Taglines: The last scream you hear will be your own.
Screamers movie storyline. (Sirius 6B, Year 2078) On a distant mining planet ravaged by a decade of war, scientists have created the perfect weapon: a blade-wielding, self-replicating race of killing devices known as Screamers designed for one purpose only — to hunt down and destroy all enemy life forms But man’s greatest weapon has continued to evolve without any human guidance, and now it has devised a new mission: to obliterate all life.
Col. Hendricksson (Peter Weller) is commander of a handful of Alliance soldiers still alive on Sirius 6B. Betrayed by his own political leaders and disgusted by the atrocities of this never-ending war, Hendricksson decides he must negotiate a separate peace with the New Economic Bloc’s decimated forces. But to do so, he will have to cross a treacherous wasteland where the deadliest threat comes from the very weapons he helped to create.
Screamers is a 1995 Canadian-American dystopian science fiction film starring Peter Weller, Roy Dupuis, and Jennifer Rubin, and directed by Christian Duguay. The screenplay, written by Dan O’Bannon with a rewrite by Miguel Tejada-Flores, is based on Philip K. Dick’s short story “Second Variety”, and addresses themes commonly found in that author’s work: societal conflict, confusion of reality and illusion, and machines turning upon their creators. Although critical reaction to the film was generally negative at the time of its release, it has gained a cult sequel in 2009.
Screamers was stuck in development hell for over a decade before finally being produced. Screenwriter Dan O’Bannon had completed his adaptation of Dick’s short story Second Variety in the early 1980s (along with his adaptation of another of Dick’s short stories, We Can Remember It For You Wholesale, which became the 1990 film Total Recall).
By 1983, O’Bannon’s screenplay for Screamers had been optioned by Tom Naud (SFX designer on the 1981 film Outland). However, the production never went ahead as planned and it was not until the 1990s that Screamers went into production, by which time the screenplay had been rewritten by Miguel Tejada-Flores. The film, directed by Christian Duguay, was made in Canada. Locations included a quarry in Quebec, in Montreal’s Olympic Stadium, as well as Joliette.
Screamers (1996)
Directed by: Christian Duguay
Starring: Peter Weller, Roy Dupuis, Jennifer Rubin, Andrew Lauer, Charles Edwin Powell, Liliana Komorowska, Jason Cavalier, Leni Parker, Michael Caloz
Screenplay by: Dan O’Bannon, Miguel Tejada-Flores
Production Design by: Perri Gorrara
Cinematography by: Rodney Gibbons
Film Editing by: Yves Langlois
Costume Design by: Trixi Rittenhouse
Set Decoration by: David Jaquest
Art Direction by: Michael Devine
Music by: Normand Corbeil
MPAA RatingB R for sci-fi violence and terror, some language and a brief moment of nudity.
Distributed by: Columbia Pictures
Release Date: January 26, 1996
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