The Final Sacrifice
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The Final Sacrifice (also known as Quest for the Lost City) is a low-budget Canadian movie that was released in 1990. It was directed by Tjardus Greidanus, and starred Bruce J. Mitchell as Zap Rowsdower and Christian Malcolm as Troy McGreggor.
[edit] Plot synopsis
The story begins when the protagonist, Troy McGreggor, finds a map belonging to father, who met an untimely death after becoming involved in a plot with a mysterious pagan cult led by a strange man named Satoris. Troy decides to follow the map to learn about his father and the circumstances of his death. Along the way, he meets Zap Rowsdower. Troy asks Rowsdower a lot of questions, Rowsdower gets grumpy and drinks, in between chase scenes between the two main characters and agents of Satoris' cult, including one such scene involving Troy on a 10-speed bicycle outrunning the cultists' Ford Torino.
The map leads Troy, and eventually Rowsdower, all over Alberta, through some unlikely caves, and then to the house of a hairy, grizzled fugitive by the name of Mike Pipper, the partner of Troy's father who has been hiding in the woods from Satoris for seven years. Pipper reveals that the cultists are the last descendants of the ancient race of Ziox, which was destroyed by their god after they turned away from it and worshipped an evil idol instead. Pipper also casually mentions that Rowsdower once belonged to the evil cult and may have killed Troy's father; Rowsdower has the cult's insignia tattooed on his arm, like the other cultists. Satoris seems to be able to torment Rowsdower through the tattoo, as we see Rowsdower writhing in agony while asleep, presumably having a Satoris-induced nightmare.
Eventually, Troy is captured by Satoris and his cult. Satoris means to make Troy the titular final sacrifice, which will give him an army of invincible zombie warriors. It's up to Rowsdower to save Troy and put an end to the cult's activities. He stumbles upon the site of the idol and begins to duel with Satoris, who reveals that when the moment came, Rowsdower couldn't bring himself to kill Troy's father and Satoris had to do it himself; this, along with the revelation that Rowsdower is only part Ziox (instead of a direct, full-blooded descendant like the other clan members), led Satoris to banish Rowsdower from the cult and torment him through his dreams constantly. Satoris is about to kill Rowsdower when Troy manages to intervene, shooting the cult leader in the back with Rowsdower's rifle, which may or may not be the cause of Satoris's spontaneous combustion, though it may also have been caused by Satoris dropping his torch with which he was attacking Rowsdower. Satoris's death causes the destruction of the idol and the re-emergence of the lost city of the Ziox. Troy and Rowsdower watch it rise up from the ground, the cultists go their separate ways (they had possibly been under a spell from Satoris), and our two heroes drive off together.
[edit] Derision
In 1998, the movie was featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000, as experiment #910. Given the popularity this movie has among fans of MST3K, it is probably a safe bet to say that it will be released on DVD as part of a future MST3K boxed set. It was one of less than ten movies made in the 1990s that went on to appear on MST3K, which ran from 1988 to 1999.
The Final Sacrifice has been released on home video in VHS format, although is difficult to find.
