Number Five is alive…and armed to the teeth! 

Imagine if the robot in Short Circuit was programmed by the government to wipe out certain members of our society.  Electronic genocide in an easy bake machine!  Now, imagine if that said robot could also rebuild itself and go right back to killing in the name of no matter the damage done to its circuit board.  Frightening, no?!  Well, welcome to the masterpiece that is Hardware.  There is no escaping this movie’s dystopian reach and influence.

And, once it gets started, its one location - a rundown tenement dwelling - produces all sorts of claustrophobic terror.  The robots are coming!  The robots are coming!  And the poor and impoverished are their first targets.

Because, framed within a post-apocalyptic setting, that’s almost exactly the future shock territory of the artful (and bloody) Hardware.  This horror science fiction flick, a British-American co-production that is written and directed by Richard Stanley (before he got the shaft in The Island of Dr. Moreau), is full of all sorts of eye-popping visuals and edgy material as one robotic head – discovered in the wastelands of the world by a scavenging nomad – gets a second chance at life thanks to its inclusion in a poverty-stricken artist’s sculpture.

The film might sound like Terminator on a macaroni and cheese diet, but it certainly has enough going for it with strong visuals and strong performances - Dylan McDermott as Moses "Hard Mo" Baxter, the gift-giving boyfriend and Stacey Travis as Jill, his withdrawn girlfriend who likes to sculpt – to keep it bound to the unsettling future it depicts.  There is no hope in these projects.  Everything is blasted by the erosion surrounding them.  These survivors live on virtually nothing but scraps.  And their government doesn’t want them around much longer.

Enter the M.A.R.K. 13.  This nasty robot is all sorts of bad news.  He’s presented by McDermott as if it is a Trojan Horse and when this machine fully comes alive, all of Hell follows after.  With a strong visual style and a swagger that pulls left of silly from time to time, Hardware doesn’t follow your typical route to its unsettling ending.  It creates the rules it chooses to follow and, in doing so, the whole movie comes across as a powerful statement about technology before some of the tech even existed.

This film, pulling its main inspiration from within the comic 2000AD, features Iggy Pop, Lemmy Kilmister from Motorhead, William Hootkins (Porkins in Star Wars), and John Lynch as Shades.  The performances, no matter how small they are, work together to create a sustained feeling of otherworldly chaos throughout the film.  There is no place like the world depicted in Hardware…yet.  It is a film so visionary, you just might lose sense of yourself as its violence takes over and the extreme living conditions get run straight through by this angry robot.

It’s never going to be a fair fight when robots attack.  This trippy odyssey into the future showcases a wee bit of the ultraviolence that might take place should such a situation arise.  And it is a dark and deeply disturbing descent into the Hardware that entangles us all.  Be careful what you wish for!

Thanks to Umbrella Entertainment, Hardware is reborn!  And no flesh shall be spared!

Import / 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray Collector's Edition

Home Video Distributor: Umbrella Entertainment
Available on Blu-ray - March 14, 2025
Screen Formats: 1.85:1
Subtitles: English SDH
Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1; English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Discs: 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc; Two-disc set
Region Encoding: 4K region-free; blu-ray locked to Region A

Stylishly melding hard rock, industrial horror and cyberpunk dystopia, Stanley's cult classic is a pulse-pounding journey into the dangers of unchecked technology and the resilience of the human spirit against mechanical terror.  Hardware also features a full-throttle soundtrack including Ministry and Public Image Ltd. and appearances from music stalwarts Iggy Pop, Lemmy from Motorhead, and Fields of The Nephilim's Carl McCoy.  Set in a nuclear-scarred landscape where mankind struggles to survive, a "Zone Tripper" brings home a battered cyborg skull for his metal-sculptor girlfriend (Stacey Travis). But this steel scrap contains the brain of the M.A.R.K 13, the military's most ferocious bio-mechanical combat droid. It is cunning, cruel and can reassemble itself.

VIDEO

Umbrella Entertainment presents the NEW 4K scan from the original interpositive is fantastic!  The images on the 1080p transfer using the AVC MPEG-4 codec are presented in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio of its original release and absolutely explode with a crispness long since missing from the original presentations.   The tones are natural and amped up on saturation and dark tones.  Since this is primarily set at night, the dark tones are important and with this release they are dark and natural; effective in creating a sense of disturbing moodiness.

AUDIO

The Blu-ray is presented in DTS-HD 5.1 lossless Master Audio and contains a good mix of levels for multiple channels requiring no tweaking from its audience in order for dialogue to be heard.  And the soundtrack, featuring Motorhead, Iggy Pop, Ministry, and Public Image Limited, is AWESOME.

Supplements:

Commentary:

• There is a new commentary with Richard Stanley!

Special Features:

In partnership with Umbrella Entertainment, this remastered version includes NEW video interview with Richard Stanley, an interview with Iggy Pop, Stanley’s short films, a making of featurette, and a whole lot of production materials.  A reversible sleeve with the original art and the newly commissioned artwork is included, as well as a mini replica of the film’s theatrical poster.

• New Audio Commentary with Director Richard Stanley
• Audio commentary Director Richard Stanley and Producer Paul Trijbits
• New Interview with Richard Stanley
• No Flesh Shall Be Spared: The Making of Hardware
• New Interview with Producer Stephen Wooley
• New Hardware: Richard Stanley's Bitter Message of Hopeless Grief - A Video Essay by Bryn Tilly
• New Original Storyboard Featurette
• Deleted and Extended Scenes
• Richard Stanley on Hardware 2
• Hardware Promo Videos with Iggy Pop and Lemmy
• Original Hardware Promo Video
• Rites of Passage - 1983 Short Film
• Incidents in an Expanding Universe - 1985 Short Film
• The Voice of the Moon - 1990 Documentary
• The Sea of Perdition - 2006 Short Film
• Trailer

	Movie
	Video
	Audio
	Extras
Composite Blu-ray Grade

MPAA Rating: R.
Runtime: 94 mins
Director: Richard Stanley
Writer: Steve MacManus; Kevin O'Neill; Richard Stanley
Cast: Dylan McDermott; Stacey Travis; John Lynch
Genre: Horror | Thriller | Comedy
Tagline: You can't stop progress.
Memorable Movie Quote: "Machines don't understand sacrifice - neither do morons."
Theatrical Distributor: Millimeter Films
Official Site: https://shop.umbrellaent.com.au/products/hardware-1990-1990-4k-blu-ray-collectors-edition?_pos=1&_sid=96b55cb94&_ss=r
Release Date: September 14, 1990
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: March 14, 2025.
Synopsis: The head of a cyborg reactivates, rebuilds itself, and goes on a violent rampage in a space marine's girlfriend's apartment.