Saturn 3 (1980)

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Posted By: brian@brianschell.com May 9, 2023

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

The sets are the standout in this one. The robots are pretty cool, expensive, and the best they could do at the time. All the effects are quite good. The acting is hit-and-miss, as is the script. Overall it’s more entertaining than not, but it’s far from a perfect film.

Synopsis

An enormous spaceship approaches Saturn. We cut to various scenes of sci-fi sets as many people talk over each other. A little ship is loaded for launch, and Captain James rushes to report. We hear him talk to Benson, who failed his mental stability test. James suggests that he not try to appeal it. Benson straps himself in and opens an airlock, sucking James right out while being shredded at the same time (why would that be in a locker room?). Benson then takes James’s place on the launch. The launch proceeds as scheduled, on the way to Saturn 3.

Saturn 3 is an experimental food research station located on one of the moons of Saturn. Benson, who replaced James, unloads his luggage and carries it inside, where everyone removes their masks. We have Benson, Major Adam, and Alex. She says that they hardly ever get visitors, especially from Earth. The entire Solar System is colonized, and Alex has never even been to Earth. They are in eclipse behind Saturn, so there’s a communications blackout that will last 22 days.

Benson says they’re behind schedule with their work, and they need help which he has brought. Adam and Alex are clearly an item, showering together. Benson gives Alex some “Blue Dreamers,” some special sleeping pills, but Adam doesn’t approve of their use. She wants to try one together. He has to remind her to wear clothes because they have a guest.

Benson sees the pet dog and thinks it looks tasty. Benson is unhappy that Alex isn’t available for sex, as she’s exclusive to Adam, which is not how things are done on Earth. He watches them have sex on the video cameras. The next day, he’s after her again. “I like your body; I’d like to use it.”

Benson opens the weird cylinder he brought. It’s full of lab-grown brains for a robot, but it’s not programmed yet. Once it’s fully programmed, either Adam or Alex will be irrelevant. Adam says he’s getting close to retirement, but he’s not obsolete yet. Adam suggests flushing Benson into space, but Alex thinks that’s just mean.

Benson assembles a huge robot without a brain inside. Adam and Alex are surprised that it’s finished so soon. It’s called Hector, and he’s not quite ready for prime time. Benson plugs his mind into the brain to train the robot directly, but we’ve already seen how stable he is. Adam plays chess with Hector, and Adam wins. Hector crushes the chess pieces.

Adam thinks it’s all very suspect, but Alex argues that Benson has been carefully selected and trained, so it must all be safe.

Alex gets a rock chip in her eye, and Benson holds her still while Hector reaches in with tweezers and pulls it out. It looks scary, but it works out fine. “I’m today; he’s yesterday, don’t you like me?” Benson asks.

Benson doesn’t understand why Hector won’t talk. “I am not malfunctioning. You are,” says Hector by text. Hector kills the dog and picks up Alex, refusing to put her down until she asks it to. Benson admits that Hector wants her; he learned that from him. Hector turns on Benson, but Adam rescues him.

Adam asks Benson what they can do as Hector starts smashing things up, but Benson doesn’t really know, because of course, he isn’t really the guy trained for the job. They hope to wait until the power reserves run out, but Hector has learned to recharge himself. Adam causes a power surge while he’s plugged in, which shorts out Hector and they remove his brain. Benson dismantles Hector, but during the night, Hector controls the mindless robots in the lab to reassemble himself.

Benson says he’s leaving, and he’s taking Alex with him. Adam takes offense to that, and the two men fight. Adam wins easily, but Benson whacks him over the head. Before Benson can do anything to Alex, Hector shows up and cuts Benson’s hand off. And worse. There is a great deal of running around and hiding.

Adam sets a trap for Hector, but Hector avoids it until they push him into the liquid nitrogen. That only slows him down. Adam and Alex suit up and run out to Benson’s spaceship, but it explodes before they can get there– Hector remotely detonated it.

Benson calls for a meeting. It’s really just Hector using Benson’s severed head.

The eclipse finally ends, and another Earth ship makes a flyby to do a wellness check on them. Adam wakes up, and now he’s got one of Hector’s ports installed on the back of his head. We see that Hector can speak in both Adam and Alex’s voices as he lies to men on the ship and sends them away saying everything is just fine.

Adam wires himself up with explosives and reports to the robot. He grabs Hector and jumps into the liquid nitrogen pit as he sets off the explosives. Bits and pieces fly everywhere.

We cut to a massive starliner, and we see Alex on board, finally going to Earth for the first time…

Commentary

The opening scene, with the giant ship, couldn’t be more of a ripoff of Star Wars’ Star Destroyer intro scene. Benson’s murder of James didn’t set off any alarms? You can’t even open the back door at Walmart without setting off alarms!

For the age of the film, the space effects are really pretty good. The sets are large and really well done, some of the largest constructed at the time. The robot, which cost a million dollars to build, is not that impressive, but it does the job.

Harvey Keitel had a strong accent that they didn’t like, so all his lines are dubbed- this makes him sound stilted and almost robotic, definitely off. Earth sounds like a truly awful place.

There’s an awful lot of running around in those expensive corridors. It looks good, but the story is stretched out, the pacing is awful, and the acting is somewhere between mediocre and atrocious.