Robowar (1988)
Robowar (Italian: Robowar – Robot da guerra) is a 1989 Italian science fiction action film directed by Bruno Mattei. The film features a group of military commandos going through a jungle and being stalked by a robot called Omega-1. The film was shot in the Philippines and was one of the many Italian films following Apocalypse Now (1979) made with a Vietnam War-theme. Mattei added science fiction elements to Robowar after seeing the American film Predator and decided to make a similar film. The film was released in Italy in 1990 and on early home video releases in Asia and Europe. Retrospective reviews of the film have derided it as a rip-off of Predator.
Plot:
Major Marphy Black leads a group of commandos through the jungles of an unnamed island, but unknown to all involved but Mascher, they are being stalked by Mascher’s robot invention, Omega-1. Over Mascher’s protests, the group first saves a volunteer hospital worker, Virgin, from a band of guerrillas, then take out the hospital camp, killing all the guerrillas there, also. At this point, the robot begins killing members of the commando group, one by one. That night, Mascher admits to Marphy that he created
Omega-1, that it was acting sporadically, and that he was there to check out the match-up between the decorated Marphy and Omega-1.
The next day, they continue, and are further stalked by the robot. At one point, as Mascher reviews a computer to check Omega-1’s location, one of the commandos tosses it into the river, declaring that Macscher is now in the same danger they are. Later, Mascher reveals the radio device which can destroy Omega-1, but the robot kills Mascher and others, leaving only Black and Virgin, and takes the radio destruct device.
