Robot Jox
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Achilles: You can live. —Robot Jox
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Robot Jox was a low budget western attempt to exploit the Humongous Mecha genre. In a dystopic future, nuclear armageddon is averted by resolving all battles with duels between giant robots, which are followed by the mass media like sporting events.
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Compare G Gundam, which has a similar general plot hook.
Tropes used in Robot Jox include:
- After the End: It's hinted at that World War III was not a good experience, as serving a single hot dog is considered a special occasion.
- Black Dude Dies First: Likely averted. Ajax, a former robot jock, is pretty much the only black dude in the movie, and although he seems to have been injured in a prior match, the first casualty of the movie is a white guy. Not counting any who may have been in the bleachers, though.
- Combat by Champion
- Catch Phrase: Crash and Burn! Said when a "pilot" downs his opponent. It's also used to wish pilots luck in a "Break a Leg" kind of way.
- Defeat Means Friendship
- Engineered Public Confession: How The Mole is discovered.
- Everything Is Big in Texas: One of the characters, Tex, is nothing but this. Giant hat, heavy accent, boisterous attitude, heavy build; he's the biggest stereotype in a movie full of them.
- Groin Attack - The Russian robot has one mounted on where the groin should be.
- Combined with a bit of Chainsaw Good and Freud Was Right for good measure.
- Becomes Hilarious in Hindsight after Thirty Hs features a groinsaw in the very first chapter.
- Handshake Substitute: The film ends with one.
- Have You Told Anyone Else?: Of course he hasn't. [1]
- Humongous Mecha
- Luck-Based Mission: Tex became famous after a victory over a Russian opponent in a far superior robot, owing his victory to precisely hitting a weak spot in the enemy's armor. He chalks his victory up to blind luck. We later discover that he wasn't lucky at all...
- Made of Explodium: Writer Joe Haldeman told a story about the filming that ended with a child of the director (or was it the producer?) saying "Daddy, tables don't explode."
- The Great Politics Mess-Up: Averted. It's called Russia in this film, even though it's released in 1990. Then again, Alaska is also independent in the story, so no telling what happened to the U.S. in World War III, either.
- The Mole: Tex
- Real Robot
- Space Is Noisy: Averted. Highly surprising, considering the incredible amount of Willing Suspension of Disbelief this film requires.
- Space-Filling Empire: There are two competing world polities, comprised of the surviving nations.
- Star-Derailing Role: This pretty much ruined Gary Graham's career for a long time outside Alien Nation TV movies.
- Tempting Fate: Tex is particularly concerned about this.
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It's bad luck to say good luck! |
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- Xtreme Kool Letterz: Right there in the title.