CYBER-TRACKER 2 (1995)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*

Though the mythicity of the second and last CYBER-TRACKER is no better than the first, the action and the various story-complications are much better. Since both films had the same director, the difference may stem from a different writer producing the script.

The first film ended with the implication that the legal system was going to abolish the custom of using robotic "cyber trackers" to publicly execute accused criminals. However, such automatons are still being used, though one scene mentions that the robots can be programmed to capture rather than kill. In the ensuing interval between films, secret service agent Eric Phillips (Don Wilson) has married crusading reporter Connie (Stacie Foster). Neither of them seems too perturbed by the fact that the government still uses trackers for public executions. Though Eric is still called a secret service agent, he's first seen playing undercover cop, just so the movie can begin with a big cops-vs-crooks action scene. However, the real story starts when Eric's at home watching TV, and he sees a news broadcast showing his wife Connie assassinating the governor.

It's a robot assassin, of course, and it's the product of a new conspiracy headed by one Morgan (Anthony deLongis) The real Connie was kidnapped by Morgan's thugs, who delayed killing her so that she would be found dead at the most propitious time. However, Connie breaks free, clobbers two of the thugs with handy bludgeons, and tries to reconnoiter with Eric. A tracker (Jim Maniaci) overtakes Connie first, but Eric runs it down with a car, temporarily inconveniencing the robot. (There's a slightly funny scene following the usual car-chase, where the tracker instructs a befuddled cop as to where he can seek "emotional support" for his distress.)

Not content to have framed Connie, Morgan has his techs manufacture an Eric robot, sending it to kill the fugitives in a police station (an unsubtle TERMINATOR riff). In the movie's best fight, a less hostile tracker (Maniaci again) interferes with the Eric-robot's mission. The Eric-robot then combines two familiar fight-tropes: (1) he rips off the tracker's arm to beat him with it, and (2) he knocks his head clean off.

More gunfights and car chases follow, and eventually the Ericbot is destroyed. Eric makes an ally of a "friendly" tracker-- one the agent worked with on the undercover case from the film's beginning-- and the small group of Eric's allies seek out Morgan at his HQ. The Connie-bot (Foster of course) has a nice moment beating down the tracker, Eric dodges a laser gun, and Morgan's female aide (Athena Massey) has a brief fight with one of Eric's allies. A "super-tracker" is eliminated within a minute by the laser, and Eric gets to throw down with Morgan, who's a little tougher than the average corporate greedhead. All that, and a big lab-destroying explosion too. Now that's the kind of simple pulp-action I expect from PM flicks!