A race of time-traveling alien "Masters" kidnaps humans from Earth's future to use as slaves and takes dinosaurs from the past to use as trackers of those who escape.
One of their victims, the Runaway (Daniel Bernhardt) escapes and arrives in late 1990's Los Angeles. There he must elude the cyborgs and their dinosaurs, the police, and the Feds. He is befriended by a drug-dealing-hooker-turned-novitiate (Stewart) who runs a halfway house.
Information
During filming, producer Dave Eddy and some other crew members remarked that it would be great if the film someday appeared on MST3K, which it ultimately did.
A "Damage Control Unit" was formed to salvage the film when the producers were disappointed with the work of the director, Anthony Doublin.
One of the movie's taglines: "Past Predator, Present Alien, Future Terminator".
Mike & the Bots riff on Future War
Bernhardt would later go on to have a successful movie career as a stuntman/action performer, and he also appeared in The Matrix Reloaded as Agent Johnson, a leader of the Agents program (that film later got riffed by RiffTrax). His longest continuous work was as the character Siro in the live-action Mortal Kombat TV show Mortal Kombat: Konquest for one season in 1998.
The older gentleman walking in the park who is killed by one of the dinosaurs is Forrest J Ackerman, noted film memorabilia collector, b-movie historian, and editor of "Famous Monsters of Filmland" magazine (usually abbreviated to "Famous Monsters"). Ackerman died in 2008, but as of 2018, Famous Monsters is still published on a bi-monthly basis. A copy of the magazine can be seen in his hands as he meets his demise. Ackerman also appeared in The Time Travelers (which became Experiment #1103).
In 2014, the film's composer Arlen Boll made the theme song for this film available as a single on iTunes.
The Episode
Host Segments
Prologue: Using a computer spreadsheet program and California Senator Diane Feinstein as a baseline, Crow tries to calculate how many times a lady Gypsy is. Gypsy is disappointed that she is only 2.7 times a lady; turns out Mike is eight times a lady.
What Crow sees while on LSD
Segment One:Pearl is conducting LSD tests on the robots and monitors their hallucinations. To augment the effect, Bobo and Brain Guy have formed an acid rock band called Narcotic Casserole. Servo has his usual delirium; Crow has a harrowing experience in which he sees Mike eating a Snickers candy bar, not a Milky Way. Crow is also somewhat surprised to learn that Mike is not a clown.
Segment Two: Tom makes a pair of legs (which are non-functional, like his arms) so he can kickbox. He challenges Gypsy to a fight, but she has a leg of her own and instantly takes out Servo.
Pearl's Drug Experiment
Segment Three: Mike, Crow and Servo realize they've never really thanked Pearl for not killing them. They take a moment to thank Pearl, interrupting her attempt to kill them.
Segment Four: Crow is Droppy, The Water Droplet, an emissary from the National Water Council, who has come to share just a few thousand of the many uses for water.
Segment Five: Mike has a giant Robert Z'Dar-esque chin. The bots chide him for being so insensitive to all the people with large prosthetic chins. MIke doesn't really care. Down in Castle Forrester, Bobo and Brain Guy inform Pearl that Narcotic Casserole is leaving to tour with Moby Grape. Pearl gives them each exploding tracking collars.
Stinger: Robert Z'Dar and Daniel Bernhardt kick-box and Bernhardt's shirt somehow slips off.[1]
The actor on-screen vaguely resembles actor Ving Rhames.
"I don't follow you, my friend. No way."
Observer, in his hippie persona, quotes this line from the "made-for-TV hippie" in San Francisco International.
"Casablanca! Could you doppel me into that, Mike?"
Crow, noting the marquee on a movie theater in the shot, refers to Overdrawn at the Memory Bank, which relied heavily on the better film as a plot device.
"This is because Joel stopped by recently, isn't it?"
A reference to the fact that Joel Robinson made an appearance in the season premiere, Soultaker.
Mike: In association with Bob Tet Offensive Productions.
[The opening credits identify actor Robert Z'Dar.]
Servo: Oh z'no.
[As the movie opens, the Runaway (Swiss martial-arts actor Daniel Bernhardt) creeps along a wall.]
Servo: Hey, it's Jean Claude Van Damme!
Mike: Eh, it's more like Jean Claude Gosh Darn.
[Armed with a shotgun, Fred, a hefty African-American man, follows him.]
Crow [as Fred]: Am I Ving Rhames? I can't remember.
[A midget Tyrannosaurus rex (actually a hand puppet) growls at the Runaway in an alley.]
Crow: He's a Cute-a-saurus!
[The T-Rex lunges for the Runaway's neck]
Servo: He's being attacked by a schnauzer in a dinosaur costume.
[The Runaway stabs the creature in the neck and he goes down quickly.]
Mike: [laughs] Wow, that was easy! Maybe it was butterflies that wiped out the dinosaurs?
[Shortly after the Runaway escapes, the dinosaur explodes.]
Servo: Ooh... no wonder fossils are so rare!
[A homeless man is attacked and eaten by a dinosaur.]
Mike: You know, this has got to be about the last thing you worry about when you're living in a dumpster.
[The Runaway flees through a shipping yard and throws obviously empty cardboard boxes at his pursuer.]
Mike: Boxes of air, shipped anywhere overnight.
. . .
Mike: Maybe they ship fully inflated balloons overseas?
. . .
[The Runaway finds himself at a dead end among the boxes.]
Crow: He's boxed in!
Mike: Yeah, well, I'm card-bored.
Mike:Alright there should be a delay of movie penalty
Servo[makes whistle sound] Fifteen yards.
[From a high-angle shot, the main character throws a harpoon and clearly hits nothing, but the puppet dinosaur keels over.]
Crow [as Daniel Bernhardt]: So when you edit this, it's going to look like I hit him, right?
Ann: Hey, how did you know who I was?
Officer: Fred Burrows told us how he got you to give him a ride. Don't worry, you're free to go.
Mike: Fred Burrows?
Servo: Somebody look in your Rolodex for a Fred Burrows.
...
[Shot of the Runaway in a jail cell.]
Crow [as the Runaway]: Fred Burrows! Help me!
[Ann and the Runaway escape a dinosaur in the back of a man's pickup truck.]
Ann: DRIIIIIVE!
Mike: SUUUUURGE!
Ann: DRIIIIIIIIVE!
Crow [as driver]: Look, how much more can I drive? There's no inherent quantity of driving that I can increase! ...If you want me to go faster, then you need to tell me that.
[Characters are hunting dinosaurs, with incessant deep bell music.]
Mike: According to the bells, it's 97 o'clock.
[Shot of a bomb timer, counting down extremely quickly.]
Crow: Introducing new, faster seconds!
[As the Runaway fights the Cyborg, the camera cuts to Ann fidgeting nervously.]
Crow [as Ann]: I'm fretting. See, audience? I'm fretting.
Servo: This isn't a real movie, it's more of a movie loaf.
Mike: Yeah, it's made from real movie parts, chunked and formed.
[During one of the many, many inept action scenes.]
Crow: OK, my theory is that the director shot the entire movie without looking at it.
[The Runaway and the Cyborg Master's fight is filled with various continuity errors, as pointed out by Mike.]
Mike: Huh??
Servo: The movie that packs more "Huhs" per second!
Ann: Everything he wanted was everything I needed...
Crow [as Ann]: So neither of us actually got anything.
The DVD includes a theatrical trailer and "MST3K at Comic-Con '08", a cast reunion staged at the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con and moderated by Patton Oswalt in honor of the show's 20th anniversary.
Available for rent or purchase on Amazon's streaming service.
