After a comet causes a radiation storm on Earth, machines come to life and turn against their makers. Holed up in a North Carolina truck stop, a group of survivors must fend for themselves against a mass of homicidal trucks. A diner cook, Bill Robinson (Estevez), emerges as the unlikely leader of the pack, attempting to find an escape plan for himself and the survivors, who include his boss, Bubba Hendershot (Hingle), and a newlywed couple.
- Based on short story "Trucks" from Needful Things.
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There are good Stephen King movies, like Pet Sematary and The Mist. And then there are bad ones, like Sleepwalkers. With the man himself both writing and directing Maximum Overdrive, you would think it’d be a shoo-in for one of the good ones. It’s not – but thankfully it isn’t one of the bad ones either.
The cast is largely forgettable. For this kind of film, most of them are nothing more than cannon fodder anyway, contributing more to a death scene than to any other part of the film. Emilio Estevez chews up the most scenery as the main star of the film. While his acting isn’t exactly good, it’s enough to get people past the typical “get to know the character” scenes, despite those sequences feeling stilted. The rest of the cast follow his lead, with people like Laura Harrington, Yeardley Smith and Pat Hingle turning in lackluster performances as well. In fact, a brief cameo by a young Giancarlo Esposito is the most exciting thing about the cast (even though his performance is nothing to write home about either).
The story is a typical “machines run amok” trope, and honestly seems to be put together just to showcase some big explosions and menacing truck shots. There is a weird intro and outro scroll that mentions something about a comet that is the cause of all this, but it’s not necessary to read it. It’s odd how largely forgettable to plot line is, since Stephen King, normally known for his stories – was both writer and director on Maximum Overdrive.
The action sequences are dated, and the special effects are typical of a low budget flick like Maximum Overdrive. The glass is obviously breakaway, the dead are mostly mannequins, and the film mostly uses AC/DC to provide background noise. The trucks – most notably the “Happy Toyz” truck with its menacing Joker-like hood decoration – provide enough menace, but the viewer will probably spend more of their time figuring out how the filmmakers got the trucks to drive around without drivers instead of paying much attention to the action or the crappy dialogue.
For all of its faults, Maximum Overdrive is still a decent time-waster. Sure, the lags between the action are somewhat uncomfortable (though thankfully short), the dialogue is pretty awful, and the special effects have aged badly – but it could be worse. An 80’s low budget man vs. machine flick that’s more laughable than it is scary, it’s probably only a cult classic because of who directed it.
