Radioactive Dreams

Plot synopsis:
A nuclear war breaks out in 1996, expending the world's entire nuclear arsenal, except for one missile. Two children, Philip Chandler (John Stockwell) and Marlowe Hammer (Michael Dudikoff), are abandoned by their fathers in a fallout shelter cut into the side of a wooded mountain. The pair grow up in the shelter, with 1950s detective fiction and swing music as the guiding force in their learning. Fifteen years later Marlowe succeeds in digging out the cave entrance. The pair give each other haircuts, dress in suits, and go to rejoin the world.
Philip narrates their adventure on their first day out:
"My name's Philip, and this is going to be a yarn about me and my pal, Marlowe. About the day we got out of this shelter and went off into the post-nuclear world. Now, as excited as we were about leaving the shelter, it was still a joint that held fond memories. I mean, it was the only world we'd ever known. Where I practiced my magic, Marlowe, his dancing; where we both dreamed of becoming private eyes, just like the one's we'd read about."
Marlowe hopes to find their fathers, but Philip is disgruntled that they never returned, and presumes that they are dead. The mountain is now devoid of trees. The first people they find are a trio of radiation burned "mutants" chasing a beautiful woman, Miles Archer (Lisa Blount). They rescue Miles, who kisses Marlowe as a distraction and steals his gun. This backfires, as she drops the activation keys to the last nuclear missile. Miles leaves, and the pair are immediately attacked by a biker gang of bald women in red wigs. Afterwards the boys discover the activation keys, which bears their fathers' names. This excites Marlowe, but disturbs Philip.
They rescue another young woman, Rusty Mars (Michele Little), from a group of armed children Philip nicknames "disco mutants". She takes a liking to Philip, and leads the two of them to Edge City which is plagued by gang warfare. Rusty takes them to a dance club, where they are captured by cannibals. They want the nuclear keys, and to eat the young men, a rarity of uncontaminated meat. Although Rusty helps them escape and apologises, Philip doesn't trust her. Just after they part ways the pair meets up with a friend of Miles' who also wants the keys. After he is dispatched Miles shows up and takes them to her hideout. There she tells them about the purpose of the keys. Miles then threatens to kill them, but they escape.
Rusty has followed them to the hideout, but is attacked by the child gangsters. The pair chase them away, but Philip still doesn't trust her. He wants to shoot her, but is out of bullets. After Rusty apologises again for lying to him and originally handing him over to the cannibals he says, "That was a million years ago, and I got a short memory. In fact, I don't even remember who you are".
The pair resolves to rid the city of the gangs and keep the keys. They go to an abandoned warehouse, using themselves as bait, in the hopes that the gangs will kill each other before killing them. For the most part, the plan works. However, the bosses of the child-gangsters are in fact Philip and Marlowe's fathers. Before he dies, Philip's father tells him that the past does not matter. In the end, the only gangster left standing is Miles, who has the keys. She shoots at them, and misses, but startles Marlowe into shooting and killing her.
The film ends with Philip letting go of the angst which he had nursed for 15 years. He adopts Marlowe's "silver-lining look on life". The two demonstrate Marlowe's tap-inspired "post-nuke shuffle" to the crowds of the city. In the closing narration, Philip explains that they plan to set up shop as detectives, but that first he will find Rusty and see if he can repair his relationship with her. Of the keys, he says that he and Marlowe hid them in a secret location, because "you never know, in a tight jam a nuclear missile just might come in handy".

Tags: comedy, cult, satire

Review:
I belong to the first category: 2 kids growing up in a nuke shelter with a large collection of detective novels deciding to be the post apocalyptic worlds first dicks, The Atomic Dicks!
B-movie queen Lisa Blount pops up in this weird mix and singer Sue Saad gives a few nice songs like the excellent title song "Radioactive Dreams", the soundtrack certainly deserves to be released.
Having only been previously exposed to Albert Pyun's 90s-era direct-to-video low-budget action garbage, I picked up "Radioactive Dream" expecting a futuristic crapfest like "Nemesis" or "Omega Doom".
I was surprised to discover this movie is not only original, but extremely funny and entertaining.Michael Dudikoff (in an effectively humorous role the same year he kicked off his B-action career with "American Ninja") and John Stockwell ("Christine", "My Science Project", and now a director of motion pictures) play Marlowe Chandler and Phillip Hammer - a couple of real dicks!
Having been raised on 50s pulp detective novels (hence their names) while confined to an underground bomb shelter, they emerge 15 years after a nuclear war has turned the world into a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
Purely by accident, our two heroes end up in possession of the two keys that can launch the last nuclear missile in existence, and when this fact is discovered after they reach the last outpost of civilization - Edge City - they find themselves on the run from every mutant gang in town.This movie's pluses include a colorful variety of characters, many based on specific stereotypes from different eras (pulp detectives, disco mutants, greasers) as well as cannibals and giant rats; general goofiness in both the action sequences and the heroes' trying to get acquainted to the changed world; a most excellent 80s soundtrack; and George Kennedy to boot.
But this movie does end with the coolest two-man song and dance number ever.In short, don't let the Pyun credit fool you.
All right, so it's another tidbit of trashy 80s post-apocalyptic fluff, but it's really the cream of the crop and has a great soundtrack, fun sets and costumes, tongue-in-cheek writing and acting, cannibalism, swing dancing, love, innocence, mayhem, violence, and plenty of silly 50s references...
Philip and Marlowe (ha, ha) leave the bomb shelter after basically their whole entire lives, and emerge into a radioactive wasteland, to search for their fathers.
Essentially, it is a half-baked post-apocalyptic comedy about two Hardy Boys-esquire young guys (John Stockwell and Michael Dudikoff) who see the world for the first time.
They run into various zombies, 80s bondage/biker chicks, a genuinely creepy butcher, and several other zany and morally ambiguous characters as they search for their father.Like a lot of Pyun's films, it doesn't take any effort to level the ground for the audience.
Or maybe it was hard to understand that the movie WAS going on without any real plot lying underneath its surface.
If it were trippier and filled with more complex weirdness it could have been more watchable, but it still needed better characters and more fun.There is a dance number at the end that is pretty amazing though .
This is that rarity amongst post-apocalyptic cinema - a film that dares to show people trying to enjoy life in the ruins of civilization.
Although it's eighties heritage shows through in an overzealous use of neon, tacky dance-rock and the frankly dodgy nightclub scenes, any film that can combine a nuclear war with disco has to be applauded.Our heroes emerge after a childhood in a bomb shelter.
Convinced, therefore, that everyone wears sharp suits, talks like a hipster and goes down after one swift punch to the jaw, they embark on their journey back to civilization.Although the film starts by gently mocking the conventions of post-apocalyptic cinema (disco dancing midgets in white suits for instance (no, I'm not making this up!)), the bravery of the script dwindles, and about half way through it degenerates into the very generic twaddle that it sets out to mock.
If you are a cult film fan, then all the pain you have to endure with a movie like this is just part of the fun.
I have been a sort-of fan of this film for a long time, as it was an attempt (no matter how misdirected) to like two of my favorite genres of film.
It begins with sort of a comedic premise, it works well as a strange sort of slapstick comedy (with Michael 'American Ninja' Dudikoff turning a surprisingly good performance).
They then enter the world after the bomb and thier innocence is confronted by a series of unpleasant challenges and betrayals (some that are surprisingly un-funny, but not bad).
Then the film ends in a dance number...OK, it's wierd, but I honestly believe that anyone who has an appreciation for strange film will really enjoy this movie.
His name is Albert Pyun and his movies are crap.
There was a hope in me during the movie that Michael Dudikoff would die a horrible death.
No matter what I say, you will see it if you want to, but I can not imagine an intelligent person that would consider this a good movie..
I don't know what happened to Albert Pyun between this movie and Cyborg, but I like *this* Albert Pyun.
This one made a post-apocalyptic/film-noir/comedy/adventure.
George Kennedy as the b-movie, small-role-character-actor king of kings.
Radioactive Dreams is comparable to both 'My Science Project' and 'City Limits,' two dirt-budget science fiction films with great ideas and a decent cast unfortunately trampled by a nickle-shooting budget.
Ironically, they all starred or co-starred John Stockwell.Granted, Radioactive Dreams, was at least an interesting plot (which is the only reason I gave it a 2-star rating).
Two idyllic young men not coincidentally named Phillip and Marlowe (Stockwell and Dudikoff) abandoned by their fathers grow up in a bomb shelter following the nuclear destruction of their planet, decide it's time to leave the shelter and live out their 1950s comic-book inspired fantasy of being two of the greatest private detectives (which of course, lends to a running gag).
Only, when they get outside, their idealism is quickly floundered when their chivalrous assistance of a young girl chased by nuclear mutants inadvertently leads to dangerous and disastrous flirtations with the 'darkside.' The girl, as it turns out, leaves them custody of a pair of highly-sought keys that control a nuclear missile (ironically) and thus, like Sam and Frodo in Lord of the Rings, they've got to keep these keys from getting in the wrong hands.
It involves a lot of warehouse footage, bad acting (especially an abundance of girlish screams from Dudikoff), cheap effects, a sappy ending involving a little-expected parental reunion, and a longer-than-necessary finale.
The mid-80s atmosphere could have provided all the necessary spunk and attitude that would have provided the perfect touch to a unique story as this (Phillip and Marlowe are not the only ones trapped in a cultural generation of their own...I particularly love the deadly disco kids a penchant for cursing), but once again, a scrap shooting budget posed lots of limitations not to mention.Worth it a shot at least for the story, but otherwise, it's about the same muddle film as City Limits (though certainly not as bad).
The concept is 2 guys who have locked up in a bomb shelter for twenty years or something reading Noir detective books from the forties.
They come out of the bomb shelter in post nuclear world with Humphrey Bogart attitudes and clothes.
The concept of this...for lack of a better word, Film is the story of two guys raised in a bomb shelter after being kidnapped by bank robbers Fat Guy from Cool Hand Luke, and Other Guy not in Cool Hand Luke.
Don't just watch Guys and Dolls, sniff paint fumes, and decide to make a movie.So these guys run around...and...ARRGHHHH...pains me...to...remember this film...must...struggle on...must warn society...The story isn't the only thing holding this flick back...it's a technical nightmare.
The action unfolds in 2010, almost 15 years after the world has blown itself up, Only one missile born nuclear weapon is left, and whatever mutant survivor holds the Keys to its launch controls will have the power of ultimate obliteration.
The world is threatened again!, Phillip and Marlowe  two guys trapped in a bomb shelter for more then a decade with nothing else but canned food and 1940's detective books  are the only hope.
Loved the film, and great music Starring John Stockwell from "Christine" also with Michael Dudikoff from "Bachelor Party" , Michele Little From "My Demon Lover" and George Kennedy from "the Naked Gun films", All up I give it 8 out of 10.
the actors are good, but the movie is just bad.
The only thing I really liked about this movie is Michael Dudikoff.
He and John Stockwell play two teens who have grown to maturity inside a bomb shelter with nothing but Philip Marlowe novels, and when they finally set foot out into the post-nuke future, encounter everything from a mysterious woman to some really ugly creatures.
I just liked watching Dudikoff do comedy for a change (his teenage girl-like reaction to discovering that a giant creature hanging from the ceiling is alive is hysterical) and show off some cool dance moves at the end.
John Stockwell and Michael Dudikoff star as two private dicks who emerge from a fallout shelter in the future after the bomb has dropped, once there we witness our two heroes fight mutants, midgets, cannibal hippies and a terrorist group, they've also grown up on 50's style literature and music so their whole "Gee whiz" attitude contradicts the mean world outside.
Michael Dudikoff who would become a B.movie level star after American Ninja, really grates the nerves as his over the top shrieking never approaches the funny but always is annoying.
Indeed you pick any Dudikoff movie on the video shelf and chances are you will not find a performance of his that reaches this level of bad.
(See City Limits, which is even worse than this) Also there is no action which is the only way one can handle such a movie premise, after all it's about two sleuths who save the world, give us some action!
Sadly Pyun treats this as a drama and induces slumber on the audience forced to witness this travesty.So what you have is Dudikoff's worst performance, Stockwell in his comfort zone and George Kennedy at his most embarrassed.
The ending is somewhat diverting but once again this is a movie that has a great first act and nothing but sheer boredom after.
The movie is somewhat bizarre but really this is strictly for die hard Dudikoff fans, who've watched American Ninja 4 too many times.
I can enjoy a good B-class movie.
It's an ambitious effort , but made so badly it makes you want to commit suicide.This is a half-baked post-apocalyptic comedy that mixes "Mad Max" with noir movies and comic books.
The dialogues are annoying.On the plus side the acting is surprisingly decent , especially from John Stockwell and Michael Dudikoff.
It's an Albert Pyun movie !
Writer/director Albert Pyun's first foray into post-nuke sci-fi/action cinema remains to this very day his single most novel and idiosyncratic entry in that sub-genre.
It's a wickedly wacked-out black comic tongue-in-cheek end-of-the-world oddity which fuses vintage 40's film noir conventions -- morally upright gumshoes with a strong personal code of honor that's constantly being challenged by every twisted turn of the convoluted jigsaw plot, fetching femme fatales, evil criminal underground figures, hard-boiled introspective narration, assorted just-looking-out-for-themselves opportunistic low-life dirtbags double and triple crossing our amiably guileless heroes, dense, smoky, shadowy lighting, a gritty urban setting teeming with violence, corruption, treachery, and unremitting moral blackness, a fiery big gun-blasting shoot-out ending -- with a raucous, spiky, nose-thumbing 80's funk-punk sensibility.John Stockwell and Michael Dudikoff are utterly engaging as Phillip and Marlowe, a pair of cloddish, wet-behind-the-ears, pork-pie hat and trenchcoat-wearing innocents who pattern themselves after laconically cool private eyes after spending most of their lives reading pulpy crime thriller books in a subterranean nuclear fall-out shelter.
Coming above ground on April 1st, 2010, the bumbling pair, unaware that they possess the two keys for the last functional MX missile in existence, are totally unprepared for the harrowing experiences they have when they finally venture into the brutish, bombed-out post-apocalyptic world.
The key folks who mercilessly chase after our boys are lethally enticing, cold-blooded fugitive dame Miles Archer (marvelously played to the nasty, "don't mess with me Buster!" nines by imposing, statuesque tall drink of luscious blonde water Lisa Blount), feisty tart with a heart Rusty Mars (tasty brunette dish Michele Little), and vicious mob kingpins Dash Hammer (a superbly steely Don Murray) and Spade Chandler (the always invigorating George Kennedy), who are the two dastardly dudes who dumped the guys in the shelter back in 1996.Loaded to the vibrant, head-bursting brim with grungy clothes fashions, equally grotty set designs, gnarly make-up f/x by Greg ("Vamp") Cannom, stylishly dim cinematography by Charles Minsky, a first-rate wild'n'wailing New Wave soundtrack (the groovy theme song especially smokes), a generous sprinkling of thrilling frantic action, a very dark sense of warped brash humor, dynamic direction, wittily right-on homages to classic 40's literary fiction and film noir movies, spirited performances, punchy pacing, colorfully quirky characters, and enough inspired oddball ideas for at least a dozen pictures, "Radioactive Dreams" cooks with a maniacally stoked, hopped-up vitality that's both funny and enjoyable in equal measure, therefor making this welcome change-of-pace lampoon a refreshingly offbeat delight..
The eighties, some of my favorite movies have come from this time and most of them failed to find an audience.
Such films as Buckaroo Banzai, Streets of Fire and Radioactive Dreams found new ways to tell classic stories and over the years Streets and Banzai have both developed cult followings but sadly Radioactive Dreams has never been able to find its fan base.
It may be because it has never been released on DVD, it could be the terrible music number that grinds the movie to a halt just when the excitement should be building but perhaps it is just too odd.The story is the standard hard boiled detective yarn with the dick trying to play several sides against each other and discovering the danger of putting their trust in the wrong person.
At least it would be standard if not for the Post-Apocalyptic setting and the fact that our heroes have spent almost their entire lives locked up in a bomb shelter and have picked up all they know about the world from reading detective novels.
These changes allows the characters to actually grow from kids playing a game to two guys trying not to become cynics in the face of a world were everyone only consider their own best interests and everyone is expendable.One of the problems with the film for first time viewers is the way that the tone changes from a pretty light hearted beginning to a much darker conclusion.
It is a fun, very entertaining entry in the Post-Apoc genre and needs a DVD release so it has a chance at building new fans..
Made in 1985 when the whole world lived under the shadow of the bomb and the Cold War looked like it would never end.
In fact not only is it not a joke its the day the world ends with Nukes aplenty going off.
Fast forward 15 years from that nightmare to April 1st, 2001 and we are introduced to a couple of people living underground who survived the bombs.Mainly the story is about Phillip and Marlowe, however that pun is intended as they are 2 guys who dreamt of become Private Investigators so its a post apocalyptic film noir.
It's so noir the movie even starts in black & white but it immediately changes to colour once the guys leave their shelter and drive into the outside world.I knew I recognised the face of Phillip (John Stockwell) and it was because I remembered him playing the role of best friend Dennis in the horror movie Christine, the guy playing Marlowe (Michael Dudikoff) appears to be the worlds greatest bit part actor having been in nothing of any importance.The helpful trawl tells you the guys are Phillip Hammer and Marlowe Chandler (ignore how their billed in IMDb.com, its wrong) and they'd grown up in a shelter full of 40's memorabilia and sleazy detective novels hence the stupid noir style names.We also learn about a power struggle over 2 keys that could fire the last nuke left on Earth.
The guys discover the keys and the name on the case that contains them is Dash Hammer - Phillips father, so they set off to discover if he is alive or not.After a bizarre encounter with Disco Mutants & a girl called Rusty Mars they finally enter Edge City, the closest thing to civilization.
(His flashback to his childhood is extremely inaccurate as its a very well known fact that looking directly into a nuclear blast burns out your retinas so he should actually be blind).Setting off in 40's outfits that fit them perfectly (stolen from the Disco Mutants, thats what was inside the 2 packages they were carrying) Phillip & Marlowe sucker the gangs following them into a trap in the hope they will all kill each other in the confusion.There's a nice twist about the identities of 2 of the Mutant leaders which is followed by an extremely pointless battle scene (why bother fighting for something you already have?) which ends up with the keys in Miles' possession.
The film is pretty boring, there are lots of periods of nothing happening interspersed with rapid paced action that doesn't last long then a bit of dialogue to following and the cycle continues from start to finish.