Mr. Payback: An Interactive Movie

Mr. Payback: An Interactive Movie is a 1995 American science-fiction/adventure/comedy short film written and directed by Bob Gale. The film stars an android who, in a number of possible storylines, takes action by humiliating or attacking people who have committed crimes or have done wrong in the past. Christopher Lloyd, who had previously worked with Gale on the Back to the Future trilogy, worked on this film as well. The music was scored by Michael Tavera, who had composed the music for the animated Back to the Future series
Designed as an interactive movie, it comprises slightly over two hours of footage, approximately 20 minutes of which is seen in each viewing. It requires the audience to vote for various directions the story will take, using a joystick attached to the armrests of their seats. A special LaserDisc-based machine in the projection booth was designed to make instantaneous edits as the story unfolded. The film took up four CAV LaserDiscs.
The movie billed itself as "the world's first interactive movie," but it was predated by 1992's I'm Your Man and 1967's Kinoautomat.

Plot

Mr. Payback is a vigilante android who takes action against multiple criminals, troublemakers, and general nuisances; all of whom are the focus of their respective scenes. Whenever Mr. Payback encounters a criminal, the film's audience votes on three different ways that he can humiliate or punish them. Some of these ways include:

Upsetting a selfish "Car Jerk" by slowly disassembling his car
Setting a bike thief's clothes on fire
Eating a gang member's knife

There is one sequence in the film where the audience can choose to subject Mr. Payback himself to their choices.
The film culminates in a game show sequence called Payback Time, where three previous antagonists, such as the Car Jerk, are brought back and humiliated in various challenges that are selected by the audience. At the beginning of the segment, the audience chooses whether Paul Anka or Ice-T makes a special guest appearance. Depending on the choices made throughout the film, an epilogue scene would be included in which Mr. Payback and his assistant Gwen celebrate a successful operation by going to the movies, where they take revenge against a pair of teenagers who refuse to stop talking.

Cast

Billy Warlock as Payton Bach
Holly Fields as Gwen
Bruce McGill as James Konklin
Christopher Lloyd as Ed Jarvis
Leslie Easterbrook as Diane Wyatt
David Correia as Raoul Alvarez
Victor Love as Lloyd Braxton
Carol-Ann Plante as Cara Cook
Michael Talbott as Car Jerk
Brendan Ford as Park Vandal
Gilbert Rosales as Bike Thief
Eddie Deezen as Phil the Guard
Robby Sutton as Moe
Sasha Jenson as Larry
Joseph D. Reitman as Dick
Paul Anka as Himself
Ice-T as Himself

Release

Theatrical Release

Due to its interactive nature, screenings of Mr. Payback were presented in a different manner than those of a standard feature film.
As it was only designed to run for 20 to 30 minutes, the film would be repeated three times in each screening to match the runtime of a typical feature film, with the audience being given the opportunity to make different choices.
Audiences were also not asked to be silent during the film, and were instead encouraged to talk and shout as much as they wanted.

Home media

The film has never been released outside of its original screenings and is now considered to be lost, with only the original trailer and clips from contemporary TV coverage being known to survive.

Reception

Box office

Despite its modest budget of $1.6 million, ultimately prove to be a financial failure, only managing to gross $241,000 during its theatrical run. This low box office return came about as a result of the film's extremely limited release, with only 25 theatres throughout America showing the film due to the $50,000+ each theatre would have to spend to upgrade their screens with the necessary interactive equipment.

Critical response

Mr. Payback received negative reviews from critics. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times gave the film a half-star out of a possible four, and called it "the kind of film where horrified parents might encourage the kids to shout at the screen, hoping the noise might drown out the flood of garbage." He and Gene Siskel both commented that while the concept of combining film with interactivity has possibilities, they are not explored by Mr. Payback, which centers on bathroom humor and appeals to the audience's most sadistic urges. Ty Burr of Entertainment Weekly tagged the film with an "F" grade, declaring it to be "horribly written, dreadfully acted, and cretinously plotted."