RE:View – Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone
It’s better than it has any right to be. Which is not to say that it’s good.
One of the joys of a total knee replacement is the insomnia. I had been watching Wicked City on Tubi, drifted off before the end and Spacehunter had come on because, for some inexplicable reason, Tubi thought I would like it.
I kind of did. Back in the eighties anyway.
One thing that always strikes people who watch this thing is that it feels like it should be a lot more sleazy than it is. It’s got that Deathstalker vibe to it. You are expecting a lot of cheap gore and gratuitous nudity from Reno strippers but it doesn’t deliver on it.
My research on this movie is admittedly kind of sketchy. Largely because there aren’t a lot of people who are willing to take credit for having had any part of it. Here’s what I do know.
Spacehunter had originally been commissioned as a cheap and sleazy space opera. It was indeed heavy on the nudity and gore. But then Columbia noticed that Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi was going to be released soon and since this flick was clearly a space opera, they could conceivably use this as a decent little source of counter-programming since Star Wars was guaranteed to have sell-out showings. The overflow kids would probably be willing to see Spacehunter rather than see nothing at all.
But not in its current R-rated form. It needed to be turned into a PG movie. This is where Ivan Reitman came in. Sure he’s well thought of today but back in 1982, he was known for National Lampoon’s Animal House, Stripes, and a shitload of movies like Ilsa Harem Keeper of the Shieks. He’d been a career B-movie mini-mogul and he’d only recently lucked his way out of the schlock mines. His respectability was new-found, he was someone who was still at a point in his career where he was willing to make bad deals to get what he wanted. What he mostly wanted was a bigger budget for his upcoming special effects comedy, Ghostbusters.
That’s what makes Spacehunter slightly macabre. Ghostbusters was already in preproduction and elements of it found their way into Spacehunter. You can spot various sound effects that would show up again in Ghostbusters. Harold Ramis got dragged in for an uncredited voiceover. Ernie Hudson was the costar.
Reitman recycled all of the sets, costumes, and a lot of script from the version of Spacehunter that had just been scrapped. The writers barely have any credits at IMDB leading me to suspect that Harold Ramis cranked out some punchup over a weekend. The big hook for Spacehunter was that it was in 3D which in the early 1980s was briefly enjoying one of its periodic flair-ups.
The plot: A spaceliner blows up and three hotties are the only survivors. They hop in an emergency shuttle that lands them on a desert planet that doesn’t look like it requires filming permits.
We now meet the Spacehunter (?) played by Peter Strauss. Strauss had a decent career in a few 1970s mini-series and high-end movies of the week. They have dressed him like Han Solo and the messages Harold Ramis is reading him off-camera tell us he is a bit of a bum. He has three hundred parking tickets, his landlord is throwing him out, and his ex-wife hasn’t had a check in three months.
He finds out the owners of the starliner are offering “3,000 mega-credits” to retrieve the hotties. Apparently, the planet they landed on is quarantined for reasons I don’t remember and didn’t take notes on. Not important anyway.
Skipping ahead Spacehunter has one fairly decent by 1980s’ standards action scene on a sail-powered railroad flatcar. It would have been a lot better if there had been music but there was none. That tells you right there that this flick was made against a strict deadline. It was either put music in the climax or in the fight scene but they couldn’t do both.
The hotties were on the train but got captured by a local warlord named Overdog, played by Michael Ironside who clearly was having a ball chewing the scenery down the baseboards.
Spacehunter finds a local orphan girl who will help him in exchange for getting her off this rock. The girl is played by Molly Ringwald in what I think was her first theatrical release. Shortly after that, they run into an old frenemy of Spacehunter, Washington who was played by Ernie Hudson. At that point in Ghostbusters pre-production, they were trying to land Eddie Murphy. When that fell through Rietman hired the actor who had basically carried Spacehunter for him. Hudson and Ringwald are what makes this flick enjoyable.
Stuff happens until it’s time for the climax. Molly Ringwald has been captured by Overdog. She had gone from a barely tolerated nuisance to someone whom Spacehunter had to rescue because he’s basically decent at heart. Ernie goes along with it because the hotties haven’t been rescued yet and he wants part of the reward.
Molly Ringwald has described the death maze she had to run through as the most terrifying experience she ever had as an actress. The stunts were badly planned and insufficiently tested, and the flame thrower nearly burned her alive.
Molly and the Hotties are rescued, the reward is collected, and the team is set up for a sequel that was absolutely never going to happen.
Spacehunter Adventures on the Forbidden Zone wasn’t a great film but it certainly did what it was supposed to which was beat Return of the Jedi to the theaters by exactly one week.
Does it hold up?
You’re kidding, right? This thing really didn’t have any room to go any lower. There is a 2 am on painkillers charm to it. Michael Ironside, Molly Ringwald, and especially Ernie Hudson delivered something that could be accused of being enjoyable if you are the right age are with a couple of friends, and have already killed one six-pack between the three of you.
In any case, the price is right. It’s currently free on Tubi.
