Sci-fi movie identification - men fight in futuristic chairs and get zapped to death

Question

I'm trying to find a sci-fi movie that I saw on TV in the 90s or early 2000s. It might have been a little older but not much because it had some special effects from around that time (and of course it was in color). I think it was a movie, might be part of a series but I'd definitely say movie. It was dubbed (Spain Spanish) and looked like your regular mainstream-ish Hollywood movie. Which makes me even madder that I can't find!

The few plot details I remember: the main character guy is in some sort of futuristic or alien prison/dungeon or similar, maybe even spaceship (I don't remember any alien beings though). He has to fight another guy and they're both strapped to/trapped in some kind of robotic/futuristic chair. They're sitting in them and hooked to them by the head (I think?) and they have some kind of joystick + buttons or control panel that they use to fight and move around. They are in a sort of fighting ring/arena and there are other guys around them, cheering and shouting. (This is the part where I think I might be mistaken about them being in a prison, but they seemed to be forced to fight each other to death and the rest of the guys seem to be other inmates.) Don't remember how most of the fight goes, but at the end the loser is zapped with a flashy electric effect, and electrocuted/completely obliterated, I think the latter.

That's the only scene I remember since I was a young kid when I saw it, and I went away because the scene was disturbing to me. But it's always been in the back of my mind and I would really like to scratch that itch and figure out what movie it is. Hope someone remembers it and thank you in advance for trying. :)

Answer 1

From the description, this sounds very much like an episode of Farscape. Originally aired in 2003, the Season 4 episode "Mental as Anything" had Crighton, Scorpius, and D'Argo go to a special training facility where a "mental sensei" would teach them mental discipline. The training consisted of two students strapping themselves into chairs which projected their minds into a virtual arena where they had to fight each other. The chairs reinforced the battle with very real electric shocks, and at least one student was apparently zapped to death. Or maybe just unconsciousness, they weren't explicit in that.

In addition to the mental training exercises, Crighton spent much of the visit locked inside a dungeon cell learning to overcome heat & pain (which is what the Scarrans use to tortue captives with). Each day the sensei would drop a key through the top of the cage, and to get out Crighton had to catch it before it fell through a grate over hot coals at the bottom. Eventually, Crighton overcame the pain and was able to retrieve the key from the hot coals before it melted.

Here is a link to the episode description on the Farscape wiki.

To view the promo on YouTube, click here.

Answer 2

It sounds like Robot Jox.

shows a fight scene.