CYBORG 2087 (1966)

HAND ME THAT BEAMER!  

The thing that everybody who talks about this movie brings up is that it's basically the plot of TERMINATOR 2  -- whose first film in the series THE TERMINATOR is in itself is pretty much the plot of Harlan Ellison's 1957 short story "SOLDIER from Tomorrow" which itself was the story Ellison himself adapted for the "SOLDIER" episode of THE OUTER LIMITS.  Got all that.  So basically, if you know what happened in TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY), you know what's happening in CYBORG 2087.  Dr. Garth (Michael Rennie himself, that silver-haired devil) --  a half-human/half-machine cyborg -- travels back to 1966 from a future time (2087 natch) when a tyrannical government controls the minds and thoughts of the entire population through the use of a mind-control device which is invented by a Professor Sigmund Marx (Eduard Franz) in the year 1966.  Garth is being sent back in time by his fellow freedom fighters in order to prevent Marx from discovering and revealing this new discovery which enables the evil government of the future to control the population utterly. 

The freedom fighters unfortunately pop Garth's time travel capsule into an old west ghost town; leaving Garth to make the trek to the town where Marx is located.  Sadly for Garth (and the entire future of Earth), Marx has gone away and won't be back until tomorrow.  Garth enlists the aide of Marx's assistant Dr. Sharon Mason (Karen Steele) by way of the same hypnotic device he's trying to prevent from being created. 

Garth fills her in on the skinny and reveals that, inside his chest, is a trace beamer (snicker snicker) which 'Tracers' from the future will be able to use to track him down and kill him.  He needs a surgeon to cut the device out of his chest and destroy it.  Meanwhile, two Tracer thugs (Dale Van Sickel and Troy Melton -- who must both be 60 years old if they're a day) pop into 1966 and start tracking Garth with their wrist compasses (I mean, that's not what they are but . . . well . . . that's what they are when the camera zooms in for a close-up).  These two helmeted, green-jumpsuit goons reminded me a lot of the 'firemen' outfits in FAHRENHEIT 451 but more goofy.  Sharon takes Garth to her friend Dr. Zeller (Warren Stevens) who is not an actual surgeon but still manages to cut the tracking device out of Garth's chest.  Meanwhile, Zeller's daughter and her mid-60's teenage friends (including John Beck -- Moonpie of ROLLERBALL -- show up at Zeller's house to frug the night fantastic!  Garth & Zeller head to the local power station to destroy the tracking beamer (chortle giggle) and the 'Tracer' goons show up at the house, bust down the door and smash through the window, silently menace the group and then follow the tracker beamer (hee hee hee) to the power station where they confront Garth. During all this, the local sheriff (Wendell Corey) is also tooling around town investigating the various assaults and break-ins going on.  What happens next is for me to know and you to find out.

CYBORG 2087 is not that much of a movie, granted.  It's quite silly in places but the plot was really effective in TERMINATOR 2 and since the plot here is basically the same thing, it's got THAT going for it.  Of course, there's no comparison with the execution of both films; CYBORG 2087 doesn't appear to have much of a budget.  Remember those camping compasses on the Tracers' wrists.  And, at 50 minutes in, you will here the same library music George A. Romero would use a couple years later for NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.  But the cast here is great.  Michael Rennie is, well, Michael Rennie; the immortal Klaatu himself and Karen Steele is excellent as well.  I know her mainly from her famous appearance in the STAR TREK episode "MUDD'S WOMEN".  I'm sure you will recognize her face immediately.  Warren Stevens (from FORBIDDEN PLANET), Harry Carey Jr. (from THE SEARCHERS and I don't know HOW many other Westerns) and Eduard Franz (Jethro from THE TEN COMMANDMENTS) are all terrific.  John Beck is unbelievably young here and kinda dopey but hey . . .he's Moonpie in ROLLERBALL so who cares!  Wendell Corey (from countless golden age of Hollywood films including REAR WINDOW) is obviously drunk as a skunk here; slurring his words and giving an odd but fun performance.  He would eventually die of cirrhosis of the liver at the age of 54.  There's even a brief cameo by Jo Ann Pflug (in her first film role) as "Woman in Control Room" who is the freedom fighter who ultimately sends Garth back in time as the Tracers bust in and try to stop her.  Yeah, Jo Ann!  You rock!  The hell with dem Tracers; they can't stop you on  your mission!  The look of triumph on her face is priceless! 

I mean, this cast is just priceless!  And the colour (at least in the Kino Classics blu ray I watched) was beautiful to look at.  This is one I woulda thunk I woulda seen a hundred times on Saturday afternoon UHF channels but I somehow never did!  And that's the kinda movie it is; great for an afternoon time waster; pleasant enough but nothing great.  Director Frankin Adreon was something of a jack of all trades -- going from screenwriter (the Bela Lugosi serial S.O.S. COAST GUARD and ZORRO'S FIGHTING LEGION) to associate producer (THE INVISIBLE MONSTER and ZOMBIES OF THE STRATOSPHERE) to director (CANADIAN MOUNTIES VS. ATOMIC INVADERS -- OMG how have I never seen THAT one???? -- and DIMENSION 5) and CYBORG 2087 is about on par with any of those outings.

Oh, and I guess it's about time I explained all those giggles everytime I mentioned the tracker beamer.  Well, in our household, a 'beamer' is what we call a tiny little bee-bee-sized turd that you find on the carpet which has fallen from the butt of a cat or dog.  So every time Michael Rennie said he word "beamer", it cracked me up.