Death Race 3: Inferno

Death Race 3: Inferno
DVD cover
Directed by	Roel Reiné
Screenplay by	Tony Giglio
Story by	Paul W. S. Anderson Tony Giglio
Produced by	Paul W. S. Anderson Jeremy Bolt Mike Elliott
Starring	Luke Goss Danny Trejo Tanit Phoenix Fred Koehler Robin Shou Ving Rhames Dougray Scott
Cinematography	Wayne Shields
Edited by	Michael Trent Radu Ion
Music by	Trevor Morris
Distributed by	Universal 1440 Entertainment
Release date	January 22, 2013 (2013-01-22)
Running time	105 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Death Race 3: Inferno (also known as Death Race 3 and Death Race: Inferno) is a 2013 American action film and the third installment in the Death Race film series. The film is a sequel to Death Race 2 (2010) and the prequel to the 2008 film Death Race, and was released direct-to-video on January 22, 2013.

Plot

Death Race owner R.H. Weyland has been forced to sell the rights to Niles York, a British billionaire who acquired the rights by hostile takeover. York intends to relocate the Death Race to South Africa as the Transcontinental Death Race. Before leaving, Weyland arranges Carl Lucas, also known as Frankenstein, to have surgery to heal the infected and deadly scars on his face sustained in the previous film. With Lucas one win away from gaining his freedom, York threatens to kill him if he wins.

Lucas engages in a fist fight with other racers and his mask is knocked off in the middle of the fight, revealing to his crew that he is not alive rather than a new Frankenstein. Before the first race, the pool of female navigators had to participate in a Death Race "Navigator Wars". Death Race itself is now hosted and produced by Satana. The 10 surviving navigators, including Katrina Banks, are assigned to their drivers.

All racers receive GPS locators surgically so the showrunners can track them and, if necessary, kill them if they attempt to escape.

The first race, in the Kalahari Desert, reveals how different the challenge is as compared to racing on the Terminal Island prison course. Eleven racers compete, but Jackal jumps the start and the missile tracker kills him and his navigator. Joker, Pretty Boy, the Tazmanian Devil and their navigators die, while Razor beats out Frankenstein to win the first race.

Katrina tells Lucas they cannot resume their previous relationship, as she is hearbroken that he kept his survival secret from her. When Goldberg is cut in a fight, the show's surgeon, Olivia, makes advances and the two establish a relationship. In order to make Katrina jealous, Satana orders Psycho's navigator Amber to have sex with Lucas.

Satana and York grow suspicious that Lucas is up to something due to his non-rebellious attitude to being forced to lose. Elsewhere, Lucas explains his deal with York to his crew and says that, instead, he made a "new deal".

The second race commences with the death of three more teams. Fury is killed after being tricked by Olga Braun (Death Race's first-ever female driver) and she is in turn killed by Razor. Razor is struggling to handle both Lucas and Psycho before the three are joined by 14K, having disabled Nero's car before leaving him to get beaten to death by an angry mob of locals. The second race ends with Lucas victorious, but Goldberg is caught in an explosion caused by stray bullets from local hostile war lords, and Olivia pronounces him dead.

York reminds Lucas he is to lose his next race to 14K or York will torture him and Katrina. Satana then discovers York wishes to replace her as producer and remove her from the Death Race so he can assume complete control. Before the next race, Katrina confesses her love to Lucas, and Lucas admits he did not have sex with Amber.

Before the final race, Psycho and Lucas have a chat about the identity of Frankenstein and if Lucas was the first. Razor disables Psycho's car, and Psycho dies in the flames while his navigator Amber survives without injury. Lucas takes the lead with York attempting to kill him with a missile, but 14K shoots flares to divert the missile and destroy it, saving his life and repaying his "life for a life" debt from the previous film.

Lucas holds a commanding lead and kills many of the Death Race guards along the way. He relinquishes the lead to 14K and turns off to find York. Satana handcuffs York to a table for attempting to replace her. Lucas crashes his car into the control room and explodes, engulfing the room in flames. It appears that everyone except a facially disfigured Lucas perished in the crash, but Lucas insists that he is York, not Frankenstein. Olivia, Lists and the GPS chip confirm it Lucas/Frankenstein.

It is revealed that Lucas's "new deal" during the meeting with Weyland, supported later by Olivia and Satana, was to fake Goldberg's death and pronounce York and Katrina dead. With York now "dead", Weyland regains control of the Death Race and grants the team their freedom, though Lists refuses the offer and returns to Terminal Island. Weyland pays Lucas and his team (including Olivia) a substantial amount of money for their help, which they use to relocate. York is the new Frankenstein, hoping to gain his freedom Death Racing at Terminal Island in the future (seen in the first film).

Cast

• Luke Goss as Carl "Luke" Lucas / Frankenstein
• Tanit Phoenix as Katrina Banks
• Danny Trejo as Goldberg
• Fred Koehler as Lists
• Ving Rhames as R.H. Weyland
• Dougray Scott as Niles York / Frankenstein, he was killed by Machine Gun Joe in Death Race (2008).
• Robin Shou as 14K
• Hlubi Mboya as Satana
• Kim Syster as Olivia
• Roxane Hayward as Prudence

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 50% of 6 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating was 5.1/10. Scott Foy of Dread Central rated it 3/5 stars and wrote, "Movies like Death Race 3: Inferno are like a piece of chewing gum – the flavor is fleeting, you spit it out when you’re done without hesitation, but it gave you the minor fix you were after." Jesse Skeen of DVD Talk rated it 3/5 stars and wrote, "This movie probably won't win any awards, but it's great mindless fun." David Johnson of DVD Verdict called it an "ultimately a loud and tedious chore." Scott Weinberg of Fearnet wrote, "Cheap, choppy, and almost shamelessly by-the-numbers, Death Race 3 earns points for the same reason its predecessor did: it's quick, slick, enjoyably empty-headed, just energetic enough to smash through the finish line".

External links

• Death Race 3: Inferno at IMDb