Cyborg is a 1989 American martial-arts science fiction film directed by Albert Pyun. Jean-Claude Van Damme stars as Gibson Rickenbacker, a mercenary who battles a group of murderous marauders led by Fender Tremolo (Vincent Klyn) along the East coast of the United States in a post-apocalyptic future.

Plot[link]

A plague, called the living death, sweeps across a civilization already ruined by “anarchy, genocide and starvation,” a small group of surviving scientists and doctors — located in Atlanta, Georgia, home of the CDC — work on a cure to save what’s left of humanity. To complete their work they need information stored on a computer system in New York City. CDR Pearl Prophet (Dayle Haddon) volunteers for the dangerous courier mission and she is made into a cyborg through surgical augmentation.

Pearl, accompanied by LT Marshall Strat, a man assigned to protect her, retrieves the data in New York, but is pursued by the vicious Fender Tremolo (Vincent Klyn) and his gang of “pirates”. Fender wants the cure so he can have a monopoly on its production. Strat, badly injured in a skirmish with the pirates, tells Pearl to leave him and get to the Bronx township to look for a mercenary, known as a “slinger”, that can escort her to safety. She gets cornered, but is saved by a slinger, Gibson Rickenbacker (Jean-Claude Van Damme), who specializes in getting people out of the city. No sooner does she explain her situation than they are overrun by Fender’s gang and Gibson is knocked out by falling debris. Fender, having beheaded Strat, dangles his head in front of Pearl and tells her that he is going with her to Atlanta. There, she must bring him the cure or else she will “get the horror show.”

Fender's gang slaughter a family and steals their boat. They head south for Atlanta via the Intracoastal Waterway with the captive Pearl. Gibson, who had been tracking the pirates, arrives at the scene of slaughter later that night. A shadowy figure moves to attack him, but he throws a knife that takes the attacker down. She turns out to be Nady Simmons (Deborah Richter), a young woman who’d been hiding since the pirate attack and thought Gibson was one of their gang. After they had time to recover, Nady reveals that her family was wiped out by the plague and that she wants to help Gibson and Pearl. Gibson, meanwhile, is less concerned with a cure for the plague than with finding Fender and eliminating him. Gibson and Nady trek southward through the wastelands, and are ambushed by bandits. He tries to persuade Nady to stay away, saying he does not want to see her die. She tells him she does not want to see him die and offers her body to him, but he refuses: destroying Fender is his only goal.

In flashbacks that haunt Gibson, it is revealed that he had once fallen in love and settled down in an abandoned country house with a client, Mary, and her two young siblings after escorting them from the city. Fender killed Mary and her brother and abducted her sister Haley, forcing Gibson to take up the “slinger” lifestyle once again. Intercepting Fender and his crew near Charleston, South Carolina, Gibson eliminates several of his henchmen in an abandoned warehouse. Gibson manages to get to Fender's guard. As he kills the last one, Fender, watching, opens fire with his own air-rifle. Now nursing a gunshot wound he realizes Haley is now a loyal member of Fender’s crew. He flees and is chased by a dozen of his pirates, Gibson outsmarts them and is alone with Pearl and Nady. Pearl refuses to go with him—she calculates that Gibson is not strong enough to defeat Fender and will be unable to get her to Atlanta safely. She says she will go along with Fender and lure him to his death in Atlanta where she has resources at her disposal. Tired, out of ammunition, wounded and badly outnumbered, Gibson flees with Nady through the sewer—where he ambushes and kills Brick Bardo—and then into a salt marsh where they are pursued by the rest of the pirates and eventually separated from each other in the boggy terrain. Gibson is overpowered, captured, beaten unconscious by Fender and crucified high on the mast of a beached, derelict ship. Haley lingers at the scene, but must leave with Fender. Gibson spends the night on the cross. In the morning, near death, he kicks the mast repeatedly with his dangling feet in a last fit of rage. The mast snaps, sending him crashing to the ground, his arms still nailed to the cross. Finally, Nady appears out of the marsh to free him.

Gibson and Nady intercept Fender once again in Atlanta, and this time are better prepared. The rest of Fender’s gang are taken down one by one until he and Gibson finally meet alone. During their fight, Nady rushes Fender with a knife, but he gashes her with a blade of his own, killing her. Gibson downs Fender with a deep stab wound to the chest. Thinking him dead, Gibson turns around to greet Haley, who is finally free. However, Fender gets back up and they continue to battle in a nearby shed, where Gibson leaves Fender impaled on a large meat hook. Gibson and Haley escort Pearl to her destination, where they leave her and head back "out there".

Cast[link]

• Jean-Claude Van Damme as Gibson Rickenbacker
• Deborah Richter as Nady Simmons
• Vincent Klyn as Fender Tremolo
• Dayle Haddon as Pearl Prophet
• Alex Daniels as Marshall Strat
• Blaise Loong as Furman Vux / Pirate / Bandit
• Rolf Muller as Brick Bardo
• Haley Peterson as Haley
• Terrie Batson as Mary
• Jackson 'Rock' Pinckney as Tytus / Pirate

Production[link]

Cannon Films initially intended to make a sequel to the 1987 He-Man film Masters of the Universe and a live-action version of 'Spider-Man'. Both projects were planned to shoot simultaneously by Albert Pyun. Cannon, however, was in financial trouble and had to cancel deals with both Mattel and Marvel Entertainment, the owners of He-Man and Spider-Man, respectively. Cannon had already spent $2 million on costumes and sets for both films, and decided to start a new project to recoup the money spent on them. Then Pyun wrote the storyline for Cyborg in one weekend. Pyun had Chuck Norris in mind for the lead, but co-producer Menahem Golan cast Jean-Claude Van Damme. The film was shot for less than $500,000 and was filmed in 24 days.^[3]

Several of the characters' names are references to well-known manufacturers and models of guitars and other musical instruments.

• Gibson Rickenbacker: Gibson, Rickenbacker
• Fender Tremolo: Fender, Tremolo arm
• Marshall Strat: Marshall Amplifiers, Fender Stratocaster
• Les: Gibson Les Paul
• Pearl Prophet: Pearl drums, Prophet 5 synthesizer
• Nady Simmons: Nady Sound Systems, Simmons electric drums

Jackson "Rock" Pinckney, who played one of Fender's pirates, lost his eye during filming when Jean-Claude Van Damme accidentally struck his eye with a prop knife. Pinckney sued Van Damme in a North Carolina court and was awarded $485,000.^[4]

Violent scenes were heavily cut to gain an "R" rating rather than an "X", including a throat-slitting and some blood and gore during the village massacre. Also excised was the death of a man Van Damme was fighting, which caused an inconsistency that made him look like he suddenly disappeared.^[5][6]

In the song "Judgment Day" from Method Man's album Tical 2000: Judgement Day, the opening lyrics use most of Fender's opening words to the film. The lyrics are slightly modified. The intro is also in the opening of the song "World Damnation" by the death metal band Mortician. The intro of Fender talking about death and starvation is thought as the official opening of metal band Chimairas' song "Resurrection." It is often played at live shows as an intro.

Reception[link]

Cyborg received a generally negative reception from critics.^{[7][8][9][10]} Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports a 14% positive score, based on 14 reviews, certifying it "Rotten", with an average rating of 2.9/10.^[11] However, the movie debuted at No.4 at the American box office.^[12]

Sequels[link]

Cyborg 2, starring Elias Koteas and Angelina Jolie, was released in 1993. Cyborg 3: The Recycler, a direct-to-video release, followed in 1995. Both films bear little to no relation to the first film and were heavily panned by critics, even more than the original.

Prequels[link]

Albert Pyun is currently working on a Prequel to the movie. It is called 'Cyborgs : Rise of the Slingers.' It will deal with the Plague and development of Terry Batson's character Mary.

Alternate cut[link]

In early 2011, director Albert Pyun Curnan Pictures got hold of the missing tapes of the original cut of Cyborg through Albert’s original choice for score artist; Tony Riparetti. This director's cut of the film features his editing and some previously-unreleased scenes, and is commercially available through the director himself.^[13]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Cyborg at the Internet Movie Database
• Cyborg at AllRovi
• Cyborg at Box Office Mojo
• Cyborg at Rotten Tomatoes