Cherry 2000

• Directed by Steve De Jarnatt
• February 5, 1988 (US)

When his sex robot gets wet and shorts out, a young executive hires a tracker and travels into the wastelands to find a replacement.

Cherry 2000 is a science fiction comedy done on the cheap. It’s got tinges of the post-apocalyptic genre with elements of the Western throne in and a dose of absurdist comedy to boot.

In the far future of 2017, the world is in ruin. Recycling and reuse are encouraged if not obsessively mandatory. Sex has become intertwined with the law where you need to hammer out a complicated agreement in clubs with lawyers before anything can happen. Some individuals instead purchasing sex robots to avoid all that mess.

Enter Sam Treadwell (David Andrews) who has found safety in a controllable relationship with a unit called Cherry (Pamela Gidley). And when that relationship falls apart because of a water induced short, he becomes desperate to recapture it. Why weren’t these things waterproof? That was my first issue in this movie.

Admittedly there needed to be an excuse to get the ball rolling but a short due to water? This is a sex robot that also engages in housework. Liquids and bodily fluids are a given. Hello?! No waterproofing?

If this film has anything to say it is that we should not become disconnected from the human experience. Here it is the difficulties of creating a meaningful relationship in the modern world that causes Sam to retreat into something that is little more than a fantasy upon examination. He plays it safe rather than taking a chance.

There are also some swipes at consumerism and general culture as well as the social complexities we do put upon ourselves unnecessarily. Nothing too deep or heavy but the writer and director were clearly trying to get above the surface appearance.

When Cherry fails, in desperation Sam seeks out a tracker named Edith “E” Johnson (Melanie Griffith) to find another unit in order to put his Cherry’s core memories into. She is to guide him to a warehouse in Zone 7 where the last of the models are supposedly kept. Environmental issues explain why everything is dry but not how lawless areas came about. There is a passing mention of ‘The Border Wars’ but how this impacted things is not clear.

The look of Cherry 2000 goes from the heavy neon future that looked like an episode of Miami Vice to a dusty Western before ending in something closer to a bargain basement Mad Max. An unusual mix of visuals that on the surface sounds like it cannot work but fits well with each leg of the story perfectly.

Cherry 2000 is a series of weird and unusual adventures culminating in a conflict with a psychotic living in the waists named Lester played by Tim Thomerson. Thomerson is a great character actor who should be better known than what he is. He always turns in a great performance and here is no different. He is delightfully unhinged and dryly funny in his part. He pulls off comically crazy perfectly.

Thomerson is not the only quality actor here in a supporting role. We have such names as Harry Carey Jr. as Snappy Tom, Ben Johnson as Six-Fingered Jake, Brion James as Stacy, Marshall Bell as Sam’s friend and coworker Bill, Laurence Fishburne as a lawyer in the Glu Glu club, and Robert Zdar best known from the Maniac Cop films appearing briefly as Chet. An eclectic mix of talent in hindsight that improves something that would have otherwise gotten lost in the mix of the time.

As the story goes along Sam begins to realize he wants something real as feelings develop between he and E. Cherry is simply going through the motions and has nothing true behind her actions. E may not be as safe as Cherry but her feelings are real.

The jokes are broad and over the top. They aren’t juvenile like Mel Brooks or witty and creative like a ZAZ production. Nor will you find anything particularly hilarious. You’ll see what they did there and maybe smirk. This is satire but not to a seriously comedic extent.

Lester controls a large compound in the story and I’m not wondering if most or all of the women in this compound are robots. They all act strangely and Sam even encounters an old flame named Ginger (Cameron Milzer). Her actions are oddly detached as if like Cherry she does not quite understand the seriousness of the situation because she is ca machine. Considering Sam does like gynoids it would not be a stretch to think she is one. And why would Lester stop at one and not have a harem instead?

This is something that did not need answered but is rather an interesting thought exercise as is the lawless area issue. They do not answer all questions as much as you might like but rather give enough info to tell their story from start to finish. Today too many people feel the need to answer everything when that is not necessary. You need just enough to get the viewer through the story otherwise you weigh down the narrative flow.

Cherry 2000 is an interesting satire that more often than not is smart. I won’t call it great or a must see. It’s for a bit of a niche audience but it’s worth a watch.