Two lovers stationed at a remote base in the asteroid belt of Saturn are intruded upon by an anal-retentive technocrat from Earth and his charge: a malevolent eight foot tall robot.
Two lovers stationed at a remote base in the asteroid fields of Saturn are intruded upon by a retentive technocrat from Earth and his charge: a malevolent eight-foot robot. Remember, in space, no one can hear you scream.—Keith Loh <[email protected]>
In the distant future, single man and woman scientific team living on one of Saturn's moons to grow food for the starving Earth, have their isolation shattered when a deranged killer, masquerading as a visiting technology expert, arrives at their lonely outpost to take over their work and build a lethal creation: a super-intelligent eight-foot robot which later takes a murderous mind of its own.
In the future, Earth is overcrowded and the population relies on distant bases to be fed. In the Saturn 3 station, Major Adam (Kirk Douglas) and the scientist Alex (Farrah Fawcett), who is also his lover and has never been on Earth, have been researching hydroponics for three years in the base alone with their dog Sally. Meanwhile, psychotic Captain Benson (Harvey Keitel) fails the mental test required to travel to Saturn 3 and kills his replacement, Captain James (Douglas Lambert), taking his place in the mission of assembling and programming the Demi-God series robot Hector to replace one of the scientists in Saturn 3. Upon arrival, the mentally disturbed Captain Benson becomes sexually obsessed for Alex. Then he uses an interface to link his brain to program Hector, but incapable to control his emotions, he transfers his homicidal tendency and insanity to Hector. Now Major Adam and Alex are trapped in the station with a dangerous psychopathic robot.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
The film opens at a space station in the vicinity of the planet Saturn. An announcer is paging Captain James (Douglas Lambert) as the ship he is piloting is leaving in just a few minutes. We see James enter a locker room where he starts to put on his spacesuit and we see another figure in a spacesuit lurking in the corner wearing a helmet so we can't see his face. James addresses the figure as Benson (Harvey Keitel). Benson has apparently just failed a mental stability exam and James is replacing him on this mission. Before James is finished putting on his suit, however, Benson straps himself down and opens the airlock venting the locker room. James is killed and his body flushed out into space. Benson closes the door and then takes James's place on the mission.
Benson flies the ship through the rings of Saturn and lands it on a moon at the Saturn 3 experimental food station. It is a remote and isolated underground facility crewed by just two scientists: the older Adam (played by a 64 year-old Kirk Douglas) and the beautiful young Alex (played by a 33 year-old Farrah Fawcett). Despite their age difference the two are happy as lovers.
Adam and Alex escort Benson inside the facility. Despite their warm greeting, Benson seems cold. He tells them they are behind schedule on developing the new food sources that the over-populated Earth desperately needs. He has brought a new robot - HECTOR - that he will assemble and program to help speed the project. Once Hector is operational he will be so effective that one of the scientists will no longer be needed.
When Alex and Benson are alone, he makes it clear that he is interested in having sex with her. She tells him she is exclusively with Adam and Benson responds that on Earth it is considered inhospitable to refuse his request. Alex, who was born in space and has never visited Earth, though she is curious about it, points out that they are not on Earth and continues to ignore his advances. He, in turn, tells her that Adam is "obsolete."
Alex escorts Benson to his quarters where he tells her he will take a "blue dreamer" and get some sleep. Alex tells him she does not know what a "blue dreamer" is and Benson gives her a blue pill and suggests that she try it.
Alex shows the pill to Adam who dismisses it is a sleeping/hypnotic drug used to keep people from going crazy in the isolation of space duty. Despite her negative reaction to Benson, the fact that he is from Earth and his description of the effect of the "blue dreamer" raises her interest. Reluctantly Adam agrees to try the drug with her one night (A scene was apparently filmed that shows their dream sequence, but it was cut from the final film. A still from this segment, however, showing Fawcett in a sexy, futuristic outfit, was widely circulated when the movie came out).
Benson assembles the robot which stands 8-foot high and is extremely powerful. Benson can program the robot by connecting his own brain directly to it by a data port surgically implanted in the back of Benson's neck. Adam sees this and it concerns him as he believes that if Benson cannot control his thinking, improper thoughts will be encoded into Hector's brain. Later as we watch Benson training Hector we see him give Alex a lustful stare and Hector does the same.
Lust is not the only thing that is transferred to Hector, but also Benson's propensity toward murder. After the robot is operational Alex finds that her dog, Sally, as been killed by being ripped asunder. The robot then grabs Alex and lifts her by her wrists into the air. Her screams attract Benson and Adam. She is able to persuade Hector to release her, but the robot then attacks Benson by dropping a piece of equipment on top of him. Adam at first wants to leave the trapped Benson for the robot to finish off, but then has a change of heart and rescues him. They all retreat to the safety of the communication room. There Adam waits till Hector needs to recharge and when the robot plugs in, he overloads it with high voltage causing it to collapse. Adam then orders Benson to disassemble the robot, pack it up and leave.
Benson disassembles the robot, but Hector's brain is still active and during the night Hector commands the other simpler robots in the lab to reassemble him.
The next morning, Benson storms into Alex and Adam's bedroom telling them he is leaving and taking Alex with him. A fight ignites between Benson and Adam. Adam gets the better of Benson nearly choking him, till Alex pulls him off. Benson then takes this opportunity to hit Adam over the head and drag Alex, clad only in a short, baby-doll nightie down the corridor toward his spaceship.
He doesn't get far, though, as the reassembled Hector attacks him in the hallway. Alex escapes as Hector drags Benson's battered body away.
Alex and Adam decide their best course of action is to try and escape the station in Benson's ship. Hector blocks their way until they set a trap for him in the lab by removing the supports beneath a section of the floor. Hector is toppled through the floor into the hydroponic pond below the lab. While he climbs out Alex and Adam don spacesuits and head out toward the ship. Hector is able to remotely detonate it before they can get on board, however.
Back inside they hear Benson's voice directing them to come to him in the lab. When they arrive the find that the voice is really Hector's, who can duplicate any of their voices perfectly. Benson is apparently dead as Hector is now wearing his decapitated head as a hat.
Hector knocks both Alex and Adam out and when Adam awakes back in his quarters he realizes that he has been fitted with a communications port on the back of his neck and that Hector has been probing his mind.
Hector, using Benson's voice, announces that he is now running things and giving assignments. He orders Adam and Alex to come to the lab to clean it up. Adam sends Alex along and stops on the way to secret two explosive canisters and a detonator under his jacket. When he reaches the lab he challenges Hector for control of the station. When the robot comes after him he pushes both Hector and himself through the hole in the floor into the pond and detonates the charges killing himself and destroying the robot.
In the final scene we see Alex on board a shuttle as it approaches Earth. She looks out the window knowing she is finally getting a chance to satisfy her curiosity about humanity's home planet.
