Pamela Anderson Starred In A '90s Superhero Flop You Have To Watch

In David Hogan's 1996 sci-fi clunker "Barb Wire," Pamela Anderson (who was fresh off a star-making stint on "Baywatch" when she made the movie) plays Barb Kopetski, a stripper and bar-owner trying to survive in a then-near-future U.S. The year is 2017, and the United States is suffering through a second Civil War. Meanwhile, Barb runs the Hammerhead, a nightclub and adult performance venue in the only free city still left in the country. Barb dances on stage but tolerates no lasciviousness; she murders a patron with her spike-heeled shoe for the temerity of calling her "babe." Barb is uncaring, unconcerned with the war, and looks out only for herself. Oh, yes, and on the side, she makes money as a bounty hunter and freelance vigilante.

Her idyll is interrupted by the reappearance of Axel (Temuera Morrison), an old boyfriend whom she loved deeply but who abandoned her years earlier. Axel has arrived at the Hammerhead with his new girlfriend, Dr. Devonshire (Victoria Rowell), who has leaked information she hoped to get to the press. She and Axel will need to escape to Canada to make the information public, so Axel hopes to ply Barb into helping them. Will Barb get over her heartbreak and assist them? Or sink back into indifference? 

If the story sounds familiar, it's because it's a deliberate riff on "Casablanca." Barb Wire is Rick, Axel is Isla, and Dr. Devonshire is Victor Laszlo. Similarly, the coveted exit visas from "Casablanca" are transformed into high-tech contact lenses that would allow Dr. Devonshire to fake a retinal scan. "Barb Wire," to cement the parallels, also features evil soldiers in Nazi uniforms. 

Hogan's film was widely panned on its initial theatrical release, with critics citing its narrative stiffness and criticizing Anderson's broad performance. It took years for a cult audience to begin to form around "Barb Wire," with fans praising the movie's clunky '90s style and wide-open campiness. And, no, Anderson does not give a bad performance; just a big one.

"Barb Wire" began its life in 1993 as a comic book created by by Chris Warner & Team CGW and published by Dark Horse. The latter is, to remind readers, the publisher of hard-edged fare like "300," "Sin City," "Hellboy," "Umbrella Academy," and "Usagi Yojimbo." It also gained a lot of clout for licensing movie characters and giving them all-new comic book adventures. Dark Horse put out comics starring Indiana Jones, RoboCop, the Terminator, and the characters from "Planet of the Apes." It was even the first to publish the "Alien vs. Predator" comics that would eventually be adapted to film in 2004.

The "Barb Wire" comics were even wilder than the movie, taking place in a parallel universe where an alien monster called the Vortex arrived on Earth in 1931. It stayed on Earth for many years, conducting experiments on the human locals, before it — like Godzilla — became mutated by 1940s nuclear tests. The bombs also opened an eerie alien portal that released mutative radiation across the planet, granting superpowers to large segments of the human population. Story-wise, the comics catch up with Barb at the Hammerhead at a point when she still owns the place and still moonlights as a bounty hunter (with a Second Civil War brewing in the background).

The 1996 movie adaptation, to reiterate, takes place in the then-future, not an alternate version of the present, and contains no super-powered people. The sci-fi premise, it seems, was enough for the filmmakers. Sadly, it wasn't enough to help the film's reputation. "Barb Wire" was laughed out of theaters, grossing only $3.8 million at the box office against a modest $9 million budget.

However, as my personal axiom goes, trash + time = culture. "Barb Wire" was eventually embraced by lovers of campy '90s sci-fi, with some critics having recently compared the film to Paul Verhoeven's "Showgirls," but in a positive sense. After 15 straight years of super-slick superhero movies, it's striking to look back to how zany and unsafe "Barb Wire" feels. It's not currently available on streaming, but there are cheap Blu-rays out there.