Robot Jox (1989) on Netflix
Fifty years after a nuclear war, the Market and the Confederation settle disputes with giant piloted robots. Achilles fights for the Market, and his last match is against Alexander for Alaska.
- Netflix3.0/5
- IMDb5.5/108,235 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes40%
Trailer
Plot summary
A nuclear holocaust has left two surviving powers: the American-influenced Market and the Soviet-influenced Confederation. Rather than fight open war, they settle territorial disputes with gladiator matches between giant machines piloted by contracted jox. Alexander, the Confederation champion, has killed his last nine opponents, aided by information reaching the Confederation from inside the Market. Achilles has won nine fights, and his tenth and final match, for Alaska, is against Alexander. Robot designer Doc Matsumoto and strategist Tex Conway, who won every fight on his own contract, work with him. The Market also has Athena, a genetically engineered pilot and its first female jox.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Robot Jox (1989)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Producer Charles Band first told Stuart Gordon the giant-robot film was too expensive for Empire Pictures, then relented and asked for a stop-motion demo reel made with effects artist David W. Allen. That test won the backers over and ended up as the film's opening titles.
- Screenwriter Haldeman and director Gordon pulled in opposite directions: one wanted serious science fiction, the other effects-driven action with stock characters. Haldeman wanted the title The Mechanics; Gordon insisted on Robojox, and added the Cold War material in a page-and-a-half outline.
- Nine Inch Nails lifted the roar of the crowd from the end of the Achilles-Alexander fight and used it in "The Becoming" on their 1994 album The Downward Spiral.
- The DVD that MGM Home Entertainment put out in October 2005 carries the theatrical PG rating on its cover but restores violent scenes that had been cut from the North American release to keep the film away from a PG-13.
