''Barb Wire'' is a 1996 American

superhero film A superhero film (or superhero movie) is a film that focuses on the actions of superheroes. Superheroes are individuals who possess superhuman abilities and are dedicated to protecting the public. These films typically feature Action film, ac ...

based on the ''

Barb Wire Barb Wire may refer to: * Barb wire, a fencing material * Barb Wire (character), a comic book superhero published by Dark Horse Comics * ''Barb Wire'' (1996 film), starring Pamela Anderson, based on the comic book * ''Barb Wire'' (pinball), pinb ...

'' comic book series by

Dark Horse A dark horse is a previously lesser-known person or thing that emerges to prominence in a situation, especially in a competition involving multiple rivals, or a contestant that on paper should be unlikely to succeed but yet still might. Origin Th ...

. It was directed by David Hogan, produced by

Brad Wyman Brad Hibbs Wyman (born May 13, 1963) is an American film producer, best known for producing '' Monster'' (2003). His first film was ''White of the Eye'', and later worked on ''Freeway'', ''Trees Lounge'', ''The Dark Backward'', '' The Chase'', a ...

, and written by

Chuck Pfarrer Charles Patrick Pfarrer III (born April 13, 1957) is an American writer, film producer, and former United States Navy SEAL. As an author, he has penned published screenplays, novels, comic book, and non-fiction works. Regardless of medium, his wo ...

and

Ilene Chaiken Ilene Chaiken (born June 30, 1957) is an American television producer, director, writer, and founder of Little Chicken Productions. Chaiken is best known as being a co-creator, writer and executive producer on the television series ''The L Word' ...

. The film stars

Pamela Anderson Pamela Denise Anderson (born July 1, 1967) is a Canadian-American actress and model. She is best known for her glamour modeling work in ''Playboy'' magazine and for her appearances on the television series ''Baywatch'' (1992–1997). Anders ...

in the titular role, alongside

Temuera Morrison Temuera Derek Morrison (born 26 December 1960) is a New Zealand actor and Singer who first gained recognition for his role as Dr. Hone Ropata on the soap opera ''Shortland Street''. He gained critical acclaim for his starring role as Jake "The ...

Victoria Rowell Victoria Lynn Rowell (born May 10, 1959) is an American actress. She began her career as a ballet dancer and model before making her acting debut in the 1987 comedy film ''Leonard Part 6''. In 1990, Rowell joined the cast of the CBS daytime soa ...

Xander Berkeley Alexander Harper Berkeley (born December 16, 1955) is an American actor and voice actor. Since beginning his career in the early 1980s, he has appeared in over 200 film and television projects. His film roles include '' Terminator 2: Judgment Da ...

Udo Kier Udo Kierspe (born 14 October 1944), known professionally as Udo Kier, is a German actor. Known primarily as a character actor, Kier has appeared in more than 220 films in both leading and supporting roles throughout Europe and the Americas. He h ...

, and

Steve Railsback Stephen Railsback is an American theatre, film, and television actor. He is best known for his performances in the films ''The Stunt Man'' and Lifeforce (film), ''Lifeforce'', and his portrayal of Charles Manson in the 1976 television mini-series ...

. Although ''Barb Wire'' was panned by critics, it has attracted a

cult following A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...

Plot

In 2017, during the

Second American Civil War The "Second American Civil War" is an umbrella term used by academics in order to reclassify historical eras of significant political violence in the history of the United States as a "civil war" or, more commonly, to discuss the potential outbre ...

owns the Hammerhead, a nightclub in

Steel Harbor Steel Harbor is a fictional city, one of the settings in Dark Horse Comics' defunct Comics' Greatest World imprint. While the entire Team CGW was involved with the creation of each of the settings, Chris Warner was tasked with the majority of desig ...

, "the last free city" in a

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

ravaged by the war. She earns cash as a mercenary and bounty hunter. Chief of Police Willis raids her club. Willis's target is fugitive Dr. Corrina 'Cora D' Devonshire, a former government scientist with information about a new bioweapon called Red Ribbon being developed by her former superiors in the Congressional Directorate. The Congressional Council has tasked Colonel Victor Pryzer with finding Dr. Devonshire so they can end the Second Civil War by releasing the virus on the United Front territories. Dr. Devonshire hopes to escape to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

to make this information public. Devonshire turns up at the Hammerhead. She is accompanied by Axel Hood, a "

freedom fighter A resistance movement is an organized effort by some portion of the civil population of a country to withstand the legally established government or an occupying power and to disrupt civil order and stability. It may seek to achieve its objectives ...

" Barb had loved at the outbreak of the war. The two were separated during the conflict. Axel tries to help Cora get to Canada. They try to find a contraband pair of

contact lens Contact lenses, or simply contacts, are thin lenses placed directly on the surface of the eyes. Contact lenses are ocular prosthetic devices used by over 150 million people worldwide, and they can be worn to correct vision or for cosmetic ...

es that would allow Cora to evade the

retinal scan A retinal scan is a biometric technique that uses unique patterns on a person's retina blood vessels. It is not to be confused with other ocular-based technologies: iris recognition, commonly called an "iris scan", and eye vein verification that u ...

identification at the Steel Harbor airport. The lenses pass through the hands of several lowlifes before also ending up at Barb's nightclub. Rather than give the lenses to Cora and Axel, Barb makes a deal with 'Big Fatso', the leader of a junkyard gang: Fatso wants the lenses, which are worth a fortune on the black market, and Barb wants a million dollars and an armed escort to the airport, where ''she'' plans to get on the plane to Canada. But Fatso double-crosses Barb; when Barb, Axel and Cora show up at the junkyard to make the swap, Colonel Pryzer and his storm troopers are also there, along with Chief of Police Willis. Willis makes a show of arresting Barb and Cora, but instead of putting

handcuffs Handcuffs are Physical restraint, restraint devices designed to secure an individual's wrists in proximity to each other. They comprise two parts, linked together by a Link chain, chain, a hinge, or rigid bar. Each cuff has a rotating arm whi ...

on Barb, he slips her a hand grenade. Barb uses the grenade to kill Fatso and cause enough confusion to allow Barb, Axel, Cora and Willis to pile into Barb's armored van and lead the Congressionals on a

car chase A car chase or vehicle pursuit is the vehicular overland chase of one party by another, involving at least one automobile or other wheeled motor vehicle in pursuit, commonly hot pursuit of suspects by law enforcement. The rise of the automotive ...

, culminating in a hand-to-hand fight between Barb and Colonel Pryzer on a forklift suspended by crane above the harbor. Pryzer falls to his death while Barb escapes. The party makes it to the airport, where Barb reveals she still has the contact lenses. She gives them to Cora, and Cora and Axel get on the plane to Canada while Willis and Barb remain on the rainswept tarmac.

Cast

* Pamela Anderson Lee as Barbara "Barb Wire" Kopetski *

as Axel Hood *

as Dr. Corrina "Cora D" Devonshire *

Jack Noseworthy Jack Evan Noseworthy Jr. (born December 21, 1964) is an American actor known for his roles in ''Event Horizon'', '' U-571'', ''Barb Wire'' and ''Killing Kennedy''. Early life Noseworthy earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Boston Conse ...

as Charlie Kopetski *

as Chief Alexander Willis *

as "Curly" *

as Colonel Victor Pryzer * Mary Anna Reyes as Woman In Torture Room *

Andre Rosey Brown Andre Rosey Brown (February 7, 1956 – July 18, 2006) was an American film and television actor, police officer and football coach. Life and career Brown was born in Rockford, Illinois. Before becoming an actor, he was a police officer for ...

as "Big Fatso" *

Nicholas Worth Nicholas Worth (September 4, 1937 – May 7, 2007) was an American character actor who appeared on film, on TV, and in video games. Early years Worth was born in St. Louis, Missouri on September 4, 1937. He served for three years in the a ...

as Ruben Tannenbaum *

Clint Howard Clinton Engle Howard (born April 20, 1959) is an American actor. He is the second son born to American actors Rance and Jean Howard, and younger brother of actor and director Ron Howard. His 200-plus acting credits include feature films such as ...

as Schmitz * Nils Allen Stewart as Jack *

Henry Kingi Henry Kingi (born December 2, 1943) is an American stuntman and actor. As a stuntman he has worked in films like ''Fast Five'' (2011). His acting roles include Goody in ''Car Wash'' (1976), Shell in ''Earth Star Voyager'' (1988), the mean Indian ...

as Moe * Mark Collver as Manny * Jennifer Banko as "Spike" * Loren Rubin as Willie Krebs * Peewee Piemonte as Officer Frick * Dominiquie Vandenberg as Officer Frack *

Tony Bill Gerard Anthony Bill (born August 23, 1940) is an American actor, producer, and director. He produced the 1973 movie ''The Sting'', for which he shared the Academy Award for Best Picture with Michael Phillips and Julia Phillips. As an actor, Bi ...

as Foster * Michael Russo as Mr. Santos * Shelly Desai as Sharif *

Marshall Manesh Marshall Manesh (born August 16, 1950) is an Iranian-American actor. Biography When Manesh was young, his father died; he was raised by his mother, from whom he feels he got his strength to make it in show business. He went to the United S ...

as Sheik *

John Paxton John Paxton (May 21, 1911, Kansas City, Missouri – January 5, 1985, Santa Monica, California) was an American screenwriter. Some of his films include ''Murder, My Sweet'' in 1944, '' Cornered'' in 1945, ''Crossfire'' in 1947 (an adaptation ...

as "Smooth" *

Neil Hunt Neil Hunt (born 21 November 1960) is a former professional rugby league footballer who played in the New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) competition for Parramatta with whom he won the 1982 premiership and the Gold Coast. He primarily played ...

as "Weasel" * Ken Fosgren as "Greaseball" *

Tom Lister Jr. Tommy Deebo "Tiny" Lister Jr. (born Thomas Duane Lister Jr.; June 24, 1958 – December 10, 2020) was an American character actor and occasional professional wrestler known for his roles as the neighborhood bully Deebo in the 1995 film ''Friday ...

as Bouncer * Teo as Disc Jockey * Ai Wan as "China" * Diane Warshay as Maria *

Candace Kita Candace Kita (born December 27, 1967) is an American actress. Career Acting Kita's first role was as a news anchor in the 1991 movie ''Stealth Hunters''. Kita's first recurring television role was in Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox's ''Masked Ri ...

as Dancer * Diane Shay as Stripper In Dressing Room * Adriana Alexander as Redhead

Production

''Barb Wire'' was directed by David Hogan, who had previously been the second-unit director on ''

Alien 3 ''Alien 3'' (stylized as ''A''LIEN³) is a 1992 American science fiction horror film directed by David Fincher and written by David Giler, Walter Hill, and Larry Ferguson, from a story by Vincent Ward. It stars Sigourney Weaver, reprising her r ...

'' and ''

Batman Forever ''Batman Forever'' (on-screen title is simply ''Forever'') is a 1995 American superhero film directed by Joel Schumacher and produced by Tim Burton, based on the DC Comics character Batman by Bob Kane and Bill Finger. The third installment of W ...

''. The film had a production budget of $9 million. Anderson did some of her own stunts, even though she was afraid of heights. The fact that she had to wear high heels and a

corset A corset is a support garment commonly worn to hold and train the torso into a desired shape, traditionally a smaller waist or larger bottom, for aesthetic or medical purposes (either for the duration of wearing it or with a more lasting effe ...

that made her waist 17 inches made fight scenes challenging. A soundtrack album, also titled ''

'', was released in 1996.

Reception

Box office

''Barb Wire'' failed at the box-office, grossing less than $3.8 million in the United States.

Critical response

''Barb Wire'' was panned by critics.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

pointed out that the film's plot was identical to that of ''

Casablanca Casablanca, also known in Arabic as Dar al-Bayda ( ar, الدَّار الْبَيْضَاء, al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ, ; ber, ⴹⴹⴰⵕⵍⴱⵉⴹⴰ, ḍḍaṛlbiḍa, : "White House") is the largest city in Morocco and the country's econom ...

'' and derided the low-brow attempts at sensuality, but praised the cast and crew's approach to the material: "The filmmakers must have known they were not making a good movie, but they didn't use that as an excuse to be boring and lazy. ''Barb Wire'' has a high energy level, and a sense of deranged fun". He gave it two and a half stars. Similarly to Ebert,

Owen Gleiberman Owen Gleiberman (born February 24, 1959) is an American film critic who has been chief film critic for ''Variety'' magazine since May 2016, a title he shares with . Previously, Gleiberman wrote for ''Entertainment Weekly'' from 1990 until 2014. ...

of ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...

'' commented on the film's aping of the ''Casablanca'' plot and its "teasing, hollow 'naughtiness'", but further said that the film is lacking in energy. He gave it a C.

Janet Maslin Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for ''The New York Times''. She served as a ''Times'' film critic from 1977 to 1999 and as a book critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000 Maslin ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' criticized Anderson's performance, comparing her to

Barbie Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by American toy company Mattel, Inc. and launched on March 9, 1959. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration. ...

and Barbarella. ''Barb Wire'' holds a 27% approval rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

based on 37 reviews (10 positive, 27 negative), with the consensus stating that "''Barb Wire'' could've been fun camp, but Pamela Anderson can't deliver her lines with any dramatic or comedic impact". The film was ranked in the bottom 20 of the Stinkers' "100 Years, 100 Stinkers" list, which noted the 100 worst movies of the 20th century, at #19. Since its release, ''Barb Wire'' has attracted a

Awards and nominations

Adaptations

GT Interactive GT, Gt or G-T may refer to: Arts and entertainment Games * GT Interactive, an American video game developer * GameTrailers, a video game website * '' Golden Tee Golf'', golf video game * ''Gran Turismo'' (series), a series of racing video games ...

announced that they would be publishing a

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

based on the film for the

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...

, PC, and

Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and ...

in January 1997. The developer was

Cryo Interactive Cryo Interactive Entertainment was a French video game development and publishing company founded in 1990, but existing unofficially since 1989 as a developer group under the name Cryo. History Cryo was formed by members of ERE Informatique ...

. The gameplay was said to be similar to ''

Resident Evil ''Resident Evil'', known in Japan as is a Japanese horror game series and media franchise created by Capcom. It consists of survival horror, third-person shooter and first-person shooter games, with players typically surviving in environments ...

'', with a single-player campaign and a two-player

deathmatch Deathmatch, also known as free-for-all, is a gameplay mode integrated into many shooter games, including first-person shooter (FPS), and real-time strategy (RTS) video games, where the goal is to kill (or "frag") the other players' characters a ...

mode. It was never released. A 48-page comic book adaptation was published by

Dark Horse Comics Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, and manga publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, Oregon comic book shops known ...

on May 1, 1996.

References

External links

* * * *
Sci-Fi Universe article from May 1996 at PamWatch.com
{{Authority control 1996 films 1996 directorial debut films 1990s English-language films 1990s science fiction action films 1990s superhero films American science fiction action films American dystopian films 1990s feminist films Films set in 2017 Films set in the future Girls with guns films PolyGram Filmed Entertainment films Dark Horse Entertainment films Gramercy Pictures films Golden Raspberry Award winning films Live-action films based on comics Films based on Dark Horse Comics Films scored by Michel Colombier Superheroine films Second American Civil War speculative fiction 1990s American films