Maximum Overdrive

Maximum Overdrive is a one thousand nine hundred eighty six American science fiction act horror comedy film written and directed by Stephen King. [Four] The film starlets Emilio Estevez, Pat Hingle, Laura Harrington, and Yeardley Smith. The screenplay was inspired by and loosely based on King’s brief story “Trucks”, which was included in King’s very first collection of brief stories, Night Shift.

by Stephen King

• July 25, one thousand nine hundred eighty six ( 1986-07-25 )

Maximum Overdrive is King’s only directorial effort, tho’ dozens of films have been based on one of his novels or brief stories. The film contained black humor elements and a generally campy tone, which contrasts with King’s sombre subject matter in books. The film has a mid-1980s hard rock soundtrack composed entirely by the group AC/DC, King’s dearest band. AC/DC’s album Who Made Who was released as the Maximum Overdrive soundtrack. It includes the best-selling singles “Who Made Who”, “You Shook Me All Night Long”, and “Hells Bells”.

The film was nominated for two Golden Raspberry Awards including Worst Director for King and Worst Actor for Estevez in 1987, but both lost against Prince for Under the Cherry Moon. In 1988, Maximum Overdrive was nominated for “Best Film” at the International Fantasy Film Awards. [Five] King himself described the film as a “moron movie”. He considers the process a learning practice [6] , after which he intended never to direct again. [7]

Contents

As the Earth passes through the tail of a comet, previously inanimate objects abruptly spring to life and turn homicidal. In a pre-title scene, a man (King in a cameo) attempts to withdraw money from an ATM, but it instead calls him an “asshole”, and he whines to his wifey (King’s real life wifey Tabitha). Chaos soon embarks as machines of all kinds come to life and begin assaulting humans: a drawbridge inexplicably raises during mighty traffic, resulting in numerous accidents, most notably a black AC/DC van and a watermelon truck; while at a Little League game, a vending machine kills the coach by firing canned soda point-blank into his groin and then to his skull; a driverless steamroller flattens one of the fleeing children, but one named Deke Keller manages to escape on his bike.

The carnage spreads as humans and even pets are aggressively killed by lawnmowers, chainsaws, electrified hair dryers, pocket radios, and RC cars. At a roadside truck stop just outside Wilmington, North Carolina, a waitress is injured by an electrified knife and arcade machines in the back room electrocute another victim. Employee and ex-convict Bill Robinson starts to suspect something is wrong when all of a sudden marauding big equipment trucks, led by a black Western Starlet four thousand eight hundred sporting a giant Green Goblin mask on its grille, run down two individuals (including Deke’s father) and surround the truck stop, trapping the rest of the civilians inwards the truck stop’s diner.

Robinson rallies the survivors; they use a cache of firearms and M72 LAW rockets stored in a bunker hidden under the diner and ruin many of the trucks. The trucks fight back in the form of both a Caterpillar D7G bulldozer which drives through the diner and a M274 Mule which fires its post-mounted M60 machine gun into the building, killing several including the waitress when she rants at them. The Mule then requests, via sending morse code signals through its horn, that the humans pump the truck’s diesel for them in exchange for keeping them safe; the survivors soon realize they have become enslaved by their own machines. Robinson suggests they escape to a local island just off the coast, on which no vehicles or machines are permitted.

During a fueling operation, Robinson sneaks a grenade onto the Mule vehicle, demolishing it, then leads the party out of the diner via a sewer hatch to the main road just as the trucks demolish the entire truck stop. The survivors are pursued to the docks by the Green Goblin truck – which manages to kill one more trucker after he steals a ring from a female corpse in a car – before Robinson ruins the truck once and for all with a direct hit from an M72 LAW rocket shot. The survivors then sail off to safety; a title card epilogue explains that two days after the machines’ rampage, a UFO was demolished by a Soviet “weather satellite” conveniently tooled with class IV nuclear missiles and a laser cannon.

• Emilio Estevez as William “Bill” Robinson
• Pat Hingle as Bubba Hendershot
• Laura Harrington as Brett Graham
• Yeardley Smith as Connie
• John Brief as Curtis
• Ellen McElduff as Wanda June
• Frankie Faison as Handy
• Leon Rippy as Brad
• Christopher Murney as Camp Loman
• J. C. Quinn as Duncan Keller
• Holter Graham as Deke Keller
• Barry Bell as Steve Gayton
• Patrick Miller as Joey
• J. Don Ferguson as Andy
• Giancarlo Esposito as Movie player
• Stephen King (cameo) as ATM man

The film was the very first to be made by Embassy Pictures after it had been bought by Dino de Laurentiis. [Two] In a two thousand two interview with Tony Magistrale for the book Hollywood’s Stephen King, King stated that he was “coked out of [his] mind all through its production, and [he] indeed didn’t know what [he] was doing”. [6]

Accidents on set Edit

When filming the scene where the ice fluid truck shifts over, the stunt did not go according to plan and resulted in an accident. A telephone pole-size rafter of wood was placed inwards so it would roll end over end, but it only flipped once and slipped on its roof, right into the camera. Gene Poole, dolly grip on the film, pulled the cameraman out of the way at the last 2nd.

A 2nd incident, this time leading to serious injury, occurred on July 31, one thousand nine hundred eighty five 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, Nannuzzi lost an eye. Nannuzzi sued Stephen King, and seventeen others, on February Legal, one thousand nine hundred eighty seven for $Legitimate million in damages due to unsafe working practices. [8] The suit was lodged out of court.

Maximum Overdrive received overwhelmingly negative reviews, earning a Rotten Tomatoes approval rating of 17%. In Leonard Maltin’s annual publication TV Movie Guide, the film is given a “BOMB” rating. Two Golden Raspberry Award nominations were given out, to Emilio Estevez for Worst Actor and Stephen King for Worst Director.

John Clute and Peter Nichols [9] have suggested a modest reappraisal of Maximum Overdrive, admitting the film’s many flaws but arguing that several scenes display enough visual panache to suggest that King was not entirely without talent as a director.

In an interview discussing the television adaptation of Under the Dome, King admitted that Maximum Overdrive was the worst adaptation of his work.

Maximum Overdrive

Maximum Overdrive

Maximum Overdrive is a one thousand nine hundred eighty six American science fiction activity horror comedy film written and directed by Stephen King. [Four] The film starlets Emilio Estevez, Pat Hingle, Laura Harrington, and Yeardley Smith. The screenplay was inspired by and loosely based on King’s brief story “Trucks”, which was included in King’s very first collection of brief stories, Night Shift.

by Stephen King

• July 25, one thousand nine hundred eighty six ( 1986-07-25 )

Maximum Overdrive is King’s only directorial effort, however dozens of films have been based on one of his novels or brief stories. The film contained black humor elements and a generally campy tone, which contrasts with King’s sombre subject matter in books. The film has a mid-1980s hard rock soundtrack composed entirely by the group AC/DC, King’s dearest band. AC/DC’s album Who Made Who was released as the Maximum Overdrive soundtrack. It includes the best-selling singles “Who Made Who”, “You Shook Me All Night Long”, and “Hells Bells”.

The film was nominated for two Golden Raspberry Awards including Worst Director for King and Worst Actor for Estevez in 1987, but both lost against Prince for Under the Cherry Moon. In 1988, Maximum Overdrive was nominated for “Best Film” at the International Fantasy Film Awards. [Five] King himself described the film as a “moron movie”. He considers the process a learning practice [6] , after which he intended never to direct again. [7]

Contents

As the Earth passes through the tail of a comet, previously inanimate objects abruptly spring to life and turn homicidal. In a pre-title scene, a man (King in a cameo) attempts to withdraw money from an ATM, but it instead calls him an “asshole”, and he whines to his wifey (King’s real life wifey Tabitha). Chaos soon starts as machines of all kinds come to life and begin assaulting humans: a drawbridge inexplicably raises during strenuous traffic, resulting in numerous accidents, most notably a black AC/DC van and a watermelon truck; while at a Little League game, a vending machine kills the coach by firing canned soda point-blank into his groin and then to his skull; a driverless steamroller flattens one of the fleeing children, but one named Deke Keller manages to escape on his bike.

The carnage spreads as humans and even pets are cruelly killed by lawnmowers, chainsaws, electrified hair dryers, pocket radios, and RC cars. At a roadside truck stop just outside Wilmington, North Carolina, a waitress is injured by an electrified knife and arcade machines in the back room electrocute another victim. Employee and ex-convict Bill Robinson starts to suspect something is wrong when all of a sudden marauding big equipment trucks, led by a black Western Starlet four thousand eight hundred sporting a giant Green Goblin mask on its grille, run down two individuals (including Deke’s father) and surround the truck stop, trapping the rest of the civilians inwards the truck stop’s diner.

Robinson rallies the survivors; they use a cache of firearms and M72 LAW rockets stored in a bunker hidden under the diner and ruin many of the trucks. The trucks fight back in the form of both a Caterpillar D7G bulldozer which drives through the diner and a M274 Mule which fires its post-mounted M60 machine gun into the building, killing several including the waitress when she rants at them. The Mule then requests, via sending morse code signals through its horn, that the humans pump the truck’s diesel for them in exchange for keeping them safe; the survivors soon realize they have become enslaved by their own machines. Robinson suggests they escape to a local island just off the coast, on which no vehicles or machines are permitted.

During a fueling operation, Robinson sneaks a grenade onto the Mule vehicle, ruining it, then leads the party out of the diner via a sewer hatch to the main road just as the trucks demolish the entire truck stop. The survivors are pursued to the docks by the Green Goblin truck – which manages to kill one more trucker after he steals a ring from a female corpse in a car – before Robinson ruins the truck once and for all with a direct hit from an M72 LAW rocket shot. The survivors then sail off to safety; a title card epilogue explains that two days after the machines’ rampage, a UFO was ruined by a Soviet “weather satellite” conveniently tooled with class IV nuclear missiles and a laser cannon.

• Emilio Estevez as William “Bill” Robinson
• Pat Hingle as Bubba Hendershot
• Laura Harrington as Brett Graham
• Yeardley Smith as Connie
• John Brief as Curtis
• Ellen McElduff as Wanda June
• Frankie Faison as Handy
• Leon Rippy as Brad
• Christopher Murney as Camp Loman
• J. C. Quinn as Duncan Keller
• Holter Graham as Deke Keller
• Barry Bell as Steve Gayton
• Patrick Miller as Joey
• J. Don Ferguson as Andy
• Giancarlo Esposito as Movie player
• Stephen King (cameo) as ATM man

The film was the very first to be made by Embassy Pictures after it had been bought by Dino de Laurentiis. [Two] In a two thousand two interview with Tony Magistrale for the book Hollywood’s Stephen King, King stated that he was “coked out of [his] mind all through its production, and [he] truly didn’t know what [he] was doing”. [6]

Accidents on set Edit

When filming the scene where the ice juice truck rolls over, the stunt did not go according to plan and resulted in an accident. A telephone pole-size rafter of wood was placed inwards so it would roll end over end, but it only flipped once and glided on its roof, right into the camera. Gene Poole, dolly grip on the film, pulled the cameraman out of the way at the last 2nd.

A 2nd incident, this time leading to serious injury, occurred on July 31, one thousand nine hundred eighty five 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, Nannuzzi lost an eye. Nannuzzi sued Stephen King, and seventeen others, on February Legitimate, one thousand nine hundred eighty seven for $Eighteen million in damages due to unsafe working practices. [8] The suit was lodged out of court.

Maximum Overdrive received overwhelmingly negative reviews, earning a Rotten Tomatoes approval rating of 17%. In Leonard Maltin’s annual publication TV Movie Guide, the film is given a “BOMB” rating. Two Golden Raspberry Award nominations were given out, to Emilio Estevez for Worst Actor and Stephen King for Worst Director.

John Clute and Peter Nichols [9] have suggested a modest reappraisal of Maximum Overdrive, admitting the film’s many flaws but arguing that several scenes display enough visual panache to suggest that King was not entirely without talent as a director.

In an interview discussing the television adaptation of Under the Dome, King admitted that Maximum Overdrive was the worst adaptation of his work.

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