''Vendetta dal futuro'' (, also known as ''Hands of Steel'') is an Italian
science fiction film
Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a film genre that uses Speculative fiction, speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as Extraterrestrial life in fiction, extraterrestria ...
directed by
Sergio Martino
Sergio Martino (born 19 July 1938) is an Italian film director and producer, notable for his contributions to the giallo genre.
Martino is the brother of the late producer Luciano Martino (who died in 2013). They collaborated frequently in their ...
George Eastman
George Eastman (July 12, 1854March 14, 1932) was an American entrepreneur who founded the Kodak, Eastman Kodak Company and helped to bring the photographic use of roll film into the mainstream. After a decade of experiments in photography, he ...
and
John Saxon
John Saxon (born Carmine Orrico; August 5, 1936 – July 25, 2020) was an American actor who worked on more than 200 film and television projects during a span of 60 years. He was known for his work in Westerns and horror films, often playing ...
.
Plot
An evil industrialist (John Saxon) has created a cyborg (Daniel Greene) who is 70% robot and 30% human. When the cyborg rebels, he ends up working at a bar frequented by arm wrestling enthusiasts. The cyborg just wants to be left alone but he is hounded by Saxon's men, the government, and the arm wrestlers.
Janet Agren
Janet may refer to:
Names
* Janet (given name)
Surname
* Charles Janet (1849–1932), French engineer, inventor and biologist, known for the Left Step periodic table
* Jules Janet (1861–1945), French psychologist and psychotherapist
* Maurice ...
as Linda
*
Claudio Cassinelli
Claudio Cassinelli (13 September 1938 – 13 July 1985) was an Italian film, stage and television actor.
Life and career
Born in Bologna to Giuseppina Tafani and Antonio Cassinelli, a well known opera singer, he had two sisters, Paola Cr ...
as Peter Howell
*
John Saxon
John Saxon (born Carmine Orrico; August 5, 1936 – July 25, 2020) was an American actor who worked on more than 200 film and television projects during a span of 60 years. He was known for his work in Westerns and horror films, often playing ...
as Francis Turner
*
George Eastman
George Eastman (July 12, 1854March 14, 1932) was an American entrepreneur who founded the Kodak, Eastman Kodak Company and helped to bring the photographic use of roll film into the mainstream. After a decade of experiments in photography, he ...
Arizona
Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...
with some scenes shot at the
Grand Canyon
The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a mile ().
The canyon and adjacent rim are contained within Grand Canyon Nati ...
Claudio Cassinelli
Claudio Cassinelli (13 September 1938 – 13 July 1985) was an Italian film, stage and television actor.
Life and career
Born in Bologna to Giuseppina Tafani and Antonio Cassinelli, a well known opera singer, he had two sisters, Paola Cr ...
died in
Page, Arizona
Page is a city in Coconino County, Arizona, United States, near the Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city was 7,247.
History
Page was founded in 1957 as a housing community for workers and their f ...
during production as he was on a helicopter that crashed into the
Navajo Bridge
Navajo Bridge is the name of twin steel spandrel arch bridges that cross the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon National Park (near Lees Ferry) in northern Coconino County, Arizona, United States. The newer of the two spans carries vehicular t ...
.
Style
Howard Hughes noted that the film belongs to a group of Italian film productions that borrowed elements from the film ''
The Terminator
''The Terminator'' is a 1984 American science fiction action film directed by James Cameron, written by Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd and produced by Hurd. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator, a cybernetic assassin sent back in t ...
'', including
Bruno Mattei
Bruno Mattei (30 July 1931 – 21 May 2007) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and film editor, editor who directed exploitation films in many genres, including Women in prison film, women in prison, nunsploitation, Zombie films, zombi ...
Nello Rossati
Nello Rossati (15 June 1942 – 16 October 2009) was an Italian director and screenwriter.
Life and career
Born in Adria, Rossati studied at the Accademia d'Arte Drammatica in Rome, and started his career on stage, as assistant director and oc ...
's '' Alien Terminator''. In his overview of 1980s action films, Daniel R. Budnik described the film as "the hybrid movie to end all hybrid movies", noting ''The Terminator'' and ''Blade Runner'' as influences, as well as the plot later being borrowed for '' Over the Top''.
Release
''Vendetta dal futuro'' passed Italian censors in 1986. The film has been released with the English titles of ''Atomic Cyborg'' and ''Hands of Steel''.
Reception
From retrospective reviews, Hughes described ''Vendetta dal futuro'' as "the best example" of a film in debt to ''The Terminator'', noting its other influences of ''
Blade Runner
''Blade Runner'' is a 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott from a screenplay by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos, it is an adaptation of Philip K. Di ...
'' with a karate-fighting android and praising an action sequence featuring lorries, cars and helicopters as well as the score. Budnik found that the film's beginning was boring with its more political elements, but improved after these scenes and that it was "fine, furious desert action with arm wrestling, and some sort of strange cyborg woman thrown in to confuse things." Donald Guarisco of
AllMovie
AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, television series, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne.
History
AllMovie was ...
described the film as a "decent time-killer for b-movie fans" noting that its "southwestern setting gives it a unique flavor and Sergio Martino (using the pseudonym of "Martin Dolman") does a decent job of delivering plentiful action on a shoestring budget: his best moment might be a scene where the hero has to fend off gun-toting assassins while also fighting a pair of disguised cyborgs in close quarters." Guarisco concluded that "The end results are frequently silly (it takes the police a really long time to figure out they're hunting a cyborg) but never dull" and declared the film to be "strictly for the b-movie audience but they're likely to enjoy its low-budget fun."