In the near future, a police officer specializes in malfunctioning robots. When a robot turns out to have been programmed to kill, he begins to uncover a homicidal plot to create killer robots... and his son becomes a target. Runaway is a cheap 80's film starring Tom Selleck, Cynthia Rhodes, Gene Simmons, Kirstie Alley and G.W. Bailey. First of all the reason why this film is cheap is because of the plot alone because there's no such thing as a "robot" in this particular movie except some small dumb devices that got hacked also Luther was a terrible and annoying villain and although Selleck tries to keep the film together it's still a cheap 80's film that has a terrible plot, forgettable characters and a cast that is surely wasted. I mean common this film came out the same year that 'The Terminator' did and that movie looks amazing still even to this day when this just simply doesn't (4/10)

I was led into "Coma" (personal 8 rating) by IMDb's reccos for me. Loved it, and went from there to "Star Chamber" (personal rating 7). That led me to "Runaway". Thanks, IMDb!I'm a long-time reader of Michael Crichton, but had not realized he had also plied his hand at directing. Not many people are lucky enough to have so many facets to their talent.This movie was gripping from the first. I meant to just bookmark it for tomorrow when I was not supposed to be sleeping. No dice. Not only did I finish watching this excellent movie, but now I find myself writing this review. It's that good.Not only do you get treated to a young Tom Selleck, who also appears in "Coma", but also Kirstie Allie, both of whom are youthful and trim in this movie. It's not just eye candy though, and I'm not really a fan of either of these actors, but they both did a very fine job here. The suspense is taught throughout.I could not get over the fact that I kept comparing Gene Simmons' (again not a fan) Luther character to Javier Bardem's Academy award winning Anton Chigurh's character in "No Country For Old Men". They are both unemotional psychopaths, and, to me, similar demeanors. I can highly recommend this movie to any fan of Sci-Fi and suspense.

People just don't realize how far practical and visual effects have come until they see a movie like this. Tom Select plays a cop who has to hunt down rogue robots with killing tendencies. These 'robots' are nothing more than glorified trash cans on wheels with some pathetic arm or tentacle sticking out. So no terminator-like adversaries. So to compensate they've got Gene Simmons as the bad guy, sure he looks evil/sinister, but that is his normal expression (he's got only one). He's assisted by some very toy like robotic spiders, who 'jump' on people, but in reality they just throw them on the actors who have to hold them to keep from falling of. It don't even want to know how many takes they had to do for every shot coz they must have all be rolling on the floor laughing each time they yelled 'cut'. Easily one of the most cheesy and ridiculous 'scifi' films of the eighties or even of all time.

Rock band Kiss front man Gene Simmons, Tom Selleck, Kirsti Alley (when she was hot), and numerous elements of the Man vs. Machine genre highlight this low grade thriller based on a story by the visionary science-fiction writer Michael Crichton. This little movie is worthy of the typical 80s cheesiness due to it's predictable storyline and Simmon's good portrayal as the 80s TV villain. The set pieces are excellent. (when robotic engineering was taking off). One especially innovative scene has a horde of metal robot spiders equipped with poisonous needles attacking Selleck and his son on an elevator. Programmable bullets that turn corners and robot car bombs along with good pacing and suspenseful situations make this a good evening's fun. All of the laughable dialog and obviousness are played with straight faces by the cast, and the violence is pretty stiff for this not to receive an R rating twenty some years ago. You can't go wrong if Magnum P.I and Terminator were your thing back in the day, and Michael Crichton's realistic approach always delivers a story worth pondering over.