Do you ever feel like your car has a mind of its own? Sometimes I notice my gas tank is a little lower than it was the day before, and I have to wonder if my car went out on a joy ride while I was away. What if it did? What else would it be capable of doing? With the way we tend to treat our cars: leaving them to bake in the sun or stay out all night in the rain.... What happens if they want revenge?
After a strange comet begins to pass over earth, in Stephen King’s Maximum Overdrive, cars, tractors, lawnmowers, etc begin coming to life and wreaking havoc on their owners. No one is spared: children, dogs, mothers and fathers are slain by the machines that they’ve taken advantage of and relied on for years. The only hope for humanity is found in the small truck-stop diner, the “Dixie Boy” where the few surviving humans in a small southern town are surrounded by vindictive semis.
In a place where trucks seem to gather religiously, the “Dixie Boy” is the perfect setting for the semis to get together and plot the demise of humanity. Guarding the diner, circling like sharks, the trucks imprison a gamut of personalities. While owner Bubba Henderson (Pat Hingle Batman, Batman Returns) tries to keep his employees in order and his building safe, whiny newlywed Connie (Yeardley Smith The Simpsons) is more concerned about not becoming a widow on her wedding night. Short order cook Ben Robinson (Emilio Estevez The Breakfast Club) seems to be the only character who truly cares about the big picture: getting out alive.
Unlike many of King’s other works, we don’t really see an exploration of the human condition. In works like It, The Golden Years and The Langoliers King’s audience sees how people react in extreme situations; raw emotion, terror and helplessness lead into community, strength and bravery. In Maximum Overdrive there isn’t that sense of congregation amongst the survivors, while there are moments where the characters come together, the emotion reads more like “every man for himself.” This mild anarchy works for the comedic atmosphere of the film, as it wouldn’t feel right in a dramatic piece like The Stand. Helping to set the tone during the carnage and mayhem is an AC/DC soundtrack, whose song "Who Made Who" was created specifically for Maximum Overdrive. The beauty of taking this film in a humorous manner, is the gained ability to use gory scenes in a playful manner. It would seem almost unfair for a character in The Green Mile to get murdered by the UPS truck, but in Maximum Overdrive, it would work just fine.
King’s teleplay for Maximum Overdrive was adapted from the short story “Trucks” in Night Shift. This collection of short stories also gave way to other Stephen King classics like the Children of the Corn series, Sometimes They Come Back and The Lawnmower Man. However, If you go into the movie with a serious mindset, you’ll be sadly disappointed. Maximum Overdrive, being King’s first, and only, foray into directing, leaves a lot to be desired with its numerous plot holes.
The idea behind the movie is thought provoking; it makes me respect my car a little more anyway. The humorous tone for the movie makes it a lot more approachable, as well. Just because this movie might not be the huge blockbuster that it could have been doesn’t mean that it should be completely written off, though. If you’re a fan of fun movies like Tremors, Dead Alive, and Creepshow, you will probably find this movie to be extremely entertaining.
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