The Sheltering Sky, like so many of Hellman's unrealized projects — At Play in the Fields of the Lord, In a Dream of Passion, Labyrinth, Tepic in the Morning, Henderson the Rain King, Up Above the World, The Mechanic—deals with Americans abroad, suggesting this was a theme of particular importance, though Hellman insists, "There was no overriding theme — just a passion for travel."31
Another project dating from this period was Deep in the Heart, "for producer Don Phillips— a love story written by Don's then-wife, Dorothy Pearl, to be shot in Israel, and for which I went on a scout to Jerusalem."32
In June 1985, Henry Jaglom cast Hellman in a film that was released two years later as Someone to Love. Essentially playing himself, Hellman is onscreen for just over two minutes: "The whole picture was shot over a period of 4 days, at the Mayfair Theatre in Santa Monica. There was no script, and my scenes were improvised. It was a few months before Orson Welles died. Welles was present. I was cast because I was a friend, as were all the other cast members. Henry told me to seduce Oja Kodar, which wasn't difficult (to attempt, not necessarily to succeed)."33
Mike Medavoy then asked Hellman to help prepare the network television version of Code of Silence (1985), a Chuck Norris vehicle directed by Andy Davis for Orion: "I merely worked on dialog changes for the TV version. All I did was cut in some alternate dialogue (words) to replace words unacceptable for TV. There may have been a few picture cuts as well, all for reasons of censorship to meet free TV standards."34
In April 1986, Hellman was interviewed by British documentarian Paul Joyce for Out of the Blue and Into the Black, a film about BBS produced by the UK's Channel 4 (it was completed the following year and screened in 1988). While in Hellman's house, Joyce used some film left over from the BBS project to shoot a feature-length documentary entitled Plunging on Alone: Monte Hellman's Life in a Day: "Paul had the idea of making a movie without cuts. He shot a role of 16MM without stopping, then bridged to the next role by intercutting the last shot of one of my films, which he photographed on a TV screen. It was made over a period of two days. He wound up throwing out the first role, but otherwise everything else was in continuity."35 According to Joyce, "I made sure that the film was shot over a 24 hour period (on April 27). It was also important for me to make this on film, with all the disciplines that this entails. I have never worked quite in that way before or since, and I do feel the film stands the test of time — insofar as I can judge at least."36 Indeed, Plunging on Alone is among the finest documentaries ever made about a filmmaker. Hellman discusses his life, career and philosophy in a relaxed but intelligent manner, as well as mentioning some of the projects he was then developing (including In a Dream of Passion and Love and Money).
Later that year, Hellman worked as an uncredited second unit director on Paul Verhoeven's Robocop: "I actually was put up to direct the movie by the studio, and the producer (Jon Davison), who was a friend of mine, said he didn't see me as an action director. Then they hired me to direct the action. You tell me what that means."37 According to producer Jon Davison, "The original second unit director was Mark Goldblatt. He left to go do The Punisher in Australia. Mike Medavoy (the head of Orion) asked me to hire Monte as he was in some kind of financial distress. I was glad to and Paul just hated him. However, Paul hated a lot of people. Monte and I were simpatico and he shot some good stuff. I hired my friend Rick (Jamie) Anderson to be DP on second unit and he was hated despite the fact that he did a very good job. As is often the case, the second unit was the most fun place to be and I spent a fair amount of time there."38 As Hellman recalls, "I spent four weeks working as second unit director, from September 30 to October 24, 1986. Second unit was somewhat of a misnomer, since most of my scenes were with Peter Weller and sometimes Nancy Allen. The crew would fight to be assigned to my unit, since working for me was less stressful than working for Verhoeven. I worked with Robocop almost every day, I think I only worked with Nancy a couple of times. I did anything that could conceivably be second unit during the time the company was in Dallas: my second unit was the only one for the bulk of the Dallas shoot, and I was there every day from about the third week until they finished in Dallas. For budgetary reasons, and because they were no longer so behind schedule, they decided not to take me to the other location. I was really just a hired gun, going out each day with a list of isolated shots, sometimes in one location but intended for many places in the story, and not fully aware of how my stuff was being used. This experience was in no way like directing a movie, or even like doing the added scenes for the Corman movies. It wasn't my movie, so I had nothing to relate the work I was doing to. I have a clearer picture of the scenes I did with Peter and Nancy, just because we had such a good time doing them. But when I look at the picture now and see a set I remember, I know I was there, but can't remember every shot I made there. You can safely assume that any shot of Robocop driving was by me, except where a shot culminates in a big dialog scene after he gets out of the car. I shot tons of footage of Robo driving through the city at dusk, but only a fraction is in the movie. All of the scenes I shot that are in the movie are only fragments of the total footage I shot. But that's the way movies are. Like most directors, Paul hated the idea that there was a second unit at all, particularly one that was shooting with his actors and not just sunsets. I'm sure he was happy when he could minimize the work I did. They did want to credit me as second unit director, but I wasn't able to accept that credit because Verhoeven was not a member of the DGA, and the company had not signed an agreement with the DGA. I had got into trouble once before with the DGA over Cockfighter, which unbeknownst to me was non-DGA, even though I was paid DGA scale. I was put on trial and nearly suspended, so I couldn't risk another offence. I did try to keep my involvement with Robocop quiet, but it's so long ago, and the DGA is not quite as hard-ass as they once were. I didn't break all the rules: I did get DGA scale for my work, and my assistant director was DGA. They were hard times."39