Deadly Pleasures: Stephen King’s MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE

Let me start off by saying this: I am keenly aware that Maximum Overdrive is not a very good movie at all. In fact, it's a downright terrible movie if you take into consideration its various plot holes and nonsensical conditions established in the film coupled with some very awkward performances and characters that couldn’t be more stereotypical if they tried.

But, for me, what ultimately saves Maximum Overdrive from itself is the fact that at the end of the day, the story as a concept is ridiculous fun, the action is over-the-top crazy with tons of destruction and explosions, and it just seems like director Stephen King had a helluva lot of fun making it (he has since admitted to being under the influence of drugs throughout production, which explains a lot). Despite its imperfections, I still adore this deeply flawed film and you have to admit, there’s just never been a movie quite like Maximum Overdrive before or since its 1986 theatrical release.

Based on King’s short story “Trucks,” Maximum Overdrive follows a group of residents (and several travelers) in a sleepy little North Carolina town who all eventually end up taking shelter in a local Dixie Boy Truck Stop after a comet enters the Earth's atmosphere, causing chaos to reign supreme on our planet. At first, nothing but a weird green sky seems to be amiss but shortly after that, the very technology and machines the human race relies on for survival become instruments of death, causing mass casualties everywhere. And if The Terminator films have taught us nothing else, it's that the machines will rise, and there’s not a hell of a lot us humans can do about it.

Soon, it’s up the surviving few to make it out of the Dixie Boy and to a small coastal island nearby that doesn’t allow cars, thereby giving them their best hope of surviving the comet-fueled madness that has consumed the planet.

Maximum Overdrive is probably most famous for its killer trucks theme, particularly the “Green Goblin” semi that has become an iconic image for the film over the last 29 years. Seeing the roaring murder machines bully the survivors hiding inside the Dixie Boy, I will credit King with his keen ability to make antagonists so realistically menacing and effectively utilized throughout the film despite only driving around and never uttering any sort of dialogue. But really, those rolling terrors are only half the fun of King’s directorial debut. Once the proverbial shit hits the fan, soda machines start pelting customers with cans, ATMs insult someone (played by writer/director King, who drops in for a fun cameo at the beginning of the film), lawn mowers start trimming more than just the grass, and even arcade games and an electric knife get in on the deadly fun.

King was obviously trying to tackle several themes in Maximum Overdrive and he does so with all the subtlety of an 18-wheeler driving itself through a truck stop. At the forefront is the issue of technology and how we all have become slaves to their conventions, and what can happen to society once the tables are turned. King also experiments with the idea of class warfare in Maximum Overdrive and even takes on organized religion as well. The results are a mixed bag at best, yet there’s something oddly compelling about King’s methods in Maximum Overdrive as we watch certain slimy, detestable characters get their comeuppances.

What's always fascinated me about Maximum Overdrive is that why out of all the stories he's written, King chose this to be the only movie he directed. Conceptually, it's an incredibly ambitious story with a lot of technical aspects (machines coming to life, explosions, copious amounts of stunts and destruction) that may have been better served by a more seasoned director, or at least one who could keep focused throughout production. That being said, I do applaud King's ballsiness to attempt making Maximum Overdrive even if it was a bit ill-conceived and honestly, I wish he had taken another swing behind the camera, as I’d be interested in seeing what he could achieve as a filmmaker if he were a bit more "focused."

Even though the acting feels incredibly forced by almost every single performer in Maximum Overdrive (the only exception being a young Holter Graham, playing resilient youngster Deke, who manages to outwit vehicles patrolling the area by traveling on his trusty BMX bike), what I have always appreciated about the film is seeing former “Brat Pack” member Emilio Estevez get a chance to break out of that group and star as a down-on-his-luck ex-convict who assumes the role of hero, his resourcefulness proving to be enough to outsmart their group’s vehicular foes. It’s not nearly Estevez’s finest work by any means (I’d reserve that connotation for films like The Outsiders, the underrated Repo Man, Stakeout, Young Guns, or even Judgment Night), but that doesn’t mean the actor doesn’t at least give it his best try, despite the material he’s given to work with here.

Nostalgia is an interesting thing. I can remember being utterly mesmerized by Maximum Overdrive when I caught it at the drive-in during the summer of 1986 but now, everything about the movie plays out like a comedy and unfortunately, I don't think that was King’s intention at all. While I am someone who generally approaches remakes with a bit of skepticism, I do think that Maximum Overdrive is one movie that could actually benefit from an updated take on what is an intriguing concept that could be explored even further, especially considering how much technology has advanced over the last several decades.

To me, Maximum Overdrive almost feels like a movie straight out of the Golden Age of Roger Corman’s career, and while it's definitely a campy and silly flick overwrought with thuddingly deliberate characters and dialogue, it still has some heart to it and is ridiculously audacious in almost every conceivable way. It will never be the most revered King adaptation (and for good reason), but for me, Maximum Overdrive is still an oddly entertaining and campy experience that should at least be seen once by anyone who enjoys the prolific writer’s work or just wants to watch a bunch of semi trucks torment a group of Southerners.