Original Title:

Alternative Title(s):

Year of Release:

1989

Duration:

88 minutes

Country of Origin:

USA

Tagline(s):

Reviewed Version Rating:

UK Pal VHS 18

It seems like there are two conflicting ideas behind this film. Firstly, there is David Heavner, the lead actor who also wrote and directed this, who wants to be a Clint Eastwood western character. He doesn't like to say much and he likes nothing better than long, lingering meaningful wide shots. Secondly, we have the need to cram as many mindless executions and breasts into the film as possible. Guess which one wins? That’s right, there are plenty of villains who like nothing more than a bit of rape and pillage. Fortunately, somebody realized that there simply wasn’t the budget (or creative talent) to make the first idea (presumably to make a meaningful western) interesting so they thought they would spice it up a little. Unfortunately the second idea is screwed up too.

The film starts with the clichéd (but oh so post-apocalyptic) voice-over explaining what has happened to the world. Apparently, nobody thought a nuclear war would happen but, guess what? They were wrong. So what we end up with is a lawless wilderness with a few good people living in left over ruined towns. Not much is explained about what actually happened. In fact not much is really explained at all. Luckily for the people involved, the world seems to have sorted itself out quite well (as it really would, nature abhors a vacuum). The odd traveler might wander into town a little hungry but mostly the people seem ok. It doesn’t look like anybody is in short supply of petrol or water. The townspeople have plenty of food and electricity, although who knows where they get it from. The only problem seems to be the crumbling buildings they live in.

So the main character Cody (Heavner) is left for dead by a group of bandits after they rape his sister and then murder her and his whole family. Old cowboy Duke (Stuart Whitman, who went on to star in Omega Cop) appears from the hills and nurses him back to health. In his spare time Duke makes a few guns with scraps of metal and a screwdriver (he must be a genius) and teaches Cody how to shoot. “Look at his eyes, watch his hands, let him act first,” says Duke, “it’s always better to be the reactor”. Oh, hold on a second. I had to have a quick check of the video box at this point. Nuclear Holocaust? Check. Bad guys? Check. A Deadly Reactor? Oh, it’s him. Cody is THE REACTOR. I was expecting it had something to do with the whole nuclear thing, not the quality of somebody’s reactions. I promise myself to read the box more carefully next time (although anybody who has read the description on the back of the PAL VHS 2019: After the Fall of New York box will probably warn you against this).

Fat bad guy Hog has a gun. Duke makes guns and Cody learns to shoot a gun. Lots of guns then.

 So far so good, but unfortunately Cody is a preacher, so he doesn’t want to hurt people. One day wo drifters stop by to loot Duke's house. Cody returns from somewhere (who knows what he was up to) to find the drifters pointing a gun at Duke. The preacher can’t bring himself to shoot them, but when they shoot Duke, he has a change of heart. See what he did there? He reacted. Unfortunately, waiting for them to make the first move meant that poor old Duke had to bite the dust. That doesn’t matter though because now surely it must be time for some ass-kicking? Unfortunately, not quite yet.

Cody first "reaction" isn't quick enough to save Duke.

It's now time for the gang (who killed Cody's family earlier) to go to the local town, whose townsfolk up until now have been holding hands and dancing in a big circle with the fakest happy laughter I have ever heard, eating in their café (even thought there only seems to be about 25 inhabitants of the town) and praising the lord (thanks for the holocaust, oh holy one). That’s right, they are all big on religion and dress like Amish people. The bandits soon sweep through the town, execute a few people (including the sherrif, who was rubbish), which really isn’t the nicest thing, and unleash their boss, a big fat man named Hog, on the women. Unfortunately for the movie, Hog is no great leader, so there's little effort needed to outwit him. All he cares about is raping the good-looking blonde daughter of the cafe owner, Shawna (Allyson Davis, who went on to star in just one more movie before slinking off to work in retail or similar  in shame for having been in Deadly Reactor). Seriously, rape is all he wants to do for the whole film. Unfortunately for him, he's called away on business for the evening so the deed has to wait. He has to go and buy some more guns from another town, leaving his cronies in charge. Time for Cody to deal with the scum and impress the townsfolk. Just before Cody gets there, Shawna decides to go for a topless dip in the local pond, which is referred to as a lake, but seriously is little more than a big mucky puddle. Surely if they have buildings and electricity they could find a bathtub. “You’ve been in the lake long enough” cries her mother, “remember the radiation isn’t good for you." That’s practically the only mention of the after-effects of the nukes in the entire film. Meanwhile, the gang seems preoccupied with abusing the locals.

The Hog checks out Shawna while Cody prepares for revenge.

For some reason, at this point I started to notice that everybody seems to like Jim Beam whiskey. It appears in half the film. I thought they must have got some funding from them, and the credits at the end of the film give thanks to Miller Beer (I think that Miller Inc. owns the Jim Beam label) and Consolidated Cigars. Most likely the prop department was on a pitifully tight budget (or maybe they paid the extras in whiskey and cigars, wouldn't be the first film crew to trade acting for goods and services instead of cash).

Anyway, it’s not a particularly bad scene when Cody turns up to clean out the town. The first bad guy gets a bullet to the crotch which immediately raises the stakes. Cody soon runs the gang out of town. The dumb townsfolk are suitably impressed and decide to offer Cody the sheriff's job, vacant since Hog killed the earlier guy. He isn’t interested at first, but when he realizes the gang is the same one that killed his sister, he changes his mind. Luckily for him, Shawna takes a shine to him (admittedly, you would too if the other option was Hog).

 
Shawna's impressed by Cody's methodical killing.

At this point the music starts to get a bit repetitive. It’s an odd mixture of synthesized cowboy music with some piano. It gets a bit upbeat at times when you wouldn’t imagine, but I quite like it (it’s my kind of crap).There's a pretty pointless side story about two drifters who fought in some war, although what war they never really say, I presume it’s the one that caused this holocaust. They bump into each other in the town’s jail after years of drifting. The jail looks barely secure enough to hold a toddler. Later there 's a shot that shows the bars are only a little higher than the actors' head and any criminal could easily climb over the top for freedom. Cody soon lets them out of jail and makes one of them a deputy. It seems a wise idea at the time as none of the townsfolk are into violence, and a couple of ex-army guys should certainly help out in any scuffle. Once again this turns out to be not entirely accurate, as we shall see.

 
The easiest jail to escape from in the world.

Cody decides to head down to the puddle for a wash and is joined by Shawna for the mandatory sex scene, even though he has until this point not said anything to her. I hope they didn’t stay in the water too long. Remember, the radiation isn’t good for you.

Cody seems to have reinvented himself after his bath. Suddenly, he's talkative and ready for action. He even persuades the townsfolk to bear arms and protect themselves. Shawna seems to have done him a world of good as now it looks like there could be quite a good showdown heading our way. Hog regroups his men and prepares for a dawn raid. Somehow Cody reads Hog’s mind and prepares the people for a battle in the morning. Unfortunately, there are no A-Team type constructions or preparation. They simply trudge up to their roofs. The two army guys stand behind a little wooden fence on the side of a building. The fence has lots of holes in it so you can see through. It’s about 60cm high and at no point do the guys duck down. Duck? More like sitting duck. Very stupid, nearly as stupid as the gang members who seem to follow Hog’s orders for no good reason. In fact, I don’t think anybody in this film could possibly be described as intelligent.

So, before the gang turns up to reclaim the town, Cody gets on his horse and disappears. When the gang arrives the townsfolk start shooting. The gang just stands around laughing as each bullet misses due to poor aim. Ridiculously, the gang continues to stand around and laugh. Eventually, they start to shoot back, but it’s honestly five minutes of shooting without anybody even getting scratched. Finally, the good folk run out of bullets (if they were the A Team they'd never run out of bullets...) and surrender.

The clever war heroes find a safe place to hide, then fail to hit even one enemy.

 Just before the gang takes their prisoners Cody arrives, "Reacting" to the situation, supposedly driving the gang into a situation that is better for him. Now, this was a point that Heavner (the wannabe director) was trying to get across but it just doesn’t seem to work like he must have intended. A few interesting fights but nothing too exciting. Plenty of people are around to get shot considering only four gang members originally turned up for the showdown. I figure the same guys were killed plenty of times, in fact the credits only list five "Hog’s men". There's a funny but bizarre grenade-in-the-pocket scene, although where the grenades came from we will never know. Eventually, Cody saves the day for the majority of the townsfolk, but during the fight Hog turned up and managed to take Shawna off for that raping he wanted earlier. He honestly cares more about that than the fact that all his men are getting killed.

Future grenades dont cause any actual bodily harm, they simply propel the body into the air.

Searching for the Hog, who is going nowhere fast in his vile attempt at the slowest rape in history, Cody is ambushed and tied up by the last surviving member of Hog’s gang. Luckily, the gang member is equally slow, like a criminal in a Bond film giving him just enough time to find a clever way to escape. I won’t say exactly what it is (there has to be some reason for you to watch this film) but it comes with a little help from long-dead Duke. The battle ends with a nice showdown with plenty of intense piano music in a desolate train yard (ok, so it’s not so great but I can’t resist a desolate train yard) with Hog, who is finally distracted from the girl. Cody gets a bullet to the chest which inexplicably fails to kill him or even significantly slow him down, whereas a goon was killed with a bullet to the crotch earlier in the film (the Law of Disproportional Weapon Damage, wherein the hero can always take vastly more damage than a villain before expiring after a lengthy death monologue). Cody suddenly finds himself with two double-barrel shotguns that appeared out of nowhere and finishes the job.

Hog drags Shawna to his love shack. 

Cody gets shot in the chest then conjures op a pair of shotguns out of thin air!

The town rejoices and we get a couple more long lingering, supposedly meaningful shots to end the film.

Final Thoughts:

The story is so basic that the film just isn’t given the chance to flourish. On top of that, all the characters are so stupid (maybe it’s a side effect of the radiation) that you wonder whether it matters if they survive or not. If it moved faster, had a bit of clever dialogue and a bit more action it would be much better, but it’s just too bare to be considered a good film. If you are into good B-movies, or even part of the "so bad its good" crowd, then I would give it a miss. It’s almost entertaining but if the genre doesn’t interest you then this certainly won’t. Luckily, if you love PA films, there are one or two memorable bits to render it not totally worthless.

Alternative Versions:

  Interesting Facts:

Quotes:

“Look at his eyes, watch his hands, let him act first, it’s always better to be the reactor.” Duke

“You’ve been in the lake long enough, remember the radiation isn’t good for you.” Shawna’s mother

Connections With Other PA's:

Critic's reactions:

Regular Movie Goers Reaction:

Low production values and a shockingly basic plot mean there's not much here to interest the Hollywood crowd.

For the PA Collector:

I didn’t hate watching it and it does conform to most PA conventions. No desolate quarries or shoulder pads though, this is clearly a cowboy PA. It’s a must-have for the collection if you're collecting post-apocalypse films. Quite a nice PAL VHS box too, the NTSC VHS looks like a western and the DVD release (hard to track down) Looks pretty poor, and so does the recent region 0 DVD.

Purchase Point:

Links / External Reviews:

http://www.coldfusionvideo.com/d/deadlyreactor.html

"As far as I can tell, the only difference between the post-apocalyptic world and a heavy garden-variety economic depression is that there aren't any cops or telephones."

http://www.davidheavener.com/

He wrote, directed and starred in this. On his website he offers filmmaking seminars!

Countries Released:

UK, US and probably more.

DVD Release Info:

Has had a budget release and I recently picked up a copy in Dublin. I have also seen it as part of a double disc release with a unrelated movie.

Actual Budget/Guessed Budget:

Our Score:

 4 out of 10

Media:

Advertisement Poster(s):