Exo-Man

I was quite a young child but remember this movie. I recall the handicapped man visiting museums and studying chain mail while designing his special armor. He would climb into a tanning booth-like device that would encase him in the suit. Once in it, he was able to walk and, of course, fight crime. Ah, the 70's! ;)

For years I had assumed it was a short-lived series...I had no idea there was only one movie ever made! Apparently there was a lot of studio wrangling that prevented this pilot concept from taking off. Too bad. It's interesting that this idea has since been used in other film productions.

Search YouTube for "Exoman" and you'll find a five-minute clip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0KSqelmgN8

I was only 3 when this came out. I couldn't help but figuring out who this character is. This character is a cross between "Iron Man" and " The Six Million Dollar Man" . Here you have a physics teacher who thwart a bank robbery while giving his student a loan. Later on , the same student shows not only his gratitude, but his concern of his teacher's safety following the robber's arrest. Well two things go bad for the professor: His assistant gets blown away in a car bomb meant for the professor, then another goon crippled him forcing him to be silent. He was, only for a few days. He would later continue on the project that the assistant was working on for a bigger cause: Learning to walk again. He would gather all the notes, all the information, and all the plans to create a suit that will help him walk again. Not only that, make him invulnerable as well. He is known as Exo-Man. A man in a suit of armor that can make him mobile, strong, and durable. This could make Tony Stark, jealous. It's a shame that it didn't take off as a sci-fi show. It would have lasted a few seasons. With a good cast, and stars to boot, it wasn't given a chance. If there is a remake, it can reach out to those who a wheelchair bound. This is positive energy here. Show this movie more often, please. 2.5 out of 5 stars

Another good idea ruined by the TV people. "Exo-Man" is the story of a college professor who is crippled by a spinal injury during a break-in (the bad guy whacks him across the back with a length of pipe). He uses his talents to build an exoskeleton (actually a suit) to enable himself to walk - and to avenge himself on the bad guys.

The movie started out OK, but the special effects were poor for 1977 and the script was horrible.

If this sounds familiar, the idea was handled a bit better in the short-lived series M.A.N.T.I.S.

Key word interesting, the acting ranges from awkward on occasion to surprisngly good (enough), the special effects are minimal but easy to tolerate, the story has some intrigue, mostly it's just fascinating too see such a primitive attempt of a iron Man type hero on the small screen. I've heard many people talking about this recommending m.a.n.t.i.s. (I can't wait to check it out) but I will forever find this sort of thing thing interesting. Overall I enjoyed this movie but I wouldn't give it more than a 6, it just doesn't do anything very well and without the novelty it just stands as slightly enjoyable.

I remember when this aired on TV back in the late 1970's. There must have been something special about this show for me to remember it all this time. As I remember, the pilot movie was the only thing shown on TV and it never went farther than that. The story line was good, a collage professor, crippled by bad guys, develops a device to allow him to walk again and possibly help others. Then he designs this device in to an Exoskeleton suite of armor that encases him and he turns in to a crime fighter. Yes, for the time the special effects were a bit cheesy and could have been done better. But it did give the look that the guy used what was available to him and had a bit of a blue collar feel to it. Not like Iron Man who has a huge corporation with the newest and greatest top secret stuff he could use, that the military can't get it's hands on. I'm sure it could have been developed a bit more had it got to be a TV series. Being a pilot, I think people should cut it a little slack. With a pilot budget you work with what you've got. The Star Trek pilot episode, the cage, wasn't all that good either and was never shown in it's entirety on TV until 1988. It was woven in to one of the series as the menagerie and a lot had changed from the pilot when it became a TV series. I'm sure this would have happened to Exo-Man had it gone in to a series. Also for the time it came out, it was something new from what was on TV. But Fate killed Exo-Man. Exo-Man came out in 1977, the same year Star Wars came out. Star Wars was such a hit and had so much excitement with both children and adults it changed everything. Seeing what was happening the TV networks wanted some of that action too and cash in on that excitement. I'm sure many TV projects got shelved in favor of shows like Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. If Star Wars didn't happen, Exo-Man may have turned out to be a decant TV series. With an ordinary man, crippled by crime, becoming a crime fighting superhero type by building an Exoskeleton suite. Maybe Stan Lee should have come up with this one or help turn it in to a comic book superhero.