Woody Allen and Diane Keaton star in this sci-fi spoof. Nerdy health food store owner Miles Monroe (Allen) is cryogenically frozen in 1973 and awakens in 2173 to a futuristic police state of robots and giant vegetables. Because Miles does not have a biometric identity, he is arrested but escapes.
Miles Monroe: "Where am I anyhow, I mean, what happened to everybody, where are all my friends?"
Dr. Aragon: "You must understand that everyone you knew in the past has been dead nearly two hundred years."
Miles Monroe: "But they all ate organic rice""
Miles teams up with Luna Schlosser (Keaton), discovers the truth about the nation's dictator ("The Leader"), then gets involved with revolutionaries attempting to overthrow the government. Rebel leader Erno Windt (John Beck) plans to steal and "assassinate" the nose of The Leader. They had killed him, but his nose survived and will be cloned by the administration in "The Aries Project" Only Miles Monroe with no biometric identity can steal the nose.
Some of the jokes: Future scientists discover that deep fried fatty foods and smoking are extremely healthy. Robots are programmed as Jewish tailors and gay butlers. An abandoned 200-year old Volkwagen car starts up instantly. Miles says, "My brain. That's my second favorite organ!" and "Perform sex? I don't think I'm up to a performance, but I'll rehearse with you, if you like." Luna says, "I got a Ph.D. in oral sex...I think we should have had sex, but there weren't enough people."
Luna: "It's hard to believe that you haven't had sex for 200 years."
Miles: "204, if you count my marriage... When I asked my mother where babies came from, she thought I said "rabies." She said you get them from being bitten by a dog. The next week, a woman on my block gave birth to triplets... I thought she'd been bitten by a great dane."
(last lines)
Luna: "Oh, I see. You don't believe in science, and you also don't believe that political systems work, and you don't believe in God, huh?"
Miles: "Right."
Luna: "So then, what do you believe in?"
Miles: "Sex and death - two things that come once in a lifetime... but at least after death, you're not nauseous."
Loosely based on H. G. Wells' classic "When the Sleeper Wakes", Allen also wrote and directed this gem. He confirmed its scientific feasibility by conferring with scientist Isaac Asimov and sci-fi writer Ben Bova. Woody Allen originally planned SLEEPER as a 3 hour, 2 part movie. Part 1 would be a New York comedy, and the second half would be futuristic. United Artists approved the project, but Allen decided to drop Part 1.
SLEEPER is Woody Allen comedy at its best. There is a non-stop barrage of verbal, character, and visual gags. Lots of slapstick and satire. It is witty, silly, and imaginative, but somewhat dated with attacks on celebrities and pop culture of the 1970's. This was Keaton's first film with Allen, and their on-screen chemistry is marvelous, although their personal relationship had ended.
Also in the cast are: Mary Gregory (Dr. Melik), Don Keefer (Dr. Tryon), John McLiam (Dr. Aragon), Bartlett Robinson (Dr. Orva), Chris Forbes (Rainer Krebs), Mews Small (Dr. Nero), Susan Miller (Ellen Pogrebin), Lou Picetti (M.C.), Brian Avery (Herald Cohen), Spencer Milligan (Jeb Hrmthmg), Stanley Ross (Sears Swiggles), Witney Rydbeck (Janus), and many others. Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman wrote the script. Woody Allen wrote the music and directed.
The Dixieland music score is played by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Woody Allen plays clarinet.
The final cost of Sleeper was $2 million and it grossed over $18 million. In one country the movie was released as "Woody and the Robots", so thereafter Allen had a clause in all his contracts that nobody but Allen could change the title.
