Hands of Steel

Original title: Vendetta dal futuro

19861986
RR
1h 34m

Daniel Greene in Vendetta dal futuro (1986)

A cyborg is programmed to kill a scientist who holds the fate of mankind in his hands. He fails and hides in a diner in a desert run by a woman who likes him. The people who sent him are aft... Read allA cyborg is programmed to kill a scientist who holds the fate of mankind in his hands. He fails and hides in a diner in a desert run by a woman who likes him. The people who sent him are after him and so is the local arm wrestling champ.A cyborg is programmed to kill a scientist who holds the fate of mankind in his hands. He fails and hides in a diner in a desert run by a woman who likes him. The people who sent him are after him and so is the local arm wrestling champ.

5.4/10

2.5K

Director
- Sergio Martino
Writers
- Sergio Martino(story by)
- Elisa Briganti(screenplay by)
- Saul Sasha(screenplay by)
Stars

Top credits

See production, box office & company info

See more at IMDbPro

Janet Agren and Andrea Coppola in Vendetta dal futuro (1986)

Janet Agren and Daniel Greene in Vendetta dal futuro (1986)

George Eastman, Daniel Greene, Dean Ricca, and Darwyn Swalve in Vendetta dal futuro (1986)

Janet Agren in Vendetta dal futuro (1986)

Director
- Sergio Martino
Writers
- Sergio Martino(story by) (screenplay by)
- Elisa Briganti(screenplay by)
- Saul Sasha(screenplay by)
All cast & crew
See more cast details at IMDbPro

Sinister industrialist Francis Turner, played by John Saxon, creates a cyborg known as Paco Queruak (Daniel Greene) who has been programmed to terminate the leader of an ecological faction that stands in the way of the dystopian country in which the story is set. After failing in his mission to eliminate the ecologist, Paco flees to Arizona where he must face his opponents; and ultimately choose between his humanity and robotic natures. —Zach R.

arm wrestling arm wrestling contest world trade center manhattan new york city chinatown manhattan new york city tragic event 430 more

Taglines
- 30% human, 70% robot, 100% lethal. [Scandinavian DVD cover]
Genres
- Action
- Sci-Fi
Certificate
- R
Parents guide

Trivia
John Saxon, strictly adhering to Screen Actors Guild rules, refused to act in any scenes shot in America (all his scenes were shot in Italy) because this was not a union film. He credits SAG with saving his life, as he would have likely been on the helicopter that crashed, claiming the life of his co-star Claudio Cassinelli; he has not violated any SAG guidelines since. Two different but identically painted Bell helicopters were used for filming; the aircraft seen in close-up shots with Saxon has Italian registration, whereas the one seen flying--the helicopter involved in the fatal crash--has American registration.

Goofs
Turner's helicopter in the long shots is a Bell Jet Ranger but in close ups, it is an Agusta A109 variant.

Quotes
Raul Morales: When I get through with you, you'll have to wipe your ass with your nose
Paco Queruak: Fuck you

Alternate versions
The UK video version (released as "Fists Of Steel") was cut by 1 second to remove an ear-clap.

Connections
Featured in Best of the Worst: Alienator, Alien from the Deep, and Hands of Steel (2015)

Top review

4/10

HANDS OF STEEL (Sergio Martino, 1986) **

This is typically low-grade, silly sci-fi fare with unconvincing special effects and a particularly wooden lead (Daniel Greene). The supporting cast features three Euro-Cult regulars: John Saxon, George Eastman and Claudio Cassinelli (whose last film this turned out to be as, unfortunately, he was killed in a helicopter crash during shooting...but, at least, he manages to preserve his dignity!).

With a script in which a female scientist is hilariously named Dr. Peckinpah, the would-be dystopian elements of the plot (amusingly, the old popular leader is both blind and wheelchair-bound and his fate is even neglected by the film's end!) are jettisoned early on in favor of mostly tepid action sequences (including several irrelevant arm-wrestling bouts and bar-room brawls, a duel of cyborgs in which Greene fights a big blonde bimbo draped in a plastic bag[!] and an interminable climax capped by chief villain Saxon handling a huge laser gun!).

Furthermore, the film's attempts to humanize the cyborg lead (anticipating, amazingly enough, ROBOCOP [1987]!) are pretty dire...but, at least, it's slightly better than Martino's own 2019: AFTER THE FALL OF NEW YORK (1983) - in which, similar to this, the desert location-shooting provided a cheap way of enhancing the film's production values!

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