''Radioactive Dreams'' is a 1985

post-apocalyptic Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction are genres of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; astronom ...

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

comedy Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. Origins Comedy originated in ancient Greec ...

film written and directed by Albert Pyun and starring

George Kennedy George Harris Kennedy Jr. (February 18, 1925 – February 28, 2016) was an American actor who appeared in more than 100 film and television productions. He played "Dragline" in ''Cool Hand Luke'' (1967), winning the Academy Award for Best Supp ...

, Michael Dudikoff, Don Murray, and Lisa Blount. The names of the two main characters are homages to noir detective fiction icons

Philip Marlowe Philip Marlowe ( ) is a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler who was characteristic of the hardboiled crime fiction genre. The genre originated in the 1920s, notably in '' Black Mask'' magazine, in which Dashiell Hammett's The Cont ...

Raymond Chandler Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive durin ...

and Mike Hammer. The film has achieved cult status and has been screened in several cult revival programs around the world. The film begins with two boys growing up in a

fallout shelter A fallout shelter is an enclosed space specially designated to protect occupants from radioactive debris or fallout resulting from a nuclear explosion. Many such shelters were constructed as civil defense measures during the Cold War. Durin ...

, in an attempt to escape a nuclear war. They rejoin the world in 2001, and soon acquire the activation keys of the world's last

nuclear missile Nuclear weapons delivery is the technology and systems used to place a nuclear weapon at the position of detonation, on or near its target. All nine nuclear states have developed some form of medium- to long-range delivery system for their nuc ...

. They get involved in gang warfare in their new environment.

Plot

nuclear war Nuclear warfare, also known as atomic warfare, is a War, military conflict or prepared Policy, political strategy that deploys nuclear weaponry. Nuclear weapons are Weapon of mass destruction, weapons of mass destruction; in contrast to conven ...

breaks out, expending the world's entire nuclear arsenal, except for one missile. Two children, Philip Chandler ( John Stockwell) and Marlowe Hammer ( Michael Dudikoff), are left in a

cut into the side of a wooded mountain. The pair grow up in the shelter, with 1950s

detective fiction Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an criminal investigation, investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around ...

and

swing music Swing music is a style of jazz that developed in the United States during the late 1920s and early 1930s. It became nationally popular from the mid-1930s. Swing bands usually featured soloists who would improvise on the melody over the arrangement ...

as the guiding force in their learning. On April 1, 2001 (as noted by title card), Marlowe succeeds in digging out the cave entrance. The pair give each other haircuts, dress in suits, and go to rejoin the world. Philip narrates their adventure on their first day out:

My name's Philip, and this is going to be a yarn about me and my pal, Marlowe. About the day we got out of this shelter and went off into the post-nuclear world. Now, as excited as we were about leaving the shelter, it was still a joint that held fond memories. I mean, it was the only world we'd ever known. Where I practiced my magic, Marlowe, his dancing; where we both dreamed of becoming private eyes, just like the ones we'd read about.

Marlowe hopes to find their fathers, but Philip is disgruntled that they never returned, and presumes that they are dead. The mountain is now devoid of trees. The first people they find are a trio of radiation-burned mutants chasing a beautiful woman, Miles Archer ( Lisa Blount). They rescue Miles, who kisses Marlowe as a distraction and steals his gun. This backfires, as she drops the activation keys to the last nuclear missile. Miles leaves, and the pair are immediately attacked by a biker gang of bald women in red wigs. Afterwards the boys discover the activation keys, which bears their fathers' names. This excites Marlowe, but disturbs Philip. They rescue another young woman, Rusty Mars ( Michele Little), from a group of armed children Philip nicknames "disco mutants". She takes a liking to Philip, and leads the two of them to Edge City which is plagued by gang warfare. Rusty takes them to a dance club, where they are captured by cannibals. They want the nuclear keys, and to eat the young men, a rarity of uncontaminated meat. Although Rusty helps them escape and apologises, Philip doesn't trust her. Just after they part ways the pair meets up with a friend of Miles' who also wants the keys. After he is dispatched Miles shows up and takes them to her hideout. There she tells them about the purpose of the keys. Miles then threatens to kill them, but they escape. Rusty has followed them to the hideout, but is attacked by the child gangsters. The pair chase them away, but Philip still doesn't trust her. He wants to shoot her, but is out of bullets. After Rusty apologises again for lying to him and originally handing him over to the cannibals he says, "That was a million years ago, and I got a short memory. In fact, I don't even remember who you are". The pair resolves to rid the city of the gangs and keep the keys. They go to an abandoned warehouse, using themselves as bait, in the hopes that the gangs will kill each other before killing them. For the most part, the plan works. However, the bosses of the child-gangsters are in fact Philip and Marlowe's fathers. Before he dies, Philip's father tells him that the past does not matter. In the end, the only gangster left standing is Miles, who has the keys. She shoots at them, and misses, but startles Marlowe into shooting and killing her. The film ends with Philip letting go of the angst which he had nursed for 15 years. He adopts Marlowe's "silver-lining look on life". The two demonstrate Marlowe's tap-inspired "post-nuke shuffle" to the crowds of the city. In the closing narration, Philip explains that they plan to set up shop as detectives, but that first he will find Rusty and see if he can repair his relationship with her. Of the keys, he says that he and Marlowe hid them in a secret location, because "you never know, in a tight jam a nuclear missile just might come in handy".

Cast

* John Stockwell as Phillip Chandler * Michael Dudikoff as Marlowe Hammer * Michele Little as Rusty Mars * Lisa Blount as Miles Archer * Don Murray as Dash Hammer *

as "Spade" Chandler * Norbert Weisser as Sternwood * Christian Andrews as "Brick" Bardo * Paul Keller Galan as Chester (P.K. Galán) * Demian Slade as Harold * Hilary Shepard as Biker Leader (Hilary Shapiro) * Sue Saad as Punk District Singer * Kimberly McKillip as Sadie, Hippie Chick * Gulcin Gilbert as Greaser Chick (Gulshin Gilbert) * Mark Brown as Greaser * Russell Price as Greaser

Soundtrack

Most of the songs featured in the film are pop rock in the new wave vein. The exceptions are ''Zim Bim Zowie'', a swing number, and also a tune in the American Songbook style, ''Daddy's Gonna Boogie Tonight'', played on a phonograph during the scene when Philip and Marlowe prepare to leave the fallout shelter. The latter and another track called ''All Talk'' were left out of the Australian and German soundtrack releases.

Songs

# ''Nightmare'' - Jill Jaxx - 5:10 # ''Radioactive Dreams'' - Sue Saad - 5:18 # ''She'll Burn You'' - Maureen Steele - 4:13 # ''Young Thing'' - Cherri Delight - 4:09 # ''Tickin' Of The Clock'' - The Monte Carlos - 2:07 # ''Psychedelic Man'' - Shari Saba - 2:41 # ''Eat You Alive'' - Lisa Lee - 2:40 # ''Guilty Pleasures'' - Sue Saad - 3:44 (Performed by Saad on-screen) # ''Turn Away'' - Mary Ellen Quinn - 2:13 # ''She's A Fire'' - Sue Saad - 2:07 # ''When Lightning Strikes'' - Sue Saad - 6:51 # ''Zim Bim Zowie'' - Darryl Phinessee - 2:20 (Danced-To by Marlowe and Philip as the "Post-Nuke Shuffle" in the closing scene) However, the soundtrack was also released in Spain containing ALL the songs featured in the film: The title track is also set to be a bonus track on a digital reissue of Sue Saad's debut album on July 2, 2013.

Release

The film was given a

limited release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few cinemas across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...

theatrically in the United States by De Laurentiis Entertainment Group on September 19, 1986, grossing $220,038 at the box office. It was released on

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

and

laserdisc LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. It was developed by Philips, Pioneer Corporation, Pioneer, and the movie studio MCA Inc., MCA. The format was initially marketed in the United State ...

by Vestron Video. As of 2025, the film has still not officially been released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

in the US. However, there is a rare German Region 2 Special Edition DVD. This edition also includes the soundtrack CD and is limited to 1,000 copies. The soundtrack on this version has been altered due to music rights issues; two songs were removed. Also, an alternate cut has been released on Japanese laserdisc featuring some material not seen in the US cut while missing other material present in the US cut.

Awards

The film was awarded the Golden Raven at the 5th

Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival The Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFFF), previously named Brussels International Festival of Fantastic Film (, ) was created in 1983 as a venue for horror, thriller and science fiction films. It takes place in Brussels, eve ...

, and nominated for best film at the Italian film and literature festival MystFest.

References

External links

* * {{Albert Pyun 1985 films 1985 action comedy films 1980s science fiction comedy films 1980s adventure comedy films 1980s parody films 1980s satirical films American action comedy films American adventure comedy films American science fiction comedy films American independent films American parody films American satirical films Films directed by Albert Pyun Films set in 1996 Films set in 2001 Films set in the future American post-apocalyptic films De Laurentiis Entertainment Group films Films about World War III Films about nuclear war and weapons 1980s English-language films 1980s American films English-language action comedy films Films about cannibalism 1985 science fiction films English-language science fiction comedy films English-language adventure comedy films