Weequaywarrior

Was the movie rated PG 13 or rated R back then?

Its still a good underrated sci fi cop action suspense movie but it can get pretty scary not just with Gene Simmons being scary enough, but also the smart bullets that chase after people, and robots that injject acid and self implode.

TomOpus

Didn't check IMDB?

B5Erik

It was PG13. Good movie. Scary, though? I don't think so...

SmackDaddy

One of my "forgotten" favorites from my teen years. Anytime I run across it on TV I'll stop and watch it. In general, I think the ratings system was pushed in each category in the 80's.

Weequaywarrior

wasnt Lone Wolf McQuade a PG or PG 13 movie and yet it had some scary moments along with some cursing where the movie should have been rated R.

and yes I still think Runaway gets a bit scary not just with Gene SImmons being a scary creep in the movie, but its the little spider robots that scare the heck out of me back then when i was just a little kid in 1984 watching Runaway on HBO.

GoldenJCJ

My dad would watch this from time to time when I was a kid in the late 80s. It must have been one of those movies that always played on Saturday afternoons.

I don’t remember much about it but yeah, I found the robot spiders to be pretty scary, and frankly, about the only thing I do remember from the movie. Of course I was only 5 or 6 years old while watching it. I would have found pretty much any off beat sci-fi to be scary at that age.

Norm de Plume

Absolutely! The robot spiders with the metal stingers that came out and pierced theirs victims were frightening. I saw it in theatres as a kid, either with my parents or a babysitter, and recall it fondly. The critical reception was generally lukewarm at best. I thought Simmons made an effective villain.

Weequaywarrior

Too bad that Runaway didnt get popular right away back then because of other movies that got alot of praise or whatever when they were at the theaters such as Dune and Terminator and Night of the Comet.

Runaway ended up like Swamp Thing where theyd be on HBO during a weekend afternoon slot on HBO and in a kid's eyes at the time back then those movies were scary during some parts

B5Erik

I was taking an electronics class in high school when Runaway came out.

We actually discussed the movie in class. The teacher said it wouldn't be hard to do what Luther did in the movie - come up with chips that add programming to make them lethal. And, yeah, now, if we had robots in our daily lives, that could be done fairly easily.

I still don't think the movie was very scary, and I didn't think so as a 16 year old, either. Maybe if I saw it at 10 years old my point of view might be different. I mean, the scenes with the spiders were suspenseful, and, yeah, there was a sense of peril, but it's not like they were slasher movie jump cut scary.

I did finally get this movie on DVD a couple years ago, and it holds up fairly well. Dated in some ways, but still a good, solid thriller.

Weequaywarrior

yeah well, i was 4 at the time back then when the movie came out at the time. the movie came on HBO either late 1984 or during 1985.

being a kid at that young age back then, yes the spider robots and Gene Simmons were scary. Especially with what the spider robots were capable of.

Even Fright Night was scary for kids who were pretty young back then

d2cheer

Now that we are in 2022 those little robots are comin for you...

IT will happen soon..

ALL Hail our ROBOT OVERLORDS...

Josh-da-man

Is this the one where Gene Simmons played the trans villain, the one that ended with a grenade exploding in his mouth, or another one?

Norm de Plume

I haven't seen Runaway for quite a number of years, but I would say you're describing another movie. Doesn't he plummet off a skyscraper at the end of Runaway?

Perkinsun Dzees

You may be thinking of Wanted: Dead or Alive with Simmons and Rutger Hauer

Weequaywarrior

Gene Simmons did a pretty good as Charles Luther in Runaway.

But i still prefer Sting in The Bride and Dune and Mick Jagger in Freejack and David Bowie in Labrynth.

Rock star musicians turn out as pretty good actors unlike hip hop rappers like LL Cool James

Sonic

zyzzle

RUNAWAY is a *great* film, one my my favorite sci-fi (well, sort of science-fact now) films. I used to watch it all the time on cable back in the '80s. Saw it in the theatre, and it looked like the future to me. Much of it has come true, and will come true. The floaters are out current drones. The robots are what's coming from the evilness of Amazon and others. The spiders are only a black hacker away, and Mr Simmons' character is probably already around planning his doom via minions he sends to do his bidding. Rogue chips? They've existed for almost 20 years now. That's what TPM, forced ads, DRM-embedded firmare, and other great annoyances are -- including the Internet of Things, which is *worse* than what RUNAWAY imagined.

This film makes my short-list of Sci-fi masterpieces, along with DEMON SEED, THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, THE FORBIN PROJECT, ZPG, SOYLENT GREEN, OMEGA MAN / LAST MAN ON EARTH, the 1975 version of ROLLERBALL, ZARDOZ and LOGAN'S RUN. '70s sci-fi was the best, but RUNAWAY makes the list of exceptional post-STAR WARS sci-fi. STAR WARS franchise ruined cerebral science fiction fillms forevermore

Kmical

What I remember most about the movie: Gene Simmons, killer robots, and Kirstie Alley taking off her bra.

Eric F

I loved this movie when I was a kid.

clckworang

The correct movie is the John Stamos action movie Never Too Young to Die, and it would definitely fall into the non-PC category these days because of the Gene Simmons casting.

B5Erik

Never Too Young To Die is my pick as the worst movie of all time!

Josh-da-man

The one with the grenade was from Wanted: Dead or Alive with the great Ruger Hauer.


That might be my single favorite scene from any 80s action movie.

Eric F

Kirstie Alley is in her prime hotness in this movie.

TomOpus

Surprised Scientology let her. She was still fairly new to it then, though.

OldBoy

Watching this now bc of this thread. Why wasn’t Simmons in more stuff as a bad guy? He just oozes sleaze and evil. He’s got the perfect face and played it well in this movie. Why didn’t he get more roles?