4 Star

Killer Robots, a Cyborg and Truckers.

Writer/director Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator, Robot Jox, Fortress) brings us a light hearted space adventure that is now on Blu-ray. Space Truckers is a classic Sci-Fi with loads of effects and make-up which were outstanding for the time of its 1996 release.

Man has gone on into space and colonised the solar system and are well established and on the moon Triton the mad scientist Nabel (Charles Dance, Dracula Untold, Gosford Park) has created an almost unstoppable cyborg warrior for commander Saggs (Shane Rimmer, Out of Africa, The Spy Who Loved Me) and as the cyborg shows off it destructive capabilities it heads towards the command centre with Saggs and Nabel inside. The cyborg uses its destruction ray to melt through the thick door. Just as it is about to disintegrate the pair Nabel pushes a button on the remote control hung around his neck. It is a revelation for those surviving soldiers that it was Nabel that created this monster that has killed all their colleagues. Saggs grabs the remote control and re-activates the cyborg and instructs it to kill everyone as he makes his escape.

In another part of space, independent space trucker John Canyon (Dennis Hopper, Easy Rider, Waterworld, Speed) brings in his cargoship to a space station to drop off his cargo of square pigs, but haggles the price with the trucking company head, Keller (George Wendt, LA Blues, Cheers (TV)).

In the bar section of the space station he meets up with his sweetheart Cindy (Debi Mazar, Lies & Alibis) who promises to marry him if he transports her to Earth to see her mother. Also young space trucker Mike (Stephen Dorff, Leatherface, Blade) who works for the company (Boo, Hiss). There is an altercation and a window gets broken and Keller gets sucked out the window. Canyon, Cindy and Mike race to Johns tug and elopes with his cargo of ‘sex dolls’ to be delivered to Earth.

Their race to Earth doesn’t go smoothly as shortly after departure the Police want to have a word about Keller’s death. Not trusting the company John pulls off the shipping lane and heads into the pirate ridden ‘scum zone’.

After breaking through the shipping lane they realise that the ship has taken damage and they have to stop and make repairs. That is when John realises that their cargo is far too heavily guarded to be what they though was in the containers. This leaves our intrepid trio to the mercy of the pirates, which doesn’t take long as the pirate ship Regalia turns up and swallows John’s ship whole.

The Regalia is captained by the company hating Macanudo (Dance) who turns out to be a rebuilt Nabel and he wants his toys back.

Let the fun begin.

SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:

Brand new restoration
‘Space Trucking with Stuart Gordon’: A new Interview with Director Stuart Gordon
‘Scoring Space Truckers’: A new Interview with Composer Colin Towns
‘The Art of Space Truckers:’ A new Interview with Art Director Simon Lamont
New cover art by Rich Davies
English subtitles for the hearing impaired

Space Truckers is available on Blu-ray