Michael Crichton was responsible for one of the defining sci-fi films of the 1970s in Westworld and did the same for the 1990s by supplying the source novel for Jurassic Park. But in the middle of that, he also wrote and directed the most 1980s movie imaginable in Runaway: a Blade Runner knockoff set in the distant year of 1991, with Tom Selleck at the height of his Magnum, P.I. fame as a robot-hunting cop facing off against Gene Simmons – yes, the KISS Demon himself – and his horde of mechanical spiders. Selleck, still sporting that signature ’stache and (for some reason) chain mail, was tied to former dancer Cynthia Rhodes as his partner for this heavy-handed future thrill. Opening weekend audiences picked another box office bomb, David Lynch’s Dune, instead. But with its mixture of police overreach, drones, AI, and evil businesspeople utilizing technology to their own ends, maybe Crichton was right all along. – Richard Whittaker
