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In 1987, as Earth passes through the tail of the mysterious Rhea-M comet, inanimate machines suddenly come to life to terrorise and attack their human creators. With the homicidal machines making quick work of anybody in their path, a group of survivors band together at the Dixie Boy Truck Stop in North Carolina while big rig trucks and other killer vehicles circle outside. Among the group of humans is a cook named Bill Robinson (Emilio Estevez), who takes it upon himself to maintain order and sanity while developing romantic feelings for a hitchhiker, Brett (Laura Harrington).
The characters are pure clichés, and King paints them with broad strokes of black and white, never adding an ounce of nuance. The film features a rugged, resourceful male protagonist who's an ex-convict but is nevertheless heroic, while there is also a vulnerable female love interest and a newlywed couple to raise dramatic stakes. Additionally, the story introduces an antagonistic truck stop owner (with a secret arsenal of high-powered weapons) and other idiotic characters who only exist as cannon fodder for the machines. Indeed, one character even walks outside into the line of fire to berate the machines before meeting their demise. The performances do not do much to elevate the corny, on-the-nose dialogue, with the Razzie-nominated Emilio Estevez (who was hired at the insistence of Dino De Laurentiis; King wanted Bruce Springsteen) coming across as stiff and self-serious, while none of the other actors (including future Bart Simpson, Yeardley Smith) make much of an impression. However, Pat Hingle's over-the-top performance as the Dixie Boy's owner, Bubba Hendershot, is a highlight.
Reports from the set of Maximum Overdrive are almost as crazy as the film itself, with King professing that he was high on cocaine during the shoot and did not know what he was doing, while cinematographer Armando Nannuzzi lost an eye following a special effects shot gone wrong. Nevertheless, the flick does not come across as the slapdash work of an inexperienced filmmaker - instead, everything from the stuntwork and special effects to the editing and story progression is surprisingly assured, exhibiting no signs of a troubled production. Despite King's disillusionment with the production, the set pieces are proficient and exciting, and the picture highlights the risk big rig trucks pose to comparatively small humans. King's screenplay takes full advantage of the premise's gleefully crazy and inherently humorous possibilities - the first machine to malfunction is a bank sign that displays profanity before an ATM calls a customer an asshole, while everything from bascule bridges and lawnmowers to vending machines and electric knives try to kill everybody in sight. Vehicles even start honking in Morse code to communicate with humans. How the machines gained the ability to know Morse code remains a mystery.
Instead of a soundtrack comprising subtlety, intensity and nuance by a well-known composer, Maximum Overdrive only features rock 'n' roll music by King's favourite band, AC/DC, who released the soundtrack as an album entitled Who Made Who. The use of hard rock makes the set pieces all the more memorable - the song Who Made Who accompanies the opening montage of machines going haywire, and the humans refuel as many trucks as possible to the tune of Hells Bells. This curious creative decision further solidifies this movie as utterly unique in the annals of cinema, as it is difficult to imagine any studio investing a significant amount of money into a film as bizarre as this. Indeed, if a movie like Maximum Overdrive was made in the 21st Century, it would look cheap, digital and artificial. But there is an inherent charm to old-school practical effects, authentic location shooting, and the visual gravitas of 35mm film - it feels like a proper motion picture instead of a low-rent joke.
With Maximum Overdrive boiling down to a movie about a space comet causing machines to attack humans, it is nearly impossible to take the material seriously, even though King ostensibly tried. Instead of a white-knuckle suspense thriller, the film is a tongue-in-cheek delight with enough memorable kills and gore to satisfy genre fans. The pacing does grind to a halt when King concentrates too much on the human characters since the drama is not exactly riveting, and there is a fair bit of inexcusably silly behaviour, but there is still enough of worth to justify a watch, particularly for those with a taste for campy '80s horror. Just do not expect a chilling masterpiece like The Shining, an adaptation of King's work that, let's not forget, the author despises.
6.8/10
