MOVIE REVIEW: Virtual Combat aka Grid Runners (1996)
Role-playing games (RPGs) always spoke to me ever since my mother first read from Edith Hamilton’s Mythology. I wanted to be transported to another world, experience amazing things in the new world, and be the hero. For a while I had to settle with science fiction and fantasy media available via broadcast TV. When I heard there was a game that let you do that — Dungeons & Dragons — I wanted to know more, because I always had a vivid imagination.
Twenty-five years down the line with a significant pop-culture push, and I found a diverse tabletop group for D&D. Unfortunately, I was often stuck as the “forever” game master — always coming up with the next game or obstacle, and rarely playing. I eventually found the math expressions for real or fantastical interactions more entertaining. Best of all, I got to create entire species, cultures and their abilities. Some of those were based on existing IP at my players’ requests: you’ll never believe how many people want a tabletop RPG involving Pokémon.
Then I asked, what about the modern world? What about a space RPG? And I began to learn of Spelljammer, D20 Modern, Starfinder, RIFTS, and so much more. Eventully the tabletop role-playing gaming experience was recreated on computer. RPG video games like Shining Force, LUNAR, Wizardry, Suikoden, Pokémon, Fallout, Skyrim, and Final Fantasy made me wonder what it would be like to bring such characters into the real world. It would be like a reverse Matrix: downloading digital characters into a flesh-and-blood body to interact with real world people based on pre-programmed behavioral responses. Barring incredible near-magic technology, nobody’s downloading their anime girlfriend into a matching physical body anytime soon. But back in the mid-90s — a time of intense advertisement of VR (virtual reality) — somebody wrote a movie that talked about that very possibility called Virtual Combat (also known as Grid Runners in other countries). What should have been an amazing premise was drawn down by its direct-to-video action movie quality at every level.
Our story is one from a dystopian future: scientist Dr. Cameron (Turhan Bey, The Mad Ghoul [1943], Prisoner of the Casbah [1953]) found a way to create an artificial living being based on a digital AI program. Called “A-Life”, the matter used to create the body—“cyberplasm” — can take the shape of the digital information fed into it. To demonstrate, he “dimensionalizes” two A-Life beings from AI sex programs…to showcase its ability to replicate a perfect human form for rich clients willing to pay. One is the submissive brunette Liana (Athena Massey, Undercover Heat, Black Scorpion Returns), and the other is the red-headed dominatrix Greta (Dawn Ann Billings, Warlock: the Armageddon, “The Osiris Chronicles” [TV movie-CBS]). Weirdly enough the programs can learn things undesired as they exist in the real world, so Dr. Cameron also invented special shock collars that exploit A-Life’s inherent weaknesses to keep them in line. Dr. Cameron’s boss, Mr. Burroughs (Ron Barker, “Days of Our Lives” [TV-NBC], Braddock: Missing in Action III [1989]) is amazed by the financial opportunity, and plans to smuggle the two A-Life beings across the border to Mexico and back to evade ID scanning...and get a jump on the competition! What these two men don’t know is other minds have plans for the dimensionalization chamber.
An AI terrorist named “Dante” (voiced by Michael Dorn, “Star Trek: the Next Generation” [TV-CBS]) hacks into the computer systems housing the chamber and generates a body for himself (played by martial artist Michael Bernardo, “WMAC Masters” [TV-syndicated], Batman & Robin, Shootfighter)…one with even greater powers than any A-Life being ever created. Dr. Cameron dies at Dante’s hands, and the AI terrorist flees into the night to raise an army of A-Life warriors designed from every AI villain program to dominate the human world. He even takes Greta as his own, leaving behind Liana to fend for herself in a dystopian Los Angeles. What could possibly stop a terrorist in a super-powered body AND save an undocumented digital migrant from the dangers of world? The best damned kick-boxing border patrol agent EVER, that’s who.
US Border Patrol agent David Quarry (kickboxing champion Don ‘the Dragon’ Wilson, the Bloodfist series) is dealing with too much at once: he’s going through a divorce and failing on the rebound, addicted to VR games of all kinds, office politics was stressing him out, and his patrol partner was just killed by Dante. Imagine his surprise when he’s in the right place and right time to save Liana — who looks exactly like the girl from his VR sex games — from the downtrodden dregs of Los Angeles. She is a literal babe in the woods, emphasis on “babe”: the designers of her pornographic physique did an amazing job. Quarry has to keep Liana safe while dealing with the antics of Dante...and his own growing romantic affections for the innocent A-Life woman in his care. On top of avenging his partner’s death, Quarry must stop the super-powered AI terrorist using his amazing martial arts skills and ability to not leave a conspicuous trail of dead bodies— it’s the easiest way to track the AI terrorist. But he’s got to act fast, before Dante uses his super powers and A-Life army to take over the world!
Creating AI characters in the computer for sexual gratification is one thing, but translating them into a physical form for a similar purpose is another. Humanity’s individual sexual gratification achieved by artificial means is an ancient fear shared by many people, sometimes manifesting as a rejection of masturbation in any form. Speaking of abuse, the plans for A-Life were clear from the start: many villains (and even our hero) wanted to have sex with them. Money was no object, and these people were willing to engage in trafficking to have their way with them. Perhaps “sentient” or “sapient” would be a better term; I’ll leave it up to you all to argue about it in the comments.
Because Liana, Greta, Dante, and other A-Life aren't human (but they are humanoid, which is different) by matter of construction, by law they do not fall under international human rights law. They would be a new type of synthetic slave, and the specialized shock collars literally put a nice bow on the issue. If Dante wasn’t a maniac with super powers, he would have had a great platform to announce the A-Life position and be a hero to all synthetic life. There was so much that could have been done with this amazing concept, but instead we got another direct-to-video power fantasy with American-style (i.e., slow) fight choreography and poor ideas about relationship dynamics. I almost called this “forgettable” but the A-Life plot saved it.
CHOICE CUTS <SPOILERS AHEAD>:
- The Border Patrol communication device props resemble 90’s-era Texas Instruments TI-85 graphing calculators, easily identifiable by the flip-down protective shield.
- A bright spot in this movie is the visuals for the fight scenes. The set designer had a ball as they lit darkened offices with open floor plans with what seemed to be fluorescent flood lamps feeding onto the set from outdoors paired with fire sources from indoors. Best of all, they greased up the stuntmen to be extra reflective AND gave them swords from the office’s walls to go even harder. The fight choreography throws it all in the trash, however.
- Is it telling that Dr. Cameron is a bad guy because he sounds like a stereotypical Nazi mad scientist?
- Copyright laws in this movie’s script dictate only one legal A-Life copy of an existing AI character can exist, but multiple copies derived from a black-market/bootleg AI program are possible.
- NSFW: Yes, there is a topless scene.
- I wonder if creatures other than humanoids can be created with cyberplasm. If that were the case, Dante could just make gigantic multi-limbed monsters instead of humanoid forms.
- And now a variation on a theme: PLEASE IMPROVE THE SECURITY OF THE LOS ANGELES MAINFRAME TO PREVENT UNFETTERED ACCESS TO AI TERRORISTS
- I really like Dante’s jacket, made from black plastic chips and spray painted with a Hinomaru sun.
- The graphics in this movie’s time period are amazing. If they used period-appropriate graphics from the film’s production year of 1995, it would look more like the forms achieved by 1993’s Virtua Fighter and barely better than 1996’s Tomb Raider.
- A-Life beings become separate copies of the AI programs they are derived from, and become their own thing. The only way to reset the A-Life is to re-download the initial program into the A-Life’s cyberplasm, wiping away all learning to factory settings. This is an incredible way to keep A-Life beings enslaved: when they learn about freedom, use the threat of death by shock collar to force them to wipe their own minds.
- At some point, Dante gains a form of digital mind control over all A-Life creations. It is unclear if A-Life had any form of wireless connectivity before this point. This either adds an amazing new dimension to all digital lifeforms in the movie’s world or exposes the script’s inconsistent writing.
- The weaknesses of A-Life are an amazing failsafe, but preclude them from violent conflict with armed enemies. This might make things a lot easier for Quarry’s quest in the long run.
- I designed an OGL race in D&D 3.5 edition based on the A-Life concept.
- Ah, the 90’s: when sharply jerking a head and adding the sound of broken celery into the audio was enough to suggest instantaneous death by a broken neck. It was a carry-over from 80’s action movies starring actors whose physiques suggested they were capable of such feats, like Van Damme, Stallone, and Schwarzenegger. It lost its meaning when every audience cipher character regardless of form started killing enemies in one move.
- I do think it’s interesting that a Black man’s voice was used to represent a powerful White man; Kratos and Darth Vader would have a word.
- Death is not permanent for A-Life beings: unless their AI program has been deleted, they can always be recreated from cyberplasm.
- The types of tech that can get you close to the A-Life creations can be found in the Alien vs. Predator franchise, the Blade Runner franchise, Detroit: Become Human [VG], TRON: Legacy, Cloud Atlas, Fallout [VG], “BattleStar Galactica” [TV-SyFy], or Cyber Bride. Even in these fictional worlds there are limitations; this list is not exhaustive.
- As of this review, Don Wilson is 69 years old and still making action movies! Check out his latest movie from 2024, Taken from Rio Bravo!
