This isn’t new, but Quiet Earth‘s allseeing eye has just noticed that the script for a sequel to Richard Stanley’s 1990 cult film Hardware is online on his website. It’s been there since 2007, but since the excellent dvd of Hardware was just recently released by Severin, you might find it interesting to see what the unproduced Hardware 2: Ground Zero might look like.

That Severin disc was actually my first experience with Hardware, which isn’t as good as you’ve heard but is still a fun, visceral experience. It’s a nice mold of apocalyptic sci-fi and horror and while there are a lot of frivolous plot points (like the creepy neighbor, who serves absolutely no purpose in the film) it works as almost a British Tetsuo. It’s all about the super-stylized machinery and gore, and has one helluva soundtrack. Plus, cameos by Lemmy and Iggy Pop! It definitely lays the ground for Dust Devil, Stanley’s equally bizarre later effort.

Regardless, the script for the second starts off where the first begins, as the killer robot star (the American-flag painted “Mark-13”) of the film gets a few friends. The official synopsis:

The Mark-13’s are in mass production. The US government is employing them to patrol the US-Mexican border and deal with illegal aliens. Shades returns to Earth after a series of space flight assignments. Feeling alone in the world, he decides to seek out Jill, who’s now living in a hippie colony in Splendora, Texas. The colony consists of ‘destructuralists’, who beseech the human race to abandon all technology and re-unite with nature. As Shades and his newly-found companion, battle-scarred vet Lyle Maddox arrive to Splendora, they find Jill earnestly believing in the cause, but even she is oblivious to what ultimately lies beneath the peaceful colony. Something big enough to attract a phalanx of Mark-13 droids as well as a Mexican guerilla leader, who thinks he’s channeling the spirit of Emilio Zapata…

This is what you want, this is what you get.