Name your favorite killing machine in the movie, 'Maximum Overdrive'
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Maximum Overdrive
Gentleman_Caller — 14 years ago(September 26, 2011 11:11 PM)
Which is your favorite killing machine in "Maximum Overdrive"? And why? Included is a list of my favorite killing machines from the movie. Please feel free to add any of your own choices.
GREEN GOBLIN FACE TRUCK - The "Happy Toyz" truck definitely ranks high up in the list of vehicles that kill. It's posessed like the movie "The Car", and has a personality like the movie, "Christine". The Green Goblin Face truck practically plays as the leader of trucks that hold up the Dixie Boy truck stop.
M274 "MECHANICAL MULE" - Best remembered for its mounted M60 machine gun. The gun has the most unusual character in the movie I think. It's way of gunning down several of the characters and use of Morse Code was such a wake-up call halfway into the movie. I always did wonder why none of the diesel trucks responded when the Mule met its demise.
ARCADE GAME - The "Star Castle" arcade game had some of the craziest arcade game sound effects I ever heard. It made that video arcade so eerie looking. The murder by electrocution still holds up whenever I watch this movie. During a time where the machines are coming to life, even an arcade game can kill you.
VENDING MACHINE - This scene has probably been one of my most favorite scenes in Maximum Overdrive. Keep in mind I first watched this movie when I was about 5 years old lol. For not having any of the mobility like the possessed trucks, it sure makes one hell of an impression.
1979 ROAD ROLLER - Best remembered for it's attack on a group of kid baseball players. The steam roller just may have the best kill in the movie. It would've been awesome if it could've just had more screen time like the other machines on this list.
ICE CREAM TRUCK - Okay so you don't see the "My-T Tas-T" Ice Cream truck kill anyone in the movie, it's front end is covered with blood. You also see the truck twice in the movie. It's just another great example that the neighborhood truck your kids love to hear, can also kill you.
And the list can go and on. You have the opening Draw Bridge, the bloody Lawn Mower, the Toy Car in the dogs mouth, to even the hilarious ATM machine Stephen King approaches. My favorite by far is the Green Goblin Face Diesel. This movie is why I loved trucks while growing up as a kid. Why I loved the 80's movies in all of their Rated-R, no CGI glory. They haven't made a great killer car movie in a while. Let alone a movie like this. It's about time that they do! Although they might even screw that up with movies today. Enjoy!
beep if I know, Bubba. beep if I know." - Maximum Overdrive -
ronaldt49 — 14 years ago(October 13, 2011 06:26 PM)
And the school bus had probably come to life and was doing its own thing, possibly not bothering a soul, when this little plane just nose dives into it.
Looked like the passenger compartment of the bus was the only damage, so the bus should have just kept on going. Going under an overpass would have sheared off the tail of the plane so the bus could continue down the road.
Bus may have wanted to be the Partridge Family bus.
Who knows? -
twelveboar — 13 years ago(March 06, 2013 04:42 AM)
The Tow Truck at the gas station where Curt and Connie stop. That starter motor noise and the way it rattles when it gets wedged in the building.
Also, the Autocar tractor trailer ( Zeke's Garbage ). Beautiful truck and a violent little S.O.B. -
captainamerica-5 — 12 years ago(February 12, 2014 06:37 AM)
The tow truck is completely eerie in a sense. It's that starting sound it makes that has freaked me out for years & to this day. There's a regular bus outside my work place that has the EXACT same starting noise, and I always think of this movie & the tow truck, wondering if this bus is going to eventually lunge itself at someone.
The other freaky vehicle is def the steam roller. The way it happily bounces around as it crashed thru the baseball field and runs the kid over. Imagine if you saw a real steam roller flyin' thru at that rate of speed uncontrolled by any human person. -
Traianus — 12 years ago(June 17, 2013 10:01 PM)
I thought the Happy Toyz truck was pretty genius, with the irony of using something happy and playful and turning it into something diabolical and sinister (as King so often does). Using the Green Goblin face (as it originally looked, drawn from the comics) was perfect. It gave the machines an evil personification. On a side note, I never understand why the Spider-Man 2002 film changed the look of the Green Goblin's face.
Maximum Overdrive
actually did well to show how the original artwork showcases a perfectly terrifying face. -
vpzsnascol — 12 years ago(March 05, 2014 09:38 PM)
My favorites are the obvious Happy Toyz truck, the plane that took out the school bus kids, the My-T Tas-T truck (because it plays 'King of the Road' by Roger Miller) and the bull dozer because it laughs while it crushes the car.
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Gentleman_Caller — 11 years ago(May 16, 2014 03:03 AM)
Thank you for all of the comments people! 3 years and this question still remains strong, awesome!
@techbox14: Talk about the biggest far fetch kill of the movie, the walkman lol. I almost forgot about that kill, maybe somehow it gave the person a heart attack where he sat.. maybe. It's as far fetch as the toy cop car choking the dog, or the nosedive plane in the school bus. A nosedive is possible but it wouldn't look that perfect.
@captainamerica-5: Exactly, I keep forgetting how eerie the start-up to the tow truck actually was (never growing up around trucks). You needed a good sound like that to make a movie eerie back then, pre-computers and CGI. come to think of it, I don't know any other movie that has a more eerie start-up sound than this.
@Traianus: I agree, The Green Goblin face on the Happy Toyz truck was a genius move on someones part. Sadly, being a huge Spider-Man fan for years, when I first saw this movie I never put the two and two together when I was a kid. Lol I just thought, Marvel.. horror movie, never connected the dots. Of course I got it years later ha. The Blade movies is the only time those two genres of movies have crossed paths. And like practically all Marvel movies, not one character from the comics resembles their comic counterpart entirely.
@Supremer68: I would love to see the exact filming location of the gas station. Sadly I'm all the way in California, but I have been to the big cities and some filming locations here on the west. There's a website, 'Seeing-Stars.com' that is full of movie and television locations, and what they look like now. It's a fun website to check out if ever curious.
@Woodyanders: The settings in the movie were used quite well with each antagonist machine. The ice cream truck and lawnmower in the pedestrian streets. The tow truck at the tow yard. The high speed truck dueling it out on the freeway. The vending machine and steamroller were brilliant to see at the baseball field. I still wish we could've seen the full version of the steamroller kill, if it hadn't got cut by the MPAA.
@vpzsnazcol: That's awesome to know about the ice cream truck music, I didn't know it was an actual song. I just figured it to be another ice cream tune of old lol. And I did forget about the bull dozer laugh/chuckle. I can't quite place where I heard a similar laugh from but it sounds reminiscent of something else. Maybe one of the Klowns chuckling in "Killer Klowns from Outer Space". They had some low growl-ness
@the_burning89: The machine gun and Happy Toys truck are by far the two most impressionable killer vehicles at the gas station. For being opposites, they held the most command over the survivors and other vehicles.
"WE MADE YOU, DID'T YOU UNDERSTAND?! YOU CAN'T DO THIS, WE MADE YOU!! - Maximum Overdrive
[shots fired] [rocket launcher fired] -
DevastationBob-3 — 11 years ago(May 17, 2014 09:35 PM)
The walkman, the only thing I can think of is that it electrocuted the wearer.
The hairdryer, I have no idea how that hairdryer wrapped it's cord around that girl's neck and killed her. Maybe that was an unrelated death, but it scared the kid anyway.
He asked us, "Be you angels?"
and we said, "NAY, we are but men," ROCK! -
Paella747 — 11 years ago(October 19, 2014 06:20 AM)
When I saw this post, I immediately thought about the walkman!
But if I remember correctly, didn't the headphones just swing down and cut his throat? As a kid, I remember discussing how 'impossible' that would be, since the headphones weren't motorized (as if the rest of the movie was plausible).
I haven't seen this film in years, but I'm almost positive that the headphones on the walkman just swung down and sliced everybody's throats (wasn't there a girl sitting on the patio who met the same fate as well? Or hanging out a window?). They didn't show it happening, just the aftermath.
Classic King, and classic 80's!!