Interesting, I didn’t know that. They just released a special edition of this with a director’s commentary and I can’t wait to hear all about how this came together.
Thanks for turning me on to this flick, after seeing your review I was able to find an 8 part version on youtube.
The story works, sickness kills off a majority of the population and gas has ran out. I think setting it 10 years later instead of 20 would make it a little tighter but they probably wanted the 2000’s vibes.
Lee Majors plays a good hero, a rebel reluctantly conforming to “all the rules” but not a too cool for school jerk. The supporting cast is all fine, Burgess Meredith is set at a good tune, doing his shtick but not being a cartoon.
Can’t wait to see it again with better quality in picture and sound.
Cool, the new cover looks like a 90’s PC game cover, hard to imagine the dad from “Grumpy Old Men” behind that mask.
This movie would be impossible to remake this day and age, if you even mention the US running out of Oil you’re a socialist left wing nut with an agenda and a vague mass sickness, you would have to make sure that it wasn’t implying AIDS.
For 1980/1981, it’s really fascinating how this movie kind of touches on some current topics of today. The Computer hacking was pretty interesting, the Chris Makepeace character reminded me of the son of Angie Dickinson and his computer skills in Brian De Palma’s 1980 “Dress to Kill”
There was a movie not too long ago called Tooth and Nail that was about the apocalypse brought on by the world running out of oil. It was pretty interesting. Overall it was good but they went too quickly into “no gas? Cannibalism!”. Still, worth a view.
Hollywood, for the most part, can’t seem to figure out computer hacking. They usually glamorize it to look like a video game rather than just static prompts and code. Still, it did get us Hackers and The Net, two ridiculous movies that I love dearly.
I think the movie could’ve been better without the environmental story, since the main character doesn’t do nothing but contribute to it’s destruction. If the story was a bit more standard, maybe something like Death Race 2000, or a Mad Max imitator, the movie would’ve been more enjoyable, and I think they could include more in the budget … maybe a better camera director or cinematographer.
also if they had a low budget, how did they afford to fly one, not to mention it was an early jet, making it use up fuel faster, at the time, i imagine that they could have gotten an f-8 crusader or an f-4 phantom,one of which, (f-8) was way more fuel efficient, as well as easier to come by, the Vietnam war was started sooner to the making of this movie than the Korean war. way to use your budget effectively. although it might not have been much of a difference in cost.
More than likely, it was the jet that they had access to. They probably were able to shoot some footage for flybys and b roll footage, then worked it into the film.
follow:
Filmed in Toronto. Or at least some of the establishing shots. I could spot the Allen Expressway from a mile away.
Interesting, I didn’t know that. They just released a special edition of this with a director’s commentary and I can’t wait to hear all about how this came together.
Thanks for turning me on to this flick, after seeing your review I was able to find an 8 part version on youtube.
The story works, sickness kills off a majority of the population and gas has ran out. I think setting it 10 years later instead of 20 would make it a little tighter but they probably wanted the 2000’s vibes.
Lee Majors plays a good hero, a rebel reluctantly conforming to “all the rules” but not a too cool for school jerk. The supporting cast is all fine, Burgess Meredith is set at a good tune, doing his shtick but not being a cartoon.
Can’t wait to see it again with better quality in picture and sound.
Thanks! Glad you liked it.
There was a special edition DVD that came out about a year ago but it had a very small print run and is hard to find.
Cool, the new cover looks like a 90’s PC game cover, hard to imagine the dad from “Grumpy Old Men” behind that mask.
This movie would be impossible to remake this day and age, if you even mention the US running out of Oil you’re a socialist left wing nut with an agenda and a vague mass sickness, you would have to make sure that it wasn’t implying AIDS.
For 1980/1981, it’s really fascinating how this movie kind of touches on some current topics of today. The Computer hacking was pretty interesting, the Chris Makepeace character reminded me of the son of Angie Dickinson and his computer skills in Brian De Palma’s 1980 “Dress to Kill”
For me, I always see him as Mickey from Rocky.
There was a movie not too long ago called Tooth and Nail that was about the apocalypse brought on by the world running out of oil. It was pretty interesting. Overall it was good but they went too quickly into “no gas? Cannibalism!”. Still, worth a view.
Hollywood, for the most part, can’t seem to figure out computer hacking. They usually glamorize it to look like a video game rather than just static prompts and code. Still, it did get us Hackers and The Net, two ridiculous movies that I love dearly.
same here, Burgess Meredith will always be Mick.
I think the movie could’ve been better without the environmental story, since the main character doesn’t do nothing but contribute to it’s destruction. If the story was a bit more standard, maybe something like Death Race 2000, or a Mad Max imitator, the movie would’ve been more enjoyable, and I think they could include more in the budget … maybe a better camera director or cinematographer.
It was a nifty concept that they didn’t have the budget to fully realize.
This film was featured in the KTMA season(AKA Season 0) of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
ok, can some one explain to me why, in the intro, there is a korean war-era F-86 sabre?
DRIVING ON A ROAD!!
also if they had a low budget, how did they afford to fly one, not to mention it was an early jet, making it use up fuel faster, at the time, i imagine that they could have gotten an f-8 crusader or an f-4 phantom,one of which, (f-8) was way more fuel efficient, as well as easier to come by, the Vietnam war was started sooner to the making of this movie than the Korean war. way to use your budget effectively. although it might not have been much of a difference in cost.
More than likely, it was the jet that they had access to. They probably were able to shoot some footage for flybys and b roll footage, then worked it into the film.