This movie strikes me more of a low busget Sci Fi film that, as part of distribution, ended up being shown on TV as opposed to the notion that it was a TV pilot, made for the purposes of being a series that wasn't picked up.
One reason is the story has a beginning, middle and end. There are no loose ends to build a series around when it ends. Another reason is that this was filmed in 1978 and wasn't shown on TV until 1982. A TV pilot would've gotten air time quicker even if it wasn't picked up. I've seen other TV movies that were sold to networks as is like George Montgomery's Satan's Harvest. That wasn't a TV pilot either.
Likening 984:Prisoner of the Future to The Prisoner isn't very fair for a few reasons. The Prisoner was a TV series with a budget, 984 really suffers from limitations in that regard. The Prisoner was also more of an allegory while 984 doesn't offer much beyond what is shown. 984 gives you all the pieces to fill the picture puzzle instead of doingnwhat The Prisoner did. In that we were imagining how the picture should look and were carving them up to fit how we think the picture should look. That's what made The Prisoner such a masterpiece. 984 doesn't try to achieve what The Prisoner did so the comparison doesn't work for me. A better comparison is to the various versions of George Orwell's 1984 that made it to the screen. We see who is in charge, we see how he comes to power, we then have to puzzle together what happens much like the protagonist, Tom Weston has to do during his tenure in prison. I do feel there is a homage of sorts to The Prisoner at times. The electronic doors make the same sound opening and closing as Number 6's home in the Village.
984 is about a corporate executive named Tom Weston who gets caught up in a political power struggle and is imprisoned by the side called "The Movement" after its leader comes to power. The ideals of the leader, a college professor named Fountaine are Marxist in that the common man will rise up against those with more power than them and become the power structure themselves. Given Tom Weston's profession, Corporations are one of The Movement's targets but as the story unfolds, neither side look like saints.
We get to puzzle together why Weston is a prisoner and the reasons for his imprisonment end up shifting dramatically as the story unfolds. 984 ends up serving a different purpose to The Warden and The Movement while he is there. That becomes apparent in one of the charges filed against him during a flashback Weston experiences while drugged by his captures and the ending tells the rest of the story. It is something I didn't expect though there are clues throughout it that hint to it that I missed.
As I said, this has no real budget at all. The prison itself is at times comical. The robots roll around and we never see more than 2 at a time. We see the same one guard who doesn't seem to age a day even though we see him when Weston is first taken into custody and he remains there after we learn Weston has spent more than 10 years in the prison. The block where Weston's cell is, is the same as all the others with the level number changed. There aren't enough characters for action sequences. The goal seems more to develop atmosphere than anything else. The prison yard where the prisoners get exercise is the same exact location where the prisoners are first detained. It clearly wasn't meant to be seen as the same location but I noticed it. Also there are shots and dialogue that are reused at different times. We are supposed to not care so much about these limitations and concentrate on the story. Being used to low budget movies I can manage this.
There's enough going on to keep me interested. Little asides between characters are clues to what happened when The Movement came to power and there is no doubt about it when it comes to an end.
