Stephen King Classic - Maximum Overdrive
It’s ironic how things happen. I was just talking about Maximum Overdrive with a friend recently and holy crap, it popped up on Tubi for free. You know I had to dive into this Stephen King classic from 1986. The last time (and only time) I watched this was probably around 1992 so, it was a great find and trip down memory lane. Speaking of lanes and driving and dating a movie – gas was $9 for 14 gallons! Yes, gasoline was affordable in the 80s folks.
AC DC and Stephen King - Great Team Up
First, Stephen King did this one so, there’s no question about the quality – yes, it’s 100% awesome. King even makes a cameo in the movie too. Anyway, there are plenty of other cool things about Maximum Overdrive to elaborate on. One is ACDC and their tie to the movie. ACDC is classic American Hard Rock at its best. This band did the soundtrack for Maximum Overdrive and, you know it, the VW bus in this movie is painted with the ACDC logo! Great!
Vehicles, Arcades, Cigarette Machines - Maximum Overdrive Has a Lot of Nostalgia to Offer
Anyone familiar with the idea behind this movie knows that there are plenty of cool vehicles in Maximum Overdrive. There are old tractors, military vehicles, Bic trucks, JB 1.5 paper trucks, and Mac trucks. Who can forget the Green Goblin on the front of the toy truck? There is a more inclusive list of vehicles in Maximum Overdrive here.
I didn’t realize that Moff Gideon was in this. You would think that if he could handle the dark saber, he wouldn’t die at the hands of an arcade machine. If he was a real Sith Lord, that would have never happened. Anyway, there’s a cool scene where a man is in the arcade of the old truck stop that Maximum Overdrive takes place in. By nature of this, you get to see some old machines. There is an old vending machine, a juke box, and even a cigarette vending machine too! I remember seeing one of these last at a bowling alley in Anderson when I was a kid. Who keeps $2 worth of quarters on them? As far as the arcades and pinball machines go, there are several but the ones I could make out were Star Castle and Time Pilot 84.
What Harm Could Machines Really Do?
Stephen King never lacks creativity, even in a world where there seems to be nothing new under the sun. The wildest thing about this movie for me was how much machines really could hurt us if they did “come alive.” The scene that illustrated this the best was not the Willys M274, but the drink machine at the ballfield – the cokes became projectiles! Another off the wall things was a woman that had been killed by her own power window in her car. Today, where cars and machines are more computer than car or machine, it’s scary but back then not so much really. There are many discussions being had about AI and the dangers of this kind of thing. I think even Elon has mentioned this. You should ask AI if this is true. I have and the answer is interesting.
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