Prototype (1983 TV Movie) User Reviews (10)

Frankenstein Unclowned

[yourplasticpal · 7/10 · 5 March 2006]

Forget the campy alien-on-earth cliché treatments. PROTOTYPE delivers the smartest dialogue yet to be seen in SF film, in a contemporary of Mary Shelley's FRANKENSTEIN.

In a performance that brings smart dialogue and simple but telling cinematography to a deserving SF-savvy audience, Richard Levinson and William Link mark a cerebral triumph in this 1983 TV film starring Christopher Plummer, David Morse and Frances Sternhagen - recently in DVD re-release. With such a well thought-out script, one is left to guess that the film was derived from the theatrical likes of Peter Schaffer or Arthur Miller, but with a tight and wholly spec-fic basis from classic SF matriarch Mary Shelley. In this unabashed homage to that story which began a genre, artificial life is brought to casual life as we know it - a curiosity, a property, a fellow living thing, and finally an entity in search of its purpose, place and destiny.

'Michael', the culmination of years of research by a Pentagon-sponsored program to develop a mechanical man, is introduced to us just as creator and mentor Forrester introduces it to an unsuspecting Mrs. Forrester, in an impromptu Turing test weeks ahead of schedule. Afterwards, convinced that the successes in the creature's first experience outside the controlled environment of the lab are a milestone in their careers, Forrester's research team discovers that instead of celebrating, they should now fear the control which the government has been preparing to exert all along. Forthwith, Forrester and his mechanical man go AWOL from the doctor's work, his team, and his own personal life - to see his creation through to its own self-determination.

There is no high speed chase scene. There are no gun battles, and no hunchbacked, ghastly half-made man shambling amok about the countryside terrorizing innocents. Only this bright and responsive albeit naive young man who never blinks, drinks, or realizes when he tells a stupefyingly appropriate joke. With this unseemly Pinnochio goes the doctor, a man who finds himself questioning his own intents and purpose as he tries to defend his life's work from those who would 'alter' it - perhaps to turn Michael to military ends, or to tap the knowledge of an artificial mind for more ... human ... purposes. The villain is only the looming threat of misuse of a great thing.

The film makes you think. Hard, too, because its social commentary and hypothesis is presented in a most stripped-down and unpretentious format, unencumbered by anything by which it could become dated or trivialized - no high budget special effects or quasi-horrific makeup cloud this film and no glib, idiotic dialogue or cornball voice-over pollutes it. In short, PROTOTYPE is a mind-grower not a mind-blower. Think of PHENOMENON without nonsense, or STARMAN without the glam of superhuman ability. DARYL without any kid stuff.

For all it's worth, 'Michael' is human enough that you want to cry at the mistreatment doled out to him for his innocence, but at the same time you are morally lost with Forrester, who is doggedly naive in attempting to save him. In the end the only thing that gives hope is the basis for the title: PROTOTYPE is only the first, and of course there can be more.

If the shuttle's Canadian-made robot arm had a thumb, it would be up.

I saw the Levinson-Link involvement and feared the worst.........

[PullmanPumpy2 · 7/10 · 15 September 2006]

But I was quickly reassured. From the moment Christopher Plummer shows himself to be a genuinely irascible old man and not your typical 'hero', and David Morse as the android, in his elongated pants and wide-open baby-face, made their first appearances, I was held. With its' plot -- professor wants to keep his invention out of the hands of the military -- this is nothing new in the plot department but it is written with care, and the cast (including the wonderful Frances Steenhagen as Plummers' feisty wife) and a good director, David Greene, make the most of it. The ending is a stunner, both clever and touching. On my list as one of those films I was expecting nothing of and was delightfully surprised.

Well acted science fiction story.

[cmyklefty · 21 December 2001]

Christopher Plummer plays Dr. Carl Forrester, who is part of research team experiment an android with artificial intelligence. David Morse plays Michael the android. When Dr. Forrester finds out that the team is using Michael for a soldier in military. He hides Michael and starts a new life but for how long? Well worth your time to watch.

Shame

[imdb-579 · 2/10 · 24 May 2005]

'THE FUTURE IS NOT FRIENDLY' intones the cover. While this may or may not be true, the movie is set in 1983. I suppose that being suckered into buying this bargain DVD at Wal-Mart in 2005 is the unfriendly future they were referring to.

The cover art is a lie. There are no skeletal Terminator-style robots with red eyeballs in this movie. The android guy wears a white turtleneck and is less threatening than Star Trek's Data, and he doesn't do anything interesting. He's a wuss. This movie is crap.

If you are responsible for the marketing of this DVD, you should be ashamed of yourself.

Dull, sleep inducing sci-fi.......

[merklekranz · 4/10 · 2 October 2007]

I respect Christopher Plummer, playing against his typical villainous character, and he is very convincing as a concerned scientist. The supporting cast is very good also. The plot alludes to "Frankenstein" numerous times and is obviously hinged on that classic tale. There is no excitement in this movie. It is so laid back, especially Arthur Hill, Plummers adversary, that you begin to drift off early and often. Cerebral sci-fi doesn't have to be this boring (see "Enemy Mine"), and while the acting is totally acceptable, everything lacks excitement, and just drifts along towards a conclusion that was only a minor surprise. Not recommended. - MERK

Don't let the artwork fool you!

[ghayes-2 · 8/10 · 11 December 2005]

That Terminator-like metal skull with the pointy teeth and glowing red eye has absolutely nothing to do with this movie. That was obviously just some ad executive's attempt to play on the popularity of "Ahnold's" film successes. Ditto for the tag line "The future is not friendly." Instead, "Prototype" is a thoughtful, well played drama about two character's struggles to understand and deal with the world around them. Christopher Plummer is on solid ground as the scientist who wants his creation to have a chance at life, and David Morse is spectacularly understated as the android prototype of the title.

What makes this so compelling is the same thing that makes all of the best science fiction or fantasy work: The principle players take the situation and their part in it as real, without engaging in histrionics. As Michael, Morse indulges in neither the overplayed "childlike wonder" nor the hyper-mechanical stiffness so often poured into similar roles by lesser actors. Michael is "other" without being weird.

Well worth a look.

Not Terminator

[BandSAboutMovies · 4/10 · 28 July 2023]

Directed by David Greene (The People Next Door, Madame Sin) and written by the team of William Link and Richard Levinson, who wrote and created Columbo, Mannix, Blacke's Magic, Scene of the Crime and Murder, She Wrote. They also wrote the movie Rollercoaster and the Doug Henning stage play Merlin.

Michael (David Morse) is a government experiment created by Dr. Carl Forrester (Christopher Plummer) and his team to be more human than human. The doctor sneaks Michael home over the holidays and even takes him shopping, which enrages his bosses. When it becomes clear that the military is planning on using creations like Michael to become killers, Forrester goes on the run, taking Michael back to the college he used to teach at. Michael learns that he has self-determination, which leads him to be the one who makes the final decision about his fate, which is setting himself ablaze like a monk or Richard Lynch.

Don't be fooled by the artwork that appeared on the VHS boxes for this movie. Those make it seem like this is a Terminator remake remix rip-off. This is as far from that as you can get, a thoughtful movie about what would happen when an artificial human comes to life and self-awareness.

Best retelling of Frankenstein that I have ever seen!

[modeltsar · 9/10 · 12 July 2003]

This is one of the most compelling and heartbreaking redux of the Frankenstein story set in a modern age. Plummer gives a great portrayal of a scientist working to push make his vision come true without realizing why it is so important. David Morse is very good as Michael the Prototype android of the title. His innocent curiousity about the world pulled me into the story. And his realization about the way things are in the end tore my heart. When Michael says, Don't hold me. You can feel the metal." The pain was shared between the three of us, Dr. Forrester, Michael and me.

A surprisingly thoughtful SF story that does not depend on special effects.

[bill-790 · 8/10 · 18 July 2008]

I, too, bought this movie out of some bargain bin and it lay around our house for quite some time before my wife and I watched it. We were, in a word, quite surprised and pleased to encounter a science fiction movie about an intelligent robot that for once did not rely on special effects to make its point.

"Prototype" is a thoughtful look, not only at the emotions of a man who has dedicated more or less his whole career to creating a human-like robot , but also at the thought processes of such a creature as it actually goes into the world and has to react with real people and situations. The story builds to an inevitable climax very smoothly.

The cast is quite good and the production values, such as they are (the budget was obviously rather low), do not detract at all from the story. In fact, a great deal of the story takes place out of doors or in real buildings, giving the whole film a touch of reality.

A great deal has been left unexplained, such as the building of the robot, which has already been accomplished as the story begins. One also wonders what powers the robot. The viewer must simply pass over that and concentrate on the existential dilemma of the robot and its creator.

I definitely recommend this movie. It is a pleasant change of pace from the current spate of SF films that depend so much on spectacular visual effects. "Prototype" is definitely an example of the thinking man's science fiction. Just the kind of story that John Campbell would have published in the old Astounding Science Fiction magazine. (Just to make sure that there is no misunderstanding, that is a compliment, considering how much of the maturity of modern science fiction resulted from Campbell's wise editorship of that great magazine.)

well made, emotionally challenging, and thought-provoking

[Abby-9 · 9/10 · 21 April 2017]

I am thinking of the 2016 "Arrival" as I watch this beautifully crafted story in which the military believes it is in charge of the "miraculous"--for the questioning mind of Michael, the laboratory-created being,is sensitive and creative. He processes both literature and experience, and asks questions. During his first venture into the world beyond the laboratory he is sensitive to expectations, and capable of wonder--seeing the toy train and being mesmerized by "the little puffs of smoke". The laboratory has produced something which is in fact a someone, a new person. And, as in "Arrival", the appearance of something not understood elicits two kind of response--the need to control it, and the need to understand it. I recognize that we are stuck with institutionalized fear in our military establishment--and by "we" I mean humans. Still crawling forward out of the primordial ooze. And now I'm going to finish watching the excellent movie which gave rise to this realization.