Terminator and especially Terminator 2 were impressive sci-fi films for their time that made a lot of use of the technology of the time. Another film showed many innovations that are normal these days, but it flopped and that was probably also due to Terminator.
What film is it about? Runaway – Spiders of Death was published in 1984. The sci-fi film starring Tom Selleck is set in a near future where robots do all of the household tasks for humans.
He and his partner take care of all cases for the police in which defective robots pose a threat. In a case about a robot that wanted to kill people, the investigators uncover a conspiracy that wants to reprogram robots into killers. You can find a trailer for the film, which screams 80s from every pore, here:
What inventions did the film predict? As the setting suggests, you can see a lot of innovations here that are considered completely normal these days. There are vacuum cleaner robots, wireless headphones, tablets, flying drones, self-driving cars, eye scanners and the titular spider robots that are supposed to secretly kill people.
Despite the promising setting and a well-known cast including Tom Selleck, who almost became Indiana Jones, and Kiss bassist Gene Simmons, the film flopped and that was mainly due to another sci-fi film: Terminator.
Another sci-fi movie just looked too good
How did Runaway fail? Runaway had a budget of $8 million at the time (via filmstories.co.uk). However, the film only grossed just under $6.7 million worldwide. That didn’t even make it within the budget. The biggest problem with the film was probably Terminator, which came out before.
There was hardly any time between the two films in the USA. Terminator was released on October 26, 1984, while Runaway was released less than 2 months later on December 14, 1984. Terminator cost less than Runaway but grossed a massive $78 million worldwide. In other words, even during the Christmas season, Terminator was probably still the big sci-fi number in the cinemas.
At the time, Terminator was also considered a technically innovative science fiction film.
You can also see this in the December numbers at Box Office Mojo. Terminator is still at number 11 2 months later, while Runaway, the current release, is only at number 18. In December 1984, the most successful film was Beverly Hills Cop with Eddie Murphy.
Now Runaway has been forgotten and only remembered by fans of the 80s. Despite the worse effects compared to Terminator, you have to give the film credit for having a fairly accurate look at the future. If you watch the film today, you’ll probably see a lot of innovations that we know today. If you want to feel like a hero from the 80s in video games, you should take a look at this shooter: In this shooter I feel like I’m an action hero from the 80s that no one has a chance against