2000’s Raunchy Sci-Fi Series Saves The Planet With A Boob Job

By Jonathan Klotz
| Published 42 seconds ago

Sam Raimi isn’t only one of the best horror and superhero directors of the last 40 years, he’s also an incredibly successful producer who kickstarted the 90s syndication boom. Hercules, Xena, Young Hercules, Jack of All Trades, all of them were executive produced by Raimi and filmed in New Zealand. There’s another show in his stable, one that doesn’t get talked about as much as the others, and unlike all of them, it’s sci-fi. Cleopatra 2525 is so campy, it makes She-Spies seem grounded, and it was another Raimi hit that aired for two seasons. Today, you can’t find it streaming anywhere, which has denied generations the chance to see a stripper save the future. 

Cleopatra 2525 Is A Sci-Fi Fever Dream

Cleopatra 2525 is as goofy as the title. Cleo (Jennifer Sky), an exotic dancer, was cryogenically frozen after a simple cosmetic procedure  went wrong, and wound up waking up 500 years later in a future where humanity lives underground. AI has taken over the surface using drones called Baileys to keep humanity in check. Cleo joins the resistance fighters Hel (pre-Firefly Gina Torres) and Sarge (Victoria Pratt) as they are given missions by The Voice (Elizabeth Hawthorne). Three women, missions given by only a voice? It’s sci-fi Charlie’s Angels. 

Most of the plots center around Betrayers, which, as the name implies, are humans working for the Baileys. In practice, this turns episodes into games of Among Us where the team has to deduce who the Betrayer is, or go out of their way to capture a Betrayer, and you get the idea. As with Xena and Hercules, the majority of the episodes are self-contained adventures, though as with Raimi’s other shows, there’s a stable of supporting characters that pop in and out of the series.

What you can expect every episode is Cleo impressing the residents of the 25th century with her deep, philosophical musings, such as “The truth is out there” or “Live long and prosper. The Force is with you.” It’s a take on Idiocracy, years before Mike Judge released his documentary. Pop culture of today is to the future what Shakespeare is to us. 

The Golden Age Of Campy Sci-Fi

Cleopatra 2525 is available as an out of print DVD box set but other than that, it’s not streaming anywhere. For the longest time, it was on Tubi, which means it’ll likely pop back up at some point and when it does, it’s well worth checking out. The early 2000s were a Golden Age of campy, low-budget sci-fi that holds up remarkably well. It’s insane, the special effects looked dated back then, and yet, Cleopatra 2525 has more heart and joy than the majority of today’s sci-fi.