Trivia / Cyborg (1989)

• Acting for Two: The number of actors working for the film was extremely limited, so nearly everyone aside from the leads and Big Bad Fender play multiple roles, usually as Faceless Mooks.
• The Cast Showoff: Jean-Claude Van Damme's trademark leg split actually has a point on this movie. When Gibson is being followed through a dark, almost lightless sewer and is being slowed by an unconscious Nady, he seems to realize he's not going to be able to successfully outrun the pirate chasing him, so he sets Nady down, uses the leg split to suspend himself above a narrow point, and waits. When the pirate passes underneath... well, just watch it for yourself.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Jean-Claude Van Damme later admitted "I didn't like [the film] so much."
  • Angelina Jolie enjoyed acting in Cyborg 2, but when she saw the finished film, she "went home and got sick".
• Divorced Installment: As Troubled Production says, it partly originated from a Masters of the Universe sequel. Some TV stations still give the film's title as Masters of the Universe 2: Cyborg. It also partly originated as an unmade Spider-Man film.
  • Cyborg 2 was supposed to be it's own separate movie called Glass Shadow (the name of the self-destruct program in the film), but the studio had recently bought the rights to Cyborg and decided to turn it into a sequel at the last minute by inserting random footage of Jean-Claude Van Damme's character from the first film.
• Executive Meddling: A rare case that turned into a benefit of the movie. As much as Golan & Globus tinkered with the production, and then let Van Damme re-edit the finished material, they ended up with a big box office hit (especially for Cannon Group standards) that also turned into a Cult Classic and helped the company to stay afloat after Globus left.
• Irony as She Is Cast: When Fender steals the boat he takes to Charleston, he declares that he can't swim and hates water. The guy is played by a professional surfer.
• On-Set Injury: Jean-Claude Van Damme accidentally wounded Jackson "Rock" Pinckney's eye during a swordfight scene, permanently blinding him in that eye. He took Van Damme to court, and eventually won a settlement.
• The Other Darrin: Cash is played by Angelina Jolie in Part 2 but a different actress in Part 3.
• Prop Recycling: The chain mail and forearm guards worn by Fender were part of the costume for Blade in Masters of the Universe.
• Sleeper Hit: The budget was of roughly $500,000. The gross revenue was $29,866,459. Even if one takes in account the two million dollars spent on Prop Recycling, those are healthy numbers.
• Troubled Production: And how!
  • Back in the 1980s, The Cannon Group was planning on making both a Spider-Man film and a sequel to Masters of the Universe. Albert Pyun was at the helm of both projects, with plans of filming them back to back. However, after more than a dozen re-writes and an investment of $2 million in pre-production and very early production, Cannon Films began to lose money fast. It eventually lost the rights for both franchises.
  • Wanting to recuperate some of the money and time invested, Albert Pyun was tasked to come up with a project that could use the production assets like sets and costumes of both failed projects. Pyun came up with the story in a weekend. $500,000 and 24 days of frenetic shooting and editing later, Cyborg was finished.
  • Albert Pyun's first cut of the film^note  sadly lost was somewhat experimental and played more like a war film, being in black and white, containing very little dialogue, and using a heavy metal inspired soundtrack. Producers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus hated it, and demanded a new, more mainstream version that played to star Jean-Claude Van Damme's strenghts. Pyun oblidged, and made a second cut^note  which remained lost for several decades changing the soundtrack a little, and adding most of the dialogue and color back. The test screening ended in disaster, only one person liking it from a hundred surveyed.
  • Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus tried to convince Van Damme to allow them to release the movie as it was. Instead, Van Damme convinced both producers to let him edit the film as he had done previously with Bloodsport and asked them for 2 months, after which Cyborg was finally released.
  • Jackson "Rock" Pinckney, who played one of Fender's pirates, lost his eye during filming when Van Damme accidentally struck it with a prop knife. Pinckney sued Van Damme in a North Carolina court and was awarded $485,000.
• Wag the Director: Jean-Claude Van Damme re-edited the film, much as he did with Bloodsport, to make the fight scenes more exciting and trim down the drama. Van Damme spent two months editing the film. He would do the same on Hard Target.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The script was written with the idea of Chuck Norris playing the lead, but producers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus convinced Pyun to cast Jean-Claude Van Damme instead after his success in Bloodsport.
  • Albert Pyun's original vision was going to be a black and white film with little dialogue.
  • Cyborg actually started out as two separate films — a sequel to Masters of the Universe and a Spider-Man film. However, as detailed in Troubled Production above, neither film came to be and the assets from both were re-used here.
• Working Title: Slinger.

---