Before Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton Wrote A Cheesy '80s Sci-Fi Movie Starring Tom Selleck

Michael Crichton published his first novel, the hard-boiled crime novel "Odds On," in 1966 under the nom de plume John Lange, a handle he used for many of his early works. The first book published under his real name was "The Andromeda Strain" in 1969, the author's sixth novel. "Strain" was a big hit, and it was adapted into a very good and respectably successful movie in 1971, making it the first movie to be based on one of Crichton's works.

Crichton, however, was bitten by the movie bug and dove into films shortly thereafter. In 1973, he was credited as the screenwriter on Jeannot Szwarc's voyeurism thriller "Extreme Close-Up." That was followed very swiftly by "Westworld" the same year, a film about a robot-based amusement park that Crichton wrote and directed. "Westworld" was a proper blockbuster, and it penetrated deep into the popular consciousness, eventually leading to a hit TV remake on HBO in 2013.

Crichton then began to rack up multiple writer/director credits over the course of the next few years. In 1978, he wrote and directed "Coma," adapted from Robin Cook's novel. Also in 1978, he adapted his own novel "The Great Train Robbery" to the big screen as "The First Great Train Robbery." His next film was the intense "Looker" in 1981, a movie about models who die after getting cosmetic surgery. Sadly, it bombed.

It was in 1984 that Crichton wrote and directed his cheesiest movie, "Runaway," available on Tubi as of this writing. The film unfolds in the near-future of 1991, when non-humanoid robots are in common usage but are still unreliable enough to require a special police squad to track down and destroy the ones that malfunction. Malfunctioning robots are called Runaways. The central cop character, Sergeant Ramsay, was played by Tom Selleck.

The plot of "Runaway" kicks off when Sergeant Ramsay is paired with a rookie partner (that old saw), a young woman named Officer Karen Thompson (Cynthia Rhodes). Their first case is the world's first known case of robotic homicide, and they find that someone has been secretly mass producing robot components that force them to murder their owners. All the robots in "Runaway," it should be noted, are more like Roombas than C-3PO. They skitter and crawl and have no human features.

It's revealed pretty early in "Runaway" that the manufacturer of the killer-robot parts is the evil Dr. Charles Luther, played by KISS frontman Gene Simmons in his first non-KISS role. Dr. Luther figures that secret robot assassins would make a pretty penny on the black market, so he's been selling them to nogoodniks for a spell. Dr. Luther also developed a new kind of bullet that can be programmed to zero in on a specific human's heat signature.

Although Ramsay and Thompson know that Dr. Luther is behind all the movie's malfeasance, they still can't manage to find him. They end up grilling his ex-girlfriend Jackie, played by Kirstie Alley, fresh off a role "Blind Date," which made her a recognizable star. The film will climax at the top of a tall building, which Dr. Luther has stocked up with killer robots. Ramsay, it should be noted, was only put on robot detail because of his acute acrophobia (fear of heights). Naturally, he'll have to face his fears in order to apprehend Gene Simmons. Of course, Ramsay and Thompson will develop something of a romance, although it's largely just because they're both attractive people.

The weird thing about "Runaway" is how unwilling it is to engage with its tech on a philosophical level. The robots are not depicted as being wicked or out-of-control on their own but mere tools that can be misused by bad guys. Indeed, the story of "Runaway" didn't even necessarily need the robots for the story to function. It could have just as easily been a story about specially trained animals, jury-rigged cars, or any number of things that are capable of killing humans after a little tinkering or manipulation.

Several of Crichton's other stories — including "Westworld" and the beloved box office hit "Jurassic Park" — have a cautionary aspect to their tech. Namely, they advise that you don't use technology to muck with the natural order, or else the product will kill you. This message is compounded by the commercial/entertainment aspect of tech. It's telling that Crichton's two biggest hits are about amusement parks run amok.

On a budget of $8 million, "Runaway" only made $6.7 million back (in North America), so it was quickly swept aside. The sci-fi premise wasn't intriguing enough for a mainstream audience, it seems, and Gene Simmons' acting debut wasn't enough to attract the masses. Gene Simmons had only been in one movie prior to "Runaway," but that was just playing himself in the TV movie "KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park." Two years after "Runaway," Simmons would play another evil villain named Velvet Von Ragnar in the kooky actioner "Never Too Young To Die." That was more his speed.

Tom Selleck went back to making "Magnum P.I." ("Runaway" was released partway through the hit show's run) and would star in the ultra-hit "Three Men and a Baby" in a few more years. Kirstie Alley joined "Cheers" that same year too. Everyone survived "Runaway" fine.