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 director Anthony Doublin.
One of the movie's taglines is "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, a noted film memorabilia collector, science fiction expert, and editor of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine. 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]
"This place looks like a maze." "We call it 'a corn.'"
"You call it corn, we call it maize" is an advertisement campaign from the 1970s and 80s by Mazola. It is spoken stoically by a Native American woman to promote their now-discontinued margarine. Commercials using this line can be seen here or here.
"Am I Ving Rhames? I can't remember."
The actor on-screen vaguely resembles actor Ving Rhames.
"Is that a heartbeat? Oh, no, I'm sorry, that's a lovebeat."
(After a title card saying "A David Hue Production" is shown) "In association with Bob Tet Offensive Productions."
Much of the fighting that occurred during the Tet Offensive, one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War, took place in and around the city of Huế, Vietnam. During the Battle of Huế, intense fighting lasted for a month, resulting in the destruction of the city. During their occupation, the PAVN/VC executed thousands of people in the Massacre at Huế.
"Dustbusters Galactica."
The spacecraft in the movie looks like the Battlestar Galactica, a space battleship in the original and re-imagined science fiction TV series Battlestar Galactica. The Dustbuster is a cordless, hand-held vacuum cleaner that was introduced in January 1979 by Black & Decker.
"Romeo was restless, he was ready to production design!"
"Romeo was restless, he was ready to kill" is the first line of the 1977 song "Mystery Dance" by English singer-songwriter Elvis Costello.
"And now, Ooh, Heaven Is a Place on Earth: The Movie."
Boxer Chuck Wepner challenged Muhammad Ali for the world heavyweight title in a 1975 fight (which Wepner lost in the 15th round by technical knockout) that loosely inspired the 1976 film Rocky.
"Mink Stole!"
Mink Stole is an actress who began her career working for director John Waters, and has appeared in all of his feature films to date.
"Calista Flockhart's belt!"
At the time this episode aired, Calista Flockhart was best known for her roles as the title character on the TV show Ally McBeal, and the 1996 film The Birdcage. She is known for her slender build.
The concept of the 1985 musical comedy Nunsense originated as a line of greeting cards featuring a nun offering tart quips with a clerical slant. It was expanded into a cabaret show that ran for 38 weeks, and eventually into a full-length musical. The show has since been adapted into a television production starring Rue McClanahan, and has spawned six sequels and three spin-offs.
A quote from the 1984 movie Repo Man. Watch the scene here.
"Here comes the big one! I'm comin', Elizabeth!"
Spoken by Fred Sanford (Redd Foxx), this is the most well-known catchphrase of the 1970s TV show Sanford and Son. Whenever things aren't going Fred's way, or the cantankerous old man just wants to get a little sympathy, he would clutch his chest dramatically, faking a heart attack, and call out to his dead wife.
Surge is a citrus-flavored, heavily caffeinated soft drink first produced in the 1990s by The Coca-Cola Company to compete with Pepsi's Mountain Dew.
"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.
"Sister Suzuki Sidekick."
The first generation of the Suzuki Vitara was known as Suzuki Sidekick in the United States. It is a series of SUV produced by Suzuki in four generations since 1988.
"Go, go." "Can you hear them? They talk about us..."
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, the Variations of a Theme Song featurette, 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.
