Movie Review: Hands of Steel

Hands of Steel (Vendetta dal futuro) a.k.a Atomic Cyborg a.k.a Fists of Steel a.k.a Hands of Stone a.k.a Return to the Terminator a.k.a Return of the Terminator a.k.a Cyborg a.k.a Destroyer 

National Cinematografica, Dania Film, Medusa Distribuzione, Italy, 1986. 

Part of the Mill Creek Sci-fi Invasion 50 movie box. 

In the future radiation disease is spreading. Environmentalist Reverend Mosley (Franco Fantasia) is holding a rally against polluting but industrialists Francis Turner (John Saxon), Cooper (Roberto Bisacco) and Hunt (Sergio Testori) send programmed cyborg assassin Paco Queruak (Daniel Greene) to kill him. The human side of Paco intervenes and he only wounds Mosley. Paco escapes to desert where acid rain almost melts his car and lowers the resale value.

Paco Queruak

Reverend Mosley

Francis Turner

In a desert motel he gets a temporary job as handyman from Linda (Janet Agren). Cyborg's muscles are useful for chopping wood. Also arm wrestling is easy and he beats dirtbag champion Raul (star of Italian cult-trash films George Eastman). Raul is a sore loser and arranges nasty surprise to Paco. Also another challenger Anatola Blanco (Darwyn Swalve) appears. 

Linda

Raul Morales

Anatola Blanco

Saxon sends European hitman Peter Howell (Claudio Cassinelli, who died during the filming in helicopter accident) after Paco. Cops Bakey (unknown actor) and Dr. Peckinpah (Amy Werba) try to find out who was behind the assassination attempt. Howell sends Eddie (Andrea Coppola) and female cyborg Susie (again uncredited actress who looks like Daria Nicolodi, these Italian B-films sure are badly documented!) to kill Paco. This leads to the best action scenes of the movie.

Dr. Peckinpah and Bakey

Peter Howell

Susie

This is quite fun cheapo Eurotrash action film, set in "twenty Minutes into the Future." Lots of macho action, pulp violence and some arm wrestling. Okay, it looks very cheap and the fight choreography is that Paco hits enemies with his cyborg hands and the bad guys hit the floor. Still the testosterone-fueled movie is fun to watch and never gets boring. It has also quite good synth score by Claudio Simonetti, keyboard player of Goblin. Set in the future that looks just like the 1980s!

Possible weapons

Laser gun goons

Rating: Good

Starring: Daniel Greene, Janet Agren, Claudio Cassinelli, George Eastman, Roberto Bisacco (as Robert Ben), Pat Monti, Andrea Coppola (as Andrew Louis Coppola), Donald O'Brien, Frank Walden, Darwyn Swalve, Amy Werba, John Saxon, Bruno Bilotta, Franco Fantasia, Edward Mannix, Dean Ricca, Ted Rusoff, Susan Spafford, Sergio Testori, Alex Vitale, Frank von Kuegelgen
Director: Sergio Martino (as Martin Dolman)