Trailer
Plot summary
In a post-apocalyptic wasteland, a scavenger digs a buried robot out of the ground and carries the pieces to junk dealer Alvy, who is talking with former soldier Mo Baxter and his friend Shades. When Alvy steps away, Mo buys the pieces from the scavenger and sells everything except the head to Alvy, who begins researching the parts' background. Mo visits Jill, his reclusive girlfriend, bringing the head as a Christmas gift, and Shades comes too. Jill, a metal sculptor, eagerly accepts it.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Hardware (1990)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Fleetway Comics brought a successful lawsuit claiming Richard Stanley's Hardware plagiarised "SHOK!", a comic strip published in 1980 in the Judge Dredd Annual 1981. A notice was added to later releases crediting the strip's publisher, Fleetway Publications, and its creators, Steve MacManus and Kevin O'Neill.
- Before making Hardware, writer-director Richard Stanley traveled with a guerrilla Muslim faction during the Soviet-Afghan War to shoot a documentary, and he began pre-production on the film almost immediately after leaving Afghanistan.
- Hardware's opening scene was shot in Morocco; the rest was filmed in London, mostly inside the then-abandoned Roundhouse, where sets were built. The building lacked proper soundproofing, so all of the dialogue had to be re-recorded.
- Hardware was originally rated X by the Motion Picture Association of America for its gore, and was later cut down to an R to avoid the stigma of a rating associated with pornography.
- Hardware was originally more specifically British, but Miramax insisted on American leads, so Stanley added a multinational cast to muddy the setting.
