Robot Jox

During the script-writing process, science fiction author Joe Haldeman and director Stuart Gordon clashed on the vision of the film. Halderman wanted a dramatic, serious science fiction film. Gordon however wanted to liven it up and use stereotypes. In Haldeman's words, "I would try to change the science into something reasonable; Stuart would change it back to Saturday-morning cartoon stuff. I tried to make believable, reasonable characters, and Stuart would insist on throwing in clichés and caricatures. It was especially annoying because it was a story about soldiers, and I was the only person around who'd ever been one." As they were saying their goodbyes to one another, Gordon pinpointed the problem. He said "Joe, our problem is that you're writing a movie for adults that children can enjoy, but I'm directing a movie for children that adults can enjoy!"

When Athena confronts Achilles in his apartment to render him unconscious with an injector, it's all too easy to spot Athena pulling what is clearly a glue gun out of her outfit. This is then "matched" to a much better looking prop injector in an insert - followed by a cut back to the shot with the original glue gun.

SPOILER: MGM's R1 DVD carries the film's original PG rating, but includes instances of violence and gore previously unseen in the U.S. and Canada. After Achilles' robot falls on the spectators, there are more shots of both Gary Graham's bloody face and of the dead bodies in the stands. A news broadcast immediately following now opens with a badly burned man screaming in pain for a couple of seconds. Also, when the traitorous person shoots scientist Matsumoto in the head, blood sprays on the wall behind the latter. In the old version (released theatrically by Epic and on tape and laserdisc by RCA/Columbia), that person pulls the trigger and it instead cuts to a recycled shot of an exploding robot on a video monitor; the bloodstained wall is never shown. The bits in question are included on the Japanese DVD, so apparently American and Canadian audiences are only now getting the cut of the movie that the rest of the world has enjoyed for years. The MPAA database indicates that ROBOT JOX was originally rated PG-13, but trimmed to obtain PG. Evidently Epic felt that children were the movie's only audience, which makes one wonder why they didn't also edit out Anne-Marie Johnson's brief nude scene.

Edited into Crash and Burn (1990)