Alfred Hitchcock made evil look like Norman Bates. Michael Crichton turns it into a computer-animation company.
In his 1981 film Looker, Crichton's villain is Digital Matrix, a fictional marketing and CGI firm that hires supermodels, scans them with bleeding-edge optical machinery and then murders them. The plan: to use subliminal messaging, TV commercials and time-warp pistols to subjugate anyone who buys beer, cereal, shampoo or electoral politics.
Looker, out this month on DVD, is one of four paranoiac thrillers Crichton directed during a Hollywood stint in the 1970s and '80s. These movies have many of the same elements of his more famous books, Jurassic Park, Sphere, Disclosure and Prey.
The movies are filled with high-concept ideas, purple dialogue, supremely creepy moments and nifty gadgetry. They are both implausible, sometimes to the point of being ridiculous, and a few degrees too earnest. And the primary weapon for the bad guys -- doctors, computer programmers, robotics experts -- is technological know-how.
Now Crichton positions himself as an authority on global warming and enters the policy-making slipstream, advising President Bush and testifying at a congressional hearing on the nuances of climate change. Though he's become the anti-Gore in the global warming debate, Crichton also has taken less controversial stands on issues including gene patenting.
Keeping in mind the possible nasty consequences of writing anything negative about Mr. Crichton, here's a start -- a scan of sci-fi flicks directed by the world's most popular technophobe.
Westworld
In Westworld (1973), Crichton takes us to an adult amusement park where big spenders play out their fantasies -- sexual, violent and otherwise -- on robots dressed as characters from three cultural periods: medieval, ancient Roman and the Wild West. Good, dirty fun, at least until the robots begin hunting humans.
Marquee names: Richard Benjamin, James Brolin, Yul Brenner, Playboy Playmate Anne Randall.
Visionary element: Nearly 15 years before Final Fantasy, Crichton imagined the ultimate video game: real-time, 3-D simulations featuring actual bullets, swordplay and ready-to-party wenches and harlots.
Who watched it: James Cameron must have modeled his Terminator 2 T-1000 on Westworld's almost-identical robotic gunslinger, played by Brenner.
Key dialogue: "A Model 406. Beautiful machine. He's got all the sensory equipment. He'll always be one step ahead of you. You haven't got a chance."
Verdict: This nostalgic joyride has us looking forward to Warner Bros.' upcoming remake.
Coma
Set in a venerable Boston hospital, Coma (1978) follows an operating room where healthy patients too often end up in vegetative states. One suspicious surgeon pokes around and discovers the futuristic Jefferson Institute, where near-dead bodies are stored, hanging from the ceilings like mobiles as they await the harvesting of their kidneys and livers. Based on the novel by Robin Cook.
Marquee names: Geneviève Bujold, Michael Douglas, Richard Widmark, supermodel Lois Chiles.
Visionary element: Utter fear of and contempt for America's medical system, which seems far more prevalent today than 30 years ago.
Who watched it: Michael Bay's organ-harvesting room in The Island looks eerily similar to Coma's.
Key dialogue: "Hey Tom, where's that heart go?" "San Francisco. I think they are getting $75,000. It's a rush order."
__ Verdict:__ Wildly implausible, but gripping anyway. Don't watch it before your annual checkup.
Looker
Looker (1981) imagines the making of the ultimate commercials, starring digitized characters that hypnotize viewers into buying their products. Only one man can stop the company Digital Matrix and its nefarious plan, and that's a plastic surgeon whose clientele consists of supermodels. The bizarre and fabulous final shootout takes place on a soundstage, as real actors mix it up with animated ones.
Marquee names: Albert Finney, James Coburn, Susan Dey, Playmate of the Year Terri Welles.
Key dialogue: (Finney, reading manual) "They use computer animation to put a hypnotic light pulse in the eyes of the commercial." (Dey, watching TV, in droning voice) "I want it. I want it."
Visionary element: The computer program that turns digital scans of real humans into lifelike animated figures.
Who watched it: Did the brothers Wachowski find the title of their hit trilogy here? A scene featuring Dey spinning in a binary box looks suspiciously Matrix-y, no?
Verdict: Computer animation? Get real!
Runaway
In the remarkably dopey Runaway (1984), a police officer assigned to hunt wayward robots collides with a very evil robotics expert.
Marquee names: Tom Selleck, Kiss front man Gene Simmons, Kirstie Alley, music-video babe Cynthia Rhodes.
Key dialogue: "These computer chips are very dangerous, Dr. Luther." "I know. That's why they are so valuable." "Valuable to whom?" "The mafia, terrorists, foreign nations -- whoever offers me the most money."
Visionary element: Heat-seeking bullets? Acid-spraying attack bots? Artificial-intelligence-driven domestic help? Gene Simmons ruling the world? We can only hope!
Who watched it: Crichton's chunky spider bots look like the prototypes for Steven Spielberg's tiny, elegant ones in Minority Report.
__ Verdict:__ Unscary and uninteresting. Makes us grateful Crichton ran back to his novels.
