George Segal is The Terminal Man, a troubled convict who undergoes a state-sponsored experimental microcomputer implantation to help calm the angry, violent episodes that led to his incarceration. Of course, the state-of-the-art technology runs amok, stimulating even more rage and violence. The film is a thoughtful treatise on free will vs. social control, a less bombastic Clockwork Orange, but no less fascinating, probing with its own aphoristic lens. This is dark, raw science fiction, rendered hard-boiled by brash direction from Mike Hodges (Get Carter, Pulp) and Segal’s chilling lead performance, and it’s a cautionary prophecy for a computerized mankind.
Print courtesy of the National Film & Sound Archive of Australia
“Well before the Terminator–RoboCop boom of the 80s, this tackles sci-fi questions of the difference between human and robot in the context of a high-powered thriller.” – Empire Online
Howard S. Berger discusses The Terminal Man on the New Beverly blog.
