AllMovie

Columbo creators Richard Levinson and William Link give crime-solving a rest in their script for the made-for-TV sci-fier Prototype. Christopher Plummer plays a curmudgeonly but basically kindly Nobel Prize-winning scientist, who builds an equally kindly (but much handsomer) humanoid named Michael (David Morse). The government-subsidized Plummer has created Michael on behalf of his sponsors, but has second thoughts when he finds out that the government plans to build an army of robot warriors, using Michael as their model. Plummer sneaks into the pentagon and "kidnaps" Michael, triggering a film-length chase. Prototype had its television premiere on December 7, 1983.