Follow TV Tropes

Following

History Film / Hardware1990

Go To

OR

Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None


Mo buys the most of the robot bits as a Christmas present for his girlfriend Jill who is a sculptor.

to:

Mo buys the most of the robot bits as a Christmas present for his girlfriend Jill who is a sculptor.{{sculptor|s}}.



Jill lives in a tightly controlled apartment block in the dangerous inner City, and has been having trouble with a prowler, but is persuaded to let Mo in and he gives her the bag full of robot. Alvy, meanwhile, has been examining the remaining robot parts more closely and has made an alarming discovery. The robot is actually a M.A.R.K. 13 cyborg, a lethal prototype killing machine capable of rebuilding itself if damaged. He contacts Mo, and in a truly outstanding example of the IdiotBall persuades Mo to come to the scrap yard - leaving Jill at home with the M.A.R.K. 13.

to:

Jill lives in a tightly controlled apartment block in the dangerous inner City, and has been having trouble with a prowler, but is persuaded to let Mo in and he gives her the bag full of robot. Alvy, meanwhile, has been examining the remaining robot parts more closely and has made an alarming discovery. The robot is actually a M.A.R.K. 13 cyborg, a lethal prototype killing machine capable of rebuilding itself if damaged. He contacts Mo, and in a truly outstanding example of the IdiotBall persuades Mo to come to the scrap yard - leaving --leaving Jill at home with the M.A.R.K. 13.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Now a disambiguation.


Jill lives in a tightly controlled apartment block in the dangerous inner City, and has been having trouble with a prowler, but is persuaded to let Mo in and he gives her the bag full of robot. Alvy, meanwhile, has been examining the remaining robot parts more closely and has made an alarming discovery. The robot is actually a M.A.R.K. 13 cyborg, a lethal prototype killing machine capable of rebuilding itself if damaged. He contacts Mo, and in a truly outstanding example of {{Plot Induced Stupidity}} persuades Mo to come to the scrap yard - leaving Jill at home with the M.A.R.K. 13.

to:

Jill lives in a tightly controlled apartment block in the dangerous inner City, and has been having trouble with a prowler, but is persuaded to let Mo in and he gives her the bag full of robot. Alvy, meanwhile, has been examining the remaining robot parts more closely and has made an alarming discovery. The robot is actually a M.A.R.K. 13 cyborg, a lethal prototype killing machine capable of rebuilding itself if damaged. He contacts Mo, and in a truly outstanding example of {{Plot Induced Stupidity}} the IdiotBall persuades Mo to come to the scrap yard - leaving Jill at home with the M.A.R.K. 13.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None


Shot on a very low budget, ''Hardware'' has become a definite CultClassic, at least in the U.K. The story was based on "Shok!", a short comic strip set in the ''Comicbook/JudgeDredd'' universe[[note]]Apparently, the filmmakers did this without even bothering to talk to 2000 A.D. comics about the intellectual property rights, figuring all they had to do was change the main characters' names. This led to significant legal trouble for them later down the line.[[/note]], and the setting is generally acknowledged to be a far better depiction of a Mega-City than that seen in the 1995 film.

to:

Shot on a very low budget, ''Hardware'' has become a definite CultClassic, at least in the U.K. The story was based on "Shok!", a short comic strip set in the ''Comicbook/JudgeDredd'' universe[[note]]Apparently, the filmmakers did this without even bothering to talk to 2000 A.D. comics about the intellectual property rights, figuring all they had to do was change the main characters' names. This led to significant legal trouble for them later down the line.[[/note]], and the setting is generally acknowledged to be a far better depiction of a Mega-City than that seen in [[Film/JudgeDredd the 1995 film.
film]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None


* SuspiciouslyAproposMusic: Music/PublicImageLtd's "This is what you want, this is what you get!"

to:

* SuspiciouslyAproposMusic: Music/PublicImageLtd's song "The Order of Death" includes the lyrics "This is what you want, this is what you get!"
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None


* SuspiciouslyAproposMusic: Music/PublicImageLimited's "This is what you want, this is what you get!"

to:

* SuspiciouslyAproposMusic: Music/PublicImageLimited's Music/PublicImageLtd's "This is what you want, this is what you get!"
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None


* BetterToDieThanToBeKilled: [[spoiler: After being injected with the M.A.R.K. 13's toxin, Mo slits his own wrists and bleeds to death peacefully instead of being torn to pieces by the psychotic robot]].

to:

* BetterToDieThanToBeKilled: BetterToDieThanBeKilled: [[spoiler: After being injected with the M.A.R.K. 13's toxin, Mo slits his own wrists and bleeds to death peacefully instead of being torn to pieces by the psychotic robot]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None

Added DiffLines:

* WorldOfSymbolism: Plenty examples, primarily of a religious and/or occult persuasion.
** The ArcWords, "No flesh shall be spared" is a verse from the Bible, specifically Mark 13. Mo even reads the passage aloud to Jill.
** When Jill activates the terminal to speak to Mo and find out how to kill the M.A.R.K. 13, a pentagram can be seen on the monitor.
** Shades prays in front of a tapestry depicting what seems to be a Hindu goddess, possibly Kali.
** The name for the computer that Alvy uses to find information about the M.A.R.K. 13 is called BAAL.

Added: 1233

Changed: 604

Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
I just rewatched Hardware and noticed that really disturbing detail about Lincoln.


* ActorAllusion: Mo says to Alvy "You used to be an elf, didn't you?" Mark Northover (Alvy) once tried to get a job as an elf at Santa's workshop at a mall, but, the mall's owners didn't give him the job, because they felt he would scare the children.

to:

* ActorAllusion: ActorAllusion:
**
Mo says to Alvy "You used to be an elf, didn't you?" Mark Northover (Alvy) once tried to get a job as an elf at Santa's workshop at a mall, but, the mall's owners didn't give him the job, because they felt he would scare the children.children.
** [[Music/FieldsOfTheNephilim Carl McCoy]] played the titular role in the music video for his own song, "Preacher Man", also directed by Richard Stanley. One of the lyrics is "Contamination and radiation", which about sums up the CrapsackWorld that ''Hardware'' is set in.



* AssholeVictim:
** [[spoiler: Lincoln, the creepy peeping tom neighbor who's implied to be a pedophile, going by the small pair of shoes on his wall.]]
** [[spoiler: The M.A.R.K. 13 itself, after murdering several people and terrorizing Jill, seeming to get a kick out of it, even attempting to rape her with a drill a couple of times.]]



* BetterToDieThanToBeKilled: [[spoiler: After being injected with the M.A.R.K. 13's toxin, Mo slits his own wrists and bleeds to death peacefully instead of being torn to pieces by the psychotic robot]].



* ChainsawGood: One of Mark 13's limbs has a circular saw attached to it. It also grabs an actual chainsaw by the end of the movie.

to:

* ChainsawGood: One of Mark M.A.R.K. 13's limbs has a circular saw attached to it. It also grabs an actual chainsaw by the end of the movie.



* CloudCuckoolander: Shades has traits of this.

to:

* CloudCuckoolander: Shades has traits of this. Case in point, he spends the entire climax of the movie making barely coherent statements like "my heart is like an alligator." It's implied that he's stoned.



* CoolButInefficient: The M.A.R.K. 13 can inject victims with a toxin which makes them hallucinate before dying; why this is more efficient than just killing them outright is never adequately explained.

to:

* CoolButInefficient: CoolButInefficient:
**
The M.A.R.K. 13 can inject victims with a toxin which makes them hallucinate before dying; why this is more efficient than just killing them outright is never adequately explained.



* SuspiciouslyAproposMusic: Music/IggyPop's "This is what you want, this is what you get!"

to:

* SuspiciouslyAproposMusic: Music/IggyPop's Music/PublicImageLimited's "This is what you want, this is what you get!"

Added: 130

Removed: 134

Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Trope has been renamed.


* BiggusDickus: An officer questions Mo when stripped if his penis is still flaccid, implying it's the size of an erect one when soft.


Added DiffLines:

* GagPenis: An officer questions Mo when stripped if his penis is still flaccid, implying it's the size of an erect one when soft.

Added: 10947

Changed: 85

Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None


[[redirect:Film/{{Hardware}}]]

to:

[[redirect:Film/{{Hardware}}]][[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1990_hardware_poster2.jpg]]

->''No flesh shall be spared.''

''Hardware'' is a British SciFiHorror movie directed by Creator/RichardStanley. In a post-apocalyptic desert, a wandering scavenger finds a dismembered robot buried in the sand, and takes the pieces back to the City to sell to Alvy, a scrap dealer. Also visiting the dealer are Moses "Hard Mo" Baxter (Creator/DylanMcDermott) and his {{Sidekick}} Shades. Mo is a (slightly) more professional scavenger; Shades...wears shades.
Mo buys the most of the robot bits as a Christmas present for his girlfriend Jill who is a sculptor.

Jill lives in a tightly controlled apartment block in the dangerous inner City, and has been having trouble with a prowler, but is persuaded to let Mo in and he gives her the bag full of robot. Alvy, meanwhile, has been examining the remaining robot parts more closely and has made an alarming discovery. The robot is actually a M.A.R.K. 13 cyborg, a lethal prototype killing machine capable of rebuilding itself if damaged. He contacts Mo, and in a truly outstanding example of {{Plot Induced Stupidity}} persuades Mo to come to the scrap yard - leaving Jill at home with the M.A.R.K. 13.

The robot accordingly rebuilds itself, using household appliances and sculpting tools to replace missing parts, and runs amuck. The bits left with Alvy also come to life, and Alvy is killed by lethal injection from a disembodied crawling claw. Mo, having found Alvy dead and realised the danger, rushes back to rescue Jill. Then things get seriously weird.

Shot on a very low budget, ''Hardware'' has become a definite CultClassic, at least in the U.K. The story was based on "Shok!", a short comic strip set in the ''Comicbook/JudgeDredd'' universe[[note]]Apparently, the filmmakers did this without even bothering to talk to 2000 A.D. comics about the intellectual property rights, figuring all they had to do was change the main characters' names. This led to significant legal trouble for them later down the line.[[/note]], and the setting is generally acknowledged to be a far better depiction of a Mega-City than that seen in the 1995 film.

----
!!No examples shall be spared:

* ActorAllusion: Mo says to Alvy "You used to be an elf, didn't you?" Mark Northover (Alvy) once tried to get a job as an elf at Santa's workshop at a mall, but, the mall's owners didn't give him the job, because they felt he would scare the children.
* ArtificialLimbs: Subverted- Mo has an artificial hand, but no reference is made to it and it doesn't give him super strength.
* AsTheGoodBookSays: The ArcWords "No flesh shall be spared" are paraphrased from a verse in [[Literature/TheBible Mark 13:20]], "There should no flesh be saved."
* BatterUp: Jill arms herself with a baseball bat near the end.
* BigDamnHeroes: Played straight once then subverted later.
* BiggusDickus: An officer questions Mo when stripped if his penis is still flaccid, implying it's the size of an erect one when soft.
* CassandraTruth: Lincoln is too obsessed about Jill to care about her warnings of the killer robot inside her apartment.
* ChainsawGood: One of Mark 13's limbs has a circular saw attached to it. It also grabs an actual chainsaw by the end of the movie.
* ChekhovsClassroom: It's repeated ''twice'' why exactly the M.A.R.K. 13 program was suspended by military - [[spoiler: it has insulation issues when facing moisture and humid air]].
* CityOfCanals: The factory district of Mega City One, where the water is hot due to the desert heat and polluted by garbage, industrial run-off and radiation.
* CloudCuckoolander: Shades has traits of this.
%% * ContrivedCoincidence
* CoolButInefficient: The M.A.R.K. 13 can inject victims with a toxin which makes them hallucinate before dying; why this is more efficient than just killing them outright is never adequately explained.
** Justified in that [[spoiler: The M.A.R.K. 13 was never meant to be a battlefield weapon. It's quite clearly stated in the film that the M.A.R.K. 13 was designed and built to be an instrument of terror to be unleashed against the civilian population in order to hunt down and kill anyone who violated the Emergency Population Control Bill. The strange and disturbing manner in which the M.A.R.K. 13 kills is meant to send a message to the people. "If you violate the Population Control Bill, this will happen to you next."]]
* CrapsackWorld: The City is basically Mega City One ''but without the Judges''.
-->'''Angry Bob:''' Rise and shine folks, [[SarcasmMode it's a beautiful day!]] [[RedSkyTakeWarning Just look at that sky, it's a work of art]]. Nature never knew colors like that. The radiation count is WAY up, and the heatwave ain't expected to let up either. Weather control tells us it will probably hit 110 before nightfall. [[HopeSpot As for the good news]] - [[ShootTheShaggyDog There is NO fucking good news!]]
* CyberpunkIsTechno: The film's score plays this trope as straight as you can possibly get.
* DeathByAdaptation: [[spoiler: Mo]] is definitively killed about 3/4ths of the way through the film, while the comic merely ends with his counterpart in a situation in which he has a good chance of being killed.
* {{Determinator}}: M.A.R.K. 13. Even when reduced to nothing more than a head or shot through of holes, it absolutely won't stop in its mission of killing humans.
* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:The in-universe radio broadcast at the end of the movie says that the government is going to mass produce the M.A.R.K 13's, and they've also fixed their defects (more efficient programming and no longer disabled by water)]].
* ExpoSpeak: Mostly averted but there are a couple of particularly jarring examples.
* EyeScream: M.A.R.K. 13 pokes Lincoln's eyes out when it's killing him.
* FinalSpeech: [[spoiler:An interesting variant. While Mo is dying from the M.A.R.K 13's neurotoxin he talks about the M.A.R.K 13's water weakness, which Jill accesses from the M.A.R.K 13's databanks when hacking it while it recharges. Arguably justified, as he may have said it due to the mind-altering and hallucinogenic properties of the neurotoxin]].
* {{Hallucinations}}: Side-effect from M.A.R.K. 13's neurotoxins.
* HarassingPhoneCall: Lincoln makes these to Jill.
* ItCanThink: Heavily implied with the M.A.R.K. 13. It [[spoiler:comes up with two cruel yet creative ambushes/traps,]] exhibits sadistic tendencies [[spoiler:and seems surprised that water disables it]].
* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler: While dying due to water damage shorting out its systems, the M.A.R.K.13 seems to experience similar vivid religious hallucinations to the ones Mo was having when he was dying from its hallucinogenic poison.]]
* MadeOfIron: M.A.R.K. 13 gets up after repeated gunshots, even a point-blank shotgun blast to the head. The shots [[spoiler:eventually damage and help destroy it after the water damages its wiring]].
* MultiArmedAndDangerous: M.A.R.K. 13.
* {{Mutants}}: Averted, exposure to radiation has caused stunted growth and deformities but no cool powers.
* NotQuiteDead: Mo and the building's security guards show up to save Jill and blow away the M.A.R.K. 13 only halfway through the film. The fact this happens so relatively early lets you know the M.A.R.K. 13 isn't as dead as it seems.
* OminousMusicBoxTune: Heard when Lincoln is stalking Jill with his infrared camera.
* PlotInducedStupidity: Although Alvy's reluctance to talk over the phone is understandable he could surely have told Mo to bring Jill with him, or take her somewhere else.
** Alvy did tell Mo to bring the M.A.R.K. 13 with him, though he could've suggested taking Jill when Mo objected. Upon finding [[spoiler:Alvy's corpse]] and information on how deadly the M.A.R.K. 13 was he got help and headed back to rescue Jill.
* PopulationControl: [[spoiler: The dystopian variety. There are laws prohibiting the number of children allowed due to deformities brought on by the radiation and limited resources while sterilization treatments are encouraged. The government then produced the M.A.R.K. 13 robots to kill the excess population/ terrify the remaining people into obeying population control laws]].
* RippedFromTheHeadlines: Director Richard Stanley was inspired by apartheid regime of South Africa where he had grown up, and thus emphasized the themes of fascism and passive acceptance of authoritarianism.
* ScavengerWorld: Not quite, but it is implied to be going that way
* SelfConstructedBeing: The [=MARK=] 13.
* ShoutOut: To ''Film/FearAndLoathingInLasVegas'':
-->'''Shades''': "My heart...it feels like an alligator."
* SparedByTheAdaptation: Jill definitively triumphs over the M.A.R.K. 13 in the film, whereas in the ending of the comic it's strongly implied that her counterpart was KilledOffscreen by the S.H.O.K. trooper (who then steals her hair as a disguise to ambush her boyfriend) after seemingly defeating it.
* StalkerWithACrush: Lincoln, who lives in a building next to Jill's apartment, and spies on her -- and makes obscene phone calls, too, pretending to be Mo.
-->'''Lincoln:''' I told you baby, this is Mo. Look, I wanna come back. I'm ready to go again. I'm hard again just thinking about you baby. What you say we try it up the ass, eh? How about I fuck you with a string of popcorn up your ass?... Then I pull it out real slow...pop by pop. You think you'd like that? Think you ready to try the Hershey Highway, eh? Fill you all the way, eh? What do you say Jill?
* SuckOutThePoison: Attempted [[spoiler:by Mo on himself. [[KilledOffForReal It doesn't work]].]]
* SunglassesAtNight: Shades never takes off his sunglasses.
* SuspiciouslyAproposMusic: Music/IggyPop's "This is what you want, this is what you get!"
* WeaksauceWeakness:[[spoiler: The M.A.R.K.13 can be [[KillItWithWater disabled by water]]]].
* WearingAFlagOnYourHead: Jill paints the M.A.R.K.13's head with an American flag as an ironic statement, back when she intended it as a piece of art and not a murderous killbot. Happily, it makes a pretty ironic statement as a murderous killbot, too.
* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: The setting was originally more explicitly British, but Miramax insisted on casting American leads. Stanley deliberately cast a multi-national cast to muddy the setting and keep it ambiguous.
* WhoNeedsTheirWholeBody: The M.A.R.K.13 manages to rebuild itself a new body despite only being a head and some interface cables. Ever so, said body is mostly just a really big upper torso, with some unspecific means of locomotion which is never really clearly shown.
* WorldWarIII: The story either happens at the tail end of this or sometime afterward with a more minor conflict still going on.
* WritingAroundTrademarks: The film was an unauthorized adaptation of [[ComicBook/JudgeDredd Shok!]] comics, swapping around names. However, the plot and setting remain largely unchanged, leading to a lawsuit, fine for the Wicked Films production company (which was a shell to make the movie, thus directly cutting any revenue it could make) and credits for the original creators added to the film.
----
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None

Added DiffLines:

[[redirect:Film/{{Hardware}}]]

Top