The Big Picture

• The 1986 film Maximum Overdrive is a cult classic, known for its campiness and "so bad it's good" appeal.
• A modern remake of Maximum Overdrive could explore deeper themes of technology reliance and AI perils.
• The success of recent Stephen King adaptations opens the door for a potential remake of Maximum Overdrive .

Stephen King film adaptations are hit or miss, from the highs of IT (take your pick) to the lows of The Lawnmower Man. The 1986 cult classic Maximum Overdrive is in the latter category. Well, well into the latter category. Nevertheless, King's first directorial effort lands squarely in the "so bad it's good" realm (which is of little comfort to King, who hasn't directed another movie since). Yet there's a sense of a missed opportunity to make something truly special. And if ever there was a time to remake Maximum Overdrive and create something more, something deeper, that time is now.

Maximum Overdrive

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

1986's 'Maximum Overdrive' Earns Its Cult-Classic Status

Maximum Overdrive was inspired by Stephen King's "Trucks," one of many films that have adapted his short stories for the screen. The film begins on June 19, 1987, as Earth crosses through the tail of the Rhea-M comet. The event causes inanimate machines to come to life, and attack humans across the world. The film then settles on the town of Wilmington, North Carolina, capturing the havoc and chaos the suddenly sentient machines are wreaking on the residents. A gas pump sprays diesel into the eyes of a truck stop employee. Arcade games electrocute a player. In two separate "Are we wrong to laugh at this?" moments, a fleeing child is flattened by a road roller faster than you can say, "We're gonna need another Timmy," and a vending machine sends a soda can right into the ol' "Bennie and the Jets" of a baseball coach before killing him with a barrage of cans.

Survivors make their way into the truck stop where they hole up as several big trucks — including their "leader," a Happy Toyz truck with a Green Goblin head at the front — circle the area. Bill (Emilio Estevez), a cook and paroled ex-convict, surmises that the comet that brought the machines to life is a means for aliens to destroy humanity before taking over (that an ex-con/cook would know enough to even speculate such a theory isn't even the least believable element in the film). The survivors agree that their best bet is to make their way to the dock and head to a local island devoid of any vehicles. Navigating the sewers, they make it to the docks, but Greeny chases them down. Thankfully, Bill has a rocket launcher and destroys the unhappy Happy Toyz truck with a direct hit. Six days later, Earth is out of the comet's tail, the survivors are still surviving, and machines return to their inanimate state... or do they? They do. The end.

'Maximum Overdrive' Should Get a Modern Update

Full confession — Maximum Overdrive is a guilty pleasure to watch for its campiness. A remake, however, could ditch those camp elements in favor of plausibility and true terror, allowing the 1986 cult classic to exist as its own entity. The original premise of the film, that the machines come to life after Earth passes through a comet tail, is the first eye roll in a movie filled with them. Even with the suggestion that aliens are responsible, like Bill, the ex-con cook, speculated (paired with an epilogue that suggests he's right), it's a ridiculous set-up. With technology more interconnected and prevalent in society than ever before, it wouldn't be difficult to work off of a far more plausible premise. It wouldn't even be the first time that one of Stephen King's more fantastical literary elements is excised in favor of the film's story. Take the Ritual of Chüd from King's IT, for example. The ritual is not addressed in the 1990 miniseries at all, and is significantly downplayed in 2019's IT: Chapter Two.

Stephen King's 'Maximum Overdrive' Is a Campy Disaster That's Absolutely Worth Your Time

The horror writer's sole directorial work is a masterpiece of so-bad-it's-good cinema.

That prevalence of technology in almost every aspect of our lives also allows for the possibility of some truly terrifying moments. The survivors in the 1986 film are able to take refuge in the truck stop, a place where they can escape from machinery by unplugging or tossing them away. Today, we literally have machinery on our person 24/7, be it iPhones, Bluetooth devices, CPAP machines, or VR gaming goggles (2023 statistics peg screen time for users across platforms and devices is an astounding 6 hours and 37 minutes per day). There is no truck stop for the people of today, a tech-free place they can escape to. When everything and everywhere is a threat, where do you go? That reliance on technology has come at the expense of genuine, close relationships, with social media becoming the prominent means of connectedness, leading to contradictory feelings of loneliness and isolation. Without real connections, how do you spread the word about the danger, especially when social media is likely the very first thing that sentient machines would target? And that's just the practicalities of such an instance. A remake of Maximum Overdrive has a chance to make a strong statement about the effects of tech reliance, the perils of AI, and more.

'Maximum Overdrive' Could Be Another Reclaimed Stephen King Adaptation

Maximum Overdrive has, technically, been remade once already. The 1997 made-for-TV film Trucks took its cue from the same Stephen King short story that Maximum Overdrive is based on. The story is more or less the same, but the film still manages to be worse than its predecessor. The low budget certainly didn't help, but the biggest sin of Trucks is its complete lack of the camp that at least makes the original engaging. It did try to create logical reasons for the trucks to turn sentient but the whole concept remains completely incredulous and non-sensical. There was talk in 2020 of a Maximum Overdrive remake, one which would be directed by King's son Joe Hill, but that project never came to fruition.

Perhaps the most engaging reason for a Maximum Overdrive remake is other remakes. The King Renaissance that kicked off in 2017 saw several projects based on King's works greenlit. Those projects include titles that, like Maximum Overdrive, had initial adaptations that could have been better. Salem's Lot was first adapted as a TV miniseries in 1979, and a remake was completed in 2022 that likely benefits from advances in film technique. We actually don't know, given that Warner Bros. has still refused to release the film, something the studio has done with numerous other projects, to much public outrage. Christine, the 1983 film about a bad 1958 Plymouth Fury, is reportedly still in development.

The closest parallel to Maximum Overdrive's situation is none other than The Running Man, the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger adaptation that saw Arnie take down bad guys on a reality TV show in a dystopian future. The film was far more successful than Maximum Overdrive but shares the same issues. The film is campy, one of Arnie's 1980s action-hero-with-catchphrase films, and as a result, diverges from the source material. It also offers a premise that is far more plausible today, especially with the advent of reality TV. The more faithful adaptation, directed by Edgar Wright, could pave the way for a Maximum Overdrive remake, especially if it succeeds and stands apart from the original. From there, who knows? Maybe that long-awaited The Lawnmower Man remake will become a reality!

Maximum Overdrive is available to rent on Amazon in the U.S.

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