Maximum Overdrive
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| Maximum Overdrive | |
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 Film poster |
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| Directed by | Stephen King |
| Produced by | Martha Schumacher |
| Written by | Stephen King (screenplay and short story Trucks) |
| Starring | Emilio Estevez Pat Hingle Laura Harrington Yeardley Smith J.C. Quinn Christopher Murney Frankie Faison Leon Rippy |
| Music by | AC/DC |
| Cinematography | Armando Nannuzzi |
| Editing by | Evan A. Lottman |
| Distributed by | De Laurentiis Entertainment Group |
| Release date(s) | July 25, 1986 (USA) |
| Running time | 97 min. |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $10,000,000 |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Maximum Overdrive is a 1986 tongue-in-cheek horror film, written and directed by horror novelist Stephen King. The screenplay was inspired by and loosely based on King's short story, Trucks, which was included in King's first collection of short stories, Night Shift.
Maximum Overdrive is Stephen King's first and only directorial effort, though dozens of films have been based on King's novels. The film contained black humor elements and a generally camp tone, which contrasts with King's predominantly sombre literature. The neophyte director was nominated for the title of "Worst Director" by the Golden Raspberry Awards in 1987. King himself described the film as a "moron movie" and stated his intention to never direct again soon after.
However, for the same reasons the film is viewed by some as a form of comedy horror and the film has retained a cult following. In 1988 Maximum Overdrive was nominated for "Best Film" at The International Fantasy Film Awards.[1]
The film has a mid-1980s rock and roll/hard rock soundtrack composed entirely by the group AC/DC, one of Stephen King's favorite bands. AC/DC's album, Who Made Who, was released as the Maximum Overdrive soundtrack. It includes the best-selling singles Who Made Who? and Hells Bells.
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[edit] Plot overview
Maximum Overdrive concerns the apocalyptic mayhem that ensues when a strange radiation from a closely passing rogue comet, Rhea-M, causes all manner of mechanical devices and electrical appliances across the planet Earth to become sentient, self-aware and genocidal.
Marauding big rig trucks trap a small group of people in a fictional roadside truck stop called "The Dixie Boy" just outside Wilmington, North Carolina. When the trucks begin demanding more than blood (they order the humans to pump diesel), the Dixie Boy survivors realize they will become enslaved by their own machines, and they must escape to Haven Island just off the coast of North Carolina, on which no vehicles or machines were permitted.
At the end of the movie, a perfunctory title card strongly implies extraterrestrials were behind the homicidal machines as part of a preliminary invasion. The machines are stopped and the invasion ends with the destruction of a UFO by a Soviet "weather satellite" equipped with nuclear missiles and laser cannons.
[edit] Cast
- Emilio Estevez as Bill Robinson.
- Pat Hingle as the grumpy proprietor of the "Dixie Boy" and secret weapons stockpiler, Bubba Hendershot.
- Laura Harrington as Brett
- Yeardley Smith as Connie.
- John Short as Curtis.
- Giancarlo Esposito as an ill-fated videogame player.
- Marla Maples as a passenger of a car and gets hit with a watermelon in the opening credits.
- Ellen McElduff as the waitress Wanda June, who slowly goes mad.
- J.C. Quinn as Duncan.
- Holter Graham as Duncan's son Deke.
- Frankie Faison as Handy, the owner of the "Green Goblin truck".
- Leon Rippy is Brad, an unfortunate trucker killed by the "Green Goblin truck".
- Ned Austin as the bridgemaster.
[edit] Villains
- Main villain was a UFO that was inducing machines to kill humanity. It was later destroyed by a Soviet "weather satellite".
Most iconic among Maximum Overdrive's trucks is a black 1977 White Western Star 4864 with the Green Goblin face mounted on the front, hauling Happy Toyz Co. toys (Happy Toyz Co. is a fictional company). This served as the main "villain" in the film, as it appears to be the ringleader of the trucks, and also because it was the only truck with any humanoid feature. Other notable trucks are:
- a red/Green 1966 Autocar A64 B trasher hauler,
- an orange 1974 International Harvester Transtar CO4070 with a BIC trailer,
- a 1969 International Harvester Transtar hauling toilet paper,
- a blue 1970 Diamond Reo C-114 D with a JOB 1.5 rolling paper logo on the trailer,
- a red 1980 GMC Brigadier with a trailer labeled "Thurston",
- a 1971 White-Freightliner T-166 with a Miller beer trailer,
- a brown 1968 White 4000 tow truck covered in blood,
- a green Freightliner cabover with a Liquid oxygen trailer, and
- a 1962 Mack B-61 flatbed,
- a 1971 White Ford LN 9000 dump truck
Some other haywire vehicles include:
- a twin-engined Piper airplane, possibly a Twin Comanche,
- a green 1984 Lawn-Boy 8155 lawnmower,
- a 1979 Rex 700 steamroller,
- a Caterpillar, Inc. D7G bulldozer,
- a Chevrolet Step-Van ice cream truck with a dead body of an ice-cream man covered with blood,
- a military Willys M274 (or mobile single-carrier platform) complete with an on-board M60 machine gun.
Some of the murderous electrical appliances include:
- a hairdryer which strangles its owner with the power cord,
- an arcade machine which hypnotises a man into touching it and then electrocutes him;
- a vending machine which fires out beverage cans with such force as to kill,
- a remote control car which kills a dog by ramming into its mouth
- a walkman which kills its wearer by electrocuting him through the ears.
- an electric carving knife which turns on and spontaneously, levitates its way into a woman's arm and later foot(subsequently "killed" by a hammer-wielding Emilio Estevez)
In the game room of the Dixie Boy truck stop, there is:
- a Bally Night Rider pinball machine,
- a Williams Pokerino,
- a Cinematronics Star Castle arcade machine,
- an Atari Tempest Cocktail arcade machine and
- a Konami Time Pilot '84 in a Stern cabinet.
And elsewhere:
- an LED display which flashes the phrase FUCK YOU
- an automatic teller machine which (via text) calls a customer (played by Stephen King) an asshole.
[edit] The Dixie Boy Truck Stop
The "Dixie Boy" truck stop was a full-scale set constructed ten miles west of Wilmington, North Carolina, on US Highway 74/76. The exact location was just outside of Leland, North Carolina. It was convincing enough that several semi drivers tried to stop in and eat there, and some tried to refuel. Eventually the producers had to put up several signs informing the truckers the set was fake and not a real truck stop. The producers also put announcements in local papers saying that the "Dixie Boy" was just a movie set.
After filming wrapped up (and the set had been partially demolished by explosives), some locals bought the set of the "Dixie Boy" and transformed it into a working truck stop. It was fully functional for three or four years, until it went bankrupt and was torn down sometime in the late 1980s. Some signposts for the Dixie Boy still remain, however.
[edit] Accidents on set
When filming the scene where the ice cream truck flips over, the stunt didn't go according to plan and almost resulted in an accident. A telephone pole-size beam of wood was placed inside so it would flip end over end, but it only flipped once and slid on its roof, right into the camera. Gene Poole, dolly grip on the film, pulled the cameraman out of the way at the last second.
A second incident, this time leading to serious injury, occurred on 31 July 1985 while filming in a suburb of Wilmington, North Carolina. A radio-controlled lawnmower used in a scene went out of control and struck a block of wood used as a camera support, shooting out wood splinters which injured the director of photography, Armando Nannuzzi. As a result of this incident, Nanuzzi lost an eye. Nannuzzi sued Stephen King on February 18, 1987 for $18 million in damages due to unsafe working practices. The suit was settled out of court.
[edit] Trivia
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- The main villain, the "Happy Toyz truck", is a 1977 White Western Star 4864. The head on the truck is based on that of Marvel Comics' Green Goblin.
- Writer and Director Stephen King gives himself a cameo appearance at the very beginning of the film, as the man who is abused by the ATM outside the First Bank of Wilmington and cries out, "Come over here, sugar buns! This machine just called me an asshole".
- Yeardley Smith portrayed Connie, a hysterical newlywed whose honeymoon has gone haywire. Smith later went on to provide the voice of Lisa Simpson on The Simpsons. Maximum Overdrive was spoofed with a Simpsons episode named Maximum Homerdrive.
- During the scene with the ferry bridge disaster, a van carrying a tribute rock band can be seen with the AC/DC band's logo. AC/DC performed the music for the movie and is the favorite band of Stephen King.
- In the ferry bridge disaster scene, some people are visible on a boat in the wide shots. These are actually the members of the real AC/DC.
- If you listen closely you can hear the ice cream truck's tune is "King of the Road".
- While shooting the scene where the steamroller rampages across the baseball diamond, Stephen King requested that the SFX department place a bag of fake blood near the dummy of a young player who would be run over by it. The desired effect would be that a smear of blood would appear on the steamroller and be re-smeared on the grass over and over, like a printing press. While filming the scene, however, the bag of blood exploded too soon and sprayed everywhere, making it appear as if the boy's head had also exploded. King was thrilled with the results, but censors demanded the shot be cut. According to the TNT MonsterVision broadcast of the movie, when King showed the uncut footage to zombie film director George A. Romero, Romero was nauseated to the point of actually vomiting.
- Stephen King was forced to make a number of changes to the film in order to avoid an X rating for violence. Although these scenes probably would have passed today, they were deemed excessive at the time. The cut scenes have not been reinstated in the DVD release and are presumed lost. The scenes are reported to total about 13 seconds and include an extended look at the steamroller running over the kid in the baseball field (as noted above), the bible salesman losing his face and it falling into his lap, and more of the truck stop shoot-out scene. There was also reportedly a matte painting of a major American city utterly in ruins after being destroyed by the haywire machines.
- A trailer for this film used the John Carpenter/Alan Howarth score from Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982).
- The short story was adapted again in 1997 as a TV movie with Timothy Busfield.
- Stephen King provided an audio commentary for the film when it was released on laserdisc. The commentary has not been included on the DVD.
- Emilio Estevez was nominated for Worst Actor by the Golden Raspberry Awards.
[edit] References
- ^ Maximum Overdrive Awards page at the IMDb
[edit] External links
- Maximum Overdrive at the Internet Movie Database
- Happy Toyz - an extensive fan site hosted on geocities, named after the writing on the side of the villainous "Green Goblin truck". Features the script for the film, stills and various trivia.
- Entry on RetroJunk.Com
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