Matty looks back at a fondly remembered romp from producer Charles Band’s Empire years.  

Warmly regarded by Empire enthusiasts, ELIMINATORS (1986) is a spirited comic book yarn as fun as its ‘Terminator (1984) meets Romancing the Stone (1984)’ premise suggests.

At the centre of the film is one of the best ‘monsters’ (for lack of a better term) in Empire boss Charles Band’s catalogue:

The Mandroid.

Often overshadowed by the mogul’s other gimmicks and beasties – the titular Ghoulies (1985) and Subspecies (1991), the murderous marionettes of Dolls (1987) and Puppet Master (1989), Killjoy the Clown, The Gingerdead Man, Eebee the Evil Bong etc. – The Mandroid joins the eponymous Castle Freak (1995) in being as close to a tragic, Frankenstein’s Monster-type creature as Band has gotten. Half man, half robot; he’s a melancholic killing machine that, in a compelling bit of characterisation somewhere between Blade Runner (1982) riffing and RoboCop (1987) preempting, is haunted and puzzled by his existence. Of course, the angst-ridden pathos from Mandroid performer Patrick Reynolds is secondary to the character’s visual cool and facilitatory place in Eliminators’ plot. Reynolds is clad in some awesome-looking robo-garb designed and created by Band staple John Carl Buechler and his MMI FX squad. He’s got a laser cannon on his arm, and the ability to bolt into a miniature tank unit. The Mandroid brings a large portion of the film’s bangs n’ booms, basically — and Band was evidently taken enough with the concept to recycle it (to lesser effect) for an otherwise unrelated Full Moon flick of the same name in 1993. 

Though the third script of theirs to reach production following Trancers (1984) and Zone Troopers (1985), Eliminators was, in fact, the first Empire assignment Band tasked Paul De Meo and Danny Bilson with.

Much of a muchness, mind. 

All three fit the same pulpy mould, and, irrespective of its spot within De Meo and Bilson’s artistic development under Band’s stewardship, Eliminators offers their patented blend of derring-do heroics, quirk, and wisecracks. Of retrospective interest is the amount of structural and thematic overlap there is in relation to De Meo and Bilson’s most famous works. Several aspects — camaraderie, family ties, redemption, what it means to be a man — resurface wholesale in their scripts for Disney superhero romp, The Rocketeer (1991), and Spike Lee’s acclaimed war drama, Da 5 Bloods (2020).

Eliminators finds The Mandroid, a scientist (Denise Crosby), a martial artist (Conan Lee), and a smart-arsed, Han Solo-ish riverboat captain (Andrew Prine, in a role initially intended for Band, De Meo and Bilson fav Tim Thomerson) joining forces to take down the megalomaniacal Dr. Abbott Reeves (Roy Dotrice). Reeves wants world domination, and his dastardly plan involves time travel and the Roman Empire — an appropriate, in-jokey touch given Band’s base of operations at the time. 

That said, Eliminators is without the distinctive Italian influence of Empire’s fellow offerings of the period, and for obvious reason. Originally scheduled to be shot in Florida, Band, inspired by business associate – and eventual back-stabber – Eduard Sarlui [1] and his film Alien Predators (1986), shipped Eliminators’ production to Spain. While solid from a technical standpoint, the switch results in Eliminators appearing less flashy aesthetically when compared to the snazzier product lensed at Empire’s studio in Rome (i.e. production mates Troll (1986), TerrorVision (1986), Dolls, From Beyond (1986), and Crawlspace (1986)). 

Still, helmer Peter Manoogian puts on a show. His feature length debut, Manoogian — the son of legendary NYU film professor Haig P. Manoogian — served as an assistant director and production manager across several Band joints (Parasite (1982), Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn (1983), Trancers, Swordkill (1984), Ghoulies). He cut his teeth as director with a segment of Band’s fantasy anthology, The Dungeonmaster (1984), and lobbied for Eliminators’ reins. Despite stumbling due to a few saggy patches (the film would benefit from a four or five minute trim), Manoogian (mostly) keeps Eliminators moving, and stages and shapes the action set pieces — shootouts, a rollicking speedboat chase, plenty of fiery explosions — with immense pep. Manoogian reconvened with De Meo and Bilson for Empire’s ill-fated space opera, Arena (1989), and was in the frame to shepherd their legendary unmade Empire opus, ‘Decapitron’. 

Debuting in U.S. cinemas at the end of January 1986 — around two weeks post Troll, and another fortnight ahead of TerrorVision — Eliminators stands as the widest theatrically opening film in Band’s entire catalogue, opening across nine-hundred and ninety-three screens. It surfaced on cassette via Playhouse (the family fare subsidiary of CBS/Fox Home Video), and arrived on British tape in summer ‘86 through longtime Band distributor Entertainment in Video, pruned of thirty-one seconds of nunchuck tomfoolery [2]. The cuts have since been waived for the film’s Blu-ray release.

[1] In short, Sarlui was the man who instigated TransWorld Entertainment’s takeover of Empire’s wares amidst Band’s financial troubles with the company’s primary money lender, international bank Crédit Lyonnais. As Band explained in his 2021 memoir, Confessions of a Puppet Master (written with Adam Felber): “Eduard proposed a deal on behalf of Crédit Lyonnais. They would forgive my debt — all of it, with the stroke of a pen. All I had to do was walk away from Empire — the name, my offices in L.A., my studio in Rome, and every movie and intellectual property I created with them. All of it…A few days later I was at Eduard’s house in Beverly Hills, signing the papers. He radiated sympathy, every inch the refined European patrician, helping to bail out an old family friend… A few days later, news of it hit the trades, along with an important update: Charles Band’s Empire Pictures was gone. Dissolved. All of its assets, its movies, and its studio outside Rome had been sold, through Crédit Lyonnais, to [a company called] Epic Entertainment which would continue business under the direction of its founder and president… Eduard Sarlui.”
[2] Entertainment in Video issued Troll and TerrorVision on cassette in the same quarter.