| Nemesis | |
|---|---|
Promotional film poster |
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| Directed by | Albert Pyun |
| Produced by | Tim Karnowski Eric Karson Ash R. Shah |
| Written by | Rebecca Charles |
| Starring | Olivier Gruner Tim Thomerson Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa Yuji Okumoto Marjorie Monaghan Nicholas Guest |
| Music by | Michel Rubini |
| Cinematography | George Mooradian |
| Editing by | Mark Conte David Kern |
| Distributed by | Imperial Entertainment Astra Distribution[1] |
| Release date(s) | December 26, 1992 |
| Running time | 95 min. |
| Country | Denmark United States |
| Language | English |
Nemesis is a 1992 science fiction film by director Albert Pyun, who also directed the film Cyborg, and stars Olivier Gruner.[2] It is the first installment in the Nemesis film series.
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Alex Raine (Olivier Gruner) is a disillusioned police assassin. During a mission for the futuristic LAPD, he battles several freedom fighters from a group known as The Red Army Hammerheads, attempting to smuggle information through a courier cyborg. Nearly killed by the surviving leader, Rosaria (Jennifer Gatti), Alex denies her assertion that he is inhuman: "Eighty-six point five percent is still human."
After extensive rebuilding, he tracks her to Old Baja and kills her. After this his handlers arrive, led by his former lover Jared (Marjorie Monaghan), who is an android. Alex decides he has had enough and leaves the LAPD, becoming a freelance hustler and triggerman doing odd jobs in the underworld. However, his LAPD bosses are just letting him run free for a while. His old boss Commissioner Farnsworth (Tim Thomerson) has him ambushed and kidnapped.
They bring him back for one last mission: to find his ex-lover Jared. According to the smug and pompous Germaine (Nicholas Guest) she has stolen vital security information of an upcoming international summit and must be stopped before she leaks the plans to his old adversaries, the Red Army Hammerheads. Commissioner Farnsworth's lieutenant, Maritz (Brion James) tells him she has escaped to a remote island in the Pacific. Alex is uninterested, even when Germaine shoves a pistol in his face, coolly warning him: "Pull it and you better use it," before easily disarming and knocking him senseless.
But this is a trick, and the freedom fighters are not fighting against government control of people's lives, but for humanity’s future. A new design of android is infiltrating the high elements of human society, copying the minds of powerful leaders into synthetic bodies, completely loyal to the cyborg cause. Farnsworth is among them.
Alex has added incentive when they reveal to him a bomb was implanted in his heart during his latest series of repairs. He has no choice but to find Jared, who is planning to meet with the leader of the Red Army Hammerheads, Angie-Liv (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa). After flying to the island of Shang-Lu along the Pacific Rim, he is turned loose as bait for Jared.
Burnt out, Alex halfheartedly begins his search, checking into a local hotel. He is soon intercepted by Julian (Deborah Shelton), a cyborg fronting for Jared. She tells him he is being shadowed by an LAPD strike team led by Commissioner Farnsworth himself, waiting for the opportunity to hit the Hammerheads and Jared.
It turns out that Jared been fatally wounded in her escape from LA, requiring her memory core to be salvaged from her body. After removing a surveillance device implanted in Alex's eye, Julian injects his arm with a digital scrambler that will prevent the bomb from being remotely detonated. She gives him Jared's memory core, enabling him to talk to her. The strike team storms the hotel and Julian sacrifices herself to allow Alex to escape. Alex eventually join forces with a young local woman, Max Impact (Merle Kennedy) who acts a scout for the Hammerheads under the cover of being a tour guide.
She is also the sister of Rosaria, the woman he killed in Old Baja, and wants Alex dead. He is brought to the Hammerheads and decides to join their cause. Unfortunately the strike team has tracked them down, leading to another shootout and chase through the rundown city and jungle. Most of the Hammerheads, including Angie-Liv, are killed by Farnsworth's men. During the escape Alex saves Max, eventually earning her forgiveness. In a final confrontation with Farnsworth, Alex shoots him with a grenade launcher, seemingly blowing him up.
Alex and Max arrive at a secret hangar where Yoshiro (Yuji Okumoto), a Hammerhead masquerading as the quirky hotel manager, is waiting. While launching their escape vehicle, an aerodyne, the cyborg Farnsworth, alive but is reduced to his mechanical endoskeleton, attacks. Alex fights and defeats him, before realizing just how much of him is cybernetically enhanced.
Alex brings Jared to another Hammerhead compound where they will be able to locate and destroy the labs that are being used to duplicate people. Unfortunately this means stripping her memory, in effect killing her. Heavily bandaged and temporarily blind, Alex is forced to say goodbye.
Sneaking into LA and hunting down the synthetic agents, Alex corners Germaine on the helipad of LAPD headquarters. Shooting him down, Alex recalls his previous quip: "See Germaine, when I pull it, I use it."
Before she died, Jared told him the real Commissioner Farnsworth left him a letter at an old dead drop. In it, his former mentor apologizes for his sometimes rough treatment of him, reminding him that they all have to do what is right regardless. Alex knows only he can stop the cyborgs in their plans.
Alex walks off with Max, now his partner, and they joke about how they are going to smuggle his synthetic body through airport customs. Grinning, Alex answers, "Piece by piece, Max . . ."
The Japanese video offers a darker alternate ending. After Alex and Max's conversation about going to New York, Farnsworth appears as they walk up the stairs. A female voice, presumably Jared, asks: "Should we take them out now?". Farnsworth turns his head and answers: "Why not?", suggesting that they succeed in the termination of Alex and Max.
The film was given a limited release theatrically in the United States by Imperial Entertainment in January 1993, grossing $2,001,124 at the box office.[3] The company also released it on VHS and laserdisc the same year.[4]
The film was released on DVD by Sterling Home Entertainment in 1998.[5] This version is currently out of print.
The movie received a mixed reception from critics.[6] however, the film is now considered a cult classic.
In 2010, director Pyun announced his intention to re-release the film in a new, alternate cut that featured enhanced computer effects.[7]
The film spawned three sequels titled Nemesis 2: Nebula, set 73 years after the events of the first film,[8] Nemesis 3: Prey Harder which features characters sent back in time to 1998 and Nemesis 4: Death Angel.[9] Nemesis 3 was made using footage left over from the production of Nemesis 2.[10]
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