Max Headroom

I happened on the "Max Headroom: 20 minutes into the future" film on the cable channel Cinemax by accident in 1986 or so. The story, the setting, and the characters drew me in and I was blown away. It had the dreary, rainy, dark mood of "Blade Runner" and "Alien" with a touch of film noir where everyone smokes and the surrounding city is dirty and decaying. The cautionary tale of corporate control is dead on target even becoming more true than when this film came out.

There is an underground of people who don't exist - called 'Blanks' - and others who kidnap and kill people to sell their organs at the local tissue collection agencies.

Amongst this backdrop is Edison Carter - played by Matt Frewer - star reporter for Network 23. He uncovers evidence that his employer is killing viewers in an effort to generate more ad revenue. Instead of "killing the story" as happens today, the bosses decide to kill Edison. They have a problem in doing this however. Being that Edison is the star of the network, if he dies then people will know something is up. Enter teen genius Bryce Lynch - played by Paul Spurrier - who does his best thinking while taking a bath, downloads Edison's brain into a computer. He uses that to create a computer version of Edison in hopes of fooling the viewers.

All is not well when virtual Edison takes the name Max Headroom and escapes the control of Lynch and Network 23.

Helped by the lovely Theora Jones - played by Amanda Pays - and the leader of the Blanks, Blank Reg - played by William Morgan Sheppard - Max puts the screws on Network 23 and the whole corporate control culture.

Frewer is a hoot as Max. His zingers through out the movie help lighten the dark tones and Max is not just a computer clone of Edison. Max is how Edison wishes he could be.

Pays is lovely as Edison's and later Max's producer. She and Max have a good relationship.

Sheppard's Blank Reg is an aging punk rocker with a Mohawk to boot. He has it all figured out.

If you get a chance to see this movie then do it. You won't be sorry.

I loved this film back in the 80s, and its story of CGI characters to replace real people for TV is easily a possibility now. This is my favourite film ever, infact I only found out today that the its less than an hour long - theres so much going on Id swear it was 90 mins plus.

Anyone who is remotely into Sci Fi or computer graphics should see this, or anyone who just likes unusual films and fancies a break from the norm without being bored.

If this was a Manga cartoon instead of a British film, it would be massive!

The original version of this film, which was titled 120 minutes into the Future (I believe) was by far one of the most impressive and subversive things I have seen on TV. The premise involves the idea that Blipverts, or high-speed advertisements, are allowing the TV stations to create more ad time, but are also at risk of causing the most indolent members of society to spontaneously combust.

This is absolutely wonderful!

The whole Max Headroom angle was never really exploited until this became a (too short lived) TV series shortly after. However, this movie is nothing short of being among the most impressive and visionary movies ever made, and by far one of the most interesting (and underrated) cyberpunk tales told.

The low-budget enhances the bleakness of this dystopic future, and the utter pessimism about the future of mankind is palpable at every moment. Watching the TV zombies wander the streets in search of more TV, the dark rooms where the future of man (and media) is decided... the burnt-out buildings, the police-state siege mentality. I have rarely seen anything this ambitious attempted in the past.

This movie warned us about the dangers of mass media, and managed to do it in a way that was not ironic and was highly entertaining. Run out and find this movie if you can (I have seen it on tape, and Sci-Fi channel runs it occasionally). Go... NOW!

I grew up as a teen in the 80s being a HUGE computer geek back when the term wasn't popular. There was something special about Max Headroom, & I still to this day (1/24/2005) think it was one of the BEST TV shows made! It was the only show I made time for...otherwise I was outside with friends or doing some programming with my Commodore 64 (once I found out Amiga computers were used in the show I **wanted** one. Sometime later I bought one, I still believe the Amiga IS the BEST computer platform there has ever been. Windows just doesn't match up. Anyway, I digress...

I loved the humor of Max Headroom/Edison Carter. Matt pulled the characters off very well. The show really did inspire the young hacker in me as well as the fantasy idea (of the time) for computer generating a Computer Character like Bryce did. ;) Hehe. The sense of humor was awesome, the character roles were very good & it touched very WELL on the Truth of TV!!! :D

I would love to see all of the episodes, commercials U.S & U.K., talk shows, & the Paranomia music video by The Art Of Noise come out on DVDs. Everything that was Max Headroom should be on DVD by *NOW*!! A lot of other junk TV like Sienfeld, Friends, etc have made it to DVD & they don't have the loyal following that MAX does. Common, we're WAITING to spend our hard earned $$ on MAX HEADROOM DVDs Loaded with EXTRAS, interviews, the Car Commercial, & so MUCH MORE. Get that stuttering dude on DVDs!!!! It's WAAAAAAAAY past time, Folks!!

As we used to say in the 80s... MAX HEADROOM for President!! At least THAT talking Head says something worth hearing!! :D

Bravo to Bravo for when they aired MAX HEADROOM without commercials. I miss MAX on Cinemax, too!

Reporter Edison Carter discovers that an advertising medium developed by the TV network he works for is killing viewers. The network attempts to 'dispose' of him and replace him with a computer generated version. And so the story goes...

This is a really good film, taking the bleak vision of Blade-Runner and injecting a little 20th century realism. Set in a world where TV networks rule and the population is made up of couch potatoes who rarely venture into the desolation outside their doors, Max Headroom is frighteningly plausible and potentially very downbeat.

However, the story has enough lighter moments to balance the overall darkness of the film and together with a likeable and talented cast, this is a thoroughly enjoyable film that - like its content - was maybe a bit too ahead of its time. 10/10.