Alternatively, large viewing screens are set up outdoors in population centers via live telecasts so that the games can still be seen.
The onlookers are partially shielded from stray weapons fire (such as deflected lasers) by overhead roofing structures which are transparent. To promote support for the human pilots (called “jox”) as they fight, some civilians (sometimes referred to as “bleacher bums”) can sign a safety waiver and view the matches live from grandstands intentionally placed on either side of the playing fields, such as the one in Death Valley, where the film primarily takes place. Because of the stress and danger in piloting a giant robot in the games, robot jox are signed to contracts which require them to fight in at least ten matches. The matches are decided by four neutral-party referees in an anti-gravity floater who observe the live fight, and also control when the ranged weapons are shut down. All matches are separated into two stages- an initial free-for-all where ranged weapons may be used as the giant robots and their lone pilots approach each other from opposing sides of the field, and the melee-range fight where ranged weapons are forbidden and the giant robots engage with physical blows as well as using fixed special and/or secret weapons, such as cutting torches and bright magnesium flares to disable and disorient the other fighter. These matches, called “games”, are held in "playing fields" - isolated natural settings and wastelands away from population centers - which are many times the size of a football field. To this end, they develop human-controlled giant robots which stand many stories tall, and are armed with cannons, missiles, lasers, and other ‘secret’ accessory weapons & features. In order to resolve conflicts, the Market and Confederation agree to hold gladiator-like matches on a one-on-one basis to decide any one issue. "Robot Jox" is a 1990 science fiction film directed by Stuart Gordon, and starring Gary Graham, Anne-Marie Johnson, and Paul Koslo.įifty years after a nuclear holocaust (presumably between Cold War-rivals the United States and the Soviet Union), conflict in the form of open war is strictly forbidden by the surviving nations who have eventually merged into two socio-political opposing super-nations- the American-influenced Western Market, and the Russian Confederation.