Wired to Kill (1986)

"Are we just gonna sit around and get depressed? - Steve

aka: Booby Trap
Two teenagers fight back against criminal scum.
Starring: Emily Longstreth, Devin Hoelscher, Merritt Butrick, Frank Collison

Link to IMDB

Poor Rebecca

In the near future of 1998 a deadly plague has swept the globe and decimated the human population. The survivors try to continue their ordinary lives in a crumbling society, where terrorists and gangs of criminals run free and attack anyone that gets in their way.

We meet Rebecca as she reconnects with a childhood friend, Steve.
Her cruel father has just kicked her out, so now she'll be staying with Steve and his mother and grandmother in their house. He and Rebecca quickly bond again, and he impresses her with his little remote controlled robots and gadgets that he invented in his workshop.
Steve's also an aspiring musician so be prepared for a smooth bleep-bloop interlude as they share their troubles. After hearing the hammy dialog, my realization that this is going to be some hot garbage begins to set in.



A marauding gang of thugs, led by a fierce and intelligent man named Reegus, arrive in the neighbourhood and target Steve's house. They smash their way in and attack the family! Rebecca is able to escape, but Steve gets beaten pretty bad. With two broken legs, he'll be spending the rest of the movie confined to a wheelchair.

Steve                                                                             Reegus

Frightened and angry, Steve forms a plan to fight back against Reegus and his wild gang. Using his robots, and more importantly help from Rebecca, they spy on the gang and try to kill them off one by one with booby-traps. This might sound interesting, but the entire movie gets very boring.
Since Steve can't easily leave his workshop, Rebecca has to go out and do all the dangerous work that the lame robots can't do. Stuff happens. There's not really a plot anymore.

Rowbutts on the move

There are some action sequences throughout, as Steve sends Rebecca into more and more danger, but nothing here will impress anyone and it becomes a big clunky mess near the end. The movie does try to be exciting, smart and have an emotional core, but damn it is so dull.
I had a few laughs because things get unintentionally silly at times, but more often I was just pissed at Steve for getting Rebecca involved in this terrible shit when all the girl wanted was a quiet place to sleep.

Be sure not to miss:
- The main robot is named Winston the Claw.
- Gee, phone books sure have a lot of handy uses.
- Tommy 'Tiny' Lister is one of the baddies.
- Some pretty strange background announcements can be heard at the hospital.

Internet review:
"The poster is maybe 1000x better than the actual movie." - Vdp

Should I watch it?
Not really.

Where can I find it?
Here on YouTube.

Wired to Kill gets...