A 1988 Sci-Fi Action Horror movie directed by Bruno Mattei (under the pseudonym of Vincent Dawn) that follows a group of commandos being stalked by a Killer Robot and trying to survive. It was co-written by Mattei and the husband-and-wife team of Claudio Fragasso and Rosella Drudi, best known for making Troll 2 a few years later.
The movie stars Reb Brown, Catherine Hickland, Massimo Vanni, Romano Puppo, Claudio Fragasso, Max Laurel, Jim Gaines, John P. Dulaney, and Mel Davidson.
The film is mainly notable for being a truly shameless knockoff of Predator.
Tropes for the film:
- Abandoned Hospital: Black and Virginia hole up in one toward the end of the movie. She had worked there as a volunteer doctor, before the hospital had to be evacuated because of guerilla attacks.
- Always Save the Girl: The heroes come upon a group of armed guerillas in trucks, chasing down some unarmed civilians, including the beautiful Virginia. Mascher tells them not to get involved and to focus on the mission (although he has made a point of telling them absolutely nothing about what they are supposed to be doing), but they are pretty unanimous in their decision to "start settling some accounts" and relentlessly mow down the guerillas, though Virginia is the only person they're able to save. Later, they ignore Mascher's orders again when Virginia asks them to rescue some children being held hostage by some other guerillas, though this time they are too late and the children are already dead.
- Black Dude Dies First: Peel, the sole black team member, is the first named character to die.
- Death by Disfigurement: Peel steps in a foot trap a few scenes earlier, leaving him with a limp for the remainder of his scenes.
- Camera Abuse: When Omega One kills Corey, we get a close-up shot of him spewing blood into the lens of the camera.
- Character as Himself: Implied, possibly unintentionally, by the end credits. Much like Predator, the film ends with a Credits Montage, with each actor's name and character displaying over a clip of them (although Peel and Guarino are mixed up, and a few of the names are spelled wrong). After crediting all the human characters, the title "Robowar" appears over a shot of the robot, suggesting this trope. It's actually Claudio Fragasso wearing the robot suit, though.
- Classified Information: In order to keep the Omega One project a secret, Mascher decides it's best to tell BAM absolutely nothing at all about the mission before sending them out. All they know is that they have to "beach two rafts" on "an island". Naturally, they are utterly unprepared to face a Killer Robot and nearly everyone is killed.
- Codename: Most the Big Ass Motherfuckers are given nicknames that the filmmakers must have thought sounded extremely cool. Namely: Major Murphy (Marphy?) "Killzone" Black, Pvt. Larry "Diddybop" Guarino, Alfred "Papa Doc" Bray, and Sonny "Blood" Peel. Quang is an ambiguous case; we're told we was "renamed" that after previously going by Nung Quo, but it's unclear why. Corporal Neil Corey is the one clear-cut exception, having no codename or alias at all.
- Mascher: Why do they have nicknames?
Commanding Officer: You should know what the group is called: BAM.
- Failed a Spot Check: Corey steps out of cover to reclaim the detonator from Mascher's corpse, telling the rest of the surviving Big Ass Motherfuckers to cover him. Despite this, Omega One appears right behind Corey and kills him, with no warning from the other guys.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Virginia, the kind-hearted woman who came to whatever country this is set in to work as a volunteer doctor, is blonde. Could also apply to Maj. Black, the brave and noble action hero played by the blond-haired Reb Brown.
- Hate Sink: Mascher's role in the story is equivalent to Dillon's in Predator, but with none of Dillon's redeeming traits (or the inherent likability of Carl Weathers). Not only does he endanger BAM by not telling them what he knows, he's a Dirty Coward, a racist, and is generally The Load throughout the film. Corey routinely suggests they kill him, and Black only shoots down the suggestion because they still need information from him, making it very clear that he has no moral objections at all.
- Hungry Jungle: Peel observes that "I've seen some heavy greens but this takes the cake." Most of the film was shot on location in the Philippines. Ultimately downplayed, as aside from a scene in which Bray is swept away by a river, the environment serves mainly as a backdrop and does little to impact the story.
- I Cannot Self-Terminate: Omega One eventually decides it's had enough of killing people in the jungle, and gives its detonator to Major Black so he can finally put it out of its misery. Unfortunately, it then explodes, forcing Black to jump off a waterfall (yes, exactly like in Predator) to escape the blast.
- It's Pronounced "Tro-PAY":
- No one can agree on whether Quang's name is pronounced to rhyme with "gang" or with "gong".
- Possibly a spelling error, but Reb Brown's character is credited as "Marphy Black" but his name is always pronounced as "Murphy". Likewise, Catherine Hickland's character is credited as "Virgin" but all the dialogue refers to her as "Virginia".
- Killer Robot: Omega One, the main antagonist of the movie.
- Mercy Kill: In a flashback to 'Nam, Marphy Black remembers his badly-wounded friend Woodrie begging him to "finish me off", but he can't do it. At the climax of the movie, he eventually does, though: see I Cannot Self-Terminate above.
- More Dakka: There are a lot of scenes of the Big Ass Motherfuckers all firing their guns in a straight line and yelling.
- No Waterproofing in the Future: Played straight, as the villain is an escaped high-tech cyborg. The robot is nigh-invulnerable but somehow can be paralyzed when Virgin spills a pail of water on it, shorting it out long enough for Black to deliver a killing blow. Or so it seems...
- One-Word Title: Robowar.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Mascher, the Dirty Coward who needlessly endangers the Big Ass Motherfuckers, refers to Quang as a "gook", infuriating Maj. Black.
- Post-Mortem One-Liner: The scene in Predator where Arnold Schwarzenegger kills a bad guy with a thrown knife, fatally pinning him to a wall, and then quips "Stick around" is reenacted, except it's pretty clear the Italian screenwriters didn't actually understand Arnold's pun, leaving poor Reb with the very lame "Don't move".
- Robo Cam: There are a lot of P.O.V. Cam shots from Omega One's perspective. Apparently it perceives everything as a pixelated mass of brown. A rare case where a robot's "enhanced" vision makes everything much harder to see.
- The Smurfette Principle: Virginia is the only woman in the film.
- The Squad: BAM, or Big Ass Motherfuckers, are supposedly an elite team of commandos, most of whom are Vietnam vets. One member, Quang, is himself Vietnamese.
- Mascher: Sort of like, get to it and go get fucked, like in 'Nam.
- Was Once a Man: One of the few plot points not lifted from Predator but instead from RoboCop (1987). Omega One is made from the remains of Martin Woodrie, Marphy's old war buddy from 'Nam.
- Where the Hell Is Springfield?: It's extremely unclear where the movie is set. It's a tropical country that is going through some kind of civil war, and there's a reference to a town called San Pedro so presumably it's somewhere that had, at some point, been a colony of Spain, but that's really all we get.
- You No Take Candle: Quang's dialogue is in broken English. It's not quite Asian Speekee Engrish but still kind of silly.
- You Shall Not Pass!: Quang decides to stop running and face Omega One head-on, buying Black and Virginia some time. Again, the scene is lifted directly from Billy's big moment on the bridge in Predator.
