Maximum Overdrive Poster

Maximum Overdrive (1986)

Action | Horror 
Rayting:   5.4/10 30.4K votes
Country: USA
Language: English
Release date: 2 July 1987

A group of people try to survive when machines start to come alive and become homicidal.

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User Reviews

hu675 26 August 2005

When an invisible force of Aliens takes over the world in over a week. The force uses the machines to attack on the whole population of the world. The force uses all kinds of things, especially-Trucks. When Citizens and Co-Workers of the Dixie Boy Truck Stop, the people ended up fighting for their lives.

Written & Directed by Stephen King (Screen-writer of Cat's Eye, Silver Bullet, Sleepwalkers) made a dumb but entertaining film. The film's stars:Emilio Estevez, Pat Hingle, Laura Harrington and Yeardley Smith (Who voiced Lisa Simpson in the animated hit show "The Simpsons"). This was a box office flop on it's release. This is still today, extremely underrated but it's not the worst-Stephen King film yet.

DVD has an sharp anamorphic Widescreen (2.35:1) transfer and an digitally remastered-Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. The Laserdisc Edition has an commentary track by King. Too bad, the Anchor Bay DVD doesn't have his commentary. DVD extras are Stephen King Bio and an excellent funny trailer.

The Canadian DVD from Vivendi ("Universal") has an good anamorphic Widescreen (2.35:1) transfer and an fine Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. The campy trailer is included as well. It's worth seeing for Stephen King fans and Curious Viewers. King had to cut 11 seconds to not get an X-Rating. Great rock score by AC/DC. Joe Dunton Camera Widescreen. (J-D-C Scope). (****/*****).

rac-panis 10 March 2006

Fmovies: I really cannot understand why this movie has such a bad overall rating. According to me a movie doesn't have to have a great plot or so to be appealing. First of all I like the movie for the soundtrack by AC/DC. Actually, I learned to know the music of them by watching this movie. The 'Who made Who' theme song conducts the beginning of the movie excellent when a traffic bridge is starting to open beyond human control. The same goes for the other songs in the movie - they really add. Secondly I like the movie for the humor in it. It's not a comedy but some scenes made me laugh - like the bible sales man who gets mad when his car is hit by a truck and he runs outside the roadhouse - cursing like hell; the truck hits him into a sewer and his shoes stay behind. Or the beginning of the movie in which you see a guy withdrawing money from an ATM and on the screen the message appears 'you're an *sshole'. 'Sugar buns, this thing is calling me an *sshole !' If you watch closely you might also notice just before this scene a digital clock on the building on which the time changes into F*CK YOU. Maybe I'm just simple but I like the movie. Better than some not understandable romantic drama if you'd ask me.

L-1011Widebody 4 January 2019

Maximum Overdrive is often tossed aside as a B-movie action flick. But there is a depth and realism to it, that you only get from Stephen King (whether he knew it at the time or not).

It's a subtle satire on human's over-reliance on machines and automation, that you lose the things that really make you human. That in the end, there still must be a human to operate these devices and systems. You see the characters' humanity atrophy as they are confronted with the realization that they are overly dependent on their tools and equipment and gadgets and gizmos. If you look beneath the flashy gore and carnage on display, there is a real message hidden in the movie.

Appreciate the crafty story-telling tricks that Stephen King uses, without you even realizing such. For instance, when Hendershot says he likes hiring convicts because one slip-up and he can send them back to prison, it's a subtle and biting commentary on how people view even other humans as interchangeable, replaceable, parts of a greater machine.

As the situation devolves, you get another fantastic take on humanity, because Hendershot threatens to send Robinson back to jail for breaking and entering his secret cache of weapons. This is a brilliant attack on human's depending on 'someone else will fix this', relying on another person to be the scapegoat for your own problems. Hendershot is a perfect example of man's inhumanity to man, especially when he callously tells Deke that his father was 'squashed by one of them big boys'.

Stephen King may not have realized it at the time, he claimed to be 'coked out of his mind' when directing it, but he really gets down to the core of what makes us human, and how savage we can be. He brought a real honesty to how people would react.

The sheer determination of Curtis to get to the Dixie Boy despite the insurmountable odds against him, really reflects the basic primal animal instinct within mankind. The drive to survive, and safety in numbers, and the risks we take to explore and expand our world. When Curtis doubles-back on the tow-truck trying to kill them, it is a great demonstration of how even in the most hopeless of situations, mankind will find a way to get through. The cleverness in that instinctive moment really speaks to the sheer tenacity that us humans have, that we will never give up, and never surrender.

Deke uses sheer will to go through the cement pipe to get where he thinks he will be safe, and that is something we all can relate to, doing something utterly unpleasant because we are blinded by the good part.

This is both positive, as evidenced by Deke's persistence, but is also negative, when Wanda loses her civility and yells out at the trucks, that 'we made you!'.

You can see the echoes of this stubbornness all over society, the partner who stays in an abusive relationship because he/she 'is good with the kids'. People who will play the lottery over and over and not think about how much money they would have if they just hit that one jackpot, that one lucky strike. The people that fall into addiction because they say they can stop whenever they want to.

It seems a bit of irony that when they were filming the movie, they had real truckers stop by at the Dixie Boy because it was so convincing of a replication of a truck stop; the characterizations in Maximum Overdrive are that level of real humanity, real honesty.

These are messages that speak to us even today, the de

tedwilliams 2 December 2004

Maximum Overdrive fmovies. Hey, can't Big Steve have a little fun, too? I don't think this was a "so bad it's funny" movie - it's too well done to have been constructed as anything but a real comedy. Viewing this in the context of a traditional horror/slasher movie doesn't do it justice, and with deference to previous reviewers, trying to analyze the technical feasibility of the antics of the machines is a lot like making a big deal about pointing out the historical inaccuracies in Monty Python and the Holy Grail - why? It's a MOVIE, folks, and the liberties Our Most Televised Red Sox Fan takes with the things machines can do make it a damned funny one at that. The scenes, characters, and quotes are a notch below the aforementioned Grail, Spinal Tap, or Clerks, but still classic. (I've been caught by more than one co-worker standing at my desk screaming "WE MADE YOU!" at my laptop, but hey, to each his own.) Five out of five stars, as long as you come in with the right perspective!

utgard14 19 August 2015

Stephen King wrote and directed this much-maligned film adaptation of his short story "Trucks." The plot has Earth passing through the tail of a comet, which somehow causes all the machines on Earth to come to life with murderous intentions. A group of people find themselves trapped in a truck stop surrounded by semi-trucks and other vehicles. The trucks, led by one with a huge Green Goblin face on the front, wait for the humans to leave the truck stop so they can kill them one by one.

This is one of my favorite guilty pleasures from the '80s. It's a ludicrous popcorn movie with an awesome soundtrack by AC/DC and a cast that includes Emilio Estevez, Pat Hingle, Frankie Faison, Laura Harrington, and Yeardley Smith. Stephen King appears in a funny cameo at the beginning. This movie was HATED at the time and remains hated today, at least by stuffy film snob types. It's a fun movie! Not everything has to be high art. For people who are fans of silly and cheesy movies, this is right up your alley. Auto nuts might also like it for all the different old vehicles on display. Ignore the critics and give it a shot.

claudio_carvalho 15 March 2015

When Earth passes through the tail of Rea-M rogue comet, the machines come to life and threaten and kill the mankind. A group of survivors is under siege of fierce trucks in the Dixie Boy truck stop in a gas station and they have to fight to survive.

"Maximum Overdrive" is a silly, campy, funny and highly entertaining movie by Stephen King with a great soundtrack by AC/DC. Despite the awful story, acting and direction, I saw this cult movie again yesterday afternoon and it makes laugh so stupid it is. Fortunately Stephen King has given up directing movies. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Comboio do Terror" ("Convoy of Terror")

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