I thought this was pretty impressive, it had been recommended online quite a few times so not that much of a surprise. "Grey" is waaay too short to tell the story it wants to, which is a mix of Terminator, Starship Troopers, Mad Max and a slew of other properties I probably don't even know about (people actually read sci-fi books back then!). There are too many characters, ideas and terrain, but there are some great moments of dialogue and exposition that quickly give a viewer a solid sense of what is going on. It is based on a comic, which also appears to be rathershort, so the problem may have been inherent in the material however.

The biggest draw here is Grey himself, who's nihilism is as understandable as his reason for wearing his red helmet memento. Other characters are sketches that are erased quickly and deliberately, but are appealing enough for the time they remain. Nova, the blue-haired anime girl (TM) seems pretty badass early on but undergoes what TV Tropes calls "Chickification" fast (she also gets a hilariously gratuitous fanservice scene at about the same time) but she sticks it all out nevertheless.

About a third of the way through is when it really falls apart, but even then the pace keeps up and moving despite the stakes start expanding exponentially. Mecha-cults, supercomputers, 500-year-old cyborgs come and go, but make me wonder if later titles like "Appleseed" pulled some influence from this humble title.

To make the experience more authentic, I viewed a low quality youtube VHS rip with subs that were a little off-time. I could imagine myself as a gnarly teenager in the early 90s who snagged this off his pot dealer. A cool little film that could only exist in the 1980s and survive for nostalgia fuel for the rest of time.