Surprisingly, at the present time you can still find a cult series of Western films that are not at all known to our audience. But, as it turned out, the series is almost forgotten even at home, which is even more striking. Yet the genre of serial science fiction has a big fan base. There's a lot to be fanatical about. For the 21 years that the series lived on TV screens, there were: 3 original films, the main series, a spin-off series and two joint crossovers. With the original films, I would like to start my story.
The first film begins with an acquaintance with the main character - pilot Steve Austin. The test astronaut, who visited the moon, is quite brazen and self-confident, immediately showing his character. During test tests of the new shuttle, a disaster occurs, the pilot crashes, losing his legs, right arm and eye. Tragedy turns out to be a gift to government agencies, as Steve becomes the perfect guinea pig to create a superhuman. Spending six million dollars on his prostheses and treatment, the state makes him hostage to its insidious plans, forcing him to work for the SSO. The next plot of the first film can be described in one or two sentences, it is rather sparse for events and is only the beginning of a long story of adventure.
For much of the film, we are shown Steve’s acceptance of his new disability and the need for mechanical implants. In the early 70s, it seemed like a nightmare. From now on, you are no longer human, a monster assembled by a mad Frankenstein piece by piece. It's amazing how much people's perception of cybernetic implants has changed. There was even a moment in the film when a simple woman, seeing Steve's mechanical hand, said in horror to his face: "What are you?" Fortunately, 10 years later, cyberpunk appeared, a whole subgenre of pop culture, where implants are an integral part of the plot.
It should also be said that this is classic cheap old fiction, which means there will be a lot of water in the film, trying to explain everything from a scientific point of view, and very meticulously. The beginning of the film, a test flight of Steve, lasts as much as 10 minutes, and the film is embedded in real NASA documentary footage with a test of a prototype shuttle. The story is interesting, but the end viewer will be bored. Another characteristic of films of that era is the desire to stuff something related to the atom into the plot. Usually it is an atomic bomb, less often - radiation, a nuclear reactor, quite in steep and thrashy cases come across radiation-exposed creatures and monsters. Immediately, we have a micro-nuclear reactor built into each prosthesis, providing power to the limbs and incredible strength to the main character!
Despite its venerable age, cheap production format and small shortcomings, the movie leaves behind a pleasant impression. It is simple, without much bells and whistles, with a clear storyline, which is slightly blurred at the end, the serial format is still not quite suitable for the full meter. But the continuation of the story did not take long to wait, in the same 73 year, two sequels were released at once, and only then the film turned into a full-fledged series.