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Deadly Weapon
Deadly Weapon
Directed by	Michael Miner
Written by	Michael Miner
Produced by	J. Larry Carroll; Peter Manoogian
Starring	Rodney Eastman; Robert Benedetti; Arell Blanton
Cinematography	James L. Carter
Edited by	Peter Teschner; King Wilder
Music by	Guy Moon
Production; company	Empire International Pictures
Distributed by	Trans World Entertainment; CBS/Fox Video
Release date	August 15, 1989;
Running time	89 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$2 million

Deadly Weapon is a 1989 American science fiction film directed by Michael Miner and starring Rodney Eastman.

Plot

A teenager named Zeke, who fantasizes that he is from outer space, is bullied by some other teens at school and deals with a drunken father, runaway mother and a sister who delights in being nasty to him. He finds a lost experimental military weapon in a river near his home. The weapon fires anti-matter X-rays. Zeke uses it for self-defense as a means to deal with his persecutors, both at school and at home.

An army team led by the overzealous Lt. Dalton, responsible for originally losing the weapon, is sent to recover the weapon before its unstable reactor overloads and causes a meltdown. The situation degenerates into a siege.

Cast

Rodney Eastman as Zeke "King Bee"
Robert Benedetti as Bernard Bauhaus
Arell Blanton as Edwin
Susan Blu as Shirley
Tom Cesano as Joey
Ed Corbett as Engineer
Gary Frank as Lieutenant Dalton
Adam Gifford as Wade (credited as G. Adam Gifford)
Michael Hennessey as Frampton
Michael Horse as Joe "Indian Joe"
Richard Steven Horvitz as Lester (credited as Richard S. Horvitz)
Sasha Jenson as Martin
William Sanderson as Reverend Smith
Kim Walker as Traci
Gary Kroeger as Glover
John Lafayette as Sergeant Conroy
Barney Martin as Mayor Bigelow
Sam Melville as Sheriff Bartlett

Production

Michael Miner wrote the film as an "anti-weapons" film and wrote the film with specific intent on reaching a younger audience.^[1]

RoboCop creator Michael Miner was invited by Charles Band to create a sequel to the 1978 film Laserblast, which was also produced by Band, in August 1986. Miner at this time worked as second unit director on RoboCop set. Although planned as a sequel to Laserblast, while writing the script - and partially due to financial constraints-, Band and Miner decided to make an original film, based on the central idea.^[2] Adapted from a story by George Lafia.^[3]

Deadly Weapon was filmed from May through June of 1987 in and around Southern California.^[1] According to Miner, he consulted with a physicist to get their opinion on whether the ray gun in the film looked plausible.^[1] Due to the film's low budget Miner made the film more character focused rather than effects focused comparing the final film to a mixture of Badlands by way of WarGames.^[1]

Reception

Creature Feature found the movie to be unusually sensitive for a Charles Band production, giving the movie 3.5 out of 5 stars. The review praised the subtle handling of the theme of teen suicide as well its addressing the problems of growing up in a dysfunctional family.^[4]

Awards

Rodney Eastman was nominated for a Saturn Award best performance by a young actor.^[5]

Home Release

The movie was released on video by Trans World Entertainment on August 15, 1989. While a DVD release occurred in the Netherlands, no plans have been made to release the film onto DVD in the United States.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Morrish, Bob (March 1988). "Deadly Weapon". Cinefantastique. Fourth Castle Micromedia. Retrieved February 27, 2023.
^ "Deadly Weapon (1989)". ideas.rifftrax.com. August 23, 2015. Archived from the original on October 26, 2020. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
^ "Deadly Weapon (1989)". bfi.org.uk. Archived from the original on October 16, 2019. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
^ Stanley, J. (2000) Creature Feature: 3rd Edition
^ "Home". saturnawards.org. Retrieved 2019-10-16.