CAUTION: Possible plot spoilers present.
Electrician Robert Dean finds himself in trouble when a group of men try to abduct him. He goes to his wife for help but discovers her on the phone with the men. Finding a floppy disk hidden behind one of his photos, Dean sneaks into his workplace – the medical company Gencom – and runs the disk. He is surprised to find that he was actually somebody else – former soldier John Rice – who was captured & brainwashed into becoming an assassin for Gencom's interests. Along with a female friend who was also captured, Dean must expose the company's plans to assassinate a senator who is trying to expose Gencom's activities to the media.
Ever since he served as DOP on the cult Nazi zombie classic SHOCK WAVES back in the 1970s, Fred Olen Ray has made a living making low-budget genre films. Unlike Jim Wynorski, Olen Ray does things with his own style of filmmaking – and he is not dishonest like Wynorski. Olen Ray's films do not aim too high but wear their cheapness as a badge of honour.
Alas, even Fred Olen Ray can make mistakes. Fugitive Mind is one of those mistakes. The film models itself as a conspiracy thriller but doesn't actually expose the conspiracy coherently enough to be understood. Olen Ray for some reason doesn't put any humour in the film, playing everything straight to the film's detriment. The film's first act has us believe that Michael Dudikoff's tradesman is a victim of some sort of conspiracy but the second act drops the ball completely. It is never made clear what the actual plans of the Gencom company is – they are revealed to have an insider working for the senator but the purpose of this is unclear. Also there is a private detective trying to expose the conspiracy but he is killed off just when things get interesting.
The film's cast are competent enough to survive the film's collapse but they must have had been hard up for the money to sign up for this dreck. Michael Dudikoff, who has been one of Royal Oaks' stock actors for much of the 1990s, does a decent job as usual, but the rest of the cast seem clueless as to what is going on here.
Electrician Robert Dean finds himself in trouble when a group of men try to abduct him. He goes to his wife for help but discovers her on the phone with the men. Finding a floppy disk hidden behind one of his photos, Dean sneaks into his workplace – the medical company Gencom – and runs the disk. He is surprised to find that he was actually somebody else – former soldier John Rice – who was captured & brainwashed into becoming an assassin for Gencom's interests. Along with a female friend who was also captured, Dean must expose the company's plans to assassinate a senator who is trying to expose Gencom's activities to the media.
Ever since he served as DOP on the cult Nazi zombie classic SHOCK WAVES back in the 1970s, Fred Olen Ray has made a living making low-budget genre films. Unlike Jim Wynorski, Olen Ray does things with his own style of filmmaking – and he is not dishonest like Wynorski. Olen Ray's films do not aim too high but wear their cheapness as a badge of honour.
Alas, even Fred Olen Ray can make mistakes. Fugitive Mind is one of those mistakes. The film models itself as a conspiracy thriller but doesn't actually expose the conspiracy coherently enough to be understood. Olen Ray for some reason doesn't put any humour in the film, playing everything straight to the film's detriment. The film's first act has us believe that Michael Dudikoff's tradesman is a victim of some sort of conspiracy but the second act drops the ball completely. It is never made clear what the actual plans of the Gencom company is – they are revealed to have an insider working for the senator but the purpose of this is unclear. Also there is a private detective trying to expose the conspiracy but he is killed off just when things get interesting.
The film's cast are competent enough to survive the film's collapse but they must have had been hard up for the money to sign up for this dreck. Michael Dudikoff, who has been one of Royal Oaks' stock actors for much of the 1990s, does a decent job as usual, but the rest of the cast seem clueless as to what is going on here.