie Android, in the future, Androids are in hiding. Android Max 404 works as an assistant to Dr. Daniel on a space station where they conduct illegal experiments. Dr. Daniel's current project is creating the perfect female android, Cassandra, but he requires a human female to activate it.
Enter a trio of convicts that have hijacked a transport vessel and require an emergency landing to save their damaged spaceship. The timing could not be more appropriate since one of the convicts is a female. Her name is Maggie.
Max is immediately smitten by Maggie, who is oblivious to the fact that she is a convict. She indulges his affections while the other two convicts attempt to repair their spaceship and discover the illicit nature of the space station. Dr. Daniel does scheming of his own, trying to get Maggie's energy to activate his female android and his motives drive him to do anything.
When the police follow a beacon straight to the space station, Max discovers the true identity of his guest. Driven by love, he protects Maggie by destroying the police spaceship.
Maggie's own curiosity draws her to Dr. Daniel's objective and the energy created between her and Max bring Cassandra to life. Tensions between the convicts escalate and their murderous backgrounds cause them to kill each other.
With Dr. Daniel's objectives achieved and with a mess on his hands, he alters Max's programming to eliminate the murdering last convict. But Dr. Daniel didn't see that his perverted nature turns both Max and Cassandra against him. They attempt to kill him, only to find out that Dr. Daniel is also an android.
Reinforcements arrive to apprehend the convicts, but they discover that the convicts are all now dead and Max and Cassandra assume the identities of Dr. Daniel and his assistant to escape to Earth where they can hide with other fellow androids.
Vectrex role[]
Gameplay of Star Trek: The Motion Picture can be seen. Max plays it just before Dr. Daniel contacts him. There also appears to be either several Vectrexes built into one of the control panels on the bridge or Max is playing an emulator.
The program seen when both of the spaceships Minos and Neptune attempt to dock with the space station is part of the Android Computer Graphics program, which was coded for the Vectrex by Mark Indictor.
Cast[]
- Klaus Kinski - Dr. Daniel
- Don Keith Opper - Himself
- Brie Howard - Maggie
- Norbert Weisser - Keller
- Crofton Hardester - Mendes
- Kendra Kirchner - Cassandra
- Gary Corarito - Terrapol: Neptune
- Mary Ann Fisher Terrapol: Neptune
- Darrell Larson - Terrapol: Neptune
- Ian Scheibel - Terrapol: Neptune
- Wayne Springfield - Terrapol: Minos
- Julia Gibson - Terrapol: Minos
- Randy Connor - Terrapol: Landing Party
- Roger Kelton - Terrapol: Landing Party
- Rachel Talalay - Terrapol: Landing Party
- Johanne Todd - Terrapol: Landing Party
Trivia[]
- Both Dr. Daniel and Gunther Keller are seen wearing the same style of watch. A close-up is also given. Though the logos are not present, this looks as though it is the GCE Sports Time LCD watch.
- This was Don Keith Opper's first role. He played Max and was credited simply as "himself". He would go on to star in all four films in the Critters series.
Links[]
- Internet Movie DataBase entry
- Click on the tabber below for a review.
I expected Android to be unbearable based on a few comments and reviews I had read, however I was surprised at a movie which hovers somewhere between mediocre and good (not great). I feel that if any number of the somewhat shortcomings of the movie had been addressed that it might just be a more than just decent movie.
I wanted to see the movie specifically because of its usage of the Vectrex and to see how the program coded on the Vectrex just for the movie was used. This is in spite of the reviews I'd heard, and I like to make my own mind up regarding movies.
On to the movie. In short, the premise is good, the actor's execution is acceptable, the story has a moderate pace, the effects make it either pretty dated or a little on the low budget side, and the direction is of the no frills variety. The twist at the end is the best part of the movie. If you care about such things, at least there is nudity.
If the pace of the movie were sped up and a bit of the extraneous writing were removed, it might be a hidden gem. As it stands it's a movie that's not worth going out of your way to see but still worth seeing.
(Review by Tony Holcomb [50TBRD])
This article was featured from March - April, 2017.