Movie Review – Futureworld (1976)

Back in 1973, the sci-fi movie Westworld gave audiences a vision of a fantastic and technologically advanced theme park for adults, a place where they can live out their fantasies in every way possible.

Although it had a few plot holes and other issues, Westworld was still a fantastic movie that really sparked the imagination.  So how could a film like that be topped?  Which direction would you take the story for a sequel?

Those questions and more were answered in Futureworld, a 1976 sci-fi movie that’s a direct sequel to Westworld. In Futureworld, Delos has been repaired and expanded.  All of the programming has been repaired and it’s guaranteed that the androids will not go berserk again.  To help promote the park to the general public, a team of journalists and foreign dignitaries are invited to tour Delos and prove that it’s safe to visit.  But as we see, not everything in this newer version of Delos is as innocent as it appears.

Futureworld was directed by Richard T. Heffron, and the movie has a new cast of actors.  The movie stars Peter Fonda as Chuck Browning, and Blythe Danner as Tracy Ballard.  Except for a dream sequence featuring the Gunslinger, nobody from Westworld returns in Futureworld.

Futureworld begins with newspaper reporter Chuck Browning (Peter Fonda) receives a strange phone call from a man named Frenchy (Ed Geldart).  Frenchy won’t say his important information over the phone, but he needs money and will meet with Chuck in person to exchange the information.  They agree to meet at a nearby location in a few minutes.  When Chuck finally meets with Frenchy, he and others see that Frenchy had been fatally shot in the back by an unknown gunman.  Before he dies, Frenchy says the word “Delos.”

After his failed meeting with Frenchy, Chuck attends a meeting with other news reporters.  It’s learned that two years after the deadly incident at Delos (portrayed in the movie Westworld), the theme park has allegedly been repaired and will be ready to have visitors once again.  It was a repair process that cost $1.5 billion and took a couple of years to complete.  It’s mentioned that “more than fifty” guests were killed during the androids’ rampages and 95 of the park’s technicians were either killed or wounded before the dust finally settled.

But that’s behind them now.

The advanced theme park has gone through a costly and tremendous refurbishment process to guarantee that such an event will never happen again.  Every single robot has been upgraded in the process.

Delos has been open for a month now, but the public’s response has been slow.  To help prove that the park is fail-safe like it’s claimed, the management at Delos is opening its doors to the media so that they can inspect everything that takes place behind closed doors.  The media accepts the offer and Chuck Browning is assigned to the case along with TV newswoman Tracy Ballard (Blythe Danner).  It’s noted that Chuck and Tracy are rivals and have somewhat of a history together, but for this assignment they’ll be working together.

An airliner carries the two reporters and other distinguished guests to Delos.  Those other guests include a Russian general named Karnovsky (Bert Conroy) and his wife (Dorothy Konrad), a Japanese businessman named Mr. Takaguchi (John Fujioka), and Ron Thurlow (Jim Antonio).

Upon arriving at the entrance to Delos, the guests see a large scale model of the newer version of the theme park.  Each “world” is now contained inside of its own enclosed space.  Westworld is now closed and under construction, but the guests have the options of touring Romanworld, Medievalworld, and the newest world, Futureworld.  Futureworld is themed to a space station orbiting planet Mars.

To access Futureworld, the guests will have to don space suits and go on a simulated rocket flight to the space station.  As the guests see, they are in radio contact with “mission control” while going through checklists and preparing the rocket for its flight through space.

Not all of the guests choose to go to Futureworld.  Mr. Takaguchi and his aide go to Medievalworld, and Mr. Karnovsky and his wife choose to go to Romanworld.  In Romanworld, the two guests drink a special beverage that causes a hallucination where the two of them see each other in their younger and more youthful years.  In Medievalworld, Mr. Takaguchi seeks glory by using a sword to fight and defeat a knight.  Later, Mr. Takaguchi will also win when jousting against a different knight.

Meanwhile, in Futureworld, the guests experience out-of-this-world activities like a chess set that uses lifelike chess pieces that fight battles, and even a boxing game where the human players control the actions of lifelike robot boxers.  Ron Thurlow finds excitement by taking a shuttle flight and then skiing down the polar ice caps on Mars.

It’s also in Futureworld where Dr. Duffy (Arthur Hill), the park’s leading technician, takes Chuck and Tracy on a tour of the facility.  He invites them into the theme parks control room where they can monitor and speak with the workers in charge of the park’s operations and androids.  Both Chuck and Tracy are shocked when they discover that the park’s workers are really androids themselves.  There are robots being controlled by robots.

The two reporters then go off on their own and walk through the remains of Westworld.  The western town from the 1880s is now a broken ghost town.  Inside one of the rooms Chuck discovers the broken arm of one of the androids that malfunctioned.

That night when the guests fall asleep (they were actually drugged during dinner to make sure that they stayed unconscious), medical teams take each guest to a secret facility where each guest is given an invasive and comprehensive medical examination.  It’s a rather horrific process as each of their bodies is operated on and examined.  All of the guests are then returned to their rooms before they awaken.  When Tracy wakes up in her bedroom, she thinks that the medical exam was part of a terrifying nightmare.

The two reporters know that Duffy is hiding something here, so they both sneak out of their accommodations and gain access to the restricted, underground areas of the resort.  They descend a few levels and pass through an assortment of rooms, looking for something to confirm their suspicions.  In one of the rooms Chuck accidentally activates a cloning machine that spawns three samurai warriors.  The samurai pursue them and Chuck has to fight off one of them by using a metal pipe.  He defeats one of the warriors but the other two samurai give chase and end up trapping Chuck and Tracy inside of a chamber.  Before the samurai attack, the two reporters are saved by an engineer named Harry (Stuart Margolin).

Harry takes Chuck and Tracy to his quarters, a place that’s also inhabited by Harry’s faceless robot companion, Clark (James M. Connor).  Just when Harry mentions that he used to be friends with Frenchy, the conversation is interrupted by one of the park’s technicians, Dr. Schneider (John P. Ryan).  The two reporters are escorted by the park’s security back to their accommodations for the remainder of the night.

The next day, Duffy continues with giving the reporters a tour of the facility when he makes mention of a special machine that can actually record a person’s dreams onto a video tape.  He claims that it’s going to be one of the upcoming attractions added to Futureworld.  Tracy volunteers to test the machine, thinking that it’ll give her something interesting to show on her news program.  During Tracy’s dream sequence she is rescued and later romanced by the Gunslinger (Yul Brynner).

While Tracy is slowly waking and recovering from her experience in the dream machine, Chuck slips away and visits with Harry.  He gets Harry to talk about Frenchy and his co-workers last days at work.  He knows that Frenchy was onto a really big secret.  Harry then takes Chuck to a special locked door, the only door that Harry cannot access.  The two of them see an android punch in a code and then open the door.  When Chuck and Harry try to use the same code, they discover that the door is still locked.  Harry then realizes that the key to opening the door is by being an android.  These more advanced androids are more lifelike except in their eyes.  Harry then kills an android and steals its face so they later can use the android’s eyes to open the locked door.

Later, Chuck and Harry return to the locked door with Tracy.  They enter in the code and Harry uses the android’s eyes to unlock the door.  The trick works and inside of the locked room the three of them see a shocking sight —- robot clones of themselves!  The technicians are busy making clones of not just the two reporters but the other distinguished guests as well, including Mr. Karnovsky and Mr. Takaguchi.  The robot clones are currently being instructed to never harm Delos, to always do as Delos instructs, and to destroy their original.

It’s now a race to flee Delos before being captured by the security or killed by their robot clones.  Chuck knows that there’s a plane leaving in a few hours, and Harry knows of a place where they can hide until it’s time to leave.  In the meantime, Chuck and Tracy return to their accommodations to gather their supplies and their evidence.

Duffy is waiting inside of the apartment and holds Chuck at gunpoint.  Tracy hears the commotion and hides from him.  Duffy explains that the world leaders who visit Delos are being replaced by robotic counterparts, robots who will always look out of the better interests of the theme park, whatever those may be.  He further explains that Chuck and Tracy are being cloned to help gain better publicity for Delos.  Their news stories will virtually guarantee that all leaders from around the world will eventually visit the park, thus allowing Duffy and his staff to clone them.  Duffy also mentions that the way things are going, human beings are going to destroy the planet in the near future, and he won’t allow for that to happen.

Suddenly Tracy causes a distraction and Chuck fights with Duffy.  It’s quickly noticed that Duffy has unnatural strength during the struggle.  Duffy beats Chuck, but when he starts for Tracy, she shoots him twice with the pistol.  Chuck then removes Duffy’s face to verify that he really was a robot.

Back in his quarters, Harry packs his clothes and prepares to flee Delos.  He tells Clark to remain behind as he’ll later return to rescue him with an assault force.  Harry then leaves his quarters, but he’s quickly murdered by Chuck’s robot clone.

Chuck and Tracy are separated, and each reporter faces off with his or her robot clone.  Tracy is on the deserted streets of Westworld when she encounters her robot clone.  There’s a standoff as each woman has a pistol, and they’re both expert shots with it.  The robot version of Tracy taunts her by revealing knowledge of her past.  Suddenly both women raise their pistols and fire, but one of them falls dead.

In the underground sections of Delos, Chuck encounters his robot version as well.  There’s a lengthy chase sequence where both men try to attack and defeat the other version.  One of the Chucks finally wins by pushing the other version off a high platform.  When Chuck later finds Tracy, the two of them look into each other’s eyes and then kiss.

Futureworld ends as the distinguished guests as well as Chuck Browning and Tracy Ballard are leaving the resort and heading to their flight.  Dr. Schneider stops the two reporters and they verify that they will write positive news stories about Delos.  As Chuck and Tracy head to their flight, Tracy’s injured robot clone stumbles into the area and Dr. Schneider realizes that he had been fooled.  The human versions of Chuck and Tracy are still alive.  Chuck displays his middle finger to Dr. Schneider before jumping onto the tram that takes the passengers to their flight.

So is Futureworld a good movie?

Yes and no.  Mainly no.

Futureworld begins with an interesting premise between the murdered technician along with the re-opening of Delos.  To help promote the theme park and its safety, the park’s management invites an assortment of people to preview it and help promote the park to others.  No problem there.

The guests then go through an abbreviated version of the arrival sequence at Delos before they’re quickly whisked away to their designated “world.”  In the case of those guests going to Futureworld, they also get to play the role of imaginary astronauts on a simulated rocket launch and flight through space.  After all, their “world” is set on a space station in orbit around Mars.

It’s after arriving at the space station when the movie Futureworld takes a turn for the worse.  This is where the movie shifts from being a somewhat interesting sci-fi movie about a futuristic theme park, to that of being a giant conspiracy involving cloned robots that will basically take over the world.  The last two-thirds of Futureworld take place throughout the theme park’s “behind the scenes” areas as the two reporters discover the conspiracy and try to flee and warn the world.

Why would the movie involve a Russian general touring the park if we’re really not going to see him in the story?

How about Mr. Takaguichi?  Wouldn’t it have been interesting to see him fight his evil robot clone in an elaborate sequence?  Yeah, that would have been interesting to see, but it’s not included as part of the story in Futureworld.

Shouldn’t Chuck and Tracy have at least tied to slow down or stop production of the robot clones?  I understand that they were reporters and all, but they could have at least started a fire and tried to burn down some of the buildings.  The water from the sprinkler systems would have also caused some of the robots to malfunction and break down as well.

Without any concrete evidence of the conspiracy, is anybody in the outside world going to believe Chuck and Tracy about what’s *really* happening at Delos?  What about when the robot clones of the previous visitors counteract their claims and make fools of the reporters?  If a news reporter were to suddenly go on the air waves and make a report about people being cloned and turned into evil robots at a theme park, is anybody going to believe him or her?  That’s an easy way to lose your job and never work in that industry again.

Futureworld (1976) – movie trailer

In the end, Futureworld is a disappointing movie with too many plot holes to still make it something interesting to watch.  The movie did start out interesting with the re-opening and new “world” in Delos, but after that point the story takes a turn for the worse.

Fans of Westworld may be interested in seeing Futureworld as it’s a direct sequel of the first film.  It’s not a good movie, but it does add a little bit more to the story in the first movie.  Those people jumping straight into Futureworld, well, good luck.  Hopefully you’ll still go back and give Westworld a chance as it’s clearly the better of the two movies.