"Hardware": Robot Jox meets "Terminator" (but way weirder)

Okay, so, I just rewatched "Hardware" (1990) and my brain is still kinda scrambled. Seeing Stacey Travis kicking robot skull in her apartment after that nightmarish dream sequence... chef's kiss. It's definitely a product of its time – that late 80s/early 90s cyberpunk vibe is strong, almost distractingly so. Think "Blade Runner" but on a seriously low budget and somehow even dirtier. I swear I could smell the neon and rusty metal through my TV. But here's my theory, and bear with me, it's a stretch. I think "Hardware" is secretly a commentary on consumerism and the military-industrial complex, just dressed up in killer robot skin. Hear me out: Zone Tripper finds the Mark 13 head in the desert, right? A wasteland! It's literally discarded military hardware, scavenged and brought back to civilization (aka Jill's apartment) by a desperate scavenger. That's already got some interesting parallels to other sci-fi flicks coming out around then. Then the robot goes haywire, rebuilding itself from whatever it can find. Sounds like America churning out endless weapons and then wondering why there's violence. The film's nihilistic edge hits different now, like a warning. Plus, that scene where the robot is literally drinking from a tap? Talk about resource consumption! And Jill? She's an artist, creating beautiful things from scraps. She's trying to build something, while the Mark 13 is just destroying. I know, I know, it's a killer robot movie, not Chekhov. But that juxtaposition felt intentional. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but the movie stuck with me longer than I expected. Plus, Iggy Pop as the radio DJ? Legendary! The soundtrack alone puts this in the same conversation as some of the best genre stuff from the era. Ultimately, it's a cool little flick that feels like a forgotten gem from a period where sci-fi was really taking risks. It's not perfect, the acting is... let's say uneven, and that Zoomer dude is a total creep (seriously, that scene hasn't aged well), but the visuals are striking, and there's a weird, almost hypnotic quality to the whole thing. Anyone else see it that way, or am I just projecting my Gen X angst onto a killer robot movie?