By Robert Scucci
| Published 1 hour ago
Imagine that Skynet was waging war against humans, but those humans also wore VR sets that allowed them to have all the sexy time they wanted, diminishing their willingness to carry out their resistance. That’s the most succinct way I can describe 1992’s Prototype X29A, but there’s a lot more going on beneath that setup. It tells a familiar story about the last breath of humanity fighting back against an evil robot uprising, and you can expect many of these beats to play out as you’ve seen them countless times before.
Prototype X29A uses its bleak, dystopian Los Angeles setting as a springboard for its ideas about where humanity is headed in the mid-21st century, and at its core, it’s about the unwavering human spirit in the face of a mechanical uprising. What sets this film apart from its contemporaries is that humanity isn’t exactly what it seems, as there are cybernetically infused humans on the right side of history, but we never get the full story on how they came to be. The result is a tense, low-budget sci-fi thriller about the hubris of man in the face of change, and how technology has the potential to be responsible for both humanity’s undoing and its salvation.
The Omegas Versus The World
Prototype X29A centers on our unfortunately named protagonist Hawkins Coselow (Robert Tossbert). Confined to a wheelchair, Hawkins is a shell of his former self after losing his ability to walk during the war. He spends most of his time tinkering with his computer and complaining to his ex-lover and kind-of roommate, Chandra Kerkorian (Lane Lenhart). While their relationship has been on the rocks for some time, they still have sexual fantasies about each other, because it allows them to imagine a world where Hawkins’ legs still work.
Everything changes when Hawkins is approached by Dr. Alexis Zalazny (Brenda Swanson), who informs him that she’s working on new technology that will allow him to regain the use of his legs. The catch is that if he agrees to undergo the experimental procedure she’s proposing, there’s no turning back. Wanting to walk again more than anything, he agrees, which turns out to be a fatal mistake, because the prototype suit he becomes attached to turns him into a ruthless killing machine with one primary objective: wipe out the Omegas.
Unbeknownst to Hawkins, the Omegas are a breed of cybernetically infused humans who have fought tirelessly to resist technology like Zalazny’s, and they’re on the verge of extinction. Only one Omega remains, and they have the power to keep the resistance intact. The problem is that Chandra’s involvement with the resistance is far more complicated than she ever could have imagined.
With our two lovers at odds, and the fate of humanity hanging in the balance, it’s only a matter of time before society as they know it comes crashing down and a new world order is established.
Retro-Futuristic Vibes You Can Get Behind
Though filmed for approximately $1 million and released direct-to-video, Prototype X29A is quite the accomplishment for writer-director Phillip J. Roth. It leans hard into its cyberpunk aesthetic, and for 1992, its CGI is surprisingly ambitious when you consider what else was coming out around the same time. Compared to 1993’s Arcade, for example, you’d think the movies were made decades apart, with Prototype X29A clearly having the upper hand thanks to its VFX.
What really sells it for me, though, is the actual Prototype suit that Hawkins walks around in. It looks futuristic enough to sell the premise, but not so egregious that it pulls you out of the movie. It looks like a guy in a suit because it is a guy in a suit. The computer readouts from his point of view reveal just enough information to move things along without sounding like total junk science. And, most importantly, the sexual tension between him and Chandra, who is unwillingly and unwittingly on her way to becoming the savior of the wasteland, is palpable because at the end of the day, they both want the same things. The unfortunate reality they have to deal with is that Hawkins is no longer in control of his destiny.
By today’s standards, Prototype X29A is one of many dystopian, cyberpunk stories about humanity’s extinction in the face of technological innovation used for warfare. For a 1992 film with a minimal budget, it’s stylish, fun, and dangerous enough to stand out on its own. It’s a perfect late-night watch if you want something in the same wheelhouse as the original Terminator, but prefer a story that takes place after the collapse instead of before it.
As of this writing, you can stream Prototype X29A for free on Tubi.
