''Project Shadowchaser'', also known as ''Shadowchaser'' and ''Project: Shadowchaser'', is a 1992

science fiction film Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a film genre that uses speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial lifeforms, spacecraft, robots, cyborgs, interstell ...

by director John Eyres. It is the first installment in the direct-to-video film series ''Project Shadowchaser''.

Synopsis

Armed terrorists, led by a super android named Romulus (Frank Zagarino), take over a high rise hospital with the president's daughter Sarah (Meg Foster) as hostage. The android has been corrupted by its government creator Kinderman (Joss Ackland). The FBI, led by Trevanian (Paul Koslo), gets the hospital architect, Desilva (Martin Kove), out of cryogenic prison and desperately asks for his help. Desilva has a criminal past, but is thought the only person who can find a way to design a surprise raid. However, a mistake is made and, instead of the architect, an ex-pro football player, serving "cryo-time" for murder, is revived. The football player pretends to be Dixon (the architect) to stay out of prison; however, when the FBI's plan goes wrong, Desilva must face the android alone.

Cast

Frank Zagarino Frank Zagarino (born December 19, 1959, in Los Angeles, California) is an American personal trainer and former actor, who starred in a number of low budget action movies. One of his early roles was in the movie '' Barbarian Queen'' (1985) in wh ...

as Romulus *

Meg Foster Margaret Foster is an American film and television actress. Some of her many roles were in the 1979 TV miniseries version of ''The Scarlet Letter'', and the films '' Ticket to Heaven'', ''The Osterman Weekend'', and ''They Live''. Early years F ...

as Sarah *

Joss Ackland Sidney Edmond Jocelyn Ackland CBE (born 29 February 1928) is an English retired actor who has appeared in more than 130 film and television roles. He was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for portraying Jock D ...

as Kinderman *

Paul Koslo Paul Koslo (born Manfred Koslowski; June 27, 1944 – January 9, 2019) was a German-born Canadian actor. Career Koslo started his career in such 1970s films as ''Nam's Angels'' a.k.a. ''The Losers'', ''Vanishing Point'' and '' The Stone Kil ...

as FBI Special Agent Trevanian *

Martin Kove Martin Kove () (born ) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as John Kreese, the main antagonist of ''The Karate Kid'' (1984). He reprised the role in ''The Karate Kid Part II'' (1986), '' The Karate Kid Part III'' (1989), and th ...

as Desliva

Production

''Project Shadowchaser'' was shot at Pinewood Studios. Most of the set was reused from ''

Alien 3 ''Alien 3'' (stylized as ''A''LIEN³) is a 1992 American science fiction horror film directed by David Fincher and written by David Giler, Walter Hill, and Larry Ferguson, from a story by Vincent Ward. It stars Sigourney Weaver, reprising h ...

''. The special effects supervisor on the film was Brian Smithies. Cinematographer Alan Trow had worked with director Richard Driscoll on an earlier film low budget film The Comic (1985). Work on that film led to a partnership with producer/director John Eyres on this and other action films.

Notability

The film was notable by the reunion of

and

, who previously worked together on the first season of

Cagney & Lacey ''Cagney & Lacey'' is an American police procedural drama television series that aired on the CBS television network for seven seasons from March 25, 1982, to May 16, 1988. The show is about two New York City police detectives who lead very di ...

as Detectives Victor Isbecki and Christine Cagney, respectively, until Foster was replaced by

Sharon Gless Sharon Marguerite Gless (born May 31, 1943) is an American actress and author, who is known for her television roles as Maggie Philbin on ''Switch'' (1975–78), Sgt. Christine Cagney in the police procedural drama series ''Cagney & Lacey'' (1982 ...

for the remainder of the series.

Release

The film was released on videocassette in the summer of 1992 by Prism Pictures. Prior to August 4, 2015, the film had never been released onto region 1 DVD, until

Echo Bridge Home Entertainment Echo Bridge Entertainment is an American independent distribution company. It acquires and distributes feature films, scripted and non-scripted series, documentaries, and children’s programming for home video, digital and television in the United ...

acquired the rights and released it through the Termination Collection, bundled with 4 additional movies as well. It had also popped up through AT&T U-Verse's screen pack, also under license from Echo Bridge.

Reception

Creature Feature gave the movie 3.5 out of 5 stars, praising the script as well as finding the action rousing. It also stated that this was better than many of its bigger budget counterpart. Moira, however, gave the movie one out of five stars, finding it "amazingly silly."

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program TV listings, listings information as well as entertainment and television-related news. The company sold its print magazine division, TV Guide Magazine, TV Guide Mag ...

gave the movie one star, although it did like the twist ending revealing the terrorist true motives. The work of the director was found to be impressive but marred by unrealistic miniature effects Product Shadowchaser Review (1992) https://www.tvguide.com/movies/project-shadowchaser/review/129159/

References

External links

* {{Project Shadowchaser 1992 films 1990s science fiction action films American science fiction action films American independent films 1992 independent films Films shot at Pinewood Studios Films about terrorism Project Shadowchaser films 1990s English-language films 1990s American films