The Ice Pirates
Robot brothels, space herpes and a time-warp sword fight.
In a galaxy where water is the rarest treasure, a band of pirates hijacks the wrong ship and stumbles into a quest for a legendary water planet.
The galaxy's greatest treasure is water
Robert Urich smirks through it like a bargain-bin Han Solo, with Anjelica Huston and a baby-faced Ron Perlman along for the ride. They are space pirates in a galaxy where the most valuable thing left is frozen water, and the story somehow finds room for a space herpes monster loose in the kitchen and a machine built for unthinkable things.
A big-budget swashbuckler with no brakes
The studio cut it down from something darker into a straight comedy, and somehow that made it better. It is far from a masterpiece, but it captures that crazy 80s sci-fi energy perfectly. The final punch-up inside a time warp, where everyone ages decades between sword swings, is one of the boldest things a studio put its name to all decade.
Stills
Cast and crew
Director: Stewart Raffill
Cast: Robert Urich, Mary Crosby, Michael D. Roberts
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