History Film / FutureWar

* OffTheShelfFX: At one point, a TV news crew turns up at the location of the latest dinosaur attack. The cameraman is carrying a "camera" that is just a cardboard box with some tape around the edges and a lens stuck on the front. Presumably they got it from the same place they acquired all those boxes that the Runaway and the first cyborg were hucking at each other earlier in the movie.

* TakeOurWordForIt: The Slave Rebellion happens mostly off-camera, while the audience gets static shots of generic sci-fi sets with sci-fi sound effects in the background. That's because they used stock footage from a different movie which didn't star the lead actor.

* DarkAndTroubledPast: Abused to high holy hell. Ann apparently used to be a hooker and drug dealer who also had connections to a local gang, an arms dealer, and some guy who's presumably a black market dealer.

* FinalBattleInducedShirtLoss: In the middle of the final battle with the main cyborg, Runaway seemingly takes off his shirt for no reason. This was lambasted in the mst3k review of the movie, which Crow remarking "My shirt was knocked off, it was knocked off, I swear."

* VitriolicBestFriends: Not very well handled, but Ann has some elements of this with her black friend, particularly in an early scene where he calls her a bitch, prompting her to laugh and call him one right back.
* WalkInChimeIn: Ann has gathered a bunch of NeighbourhoodFriendlyGangsters with whom she is plotting to go take on the cyborgs and dinosaurs. They ask how they can find the dinos, after which the door opens, the Runaway (who had only just now escaped from police custody) enters and says "Near water."

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Polaris completely vanishes from the film when the FBI forcefully take control of the case. [[note]]Which is probably fortunate for him, since they all end up dead a few minutes later.[[/note]]

* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: The dinosaurs are {{Mook}}s for the evil cyborgs.

* HotScientist: The lab assistant. Too bad she gets a NeckSnap.

* ShotgunsAreJustBetter: [[InvertedTrope inverted.]] There are a couple of scenes where people use shotguns against the dinosaurs and cyborgs, and they are a lot ''less'' effective than most of the other anti-dinosaur/cyborg countermeasures they try, including the Runaway simply punching them.

* HollywoodCyborg: "Cyborg", in this case, meaning "someone wearing black clothes and clown makeup with maybe a camera over one eye while moving stiffly as whirring sounds are added."

* FinalBattleInducedShirtLoss: In the middle of the final battle with the main cyborg, Runaway seemingly takes off his shirt for no reason. This was lambasted in the MST3K review of the movie, which Crow remarking "My shirt was knocked off, it was knocked off, I swear."

The story concerns "[[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep the Runaway]]," a slave who escapes his cyborg masters' spaceship and crash-lands just off the coast of UsefulNotes/{{California}}. Two cyborgs and a pack of killer dinosaurs ([[BlatantLies who do not in any way resemble cheaply-made puppets]]) are dispatched to recapture him. The Runaway kickboxes one of the cyborgs to death and takes down a dinosaur puppet, but is then unceremoniously [[CrashIntoHello hit by a car]] driven by Sister Anne, a hooker/ganger/druggie-turned novitiate nun. Anne takes him back to her home, a half-way house inhabited by overweight men, and nurses the Runaway back to health. With him choking her and all, they seem to be hitting it off, but their growing bond is interrupted by a dinosaur puppet attack that claims one of Anne's friends.

Anne and the Runaway make a break for it, and wander around the streets and ride on a train for a while. Anne's having second thoughts about the whole nun thing, but the Runaway quotes verses from Literature/TheBible, which mostly seems to confuse her. Then the pair are picked up by cops and tag along as a [=SWAT=] team combats another one of those dinosaur puppets. The heavily-armed specialists get their asses bitten off until the Runaway takes down the threat with a stab to the jaw, and in gratitude, they haul him back to the police HQ for questioning. Fortunately, the remaining cyborg tracks the Runaway there, and our kickboxing hero is able to escape in the carnage, thrashing the cyborg in the process.

Our heroes reunited, Anne calls in some favors and enlists the aid of her former clients/gangmates/customers to raise a small army to combat the dinosaur puppets. Since said puppets are known to congregate near water, the last half-hour or so of the film takes place in what is meant to be a water treatment plant, which the gang blows up after suffering heavy losses. At the end, Anne's final vows are interrupted by the second cyborg showing up for one last kickboxing match, but the good guys win, Anne becomes a nun, and her halfway house "scores" a new counselor.

* ArbitrarySkepticism: Anne seems to heavily doubt the Runaway's story even after ''a dinosaur bursts into her house and kills one of her friends''.
* AsTheGoodBookSays: The Runaway (mis)quotes John 15:13 to Anne ("There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.") Anne takes this to mean he's a con, since what deculturated human from the future would know Bible quotes?

* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Subverted. While the first death that we see involves Sister Anne's black best friend Fred, the scene in question is actually a FlashForward to the film's ending, and so poor Fred is actually the third-to-last person to die.

* DarkAndTroubledPast: Abused to high holy hell. Anne apparently used to be a hooker and drug dealer who also had connections to a local gang, an arms dealer, and some guy who's presumably a black market dealer.

* IWorkAlone: Sister Anne uses this line on the Runaway, which makes no sense considering she's a nun who works with a bunch of other people in a halfway house.

* PietaPlagiarism: After the Runaway defeats the Cyborg (barely) for the final time, he lies wounded on the floor while Anne holds his head in her lap in this classic pose. Making it all the more {{anvilicious}} is that 1) they're doing so on the altar of a church; and 2) the Runaway has been quoting Bible verses throughout the film, most pertinently "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends"[[note]]said by Jesus concerning his impending crucifixion[[/note]] and [[FauxSymbolism attempting to apply it to himself]] (and, indeed, he does so again right here).

* VitriolicBestFriends: Not very well handled, but Anne has some elements of this with her black friend, particularly in an early scene where he calls her a bitch, prompting her to laugh and call him one right back.
* WalkInChimeIn: Anne has gathered a bunch of NeighbourhoodFriendlyGangsters with whom she is plotting to go take on the cyborgs and dinosaurs. They ask how they can find the dinos, after which the door opens, the Runaway (who had only just now escaped from police custody) enters and says "Near water."

* ArbitrarySkepticism: Ann seems to heavily doubt the Runaway's story even after ''a dinosaur bursts into her house and kills one of her friends''.

* PietaPlagiarism: After the Runaway defeats the Cyborg (barely) for the final time, he lies wounded on the floor while Ann holds his head in her lap in this classic pose. Making it all the more {{anvilicious}} is that 1) they're doing so on the altar of a church; and 2) the Runaway has been quoting Bible verses throughout the film, most pertinently "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends"[[note]]said by Jesus concerning his impending crucifixion[[/note]] and [[FauxSymbolism attempting to apply it to himself]] (and, indeed, he does so again right here).

* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: At least one of the "tracker" dinosaurs is implied to be the size of a real T rex (as it crashes through a window and eats someone) and is implied to be searching for the runaway and Ann. Apparently no one notices a ''freaking T Rex'' walking around as when the police capture the runaway they think his story about the dinosaurs is ridiculous.

* WalkInChimeIn: Ann has gathered a bunch of NeighbourhoodFriendlyGangsters with whom she is plotting to go take on the cyborgs and dinosaurs. They ask how they can find the dinos, after which the door opens, the Runaway (who had only just now escaped from police custody) enters and says "Near water."

* DullSurprise: Most if not all the characters sound like they're ''incredibly'' bored. Even when they're [[LargeHam hamming it up]], they still sound disinterested in the situation at hand.

* HollywoodCyborg: "Cyborg" meaning "someone wearing black clothes and clown makeup with maybe a camera over one eye while moving stiffly as whirring sounds are added."

If someone were to combine ''Film/TheTerminator'' and ''Film/JurassicPark'', with a fraction of the former's budget, while [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic throwing in religious overtones]] just to spice things up a bit, you'd get something close to ''Future War'', a [[DirectToVideo direct-to-video]] gem ([[SoBadItsGood for a given value of "gem"]]) featured on [[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S10E04FutureWar a season ten episode]] of ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000''.

* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Subverted. While the first death that we see involves Sister Anne's BlackBestFriend Fred, the scene in question is actually a FlashForward to the film's ending, and so poor Fred is actually the third-to-last person to die.

* {{Motifs}}: Plaid. Seriously, just about every good guy in the cast is wearing some sort of plaid. [[RummageSaleRejects Even the grizzled, overweight gangers]].