Screamers (1995)

- written March 1999



    





          It is the year 2078 and the inhabitants on Sirus 6B are still waging war. Years earlier, a corporation called the New Economic Block (NEB) began mining operations on Sirus 6B and found the solution to the world's energy problems, Berynium. But once the mine began spewing out lethal radioactive gases, the miners objected and created "The Alliance," a union of sorts to force a stoppage to the mining. The NEB thought it best to declare all out war and laid waste to the inhabitants on Sirus 6B. To fight back, the Alliance created Autonomous Mobile Swords, or Screamers (for the piercing sound it makes), to neutralize the ground war. They are underground machines which act as a flying sword. They are self-programmed so no humans need to run them. In order to survive you need special wristbands which magnify your heartbeat to the screamers as being non-existent - screamers won't attack if they think you're dead.

          Now in 2078, a lone NEB soldier comes into the Alliance camp with a proposal for peace. Col. Joseph Henrickson who along with Jefferson go in search of NEB headquarters to make peace. Seems that berynium was found on another planet and no radioactivity has been detected. The war just may be over, but Jefferson passes along word that those on the peace message, are no longer in power. Could it be that Sirus 6B has been abandoned or even betrayed by their own people?


          Overall: Very good film with excellent special effects. I enjoyed this film alot and one has to admit it has some intensity and a tinge of terror too. By the end you might actually get scared. Weller is very good but so is the actor playing Becker - a lone soldier who teams up with Jefferson and Henrickson. I definitely recommend this film.

          I did want to point out the differences in the book and the film. The basics of the movie are in the book - screamers (although called something else), the 2 sides dealing with a peace overture, and the survivors trying to figure out who is a human and who isn't. What is very different is that the book was written back when the 2 warring sides would more appropriately be the U.S. and U.S.S.R. It's a good book but the romance in the film plus elaboration on the screamers themselves, as well as the union vs. corporation ideas made this film better than the story itself. I think the biggest flaw of the film is to allow the punk kid to remain the only survivor of the plane crash and one without a scratch while everyone else died - very far-fetched for that but overall this film is better than Phillip K. Dick's story "Second Variety."


          Comparison: Mad Max meets Child's Play





          "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." - Phillip K. Dick









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