Steel
Short description
An engineer who designs weapons for the United States military walks away from the project after a test goes wrong. When the hardware he helped develop turns up in the hands of street gangs and criminals, he builds his own armored suit, an electrohammer and a gadget-laden motorcycle, and sets out to take the weapons back. A electronics specialist and his uncle Joe help him put the equipment together, while a former officer named Nathaniel Burke is the man the gangs got their hardware from. Working as a vigilante, John Henry Irons becomes Steel, though his untested gear does not always cooperate.
Steel is a 1997 American action and science fiction film directed by Kenneth Johnson, who also wrote the screenplay. It followed his earlier films The Incredible Hulk and Short Circuit 2 in his directing career. The picture is based on the DC Comics character of the same name, and the cast is led by Shaquille O'Neal as John Henry Irons, with Annabeth Gish as Sparky, Richard Roundtree as Uncle Joe, Judd Nelson as Nathaniel Burke, Irma P. Hall and Harvey Silver. Quincy Jones, Joel Simon and David Salzman produced.
Made for about 16 million dollars, the film took in roughly 2 million dollars worldwide, a small fraction of its cost. Audiences rate it 4.2 out of 10 on TMDB across 296 votes, and its critics' rating stands at 3 out of 10 from 25 reviews, so both measures land in similar territory at the low end.
What's left behind the scenes
- In the comics, Mr. Steel drew inspiration from Superman. After Superman's death, he created special armor for himself, took Superman's shield, and began fighting crime. Superman is not mentioned in the film, but a reference to him can be found in one of John's tattoos.
- Filming was scheduled to take 51 days and 32 nights in central Los Angeles. Shaquille O'Neal was preparing to participate in the 1996 Olympic Games, training on Hawaii, so director Kenneth Johnson had five weeks to shoot all the material with Shaquille O'Neal. Before the start of the Olympics, O'Neal worked through the entire script, and during breaks between games at the Olympics, he worked on his character's portrayal with Ben Martin. By the time he needed to film with the rest of the cast, he had already learned all his lines.
- It was impossible to find a stunt double for Shaquille O'Neal, who is 216 cm tall, so he had to perform all the stunts himself.
- Steel first appeared in the comic book "The Adventures of Superman" #500 (June 1993).
- Once, director Kenneth Johnson spent an entire day in Los Angeles with local children, carrying a copy of the film's script, to make the dialogue of some characters sound as realistic and lifelike as possible.
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