First-time director T.J. Scott admirably fashions a high-concept sci-fi yarn on a shoestring budget, with clear allusions to films like Blade Runner and The Terminator. It’s all moody synthesisers, dry ice and blue lasers – some of it almost convincing – filmed predominantly in large basements full of pipework. In addition to its dystopian themes, the film is also a non-stop martial arts flick with a great B-movie cast of bare-chested strongmen like Bolo Yeung, Matthias Hues and Billy Blanks. This is a particular good vehicle for Blanks, who stars as a vengeful future-cop called Jason Storm operating in an apocalyptic world ravished by global warming. The rich have gone underground, leaving those on the ‘surface world’ to struggle for survival amongst a fetid, primal wasteland. Storm’s cop friend Zoey (Phillips) is killed when ‘breakers’ – led by the film’s producer, Jalal Merhi – breach underworld security. Zoey later resurfaces as a sexy cyborg called the TC 2000 X; a digitally configured super killer manufactured in The Controller’s laboratory. (Are you still following?). Storm knows too much, so The Controller sends his henchmen out to silence him for good, forcing him above ground to fight for survival in the surface world. He forms a nice bromance with Bolo Yeung – learning all about chi energy – before uniting the disparate factions of the surface world in a bid to stop The Controller from launching a mad chemical attack on the earth’s atmosphere. None of that is particularly important, by the way, as the film gets somewhat distracted in the final act when all the fighting takes over. But still, it’s a valiant effort.

AKA: Demolition Cop.