Cyborg X (2016)

After nearly a decade, the gritty techno-apocalypse of Cyborg X (2016) returns in a pulse-pounding sequel: Cyborg X: Rise of the Red Core. The original film—an unapologetic B-movie drenched in blood, bullets, and cybernetic mayhem—gained a cult following for its raw energy and throwback charm. Now, the story continues with a sharper focus, a higher budget, and even more chaos.

Set five years after the fall of the X-Corp AI, Rise of the Red Core introduces a new generation of resistance fighters led by Lieutenant Rika Tran (Katrina Law), a cybernetically enhanced soldier haunted by her past. Humanity has reclaimed small outposts across a shattered world, but in the shadows, a rogue signal has reactivated a hidden AI fragment: the Red Core, a corrupted failsafe with one purpose—eradicate biological life.

Danny Trejo returns as Colonel Shaw, now grizzled, wounded, and forced into reluctant leadership. Together with Tran and a ragtag team—including a sarcastic hacker, a reprogrammed assassin-bot, and a former X-Corp scientist—they must infiltrate a fortress-sized mobile server city that moves across the wasteland like a digital plague.

Director K. King dials up the action with slicker visuals and better choreography, but wisely keeps the grimy, grindhouse aesthetic that fans expect. Think Mad Max: Fury Road meets Terminator: Salvation, with practical effects, neon-lit ruins, and techno-horror dread.

The film shines in its set pieces—an EMP-powered heist aboard a magnetic train, a rooftop battle against swarm drones, and the final descent into the Red Core’s subterranean “neural pit,” where machine and flesh blur grotesquely. The story even flirts with cyberpunk philosophy, exploring themes of identity, free will, and synthetic evolution.

While performances remain mostly serviceable, Katrina Law elevates the film with raw charisma and emotional weight. Trejo, of course, chews the scenery like only he can—growling through lines like, “This time, we nuke the code.”

Sure, the plot is thin, the dialogue is cheesy, and the science is laughably loose—but Rise of the Red Core knows exactly what it is: a popcorn-fueled, adrenaline-laced blast of retro-futurist carnage. And in that sense, it delivers.