Ryan Lambie | Den of Geek
Tom Selleck and Gene Simmons starred in Michael Crichton’s 1984 sci-fi thriller, Runaway. Ryan looks back at a flawed yet intriguing film…
Late 1984 saw two killer robot movies make their debut in cinemas. You’ve probably heard of the first one, released in October: The Terminator, the film that launched the career of James Cameron and cemented Arnold Schwarzenegger’s status as a movie star.
The second was Runaway, another sci-fi thriller that, in theory, could have been the bigger hit. It starred Tom Selleck and Kiss member Gene Simmons. It was written and directed by Michael Crichton, the director of the superb Westworld and writer of such best-selling novels as The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man, both adapted into great films. Six years after Runaway, Crichton would write Jurassic Park, a book that is still sending ripples through pop culture today.
Runaway ended up making about $7 million in cinemas – less than 10 percent of Cameron’s low-budget Terminator. Critical notices were middling, and even Crichton didn’t seem to have much enthusiasm for his film; “I’m bored with special effects,” he told the Washington Post just one month after Runaway‘s release.