Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone (1983)

User Rating:

4.7/10   

Director:

Lamont Johnson

Writers:

Stewart Harding (story) and
Jean LaFleur (story) ...

Release Date:

20 May 1983 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Journey with Wolff and Niki, an interstellar adventurer and young rebel. On a mission to rescue three stranded women from a planet no one has warned them about. Because no one has ever returned.

Plot:

Three women made an emergency landing on a planet plagued with a fatal disease, but are captured by dictator Overdog...

Plot Keywords:

Dictator | Explosion | Lie | 3 Dimensional | Forbidden Zone

Cast

Peter Strauss	...	Wolff
Molly Ringwald	...	Niki
Ernie Hudson	...	Washington
Andrea Marcovicci	...	Chalmers
Michael Ironside	...	Overdog
Beeson Carroll	...	Grandman Patterson
Hrant Alianak	...	Chemist
Deborah Pratt	...	Meagan
Aleisa Shirley	...	Reena
Cali Timmins	...	Nova
Paul Boretski	...	Jarrett
Patrick Rowe	...	Duster
Reggie Bennett	...	Barracuda Leader

Also Known As:

Adventures in the Creep Zone
Road Gangs
Spacehunter (USA) (DVD box title)

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

Canada | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:L | USA:PG (#27017) | UK:15 (video rating) (1986) (uncut) | UK:PG (original rating) (cut) | Australia:PG | Finland:K-12 | Norway:16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Moab, Utah, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

The "tape machines" were on loan from Brainstorm (1983), which was being filmed on an adjacent set.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Studio carpark visible when the ship first lands on the planet.

Quotes:

Nicki: Us loners got to stick together.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Step Brothers (2008)

Classic Cheese

I make a point to catch Spacehunter every time it airs (usually after 1 a.m.). It's classic cheese, and I submit there's a place in our moral-cinematic universe for such films.

What films? Oh, having Michael Ironside as the villain is a good clue. If I had to define them...films so goofy (yet riddled with neat ideas that only the low-budget creative intellect can conjure) that we harken back to adolescence and think how cool these films would have been/were when we saw them with our junior high pals.

Yes, this is MST3K material, but lovingly so, nostalgically so. An ugly duckling that never becomes a swan--never even really gives such a transformation a shot--but one we can groove on precisely because it's so dorky.