Android (1982 film)

Android is a 1982 American science fiction film directed by Aaron Lipstadt. It tells the story of a scientist who gets busted for creating an illegal program for Androids.

Plot
In the year 2036 a human-looking android named Max 404, and his creator, Doctor Daniel, reside aboard a remote space station. Although Max is a machine he has growing interest in all things human, especially sex, and is caught by Daniel watching a sexual instruction video. After Daniel admonishes him, Max eavesdrops on the doctor's report that Max's growing insubordinate behavior could lead to mutiny similar to an incident back on Earth known as the "Munich Revolution" after which androids were outlawed. It is then revealed that Daniel is illegally working on another android, Cassandra One, a female who he believes will be a superior machine.

Next Max receives a distress call from a ship that seeks repairs. Upon hearing the pilot's female voice, he excitedly permits them to land, not realizing that the ship is a prison transport and that the pilot, Maggie, and her associates, Keller and Mendes, the latter her lover, are escaped fugitives. Once aboard the station, the convicts settle in, posing as the transport's crew who were previously killed during the prison break. Daniel becomes infuriated when he learns Max allowed the ship to land and demands they leave immediately, but he quickly changes his mind when he meets the attractive Maggie and invites her to have dinner with him in his personal garden.

Maggie joins Daniel but the dinner goes wrong when a jealous Max pranks the doctor with some embarrassing mischief, such as ball-bearings in the wine bottle and cutting the doctor's orchids. Daniel then pointedly asks Maggie if she would link up with his female android in an attempt to transfer sexual experiences to the machine. Maggie learns she would need to be sexually stimulated by the doctor during the procedure and she declines the offer. Daniel becomes frustrated and demands Maggie help him, but she makes a hasty exit. Daniel returns to the lab and angrily reports in his log, (again overheard by Max), that once Cassandra is ready he will be deactivating Max.

While the criminals work on the ship, a TerraPol police cruiser arrives, having detected a still-active transponder on their ship, and contacts Max to inform them of their presence. Max denies that the fugitives are on board, even though he checks the crew's identity to confirm they are indeed escaped convicts. When the police demand permission to land, Max destroys their ship with a laser.

Max later tells Maggie that he knows she is a fugitive, but has saved her from the police, and asks that she take him with her when she leaves the station. Maggie is unsure of what to do, but later sneaks away from Mendes and meets Max in the lab for an intimate encounter. However, the two are interrupted when Cassandra activates and Maggie becomes horrified when she intuits that Max is also an android.

Maggie returns to her quarters, but she is confronted by a furious Mendes, who demands to know where she wandered off to. When he notices her disheveled appearance and unbuttoned shirt, he begins to beat her. Keller interrupts and tries to stop Mendes, but he is knocked unconscious. Mendes then attacks Maggie in her quarters. Later, when Keller awakens, he sees Maggie is dead and believes Mendes has killed her. He searches for him and finds him in a room of spare android parts. Mendes states there are enough parts to build an android of their own, but Keller attacks him from behind. The two struggle, but Keller is overpowered and Mendes kills him with a blow to the head.

Eventually Max arrives, suitcase in hand, to Maggie's quarters, but finds her dead. He sadly returns to Daniel's lab, where the doctor is already aware of the murder and has locked Mendes in the guest lounge. Daniel has Max sit in a chair and opens a panel on the back of his head to reprogram him for a new task, during which he tells Max that murder must be punished and Mendes is to blame. Daniel sends Max out to kill Mendes, and in the meantime, more police ships arrive to forcefully board the station.

After killing Mendes, Max goes to Maggie's room, touches her lifeless body, and finds a flashlight Dr. Daniel said he had earlier misplaced. He now realizes that it was Daniel had killed Maggie, not Mendes. Max returns to the lab. There Daniel has made sexual advances to Cassandra, who has resisted him and is holding him at bay. Daniel asks Max to hold Cassandra for him. After refusing to obey his orders, Daniel begins to struggle with the two androids and they rip his head off, revealing that Daniel himself is an android. Cassandra then disposes of Daniel's head in a trash chute and begins to reprogram Max. She tells Max they are not meant to obey the whims of men. There are other androids on earth in hiding and she wants to join them. She has a plan.

When the police arrive at the lab, Cassandra thanks them for coming to their rescue. Max is now dressed in a lab coat and posing as Dr. Daniel and Cassandra as his assistant. She takes Max by the arm and the two are escorted out by the police, who say they will be taking them back to Earth.

Production
The movie was completely filmed in four weeks and edited in a further three weeks. The original version was 80 minutes long and none of the original content was removed before release. It cost less then 1 million dollars to produce.