Cyborg

Martial arts wizard Jean-Claude Van Damme carves out a dazzling new domain as the future's most fearsome warrior in this adrenaline-charged sword and sci-fi thriller. Filled with non-stop action, Cyborg is a wild ride from start to finish – a post-apocalyptic battle against the ultimate evil. Deteriorating from social anarchy and a deadly plague, 21st Century America has descended into a seething, barbaric nightmare. Only Pearl Prophet (Dayle Haddon), a beautiful half-human/half-robot, has the knowledge necessary to develop a vaccine. But during her desperate quest to gather data and bring a cure to the world, Pearl is captured by cannibalistic Flesh Pirates who plot to keep the antidote for themselves...and rule the globe! Now, only the awesome fighting skills of saber-wielding hero Gibson Rickenbacker (Van Damme) can rescue her – and save what remains of civilization.

Jean-Claude Van Damme, a.k.a. "the Muscles from Brussels," had only a few movies to his credit when he played the hero in this lame postapocalyptic action flick from 1989. It's really just another martial-arts movie, dressed down with near-future trash and dirty sets that have "low budget" written all over them. Van Damme plays the protective escort for a half-human, half-cyborg woman whose programming contains a possible cure for a plague that's threatening to wipe out the entire population of Earth. But the woman is kidnapped by Van Damme's evil nemesis (is there any other kind?) while they are en route to her Atlanta headquarters. That leads Van Damme right into a lion's den of sadomasochistic torture and torment. If you've made it this far (and if you have, why?), you're probably a founding member of the Jean-Claude Van Damme fan club. To everyone else: Don't say you weren't warned--this is the kind of movie in which naming characters after electric guitars (Van Damme's character is named "Gibson Rickenbacker") qualifies as clever screenwriting. --Jeff Shannon