Gunhed (1989)
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- This page is for the film. For the titular robot, see Gunhed 507.
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This summer is amazing! (今年の夏はコイツが凄い！)
The battle begins, a struggle for love and courage―the world's first SFX robot action movie is finally born! (戦いが始まる、愛と勇気の戦いが―世界初SFXロボット・アクション映画、ついに誕生！) |
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— Tagline |
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A battlefield never before seen (誰も見たことがない戦場)
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— Tagline |
Gunhed (ガンヘッド Ganheddo) is a 1989 tokusatsu mecha film directed and co-written (with James Bannon) by Masato Harada, with special effects by Koichi Kawakita. It was funded by the Gunhed Production Committee (consisting of Toho, Sunrise, Bandai, Kadokawa Shoten Publishing, IMAGICA, and Toho Pictures)[a] and produced by Toho Pictures and Sunrise, with special effects produced by Toho Eizo Bijutsu. The film stars Masahiro Takashima, Brenda Bakke, Aya Enjoji, Kaori Mizushima, Yujin Harada, Yosuke Saito, Jay Kabira, and Mickey Curtis. Toho released it to Japanese theaters on July 22, 1989.
Plot
In the early 2030s, humanity discovered a material called Texmexium which allowed the world to be controlled by supercomputers of unprecedented power. To prevent the substance's misuse, it was guarded within the hyper-nuclear facilities that gave every major city their power. However, the raw materials needed to build the supercomputers soon diminished, resulting in conductive plastics and computer chips becoming more valuable than gold, giving rise to tech scavengers who seek their fortunes through acquiring and selling computer parts despite the extreme risks.
During the year 2005, the Cybortech Company built the first self-contained industrial complex on a small volcanic island 1,000 miles off the coast of the Asian continent, simply called 8JO. A sophisticated computer system called Kyron 5 manufactured advanced robots on the island for 20 years until it declared war on humanity, touching off a great robot war. To quell Kyron 5's insurrection, the allied powers dispatched a Gunhed (Gun UNit of Heavy Eliminate Device) battalion to the island; they were opposed by its last line of defense, Aerobot. The battle raged for over a year, ending in the Aerobot's victory. The wider war ended with 8JO left intact, the mechanized island becoming nearly forgotten by humanity.
In 2038, the scavenger crew of the aircraft Mary Ann land atop 8JO's main tower in search of computer chips. After disembarking, they spot a Texas Air Ranger aircraft in flames on the ground; though relieved that law enforcement is no longer pursuing them, they question what destroyed it. Captain Bancho, Brooklyn, Bebe, Barabbas, and Bombbay infiltrate the lower decks. Boomerang and Boxer remain with the plane, where they are quickly killed by the landing pad's automated defenses. As the infiltration team descends via elevator, Brooklyn proposes stealing a Gunhed, but Bancho restates that they only came to this island for the computer chips and admonishes him for fidgeting with his gun. Bancho and Barabbas are then killed inside the elevator by unseen aggressors, Bancho falling through the floor and Barabbas skewered on a metal pole, as the others escape. They soon encounter an injured Texas Air Ranger, Sergeant Nim. After Brooklyn removes a spear from her shoulder, the group notices an electric barrier above them, preventing them from returning the way they came. Nim explains that she was on mission with her partner to hunt down a Biodroid that stole a vial of Texmexium in Dallas for Kyron 5, but her helicopter was destroyed and her partner killed in action.
The four briefly travel together until the treasure hunters knock out Nim and steal her equipment. Bebe and Bombbay leave Brooklyn to guard her. The pair have a close encounter with a floating, sound-activated mine while Nim revives and pins down Brooklyn. The mine takes an interest in them next; Brooklyn concludes it's too old to detonate and throws it to the ground, only for it to explode. Meanwhile, the Biodroid picks off Bombbay. The surviving trio reach to Kyron 5's core room, where they find a mysterious countdown and a vial of Texmexium. They briefly fight off the Biodroid after it catches up with them. Bebe takes the vial from Nim at gunpoint, only to fall into the same vat of chemicals as the Biodroid. She hands the vial off to Brooklyn before vanishing from sight. He wants to keep the Texmexium because it cost him his comrades, while Nim wants it to complete her mission; their scrap is put on hold as Aerobot bursts through a nearby wall.
The two survive by escaping into a deep chute, where they are discovered by the sole surviving children of the original human custodians of Kyron 5: a boy named Seven and his mute older sister Eleven. Together, they formulated a plan to get back on the landing pad of Kyron-5 and escape with the Mary Ann, but their situation is hampered by both Kyron 5 and the Bio-Droid after them. However, it was by chance, at the robot graveyard, that Brooklyn found the remains of the GUNHEDs.
Using his technical skills, Brooklyn brought GUNHED 507 back online and it was through GUNHED that the crew learned that Kyron-5 only stopped conflicting with humanity 13 years ago to wait for them to complete developing Texmexium for its plans for global domination. Despite learning the threat it could pose to humanity, Nim was focused only on her mission and leaving the facility. Nim and Eleven left together for the Kyron-5 core room, while Seven stayed with Brooklyn to complete repairs on GUNHED and used it to escape Kyron-5. Brooklyn has personal anxieties about piloting, but he had to overcome it to survive. It was while during her leave that the droid found her and retaken the Texmexium to aid Kyron-5's plan.
With the aid of GUNHED, Brooklyn is able to clear the various deadly obstacles and defenses of Kyron-5. However, Aerobot remains at large. Brooklyn fights with GUNHED to take down Aerobot, but the unit defeats GUNHED. Brooklyn escapes from the tank and rigs a part of its functional gun to manually shoot Aerobot and he manages to finally destroy Aerobot once and for all. In between, Nim realized Eleven was part of Kyron-5's plan as it had actually inserted a special activation code within her (the source of her muteness); she would uncontrollably help Kyron-5 execute its plans, however, Nim intervened and prevented her from launching the code. The Bio-Droid returns to stop everyone, but Bebe realizes she cannot escape being trapped inside and decides to detonate a grenade within the droid's body to help the four escape; both the droid and Bebe are destroyed.
Kyron-5's plans have failed and now it activates the self-destruction sequence to detonate 8JO. Originally only having 10 seconds, the mangled GUNHED activates its boosters to ram into Kyron-5 to give them a chance to escape within 15 minutes. With just enough time to escape, the four escape on board the Mary Ann and flew away. While flying away GUNHED passes its final message to Brooklyn, that the GUNHED Battalion has completed its mission.
Staff
- Main article: Gunhed/Credits.
Staff role on the left, staff member's name on the right.
- Directed by Masato Harada
- Written by Masato Harada, James Bannon
- Associate writer Hiroshi Kashiwabara (uncredited)
- Executive producers Tomoyuki Tanaka, Eiji Yamaura
- Produced by Yoshishige Shimatani, Tetsuhisa Yamada
- Visual effects producers Yasuo Nishi, Koji Ichihashi
- Music by Toshiyuki Honda
- Theme song "TIME -Song for GUNHED-"
- Performed by Mariko Nagai
- Lyrics by Yoshiko Miura
- Composed by Takayuki Baba
- Arranged by Takayuki Negishi
- Cinematography by Junichi Fujisawa
- Edited by Yoshitami Kuroiwa
- Production design by Fumio Ogawa
- First assistant director Hideyuki Inoue
- Director of special effects Koichi Kawakita
- First assistant director of special effects Kiyotaka Matsumoto
- Visual effects coordinators Hiroshi Yamaguchi, Hideaki Fushiki
Cast
Actor's name on the left, character played on the right.
- Masahiro Takashima as Brooklyn
- Brenda Bakke as Sergeant Nim
- Aya Enjoji as Bebe
- Kaori Mizushima as Eleven
- Yujin Harada as Seven
- Jay Kabira as Bombbay
- Yosuke Saito as Boxer
- Doll Nguyen as Boomerang
- James Brewster Thompson as Barabbas / Biodroid
- Mickey Curtis as Bancho
- Randy Reyes as Gunhed (voice) / narrator (voice)
- Michael Yancy as narrator (voice)
English dub
- Andy Chworowsky as Brooklyn
- Carolyn Levine as Seven
- John Culkin as Boxer
- Sarah Hauser as Boomerang
- Rik Thomas as Bancho
Appearances
Monsters |
Weapons, vehicles, and races |
Gallery
- Main article: Gunhed/Gallery.
Soundtrack
- Main article: Gunhed/Soundtrack.
Alternate titles
- Robot War (Robotok háborúja: Hungary; Robot War: Germany)
- Gunhed: The Last Warrior (Gunhed: O Último Guerreiro: Portugal)
Theatrical releases
- Japan - July 22, 1989
- United Kingdom - March 18, 1994
- United States - August 27, 1996
Video releases
- Region: 1
- Discs: 1
- Audio: Japanese (2.0), English (2.0)
- Special features: Japanese trailer
- Notes: Reissued in 2008. Both releases are out of print.
- Region: 2
- Discs:: 2
- Audio: Japanese (2.0)
- Subtitles: None
- Special features: Behind-the-scenes featurette (28 minutes), cast profiles, five trailers, image gallery
- Notes: The CD contains the film's soundtrack.
TOHO Visual Entertainment Blu-ray (2022)[5]
- Region: A
- Discs: 2
- Audio: Japanese (Dolby TrueHD Surround)
- Subtitles: Japanese
- Special features: Audio commentary, behind-the-scenes featurette (28 minutes), Gunhed 2025 short film, Japanese trailer, image gallery,
- Notes: Includes the 100-minute theatrical version and 92-minute TV broadcast version.
Videos
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Trivia
- Gunhed was an early credit of both Yoshishige Shimatani (producer) and Tsuguhiko Kadokawa (production committee member), who would go on to become the chairmen of Toho and Kadokawa, respectively.
Notes
- ↑ According to Koichi Kawakita, IMAGICA did not contribute to the film financially, and instead aided in the post-production. It is thus unclear which of the companies put up the film's budget, though Kawakita noted that Bandai likely paid the most.[2]
References
This is a list of references for Gunhed. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]
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