The trailer for MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE showcased horror writer Stephen King and his proclamation that he would scare the hell out of you. King points out that he was never happy with the theatrical releases based on his works, and that his all-new story brought to the screen in his directorial debut would be different. A great, promising trailer if their ever was one. But when MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE debuted in 1986, it was greeted with as much enthusiasm as Dino DeLaurentis’ KING KONG remake--another well-hyped project that crashed and burned. Stephen King was mortified at audiences’ reactions, and stayed away from Hollywood for a long time. You never heard King complain again about how his books turned out in the hands of other directors. MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE remained a cable TV staple for years, until Elite announced a special edition LaserDisc a few years back. But a rapidly shrinking consumer base for LaserDisc prevented that from happening. Anchor Bay announced they had acquired the DVD release rights two year ago, but after constant schedule shifting, MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE finally saw the light of day in 2001.

The gaseous tail of a passing comet causes machines to come to life, band together, and eradicate the human race. The setting for this tale is a small southern town, and the highways that access the Dixie Boy truck stop. Bill Robinson (Emilio Estevez) is a ex-con tough guy working as a cook on the wait staff. Hendershot (Pat Hingle) is his no-good boss, who hires only parolees to work at the truck stop. Brett (Laura Harrington) is the free spirited hitchhiker on her way to Florida who enters the Dixie Boy at the wrong time. Curt (John Short) and Connie (Yeardley Smith) are redneck newlyweds who get targeted by rampaging trucks. Deke (Holter Graham) is a boy who survives the massacre of a whole town. The entire cast takes refuge at the Dixie Boy diner, and a conglomeration of sentient trucks (led by one with the face of The Green Goblin) traps them there, and disposes of them one at a time. Bill and his boss Hendershot do not get along, and there is a power struggle between them, even as Bill raids his boss’s underground bunker (it seems he was once an arms dealer). Using Hendershot’s weapons, the remaining humans now have a chance to fight the growing horde of killer trucks. Bill and Brett believe that they can lead the Dixie Boy survivors to an offshore island, far from the presence of mankind’s machines.

Stephen King’s direction not withstanding, this script is the worst thing King has ever done (well at least until SLEEPWALKERS). How could such a competent novelist be such a bad screenwriter? I don’t know; chock it up as another unknown secret of the universe. The dialog is ridiculously stupid and consists of lines like, "Honey, you are bleeding like a stuck pig," and "Don’t make me a widow on my wedding day." King’s own script doesn’t even follow the rules of it’s own narrative. For instance, all these vehicles on the road have come to life to exterminate humans, except for the car driven by newlyweds Curt and Connie. How convenient that the Dixie Boy diner resides on an unexplained military armory. And why do the weapons themselves not come to life and attack the humans? In one scene, a machine gun clearly opens fire on the humans by itself. Why do none of Hendershot’s weapons follow suit? King’s explanation for this machine rebellion is equally lame. The passing tail of the comet turns the sky bright green, indicating the source of the disaster. Then in the final shot, the script suggests that aliens are behind the whole thing.

Well, we all know that MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE does not deliver an intelligent plot or coherent logic. The script is merely an excuse for the onscreen Armageddon of mankind, served up with a healthy doses of twisted humor and rock ‘n roll sensibilities. We witness soda machine massacres, pinball game executions, electric knife assaults, steamrollers driving over kids, lawnmower attacks, and multiple automotives running down humans. We get motor vehicle chases, several exploding trucks, and graphic gore effects, all to the tunes of the mighty AC/DC. Some bits of humor actually work, like King cameoing as an ATM user who gets chastised by his ATM machine. Another funny moment has a watermelon fall on the head of a terror-stricken woman on the bridge. A homicidal soda machine spits out cans of soda that kill a softball coach--to the delight of his team. MAXIMUM OVERDIRVE is full of dark humor that relieves the tension every so often.

Another major reason to the failure of MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE is the casting. Emilio Estevez looks too much like a Hollywood glamour-boy (complete with radioactive suntan) to pull off his ex-con role, and his delivery and posturing recalls THE BREAKFAST CLUB instead of ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ. Laura Harrington is hot looking, but except for stroking Emilio’s ego, she is of no real use to the film. Yeardley Smith (the voice of Lisa Simpson) is horribly miscast, and her shrill screams sound like steel gauntlets on a chalkboard! Her presence in the film is the single most damaging aspect to MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE. The second most annoying element is actress Ellen McElduff, who plays the waitress of the Dixie Boy. She is the lady who grabs the shotgun and stumbles out of the diner proclaiming, "We made you! We made you!". Only two actors turn in positive performances: Pat Hingle (Commissioner Gordon from the Batman film series) is excellent as the hell bound owner of the Dixie Boy, and Holter Graham as the sole survivor of a baseball team massacre.

-  Phil Chandler

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