The film stars Shaquille O'Neal as John Henry Irons and his alter-ego Steel, Annabeth Gish as his wheelchair-using partner Susan Sparks, and Judd Nelson as their rival Nathaniel Burke.

Written and directed by Kenneth Johnson,[2] the film separates itself from the comic book series (and John Henry Irons' status as a supporting character of Superman) by using original protagonists and antagonists.

Upon its initial release, Steel was a box-office bomb and was panned by critics, who complained about the film's "cheesiness" and poor acting.

[3] John Henry Irons is a weapons designer who invents high-tech laser guns, protective armor, and sonic sound cannons for the United States military.

Meanwhile, Burke hatches a plot to sell Irons' weapons to criminal gangs, recruiting a video arcade manager to help him carry out this deed.

Irons witnesses a bank robbery organized by gang members wielding Burke's modified guns; they escape before he can interrogate them on where they obtained the weapons.

[5] Jones and Salzman had initially approached Shaquille O'Neal and his agent Leonard Armato regarding a Hardware adaptation, but the basketballer said he related himself more to Steel.

Johnson was originally uninterested in doing a superhero film, having previously turned down similar projects after the success of his television series The Bionic Woman, Alien Nation, and The Incredible Hulk.

[4] To aid with the urban aspects of the dialog Johnson took a copy of the script to South Central Los Angeles and spent a day with a group of kids to ensure that the language of some of the characters was more believable.

[8] The filming schedule consisted of fifty-one days with thirty-two full nights of shooting in downtown Los Angeles.

[15] Peter Stack of the San Francisco Chronicle described it as a "tolerable stinker of a film" that "plays like a Saturday morning cartoon".

[16] Lawrence Van Gelder of The New York Times stated that the film is "slow to gather momentum and generates little excitement or tension".

[17] Shaquille O'Neal earned a Razzie Award nomination as Worst Actor for his performance in the film, but lost against Kevin Costner for The Postman.