Death Race 2000

For the 2008 remake, see Death Race (film).

Death Race 2000
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Paul Bartel
Produced by	Roger Corman Jim Weatherill
Screenplay by	Robert Thom Charles Griffith
Based on	The Racer  by Ib Melchior
Starring	David Carradine Simone Griffeth Sylvester Stallone Sandy McCallum Louisa Moritz Don Steele
Music by	Paul Chihara
Cinematography	Tak Fujimoto
Editing by	Tina Hirsch
Distributed by	New World Pictures
Release date(s)	April 27, 1975 (1975-04-27)
Running time	80 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$300,000
Box office	$5,000,000

Death Race 2000 is a 1975 cult action film directed by Paul Bartel, and starring David Carradine, Simone Griffeth and Sylvester Stallone. The film takes place in a dystopian American society in the year 2000, where the murderous Transcontinental Road Race has become a form of national entertainment. The screenplay is based on the short story The Racer by Ib Melchior.

Plot

In an alternate timeline of the late 1970s, the United States is no more due to a financial crisis and military coup. Major political parties have collapsed into a single Bipartisan Party, which also acts as a unified national church. The resulting fascist police state, the United Provinces, is headed by "Mr. President" (Sandy McCallum). The country is kept satisfied through a stream of gory gladiatorial entertainment, including the Annual Transcontinental Road Race, a symbol of "modern values and way of life". During the coast-to-coast, three-day race points are scored not just for speed, but for the number of innocent pedestrians killed during the race.

Mr. Frankenstein (David Carradine) is the most celebrated racer and is the government's champion and national icon. He is supposedly part human and part machine, rebuilt after numerous crashes over his career, and constantly wears a mask in the face of public because of supposed facial disfigurements. Though he regularly quarrels with the other drivers, Frankenstein's main foe is "Machine Gun" Joe Viterbo (Sylvester Stallone), who is constantly bitter about being overshadowed by Frankenstein's celebrity and is obsessed with trying to beat him.

Each race driver has a theme. Frankenstein drives a Shala Vette, a custom-built car designed by Dick Dean cast in the semblance of an alligator. Joe is a Gangster, and his car has a giant knife and machine guns mounted on the front. His navigator is the feisty, blonde haired Myra (Louisa Moritz). Nero The Hero, a fan of the Roman Empire, drives "The Lion", a feline-shaped Fiat 850 Spider, and his navigator is Cleopatra. Matilda The Hun, a Nazi, has the "The Buzz-Bomb", a VW Karmann-Ghia shaped like V-1 flying bomb, and her navigator is Herman 'The German' Boch. Cowgirl Calamity Jane's car resembles a bull and her navigator is named Pete.

Race commentary is provided by Junior Bruce (Don Steele), an egotistical and often annoying sportscaster. Color commentary is given by the fawning Grace Pander (Joyce Jameson) and the stoic "Harold" (Carle Bensen), a character apparently modeled after veteran sportscaster Howard Cosell, who provides historical insight to various parts of the race coverage. In one notable scene, Harold describes the scoring system, with points given for hit-and-run victims ranging by age range.

In 2000, during the 20th annual race, a resistance group led by Thomasina Paine (Harriet Medin), a descendant of 1770s American Revolutionist Thomas Paine, plans to rebel against Mr. President's regime by sabotaging the race (killing every driver) and abducting Frankenstein as leverage against the President. The group is assisted by Paine's great granddaughter Annie (Simone Griffeth), Frankenstein's latest navigator. She plans to lure him into an ambush to be replaced by a double. Despite a pirated national broadcast made by Ms. Paine herself, the resistance's disruption of the race is covered-up by the government and instead blamed on the French, who are also blamed for ruining the country's economy and telephone system.

As he nonchalantly survives every attempt made on his life during the race, Annie comes to discover that the Frankenstein she knows is anything but a willing government stooge, nor is he the original one. The current Frankenstein is, in-fact, one of a number of random wards of the state trained exclusively to race in the role. "When one is used up, they bring in another," he tells Annie. The current Frankenstein also reveals that he has his own plans: when he wins the race and shake hands with Mr. President, he will detonate a grenade which has been implanted in his prosthetic right hand (he calls it his "hand grenade"), which he has kept concealed by keeping his glove on at all times (even while undressed).

Frankenstein successfully outmaneuvers both the rival drivers and the Resistance, and is declared the winner, although he is wounded and unable to carry out his original grenade attack plan, since Annie used the grenade to kill an attacking Joe Viterbo. Annie instead dons Frankenstein's disguise and plans to stab Mr. President while standing in for him on the podium. Greeting the president as he congratulates Frankenstein (and simultaneously declares war on the French and appoints Frankenstein leader of the war), Annie is mistakenly shot and wounded by her own grandmother, desperate for revenge against Frankenstein for having supposedly killed Anne during the race (he'd actually just drugged her). The real Frankenstein takes advantage of the confusion and rams the President's stage with his car, finally fulfilling his lifelong desire to kill him.

In the epilogue, Annie and Frankenstein marry. Frankenstein, now President, abolishes the race and the perverse laws of the Provinces. He does make a point, however, of running over sportscaster Junior Bruce as he protests the abolition of the race. As the closing credits roll, Harold can be heard giving a brief narration of the history of violence.

Cast

• David Carradine as Frankenstein
• Simone Griffeth as Annie Smith
• Sylvester Stallone as "Machine-Gun" Joe Viterbo
• Sandy McCallum as "Mr. President"
• Louisa Moritz as Myra
• Don Steele as Junior Bruce
• Mary Woronov as "Calamity" Jane Kelly
• Roberta Collins as Matilda the Hun
• Fred Grandy as "Herman the German" Boch
• Martin Kove as Ray "Nero the Hero" Lonagan
• Joyce Jameson as Grace Pander
• Carle Bensen as Harold
• Leslie McRay as Cleopatra
• Harriet Medin as Thomasina Paine

Production

Roger Corman wanted to make a futuristic action sports film to take advantage of the advance publicity of Rollerball (1975). He optioned a short story by Ib Melchior and hired Robert Thom to adapt it. Director Paul Bartel felt this was unshootable, so Charles B. Griffith rewrote it. Corman wanted Peter Fonda to play the lead but he was unavailable, so David Carradine was cast instead. Carradine was paid 10% of the film's gross - he and Ron Howard were the only stars of Roger Corman productions to ever get a percentage of the gross.

Cars

The cars in the Transcontinental Road Race each have a specific theme.

• Nero the Hero - Roman. The car, a Fiat 850 Spider resembles a lion (the historical Nero threw his enemies to the lions). Nero is the first destroyed when he runs over a booby-trapped doll planted by the Resistance, which he mistakes for a real baby. His Navigator is named Cleopatra.
• Matilda the Hun - Nazi. The car, "The Buzz-Bomb" (a modified VW Karmann-Ghia) resembles a V-1 flying bomb. She drives off a cliff while obeying a fake detour set up by the Resistance. Her navigator is 'Herman the German' Boch.
• Calamity Jane - Cowgirl. The car resembles a bull and runs over a matador. Her navigator is named Pete, who is run over by Matilda while fixing Calamity's car. Later she fights off a half-hearted attack by the resistance which is meant to drive her to a car wrecking lot where they have a landmine set to blow her up. Initially thwarting the attack and missing the landmine, Jane drives over it while escaping the area.
• Machine Gun Joe Viterbo - Gangster. His car has a mounted knife and machine guns on it. He is the last racer to die (killed by Frankenstein's "hand grenade").
• Frankenstein - His car (a Shala Vette by Dick Dean, known as "Gator's Car") resembles an alligator with red eyes, scales and teeth. He is the sole survivor of the race.

Many of the cars were re-bodied VWs and a few were sold after the film to museums for more than it cost to make them, according to Roger Corman.

The car seen in the epilogue is a Sterling Nova.

Reception

Roger Ebert gave the film zero stars in his review, deriding it as being in "poor taste, unnecessarily gratuitous in both nudity and violence."

The film, however, has long been regarded as a cult hit, and was often viewed as superior to Rollerball, made in the same year; another dystopian science fiction sports film, similarly focusing on the use of sports as an "opiate".

Home media

Shout! Factory released a Deluxe Edition DVD and Blu-ray on June 22, 2010 in region 1.

Previous editions were released on DVD and VHS by Buena Vista Home Entertainment and New Concorde, among others.

Legacy

Comic book series

A sequel comic book titled Death Race 2020 was published in 1995 by Roger Corman's short-lived Cosmic Comics imprint. It was written by Pat Mills of 2000 AD fame, with art by Kevin O'Neill. The pair had already worked together on several comics including Marshal Law. The comic book, as the title indicates, took place 20 years after the film and dealt with Frankenstein's return to the race. New racer characters introduced included Von Dutch, The Alcoholic, Happy the Clown, Steppenwolf, Rick Rhesus, and Harry Carrie.

The comic book series lasted eight issues.

Remake

Paul W. S. Anderson directed a remake entitled Death Race, which was released August 22, 2008, starring Jason Statham. The prequel began production in late August 2007. Besides Statham, this new version also stars Ian McShane, Joan Allen, and Tyrese Gibson. It also includes a cameo (by voice-over) of David Carradine reprising his role as Frankenstein. 2 direct-to-DVD prequels titled Death Race 2 and Death Race 3 starring Luke Goss, Ving Rhames, Tanit Phoenix and Danny Trejo was released on January 18, 2011 & January 18th 2013 respectively.

Other references

• The 1982 video game Maze Death Race for Sinclair ZX81 computers (and 1983 for Sinclair ZX Spectrum computers) resembles the film by its cover artwork and title, and car-driving content.
• American Game Cartridges, Inc. released Death Race for the Nintendo (NES) Entertainment System in 1990. Seemingly inspired from the movie of the same name.
• The Carmageddon video game series (Carmageddon, Carmageddon 2: Carpocalypse Now and Carmageddon 3: TDR 2000) all borrow heavily from the plot, characters and car designs in the film.
• Deathtrack was another video game based around car combat. In it, you traveled across the country, blowing up other cars. The obvious similarities between the game and this film suggest that the game was inspired by it.
• In the beginning of the song Isle of Dead by Buckethead, a short excerpt from the movie can be heard.
• In the 1992 Roger Corman-produced film "Munchie Strikes Back", clips from the film (including the helicopter chase) are used as part of a video game called "Death Race 2000".

See also

• The Cars That Ate Paris
• Rollerball (1975 film)
• The Running Man
• The Road Warrior

Video games

• Death Race (1976 game)
• Roadwar 2000
• Carmageddon
• Death Rally

External links

• Death Race 2000 at the Internet Movie Database
• Death Race 2000 at the TCM Movie Database
• Death Race 2000 at AllRovi
• Death Race 2000 at Rotten Tomatoes