Maximum Overdrive (1986)

 

When Earth passes through the tail of Rea-M rogue comet, the machines come to life and start to kill mankind. A group of survivors is under siege from fierce trucks at the Dixie Boy truck stop gas station and they have to fight to survive.

Maximum Overdrive is a 1986 American comedy horror film written and directed by Stephen King. The film stars Emilio Estevez, Pat Hingle, Laura Harrington, and Yeardley Smith (Who voiced Lisa Simpson in the animated hit show "The Simpsons") The screenplay was inspired by and loosely based on King's short story "Trucks", which was included in the author's first collection of short stories, Night Shift, and follows the events after all machines (including cars, trucks, radios, drones, arcades, vending machines, etc.) go sentient when Earth crosses the tail of a comet, initiating a world-wide killing spree. The plot is as simple as an AC/DC drumbeat.

Yes it's fucking stupid, yes its fucking dumb, yes its fucking whatever negative word you might wanna say, but if you want silly action, this is for you. Its not the most complex of plots of course, but if you like watching stuff get blown up or people hit by cars or trucks, or watching little leaguers getting neatly pressed by steamrollers, this delivers.

Where's Spider Man

There's a lot of fun and splatter going on at the Truck Stop, but still the most entertaining sequences in "Maximum Overdrive" take place elsewhere. The scene at the beginning, for instance, where a massive bridge decides for itself to lift open while plenty of traffic is crossing, or the brutal footage at the baseball training field where the vending machine starts firing off soda cans at the coach and kids.  It probably just thought they were thirsty after a hard day of practice. 

It is as bad as it's reputation would have you believe but at the same time it enters the "so bad it's good" range because of how silly it all is.  In recent years, King has admitted that he didn't know what he was doing and that he was snorting cocaine at the time.  Cocaine's a Hell of a drug. 

Dude took a coke can to the head. I'm switching to Pepsi.

The movie begins with a cameo from King and his wife, as an ATM machine calls him an asshole. That ATM machine must have had to sit through this film.  The comet that passes our planet makes machines go crazy and kill humans. Literally, that's all you need to know. There's no need to worry about subtext or character development. Just watch machines kill people and people kill machines and enjoy 96 minutes of your life without the need to make decisions.

Run!!! We have to get off of this film set. 

There's something for everyone in this film, like waitresses flipping out and screaming at bulldozers before being shot ("We made you! We made you!"), plenty of AC/DC, including the song Who Made Who that was written for the film. There's an ice cream truck that tries to kill the survivors. The machines demand gasoline via Morse code and a kid shooting a drive-in menu board to get revenge for his dad. Crazy shit going on. 

This film has cokehead 80's acting at its finest. Its even edited like a cokehead edited it. You may think this is a detractor... but it actually encapsulates a section of Hollywood that somehow got things done in an era where tinseltown skidmarked on a lot of things in a post Star Wars hot MTV time.  So grab some beers and prepare for mindless entertainment.

Trivia:

When asked why he hasn't directed a movie since "Maximum Overdrive", Stephen King responded "Just watch Maximum Overdrive."

Stephen King, being a former cocaine addict, later admitted that he was "coked out of my mind" the entire time he was making this picture and often didn't know what he was doing. He remarked that he'd like to try directing again someday, this time sober.

About a year after the movie was released, the Green Goblin truck was taken to Silent Rick's Towing and Salvage in Wilmington, NC. The jaw, lower teeth, tongue and tops of the ears were gone and what was left was burnt severely. John Allison of Wilmington, NC saw it there and purchased it. He later had to sell it and Tim Shockey of Piketon, Ohio purchased it on February 19, 1987. Tim displayed it in his video store, Uncle Jim's Videoland, in Waverly, Ohio for several years until he sold the business. He moved it to his back yard for about 20 years. It was then moved into his garage and he started restoring it in 2011. Tim spent 2 years, nights and weekends restoring the head. He now travels across the USA and Canada taking it to horror & comic cons.

Evil's wheels.

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.

The "Dixie Boy" truck stop was a set constructed 10 miles outside of Wilmington, North Carolina. It was convincing enough that several truckers tried to stop in, and eventually the producers had to put announcements in local papers saying that the "Dixie Boy" was just a movie set.

AC/DC was selected to make the music for the movie by Stephen King himself.

An accident occurred on July 31, 1985 during shooting in a suburb of Wilmington, North Carolina where 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, he lost his right eye. Nannuzzi sued Stephen King on February 18, 1987 for $18 million in damages. The suit was settled out of court.

It's been long rumored that George A. Romero actually ghost directed a large portion of the film while King was seeking treatment for his cocaine addiction. Many fans of Romero's work have noted that film features many of his distinct camera angles and editing choices. While King has never admitted this upfront, he has mentioned that Romero was constantly on set and King would frequently ask him for advice about directing.

The original scripted ending had the Dixie Boy survivors deal with one last obstacle before escaping, a machine gun mounted coast guard boat. There was also to be one last shot of the city of Wilmington being destroyed by the machines (rumored to have been done via a matte painting).

The head on the main truck is based on that of Marvel Comics' Green Goblin.

Some trucks used in the movie were from local businesses and the actual names of the businesses remained on the trucks in the movie.

While filming the scene where the ice cream truck flips over, the stunt didn't go according to plan. A telephone-pole size beam of wood was placed inside so it would flip end over end, but the truck 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. Subsequently, Poole's name is listed on one of the time cards when Bill is putting his card back after being told by Bubba that he must work more hours than he is going to get paid for.

Stephen King originally wanted to cast Bruce Springsteen in the lead.

Shit happens

Stephen King is a huge fan of AC/DC, and when he got to meet them he asked them if they would provide music for this movie. He also offered the band a role in the film, but AC/DC declined stating they are not actors. Claims that there is a scene with the band on a boat are untrue. However, the band agreed to do the soundtrack after Stephen King sung "Ain't No Fun (Waiting Round to Be a Millionaire)" from their 1976 album Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. King sang the entire song from start to finish and the band laughingly agreed that if he was such a fan they would do it for him. AC/DC perform all but two songs featured in the film, including two unreleased mixes of previously recorded songs, and the entire 1987 album "Who Made Who" is the soundtrack to this movie. AC/DC wrote a new track called Who Made Who, and various instrumentals, only two of which appear on the album. The rest of the songs are from previous AC/DC albums. At the time of the release many music stores had no idea the album Who Made Who was a compilation soundtrack for this movie, and many mislabeled the album as an AC/DC greatest hits. Limited pressings of the album did feature the movie's logo, stating it was the soundtrack to Stephen King's Maximum Overdrive, but this was later removed from future pressings.

It is because of this movie that Evil Dead became a franchise. Stephen King loved The Evil Dead (1981) and his high praise of the film is largely credited with its success. While making this film he heard Sam Raimi and the other creators were having difficulty making a sequel. King brought this to the attention of producer Dino De Laurentiis who helped Raimi make Evil Dead II (1987). Had King not been working with De Laurentiis on this movie at the time the horror franchise may never have gotten past the original.

Several of the radio-controlled trucks used for the Dixie Boy siege broke down throughout filming, which delayed production as every time a truck would break down and get repaired, another truck would also break down.

Coked up and ready to direct

In Maximum Overdrive, the characters talk about going to an island named Haven where there are no cars. The TV show Haven (2010), also based on King's work, premiered in 2010. In the season 2 episode Haven: Love Machine (2011), cars and boats are seen coming to life and attacking humans much as they did in this film.

Yeardley Smith is greatly embarrassed by this film

Stephen King later called this "a moron movie"

Despite the plot which says that all machines in the world come alive and begin killing people, Camp and the Curtis' cars never becomes sentient. Even Hendershot's car, identifiable by the license plate BUBBA stamped on it, never comes alive itself and (along with nearly all of the other cars in the truck stop parking lot and in other scenes) remains sedate throughout the entire movie.

In the film, the Earth passes through the comet's tail on June 19, 1987. On June 19, 1999, King would be hit, and nearly killed by a distracted truck driver. The number 19 has been prominent in his writing for most of his career.

The song being played by the marauding ice cream truck is 'King of the Road,' by Roger Miller.

In the film the character Brett says to the Bible salesman "eat my shorts" under her breath. Yeardley Smith voices the character of Lisa Simpson on The Simpsons (1989), whose brother Bart says that same tag line. The line is also used in The Breakfast Club, another movie starring Emilio Estevez.

In the game room of the Dixie Boy truck stop, they had a Bally Night Rider pinball game, a Williams Pokerino, and a few video games: a Cinematronics Star Castle, a Atari Tempest Cocktail and a Konami Time Pilot '84 in a Stern cabinet. Fairly early on in the movie, the Night Rider playfield glass smashes itself, and very late in the movie, for a split second, you can see the games being plowed into by a semi truck.