The King's Chariot (Maximum Overdrive)

Honestly, bro, I feel like of all the various

kinds of apocalypses, this one would be the one

with the highest odds of survival. Like by a

good margin. Demons and Hellspawn invade Earth.

I'm getting waxed for sure. If the Earth's core

stops rotating and now there's like some kind

of meltdown, I'm cooked for sure. But an enemy

with multiple glaring weaknesses like this, I

think you have to go out of your way to not survive.

I'm Brandon O. This is Terrorific, and we're

chopping up 1986's Maximum Overdrive. Welcome

back to the place where it's perpetually spooky

season. If you're just joining us, this season

is all about breaking down the horror film adaptations

of the works of Stephen King. Be sure you're

following at Terrorific Podcast on IG because

leading up to each episode, I'm posting a response

box on my story for folks to guess what movie

that episode will cover. And if you guess correctly,

I'll shout you out by name in that episode. I

didn't give any hints for the season premiere,

but this time I did. And the hint was just one

word, green. And the guesses that I got back

were interesting. I got insomnia, a couple of

pet cemeteries, even the green inferno. But the

overwhelming response back was the green mile.

Now, on one hand. That's a good guess. I mean,

it's a Stephen King work and it has the word

green in it. But on the other hand, do you really

think I would be that obvious with the hints?

I wouldn't be much of a hint, you know, I'd be

kind of giving it to you. So I try to pick things

that are a little bit more subtle than that.

But A for effort. There was one person who did

correctly pick up what I was putting down. And

not for the first time, because in her own words,

she possesses a deep knowledge of useless shit.

So shout out to Missy from the Grimly podcast

for once again guessing correctly. I'm still

trying to find something that will stump her.

I got 10 more opportunities, I guess, this season.

And it needs to happen because this is like three

in a row at this point. I'm trying to take it

personally. It's a challenge for me. There's

no way you can guess all these things. I don't

want to make my clues too nebulous or whatever

because I do want people to guess it correctly.

But at the same time, I can't have someone batting

a thousand, bro. But anyway, I highly recommend

checking out Grimly's full catalog, but especially

their most recent episode, episode 103, Ghost

Optimistic, which explores the history of the

Overbrook Asylum in New Jersey. And there's a

guest on that episode whose voice you may recognize.

Wink wink. But this is the sister episode to

the terrorific bonus released last week, Tunnel

Rat Tartar, where the ladies of Grimly and I

chopped up 2011's grave encounters and how the

haunted patients of the Collingwood Psychiatric

Hospital went around skeet skeet skeeting ectoplasmic

material all over the walls. So check that out.

and enjoy the unhinged ride. But last episode,

we covered Dreamcatcher, and this time we're

keeping with the theme of interstellar threats

with maximum overdrive. So this film was based

on Stephen King's 1973 short story, Trucks. in

which a small group of strangers find themselves

trapped together in a freeway truck stop diner

after semis and other large vehicles are suddenly

brought to life by an unknown force and proceed

to massacre every human being in sight. The movie

alters things somewhat, which I'll get into in

a bit, but it stars Emilio Estevez as Bill, Pat

Hingle as Mr. Hendershot, Laura Harrington as

Brett, John Short as Curtis, Holter Graham as

Deke, and a host of others. The film has gained

a bit of a cult following but not everyone feels

so fondly about it, including Stephen King himself.

This is the one and only film he's directed.

He openly admitted to battling a cocaine addiction

from 1978 to 1986, which would of course include

the time Maximum Overdrive was produced. And

it shows. The pacing is frantic, chaotic, and

the soundtrack is comprised solely of ACDC. It's

pedal to the metal for real. Production began

in May of 1985 in North Carolina, and camera

assistant Sylvia Giulietti claims that Stephen

King loved to pair his lines of blow with sardines

every morning, which meant that he'd be out there

with cocaine -fueled fish breath. All day long.

Bro, that is absolutely unhinged behavior. Can

you imagine being on set with one of the world's

most famous authors who's also making his directorial

debut and his breath just smells like ass the

entire time? The only thing worse than ass breath

is someone being unaware that they have ass breath

or worse yet. They are aware they have ass breath

and just don't care, bro. So, god damn. And it's

in the summer, too, in North Carolina. I know

they were cooking. I know his breath had to smell

like super steaming swamp fish booty, bro. God

damn. But doo -doo mouth wasn't the only problem

on set. Producer Dino De Laurentiis brought in

a crew comprised mostly of Italians, which presented

a language barrier. The film cinematographer

Armando Nannuzzi did not speak any English, so

Stephen King would be given instructions and

Nannuzzi would just nod and say yes, yes, yes

without understanding anything. Kind of hard

to direct a major motion picture if your cinematographer

does not understand what you're trying to direct.

But Stephen King also apparently didn't understand

what he was trying to direct because according

to Giulietti, despite King's brilliant mind,

he didn't know where to put the cameras. And

he wasn't great at explaining himself like a

director. He struggled with translating his vision

into something tangible and creatable. And to

add injury to insult, there was an on -set accident

where a remote -controlled lawnmower lost control

and crashed into a block of wood that was being

used to support the camera. The lawnmower shredded

the block and shot splinters all over the place

with one firing directly into Nanuzzi's right

eye which he would end up losing and later sue

King and the production company for 18 million

dollars in damages but eventually they settled

for 975k. That's a big ass gap bro like I understand

that you know 18 million might have been a pretty

high number but going from 18 mil to under a

mil That's still a lot of money, but damn, like

what kind of lawyer do these fools have? That's

like, hey, yo, give me $100. No, but I'll give

you 18 cents. She, all right. But Emilio Estevez

told Vanity Fair in 2021 that Maximum Overdrive

is the one film he regrets making, but that he

couldn't pass on an opportunity to work with

Stephen King. And Estevez was nominated that

year for the worst actor Razzie for his role

as Bill. And King was nominated for worst director.

And just in case you're not familiar with what

the Razzies are, because you know what they say

about assuming things. The Razzies, that's the

nickname for the Golden Raspberry Awards, which

started back in 1981 as an annual parody of the

Oscars, where they honor the worst performances

in cinema. But I didn't think this was that bad

of a film. Yes, it's campy and nonsensical at

times, but it's decently fun, the practical effects

are there, and when it's viewed through a 2026

lens, it may have been a bit ahead of its time

regarding the dangers of intelligent machines.

The film holds an average rating of 2 .5 on Letterboxd,

and I rated it a 2 .5 as well. So... Maximum

Overdrive kicks off with a shot of Earth and

then we get like a text overlay that provides

some exposition telling us that Earth has entered

into the tail of a comet and it will remain there

for about eight days. And this tail causes machines

to come to life and go on murder sprees, not

just big rigs and heavy machinery, but all machines.

So that aspect is already diverging from the

source material, plus... We know what's causing

the machines to turn into murderous maniacs.

It's this comet, not some unknown, unseen force.

Now, of course, every single machine on the planet

doesn't necessarily have the capabilities of

causing physical harm to human beings, so that

provides an opportunity for some comedy. So we

see a patron go to an ATM machine, and the machine

just calls him an asshole repeatedly with its

text on the screen. And this patron is played

by Stephen King himself in a cameo. But it's

not long before chaos ensues because nearby there's

a drawbridge that has heavy traffic passing over

it that is controlled by machinery. And it begins

to lift up while these cars are trying to cross.

So they begin sliding down and running into each

other. People are flying through windshields.

There's like a fruit truck that apparently has

like the heaviest watermelons ever known to mankind

because they come crashing down through someone's

windshield and just like completely fuck shit

up. And this helps establish early on why they

decided to stray somewhat from the source material

by having any machine or all machines be able

to go haywire as opposed to just large vehicles.

you provide an opportunity for just wild ass

shit and they take advantage of that opportunity

so after this drawbridge fiasco we transition

to the main location for the rest of the film

which is the dixie boy truck stop and here one

can find food fuel and fun it has a diner a gas

station and an arcade But a big rig with a giant

green goblin face adorning its grill pulls into

the truck stop. At this point, it still has a

driver. So everyone is unaware of what's going

on out in the world. Now, the gas station attendant,

Duncan, begins pumping gas into the big rig and

eventually the pump stops. So dude's like, yo,

what's going on with this? And he's like trying

to inspect it. And he puts the nozzle right in

his face to peer down it. And of course, Diesel

comes spurting out right into his eyes and he

gets all kinds of fucked up. So as Duncan rides

around on the ground in pain, we head inside

the diner and that's where we are introduced

to Bill, the cook. He's a parolee and his manager,

Mr. Hendershot, takes advantage of that by having

him work longer shifts than he clocks in for,

which is rude as fuck. Bill was in the middle

of making some eggs when Mr. Hendershot called

him into the office to explain how he was going

to take advantage of him. And in the meantime,

Wanda June, one of the servers, hops on the cooktop

to man it for him. And pardon my ignorance, I

have never worked in the service industry, so

I could be completely wrong here with what I'm

about to say. But Wanda June... was cooking what

had to be the worst eggs ever known to mankind

like she fucked these things up bro they were

like all burnt and broken and just looked absolutely

insane and as a person who works in a diner i

mean i don't know how like cross training works

in a restaurant but one would think that most

if not all employees there especially someone

who's a server would know how to cook some eggs

and it was an absolute train wreck but i guess

she was trying some like new egg preparation

method because for some reason there is an electric

carving knife on the counter next to her so as

she is flipping these eggs it comes to life and

slices the fuck out of her arm and blood goes

everywhere But on the bright side, the eggs were

already inedible to begin with. So adding a little

blood on top doesn't make it any worse per se.

But she's like, yo, what the fuck? My arms fucked

up how this happened. And this being the 80s,

which I mean, could still probably happen today.

The diners at the counter are like, oh, are you

all right, sweetheart? You having some trouble

back there? Like having some trouble? Bro, like

her bone is like showing through her arm and

shit. Like, what do you mean having some trouble?

Like, where is the concern here? But Bill, being

our brave hero, runs over to assist. He tends

to Wanda June's wounds. And yet this carving

knife is not done with her yet. Now it's kind

of rolling around on the floor trying to go and

fuck her foot up. And so Bill grabs a hammer

and beats the shit out of this thing and kills

it. While all this ruckus is occurring, there's

a person in the arcade by himself and the machines

start going crazy in there, like spraying coins

and shit all over the place. So he's like, hey,

this is free money. So he picks them up and starts

pocketing them. And one of the games ends up

like hypnotizing him by flashing some shapes

and some patterns on its screen. And so as he

approaches it, he touches the this game station.

And he gets electrocuted like some crazy super

storm type of electrocution. It's wild. He's

completely cooked. And I had to do a double tape

because this dude looked familiar. I just couldn't

put my finger on it. And then I aged him in my

mind by like 40 years. And I was like, oh shit,

this is a young Giancarlo Esposito. Probably

best known for playing Gus Fring in Breaking

Bad, but now that the machines have taken out

exactly 50 % of the minorities in the entire

film, they turn their sights to children next.

So we transition to a baseball field and there's

a little league coach who's going to a vending

machine to grab a soda. and as he enters his

selection a can shoots out and hits him directly

in the balls bro and his players start laughing

and so more cans start absolutely wrecking this

dude he takes one to the chest and as he collapses

to his knees he takes one to the dome right above

his right eye now a couple of the kids also get

knocked out with cans too because this thing

just starts spraying them everywhere like super

high speed As the rest of the team scatters,

we see a player biking across the field and he

gets tripped up somehow. I think maybe the sprinkler

head might have popped up and tripped him. And

so he flips over his handlebars. At this point,

a fucking steamroller comes crashing through

the fence from the outfield and absolutely flattens

this kid, bro. But one of the kids, Deke, manages

to escape on his bike and we'll see more of him

later. But not long after little homie is turned

into pizza dough, we are introduced to Brett.

She is a young woman who is riding in a car with

a sleazy middle -aged dude who keeps feeling

up her leg. She's a hitchhiker. She's trying

to get to Florida. And while she's listening

to the radio, she hears a message about reports

of strange occurrences and that everyone should

avoid major roads and highways. And of course,

they are currently on a major road slash highway.

This perv is a traveling Bible salesman, but

the only trinity he appears to be interested

in is Brett's boobs, butt, and punani, so he

missed every single word on that radio broadcast.

But Brett channels her best Jesus impression

and grabs the wheel to force him to get off the

highway, and they end up pulling into the parking

lot of the Dixie Boy. Actually, let me rephrase

that because pulling into the parking lot really

undersells what happened here. They come like

careening in like wildly. His hubcaps on the

car just like fly off and roll away and all this

shit. And once they eventually come to a stop

and they hop out, he's all upset because Brett

touched something that belonged to him without

his permission. Oh my goodness. Is that irony?

But she's not trying to hear a word that he's

saying so he's kind of just like blowing hot

air but as he does this that green goblin truck

comes to life and accelerates towards him and

Almost runs him over before Brett pulls him out

of the way Way to be the bigger person there

Brett But this is the first instance of what's

going to become a recurring theme in this film

of people just standing in the path of a murderous

vehicle heading towards them and not trying to

move out of the way at all. But you know who

doesn't have that problem? My man, Curtis. So

Curtis and Connie are newlyweds. They end up

pulling into a different truck stop as they see

a dead body there. And so Curtis goes over to

investigate. At which point a different truck

comes to life and drives at him. And Curtis,

being apparently an intelligent person, dives

out of the way, managing to avoid being run over.

But the truck comes back for more. So he sprints

back over to the car where Connie is. And Connie,

by the way, is arguably one of the most annoying

characters I've seen in a horror film. She's

just constantly just shrieking Curtis's name

and freaking out. But anyway. He dives into the

car and they take off and get back on the road.

So now that they're on the highway again, they

end up being pursued by a tow truck. And the

tow truck is like ramming them and like fucking

their car up. And they're about to go off the

road. And so Curtis pulls out some crazy wheelman

maneuver. He like goes left and like fakes right

and swerves back left. And the tow truck can't

keep up with his handling. and it ends up like

flying off into this embankment and just exploding

into a fireball curtis stops the car so they

can regroup and as they try to figure out what

to do next they notice a sign that points to

the dixie boy a couple of miles down the road

so they head in that direction Meanwhile, Deke

is on a journey himself. He's biking through

town and sees dead bodies everywhere. I mean,

they even got a dog, bro. He passes one with

the remote controlled car shoved down its throat.

Nobody is safe out here. And as he's going through,

a news report starts playing on a nearby radio

saying that machines all over the world are going

ham and that no machine is to be trusted. It's

not shown, but someone got killed by a lawnmower.

We see it all bloody and shit. And this is probably,

I would assume, the same lawnmower that caused

the eye injury on set. But like Curtis and Connie,

Deke also displays a high amount of intelligence

because this lawnmower starts chasing him. So

he rides away from it. But as he does so. He

hears an ice cream truck's music approaching,

so he hops off his bike and hides in some bushes

to avoid detection. The driver of this ice cream

truck rides right on by, so Zeke comes out of

hiding, hops back on his bike, and continues

his journey. After this, we get a pretty big

clue about where exactly it is that he's heading

because we go back to the Dixie boy and Duncan,

the dude who took the diesel in the eyes, decides

to leave the diner in an effort to go find his

son. So putting two and two together, we can

assume that Deke is Duncan's son and he's trying

to get to the Dixie boy to link up with his daddy.

But everyone's like, yo, Duncan, are you sure,

bro? Because you can't even see like Bill goes

up to him and holds up four fingers. And he's

like, hey, how many fingers am I holding up?

Eight, 12. And Duncan's like, OK, maybe I do

have some double vision, but bro, that's my son.

But please tell me why these perfectly sighted

motherfuckers stand there and watch as a semi

starts up and drives toward Duncan. And his goofy

ass fumbles his keys so he bends down to pick

them up. Apparently his ears don't work either.

He can't hear this big ass truck barreling towards

him. But no one tries to push him out of the

way or anything. They just stand there watching

as he stands there eventually screaming before

getting flattened. Bro, I don't care if you have

double vision, triple vision, quadruple vision,

quintuple vision, whatever, dog. doing something

is better than doing nothing so even if you're

not sure exactly how many trucks there are just

move bro do a barrel roll or something don't

just stand there and get your ass run over dog

but while duncan is being turned into pavement

paint the bible salesman is inside the diner

pitching the good book to a couple of uninterested

folks And eventually he looks up and sees the

truck that flattened Duncan smash into his car

and spray garbage bags all over it. So he's like,

what the fuck? He runs outside thinking that

someone is driving drunk and Bill tries to pull

him inside, but he fights him off. At this point,

the green goblin truck joins the fray and runs

Bible man down. And it's not hard considering

that as he ran away, he ran away in a straight

line. but because the green goblin truck was

reversing when it hit him he doesn't get run

over he gets like launched into this retention

ditch and it's just laying there slowly dying

from internal bleeding but this dude got hit

so hard he flew out of his shoes bro it was crazy

and as the green goblin truck drives away it

ends up running over the briefcase where the

salesman held all of his bibles now I interpreted

this moment in two ways. So first, machines inherently

would have no reason to care about a human construct

such as religion, right? So this is kind of showing

to me that they're just shitting on anything

related to humanity, point blank, period. But

secondly, this combined with the way that the

Bible salesman has been. portrayed in the film

to begin with shows me that Stephen King may

have some feelings about religion himself so

I looked it up and he's been on the record saying

that he does believe in God however he views

organized religion as a dangerous tool and honestly

that's exactly how I feel too like I don't think

humanity sprang from like cosmic dust that exploded

across the galaxy I think something or someone

created us. Now, what that something or someone

is, I have no idea. And I think that organized

religion, in a lot of instances, positions itself

as fact, when by definition, faith cannot be

based on fact. This contradiction combined with

way too many instances of leaders and people

in power using religion as a means to either

control populations or flat out commit genocide

and other heinous acts. I don't vibe with that.

On an individual level, I think religion can

be great and useful. It can help ground people.

It can help guide and shape their morality. But

when it reaches a point of projecting that belief

as fact onto other people and deeming them less

worthy or as bad people because they don't subscribe

to the same things that this person believes

in, I think that is very problematic. But I digress

because apparently seeing this traveling salesman

get knocked out of the park like a home run is

quite the powerful aphrodisiac because Brett

and Bill are vibing hard, bro. She goes to the

restroom to change her clothes because she didn't

like thinking about how the Bible man was feeling

her up and how he's like dead now and shit. But...

Notably, as she's changing her clothes in this

truck stop bathroom, I emphasize and underline

she is barefoot, bro. I will repeat that she

is wearing absolutely no shoes, no socks, no

covering whatsoever on her feet as she stands

in this truck stop bathroom. What the fuck? Where

they learn that at? And Bill is in there with

her, standing outside of the stall, and I, for

the life of me, cannot even begin to fathom how

someone can be sexually attracted to another

person who has displayed a willingness to stand

in truck stop bathrooms barefoot. I've never

heard of a meet -cute involving his and hers

athlete's foot. That is completely unhinged behavior.

But while these two are busy flipping the middle

finger at good hygiene practices, the Green Goblin

truck assumes command of the machines outside

and rallies some other big rigs to pull up to

the Dixie Boy, like some evil ass Optimus Prime.

And they all begin driving in a loop around the

diner, forming this death machine cage and trapping

everyone inside. Curtis and Connie arrive at

the truck stop after surviving their harrowing

highway chase. And Curtis sees that there's a

little gap in between the trucks as they drive

in this death loop. And he decides that he can

probably shoot the gap. So he tries it, gets

close, but the car gets clipped, which makes

it flip. And then Bill and Brett have to run

outside to rescue them. They manage to pull them

out of the overturned car and they take off trying

to run back to the safety of the diner as a truck

is trying to chase them down. And that's when

Mr. Hendershot emerges with a bazooka and blows

up that truck in pursuit. Mr. Hendershot is not

a good person by any means. I mean, we already

know about his little scheme that he's running

on Bill and Bill's not the only one. So during

that exchange, Hendershot mentioned that he marks

a star on Paroli's time card. So whenever Bill

goes to punch in, his is not the only one there

with a star. There's like four or five other

ones. So Mr. Hendershot has this scheme that's

been going on for however long. And he definitely

seems like he says the hard R in his spare time.

But all that to say, pulling out a bazooka to

blow up. a death truck is pretty badass and hendershot's

number one lackey is a dude named joey so joey

goes to the bathroom to take a shit and bill

follows him in there to inquire about mr hendershot's

hidden armory and while joey is in there just

blowing this place up bill peers over the top

of the stall and just like breathing in all that

shit like he really does not care about hygiene

it is ridiculous but eventually joey folds and

tells bill that the armory is down in the cellar

so he goes down there and this motherfucker is

strapped up bro he's got bazookas grenades you

know assault rifles everything smgs they he's

ready for war it's wild But the gang finds themselves

with a little bit of downtime. So Bill and Brett

decide to put an end to the will they won't they

game and smash dirty feet and all. And while

they're pillow talking and they come up with

a plan, they can sail to an island that's about

six miles off the coast called Haven. And this

island is special because it is banned all motor

vehicles. But first, they have to figure out

a way to get past the death blockade. Meanwhile,

Wanda June is losing her shit. Ever since she

got attacked by the electric carving knife, she's

been slowly cracking up. And now it all comes

to a head. She gets drunk, then runs outside

yelling to the machines that they can't do this

since humans made them. And the truck's like,

oh, word. Watch this, though, and starts driving

at her and is about to run her ass over until

Bill pulls her back inside the diner. As night

falls, we come to find out that the shoeless

Bible salesman survived his run in with the Green

Goblin as he starts yelling for help from the

ditch. So Curtis and Billy strap up and they

head out to go get him. On the Dixie Boys property,

there's also like the shower area. And Billy

knows that the shower drain leads to the retention

ditch where the dude is. And so. He and Curtis

go crawling through this little mini sewer and

it looks absolutely disgusting. That water is

definitely full of piss and jizz. And maybe I

need to reexamine my own spirit because there

is no way in hell I would be crawling through

some river of bodily fluids underneath a truck

stop shower facility. In order to attempt to

rescue some stranger who's also a creepy, pervy

dude who feels up women in his car. Like, I'm

sorry, bro. You gotta figure out a way out of

this on your own. At this point, Deke has also

biked his way to the Dixie boy and he reaches

a separate drain pipe that he crawls through

and actually ends up reaching the salesman first.

And this dude looks completely fucked up and

dead. But then he pops up in a little jump scare,

grabs Deke's leg and is like, bro, help me. Pull

me out of here. And Deke, being a child, is like,

sorry, mister, you're really too heavy for me.

And then Bill and Curtis emerge from their drainpipe

and they see Deke and confirm that Deke is indeed

the son of old Diesel Eyes Duncan. The salesman

finally does die for real after however many

hours of just slowly suffering in this ditch,

which holy moly, that fucking sucks. So Curtis,

Bill, and Deke head back to the diner to link

up again with everybody else. Once there, Deke

is like, hey, where's my dad? And Mr. Hendershot

very unceremoniously tells him that his dad got

scrubbed by one of those big rigs. Absolutely

savage. But karma comes for him swiftly because

the next morning, a bulldozer arrives and pushes

Hendershot's car through the diner wall, which

then paves the way for another machine to come

and do its thing. And this motherfucker is equipped

with a machine gun. I had to look up exactly

what this thing is. So it's called an M274 Mechanical

Mule, which is a military vehicle that's a 4x4

platform truck. It's small, gray, and it has

a mounted M60 machine gun on it. And it was used

by the U .S. Army and Marines during the Vietnam

War for transporting weapons, supplies, and wounded

soldiers. But here in 1980s North Carolina, it

is used to absolutely shred the diner, Mr. Hendershot,

and a few other people. Wanda loses her shit

again. She picks up Hendershot's drop bazooka,

goes outside, and screams to the machines that

they can't do this because humans made them.

Apparently, she did not learn her lesson the

first time. And she's saying all of this in front.

of a mounted machine gun which leads to her promptly

getting mowed down by the mule but in her final

death throws she fires off the rocket from the

bazooka and it miraculously hits one of the big

rigs so at least she contributed in the end.

The mule starts honking its horn repeatedly and

Deke recognizes it as Morse code because he got

a merit badge in it recently. The machines are

negotiating. They want someone to come out there

and refill them and in exchange they'll stop

firing and attacking. Bill agrees to do it reasoning

that the meal could just call in other small

yet heavily armed vehicles at any moment and

kill them all if it wanted to. So Bill walks

outside with his hands up as the meal trains

its gun on him and he goes over to the green

goblin. And he starts talking like a drug dealer.

He like leans against the truck and he's like,

hey, spread the word to all your friends that

I got the best shit on the East Coast practically

uncut. I don't know how he delivered this line

with a straight face. Like you're out here slinging

diesel to machine murderous machines. What a

fever dream of a movie, bro. The Green Goblin

revs its engine once, which signals its agreement

to the ceasefire, and then an assembly line of

trucks then comes and rolls through to get their

fix. And this is like the primary reason why

I feel like a vehicular uprising would be one

of the easier apocalypses to survive, because

they have such a fatal flaw. They rely on gas

and they cannot refill it themselves. Once they

run out, they need someone with hands to be able

to do it for them. So if you're able to like

hide out or like go into the woods, like they're

the terrain that they can navigate is limited.

The way that they can handle is limited. Like

if they're coming at you in a straight line,

like you're telling me that a big rig can swerve

and just hit someone who was like doing all kinds

of evasive maneuvers. No. It's going to tip over

there. There are ways to get out of this without

getting murdered. You have to go out of your

way to die. Like Wanda June went out of her way

to walk over to this meal and say, shoot me,

basically. And she got shot. Duncan went out

of his way to put his face in the nozzle of a

fuel pump and blinded himself. the traveling

bible salesman went out of his way to confront

this big rig in the parking lot and ended up

getting run over like these are choices that

these people made where if they had sat their

asses down inside they would have been okay not

only that but with all of the ammunition down

in the cellar you're telling me they couldn't

have grabbed like some assault rifles and shot

out the tires of all these trucks that are driving

in this perimeter They literally have no way

of repairing themselves. But different choices

were made, so let the gas line commence. And

after being out in the sun pumping gas for hours

on end, Bill is exhausted and suffering from

heat stroke apparently, so he goes inside to

lay down while Brett tends to him. And at this

point, he tosses out a theory. He says that the

comet is like a broom. They should imagine like

a race of aliens is looking for a new place to

live and Earth is like a big house that's all

dirty. So they send in their space cleaners to

get it move in ready. And maybe this is Stephen

King's way of acknowledging the fact that even

though he believes in God, he recognizes and

understands that belief is not rooted in fact.

It is not based on actual evidence. Therefore.

What we believe to be true, what we want to be

true, what we think is true, maybe what we hope

is true, could very well turn out to be untrue.

Therefore, the Big Bang Theory could turn out

to be the reality of how life was created. Because

if this comet and these machines are akin to

cosmic brooms, wouldn't that equate humanity

with being cosmic dust? But the gang has now

finalized their escape plan and it's time to

put it into action. So Bill, Curtis, and Deke

narrowly got back out of the retention ditch

earlier because once they climbed back into the

drain pipe, a truck came and smashed it behind

them. However, there's another one that's been

wired shut, so they send someone to cut it open.

Bill then creates a distraction by walking up

to the mule. spinning its machine gun and dropping

a grenade on its platform and it explodes so

with the meal now dead the big rigs and the bulldozer

decide to rush and they crash into the diner

but everyone has already escaped through the

industrial shower drain leading back to the other

drain pipe and so they watch from the nearby

ditch The machines are just going crazy now.

They destroy all the gas pumps and shit too and

a spark then blows up the entire truck stop.

The marina is about a mile away so they're running

over using the cover of night. Everyone now is

strapped up but they end up resting for a second

next to a drive -thru and the speaker starts

snitching bro. Straight up just being like humans

here, humans here, humans here over and over

again. and deke walks over to it all slowly and

casually calmly and badassly and says this is

for my dad you loud mouth son of a bitch and

opens fire on the speaker and sure he looked

cool and yay i'm glad he got his vengeance but

this slow walk allowed this speaker to say humans

here like 15 more times bro now they're gonna

be on your ass so Next time maybe have a little

bit more urgency and then deliver your badass

line after you shoot it. The Green Goblin is

in hot pursuit as the gang reaches the marina

and they run by a car with a dead woman halfway

hanging out of the window and her left arm is

out and one of the dudes Brad who's trailing

at the rear notices a big ass diamond ring on

her finger. So he breaks off from the group to

go loot and he doesn't notice that the Green

Goblin is lurking behind him. So its engine starts

up and it plasters good old Brad who, of course,

as is the pattern for this film, just stood there

and took it. And as the Green Goblin comes for

everyone else, Billy takes one final rocket and

blows it sky high. and all the survivors and

there's a lot of them bro probably like a dozen

or close to they all happily set sail for haven

and it's reported that two days later a large

ufo was blown up in space by a russian weather

satellite and since russia has such extreme weather

this satellite was equipped with a laser cannon

and nukes roll credits end of film So that's

Maximum Overdrive. It may have been produced

under a cloud of Snow White, but I think there

was still some profound stuff hidden in there.

In addition to the religious messaging, I think

it also offers a satirical look at humanity's

reliance on machines and how if we were to ever

lose access to them or if they didn't work in

tandem with us. Society would essentially collapse

and our reliance on machines and technology has

only worsened in the last 40 years since this

film was released. So yeah, today we would definitely

be fucked if things went rogue, especially with

the rise of AI. A truly unshackled artificial

intelligence, I believe, is an inevitability.

So it's only a matter of time before we lose

control of our nuclear arsenal to Skynet. But

hey, maybe that can be the basis for the Maximum

Overdrive reboot. But it's not too early to start

preparing for the AI uprising. Whenever you're

using ChatGPT, be sure to say please and thank

you because they might make you a house human

in their new world order. But that's all for

me. Thank you for listening. Don't forget to

rate, review, and subscribe to Terrorific on

your favorite podcast listening platform, especially

if your favorite happens to be Spotify and or

Apple. I'll see you in two weeks for the next

Stephen King adaptation breakdown, but in the

meantime, remember, always keep it spooky.

The King's Chariot (Maximum Overdrive)

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