A rogue comet causes every machine on the planet to revolt against Mankind. ATMs can only display insulting messages, but tractor-trailers are capable of doing a lot more than calling surprised bank customers bad names.
Review Snippet:
I would much rather run into a murderous can opener than a psychopathic self-propelled lawnmower, while any variety of mobile woodchipper means that my butt would be heading for the closest vertical rock formation. Granted, once I climbed to the top of that, my next problem might well be a swarm of RC helicopters. I’d still rather my last moments recreate the epic finale of “King Kong,” vice a random scene from “Woodchipper Massacre.”
Lesson Learned:
Whoever said that the pen was mightier than the sword was never on the wrong end of a machinegun.
#1 by Blake on August 31, 2010 - 10:36 am
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The Green Goblin face on the truck looks a lot freakier in the VHS box art than it does in the actual film.
#2 by Ed on August 31, 2010 - 11:17 am
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True, that box art drew me in when I was in high school. One of my favorite bad movies.
#3 by Cullen on August 31, 2010 - 1:55 pm
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I’m going to echo Ed here and say this is one of my favorite bad movies. Haven’t watched it in years for fear it isn’t as good as I remember it being.
Which is an odd thing to write, but true…
#4 by rjschwarz on September 1, 2010 - 2:42 pm
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I haven’t seen it, but assuming the machines come alive, can a living gas pump fill up that semi or is the semi out of luck after the tanks run dry? Or do they not need gas anymore?
#5 by El Santo on September 1, 2010 - 4:30 pm
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Maximum Overdrive isn’t very consistent about which machines do and do not come alive. Electrical devices of all sorts (hair dryers, ATMs, electric carving knives) are show to develop autonomy, but there’s no logic that I can discern governing machines with internal combustion engines. Cars explicitly remain inanimate, even though trucks, bulldozers, and lawnmowers all rise up to join the revolt against humanity. As for the pumps at the truck stop, it’s difficult to say whether they come alive or not; one scene early on makes more sense if you assume that the pump is consciously messing with the man trying to operate it, but at no point after that do the gas pumps show any sign of sentience. And yes, the trucks’ dependency upon diesel fuel becomes an important plot point around the end of the second act.
#6 by dawn on July 10, 2022 - 3:42 pm
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Congratulations. This popped up yesterday From the Vault, and I enjoyed reading your review. Then I had a nightmare last night about it.
In my dream, it was Halloween, and half the guys were dressed as Batman. As they were all dying around me. Not sure if that made it better or worse.