I’ve been going through a Don “The Dragon” Wilson phase of late and realized there are a few of movies we’ve never covered on here, so today I thought I would take a look at Cyber Tracker 1 and 2 and see which is the better film.
Cyber Tracker (1994)
Plot: Eric is a secret agent currently working as a security guard for Senator Dilly. The senator is the main advocate for a new kind of police officer: the Tracker, a perfect and nearly invulnerable android. When Eric realizes that senator Dilly is playing dirty games, he not only has Dilly’s security chief Ross after him, but a steady supply of those Trackers.
I really do enjoy the action movies of Don “The Dragon” Wilson and I miss the 90’s when we got so many entertaining straight to video gems. Cyber Tracker is one such movie which is a mash up of Terminator and Universal Soldier and it’s strangely quite relevant today as you could use AI instead of Cybercore as it’s the same moral questions that are asked. This was likely made just for sheer escapist entertainment at the time, but it’s certainly interesting to look at it from a modern perspective about how robots can take over jobs from humans.
Anyway, let’s not overthink Cyber Tracker and just talk about how awesome it is; not only do we have Don Wilson, but we also have Richard Norton as the main henchman, Ross. We know they are going to have an epic showdown at the end and it doesn’t disappoint. This movie barely goes a few minutes without something exploding, fights breaking out or shoot-outs occurring making it well paced and action-packed. You can always rely on Richard Pepin and Joseph Merhi as they were masters of the DTV world in the 90s.
Jim Maniaci was well cast as the Trackers and you may recognize him from The Rock, Armageddon and The Scorpion King, but I haven’t seen him in much since then.
I loved the look of these films of that era where they just used lighting and filters to give it an otherworldly, futuristic feel and despite the modest budgets it worked.
Keep your eyes open in the earlier protest scenes for Art Camacho who plays one of the protesters. I also love how early on when the Tracker walks into the bar we get a nod to Terminator as the Tracker’s search says T-1000.
The music score is sometimes unintentionally humorous though as it has some over the top choral music which feels a little out of place.
Overall, Cyber Tracker is the kind of movie I could watch every day; it’s straightforward, well-paced and packed with action with a story that could still be seen as relevant today.
Cyber Tracker 2 (1995)
Plot: Secret Service agent Eric Anthony Phillips heads the protection of Senator Robert Dilly, who champions cyborg executioners called Trackers. When he refuses to murder a corporate spy, Philips has to join a group of underground rebels.
Don Wilson returns for Cyber Tracker 2 which has an impressive and action-packed opening scene but you can’t help but feel this one feels lower in budget. At one point you can see the boom mic and at another when a bad guy is shot you can clearly see him landing on a mat. This all happens near the end of the film so I wonder if they were just running out of money at this point.
Cyber Tracker 2 really lifts from the first two Terminator movies as well with a police station massacre rivaling the first Terminator for sheer bodycount; then we get one of the Tracker’s getting frozen with liquid nitrogen, so one of our heroes shoots it and utters a one-liner that isn’t “Hasta La Vista, Baby”.
Still, despite that the movie is a fun sequel with Don Wilson having grown his hair out and this time he has to face off against a Tracker that looks just like him; the story continues shortly after the events of the first movie with Phillips (Wilson) now happily married, but when his wife seemingly assassinates a Governor on live television he tries to find out the truth. Thus, we get explosions and shoot-outs but only a couple of fights towards the end, but nothing that really stands out. I still enjoy the movie as it is PM Entertainment, after all and it’s never dull with an action scene every few minutes.
Overall, Cyber Tracker 2 has some entertaining action, but it feels like it has a lower budget than the first movie where we see a boom mic at one point and a few other jarring moments; there are some cool explosions, but it lacks some truly memorable fight scenes.
Verdict
For me this is an easy one – Cyber Tracker 1 all the way! The second movie is fun, but the first has better action scenes and a more memorable villain with Richard Norton. They both make for entertaining Saturday night fare and PM Entertainment movies are rarely boring, so just enjoy the ride.