Radioactive Dreams is a 1985 American post-apocalyptic science fiction-comedy film, written and directed by Albert Pyun and starring John Stockwell, Michael Dudikoff, George Kennedy, Don Murray, Michele Little, Norbert Weisser, and Lisa Blount. The two main characters are named for a combination of hard-boiled detective fiction icons: Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler, and Mike Hammer.
A nuclear war breaks out in 1986, expending the world's entire nuclear arsenal – except for one missile. Two young children, Phillip Chandler (Stockwell) and Marlowe Hammer (Dudikoff), are abandoned by their fathers and locked in a fallout shelter cut into the side of a wooded mountain. The pair grow up inside the shelter, with '40s detective fiction and swing music as the guiding force in their learning. Fifteen years later, in 2001, Marlowe succeeds in digging out the cave entrance. The pair give each other haircuts, dress in suits, and go to rejoin the world. Soon thereafter, they find themselves embroiled in a fight over a pair of keys which can activate the last remaining nuclear weapon in the world.
Tropes present in this film:
- After the End: It's set fifteen years after a nuclear war.
- All Men Are Perverts: Phillip and Marlowe are very easily taken advantage of by women.
- Apocalypse Anarchy: The world is apparently run by criminal organizations now with all of them wanting the last nuclear warhead to control the survivors.
- The Apunkalypse: The world has devolved into one of these (albeit Synth music seems much more popular), which makes the heroes Swing-era attitudes all the stranger. Rusty even calls Miles a "New Wave punk."
- Archaeological Arms Race: The last nuclear weapon serves as the film's primary Mcguffin.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Marlowe spends most of the movie as a goofy idiot who's easily duped, especially by attractive women. He ends up killing Miles in the climax after she mocks him for not being able to do it.
- Break the Cutie: A big theme of the the film, as Phillip mentions multiple times in narration, is how the post-apocalyptic world forced him and Marlowe to become more ruthless. Comes to a head when the goofy and good-natured Marlowe kills Miles to stop her from getting away with the keys. However, the final scene suggests our heroes haven't completely given up, due to their light-hearted dancing and the fact that Phillip eventually goes to find Rusty, presumably to reunite with her.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Sue Saad's character stares directly at the camera when she starts singing "Guilty Pleasures."
- Clothing Damage: Philip rips the back off the pants of the mutant biker chick who jumps on his car.
- Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: Averted. Philip gets the chance to ask his father why he and Marlowe were abandoned, but his father refuses to say, instead insisting "the past is the past."
- Daddy Issues: Both our protagonists resent their fathers for leaving them alone in a bomb shelter for 15 years. Marlowe is more forgiving but even he is shaken by the revelation they were alive this entire time.
- Dance Party Ending: The film ends with Philip and Marlowe doing the "Post-Nuke Shuffle" in front of a crowd.
- Did Not Get the Girl: Philip turns Rusty down when she tries to apologize for betraying him. However, the closing narration mentions that he went to go find her later, so maybe they do eventually get together.
- Disco Dan: Philip and Marlowe dress and talk like they're from a 1940s film noir, and are mercilessly mocked for it in the post-nuclear world, especially their naive use of the word "dick." However, their retro suits become Awesome Anachronistic Apparel when they show up for the film's climax.
- Aside from the main duo, there's also greasers like Brick Bardo hanging around, as well as the leisure-suit wearing Disco Mutants. Rusty also initially dresses like a New-Age Retro Hippie and calls people "man" a lot.
- Femme Fatale: Miles Archer is every bit as bad as her opponents but the boys tend to side with her because, well, she's hot.
- Fish out of Water: Phillip and Marlowe might as well be from Mars given how their 1940s-esque attitudes interact with the wasteland survivors.
- Heel–Face Turn: Although she starts out working for the cannibals, Rusty eventually changes her mind and tries to reunite with Philip. Despite this, he turns her down, though he does go off to find her later.
- Kids Are Cruel: A bunch of adolescents called the Disco Mutants are murderous psychopaths. It's a question whether they're adults in children's bodies or feral children.
- Naïve Newcomer: Our heroes have been locked in a vault, sorry, bunker, for 15 years with only each other as company (plus a bunch of detective novels). As such, they're ridiculously ill-prepared to deal with the wasteland around them.
- The Reveal: The cloaked mutants chasing after Phillip and Marlowe are their fathers in disguise. However, we never find out why they abandoned their sons in the first place.
- Rodents of Unusual Size: There's a giant green rat living beneath the city where most of the action takes place. It eats the Disco Mutants when appears the second time.
- Ruins of the Modern Age: Justified as it's set 15 years after the 1986 war (i.e. 2001).
- Scavenger World: Everyone is dressed in clothes leftover from before the War. Justified in the fact it's only been fifteen years and most of the equipment as well as goods leftover are still viable.
- Sequel Hook: The closing narration mentions that Phillip went off to look for Rusty, and that he and Marlowe hid the keys somewhere and specifically didn't destroy them because "a nuclear missile just might come in handy."
- Teenage Wasteland: Played with. Adults are certainly present but the young have a great number of advantages in the new world because they're The Unfettered compared to the old.
