Hardware (1990)
Saved on this device. to keep it.
Where to Watch
No US streaming, rental, or purchase options listed right now.
Source: JustWatch
A scavenger finds a mangled robot skull in the desert and sells it as scrap, not knowing it still contains a government kill program waiting for a power source.
That skull ends up as a Christmas gift in HARDWARE (1990), given by a soldier named Mo to his sculptor girlfriend Jill, who welds junk into art in her apartment. She wires the head into one of her pieces. It starts rebuilding itself from the scrap in her studio, feeding off the building's power, and turns her home into a locked-room slaughterhouse.
Richard Stanley wrote and directed it, shooting fast and cheap in London and using the confined apartment set to make the film feel like it is closing in on the audience along with Jill. His script borrowed heavily from SHOK!, a 2000 AD comic strip by Steve MacManus and Kevin O'Neill, and the comic's creators only got their credit after a legal challenge.
The cast is a strange mix of character actors and music world cameos: Dylan McDermott, Stacey Travis, John Lynch, and William Hootkins carry the story, while Iggy Pop voices a shock-jock DJ, Lemmy Kilmister turns up as a water taxi driver, and Fields of the Nephilim frontman Carl McCoy plays the scavenger.
It arrived in the wake of RoboCop and The Terminator, but stripped the machine-killer story down to one woman trapped with a thing that will not stop repairing itself to finish the job.
Physical Media
Blu-rayLegionUPC 891635001698
Adam added 9/27/2026 · edited 10/8/2026
4K UHDUmbrella EntUPC 9344256029257
Adam added 9/27/2026 · edited 10/8/2026
About the Film
You can't stop progress.
- Directed By
- Richard Stanley
- Runtime
- 94 minutes
- Released
- September 14, 1990
- Certification
- R
- Country
- United Kingdom, United States of America
- Starring
- Dylan McDermott, Stacey Travis, John Lynch, William Hootkins, Carl McCoy
More Credits
- Genres
- Horror, Science Fiction, Thriller
- Language
- English
- Origin
- US, GB
- Studios
- Palace Pictures, British Screen Productions, Wicked Films, British Satellite Broadcasting
- Written By
- Richard Stanley
- Produced By
- Stephen Woolley, Ray Corbett, Harvey Weinstein, Bob Weinstein, Trix Worrell, JoAnne Sellar, Paul Trijbits, Nik Powell, Elizabeth Karlsen
- Cinematography
- Steven Chivers
- Music
- Simon Boswell
- Also Starring
- Iggy Pop, Mark Northover, Paul McKenzie, Oscar James, Lemmy Kilmister
- Budget
- $1,500,000
- Box Office
- $5,728,953
This website uses TMDB and the TMDB APIs but is not endorsed, certified, or otherwise approved by TMDB.
hardware rose to the top of b-horror at the time, but i never saw it, didn’t realise it was tromeo and juliet meets event horizon-level cool.
Carl McCoy’s character is referred to as a Zone Tripper, much cooler name than scavenger
Saw it in theaters in 90. Looks even more amazing on blue ray now
Great little cult classic featuring some of the worst acting ever from the guy who played Shades .
The story was originally written by Steve MacManus and illustrated by the great Kevin O’Neil, titled SHOK and appeared in the 1981 Judge Dredd Annual.
• The comic’s publisher, Fleetway Comics, publishers of 2000 A.D., successfully sued the makers of the 1990 film Hardware for plagiarism.
• The Credits: Following the settlement, later releases of the film were updated to credit Steve MacManus, Kevin O’Neill, and publisher Fleetway Publications.
Always enjoyed this movie. I think it might have been a poor dubbed vhs I got was my first viewing…lol. So grainy. Proper dvd and bluray in subsequent years made it killer (excuse the pun)
Sounds like Tetsuo
I got to see this in the theater. I wish more movies like this would make it onto the big screen.
‘The script borrowed heavily from….’ more like a frame by frame, scene by scene direct copy! I’m not surprised they were sued, can’t believe they actually thought they’d get away with it. If you ever get the opportunity to hear the soundtrack, some amazing tunes, my first exposure to Al Jourgensen’s ‘Ministry’ (Stigmata)!