Death Race (film)
Death Race is a 2008 science-fiction-action film produced, written and directed by Paul W. S. Anderson and starring Jason Statham. Though referred to as a remake of the 1975 film Death Race 2000 (based on Ib Melchior's short story "The Racer") in reviews and marketing materials, director Paul W.S. Anderson stated in an interview[1]and the DVD commentary that he thought of the film as a prequel. A remake had been in development since 2002, though production was delayed by disapproval of early screenplays then placed in turnaround following a dispute between Paramount Pictures and the producer duo Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner. Death Race was acquired by Universal Studios, and Anderson re-joined the project to write and direct. Filming began in Montreal in August 2007, and the completed project was released on August 22, 2008.
A direct-to-DVD prequel to the film, Death Race 2, is in production.
Plot
In 2012, the United States economy collapses. Unemployment and crime rates shoot through the roof. The imprisoned population becomes so vast that private corporations buy the prisons and run them for profit. In a federal prison called the Terminal Island Penitentiary, "Death Race", a gladiator-like fight-to-the-end racing competition is held to raise funds. It becomes the most-watched television/Internet event around the world.The film begins by showing a race near its end. Machine Gun Joe (Tyrese Gibson) and a famous masked driver known as Frankenstein (original Death Race 2000 star David Carradine) engage in a bloody battle in which Frankenstein wins, but at the cost of heavy injuries and eventually death. Six months later, Jensen Ames (Jason Statham), an ex-racecar driver and former steel mill worker, is framed for his wife's murder. Ames is sent to Terminal Island where he immediately becomes enemies with an Aryan brotherhood gang, led by Pachenko (Max Ryan). He is taken to Hennessey (Joan Allen), the penitentiary's warden, who tells him that the gang will kill him without her help. Thus he is coerced by the warden to become the new driver of the late Frankenstein's car. The warden tells Ames that she knows about his baby daughter left in foster care. She also states that prisoners are freed upon winning five Death Races, but since the legendary Frankenstein had 4 wins at the time of his death, he would only require a single win. He agrees to race. Hennessey then takes Ames down to the auto shop to meet crew chief Coach (Ian McShane) and his assistants Gunner (Jacob Vargas), a car repairman, and Lists (Frederick Koehler), a data collector.
"Death Race" consists of three different stages. The first two stages are elimination rounds with the sole goal being to come out alive and to eliminate as much of the competition as possible. In each race, there are three activation switches, Swords, Shields, and Death Heads. These power-ups are in the form of lights on the ground that are activated when passed over by a car. Swords activate offensive weapons, shields activate defensive weapons, and death heads activate a spiked wall that impales the car and the racers inside. The wall then goes back into the ground, killing anyone inside. Before the race, Ames is introduced to Case (Natalie Martinez), his new female navigator. In the first race, Grimm is killed by Joe by being struck as a "pedestrian", resulting in a gruesome "head-exploding" shot. Jensen survives the race, killing one racer but coming in last place after Machine Gun Joe rammed into his car. It is then revealed that Hennessey had Pachenko murder Jensen's wife and frame him for it, in order to bring him to Terminal Island and make him the new Frankenstein. During the second race, the goal is again to survive. At the green signal, all but Ames race. He forces Case to come clean with the truth: Case sabotaged his rear weapons in exchange for a full pardon, claiming that she didn't mean to kill him, but he simply would not give up. She also states that Hennessey is plotting against Frankenstein, hoping to use his popularity to keep ratings up. A furious Ames then chases down and kills Pachenko, leaving his own vehicle and going out onto the track and executes him with his bare hands. Later in the event, much to the dismay of the racers, a gigantic 18 wheel tanker armed with a tank turret, called the Dreadnaught, is released. After killing multiple racers, the truck is destroyed when Joe and Ames team up to activate a Death Head that destroys the Dreadnaught. Hennessey is furious while Frankenstein is hailed a hero.
In the third stage, Joe and Ames must race one final time to the winner. Prior to the race Hennessey has a bomb planted under Frankenstein's car, and then manipulates the race to favor Joe. However, her plans are ruined when Joe and Ames escape, blowing an opening in a weakened section of the prison wall which Jensen had discovered while studying footage of Grimm's death. Hennessey sends all her police force in pursuit, and when Ames manages to foil the police cars chasing them, Hennessey attempts to blow up his car with the bomb earlier planted. But Ames' crew apparently had discovered the bomb before the race, removed and deactivated it. Furious, Hennessey deploys the prison helicopters and succeeds in capturing Frankenstein's car. However, Ames had escaped from his car, leaving Case (who had already received her walking papers) at the wheel, dressed up in his costume. Joe and Ames hitch a freight train ride and escape to Miami. Meanwhile, Guard Captain Ulrich delivers a present to Hennessey in her office, a congratulatory gift from an unknown sender. Opening it she finds the bomb from the bottom of the Frankenstein's car, as she does Coach activates it and blows up the entire upper office, killing both Hennessey and Ulrich, he then turns to the camera and breaks the fourth wall, saying, "I love this game".
Six months later south of the border, Ames has his daughter back and Joe is working on living a clean life free of crime. As the two work on a car in their new home, a car pulls up and Case steps out to join the two. Ames then narrates that despite all the problems he had in the past, no one could love his daughter more than he could.
Cast
- Jason Statham as Jensen Ames, a prisoner coerced to drive in the arena, taking the name "Frankenstein" from the man who came before him.[2][3]
- Joan Allen as Hennessey, the sadistic prison warden.[3]
- Tyrese Gibson as Joseph Mason (aka "Machine Gun Joe"), a sociopathic racer who looks to use Death Race as a means to escape from prison. He alone uses male navigators, because his navigators are often killed leading to falling ratings due to women being killed.[3]
- Ian McShane as Coach, Frankenstein's loyal head mechanic.[3]
- Natalie Martinez as Case, Frankenstein's navigator.[4]
- Jacob Vargas as Gunner, Frankenstein's car repairman.
- Frederick Koehler as Lists, another member of Frankenstein's pit crew and a compulsive data collector.
- Jason Clarke as Ulrich, Hennesey's right hand man.
- Robert LaSardo as Hector Grimm (aka "The Grim Reaper"), a certified psychopath driving in the race.
- Justin Mader as Travis Colt, a disgraced ex-NASCAR driver seeking to rebuild his career by winning the race.
- Robin Shou as 14K, a tenth-generation Triad member, sent to business school, held a degree from MIT.
- Max Ryan as Pachenko, a rival driver Ames clashes with several times.
- David Carradine as Frankenstein, the most popular driver in the history of Death Race. (cameo voice-over, reprising role in original 1975 film Death Race 2000) He has apparently crashed so many times that he has to wear a mask to cover his disfigurements. He possesses an almost reckless desire to win, leading him to take risks in his final race, that ultimately led to his death on the operating table.
Cars
The cars in the movie are real vehicles that have been heavily-modified with armor plating, machine guns and defensive weapons- Frankenstein's Monster - A Fifth-generation Ford Mustang armed with 2 M134's, smokescreen, napalm and oil slick for defense,[5] as well as a 6-inch-thick (150 mm) detachable steel plate on the rear bumper called "The Tombstone."
- Dodge Ram - Machine Gun Joe's truck, armed with a cowcatcher, 4 hood-mounted Browning M1919, 2 side-mounted Vulcan cannons and Russian RPG-7s.
- Porsche 911 - Driven by the Chinese convict 14K. With 2 WW2 German MG-42 belt-fed general purpose machine guns and 4 hood-mounted missiles with 4 on the roof. Destroyed by the Dreadnought.
- Pachenko's chop top - A chop top, 1966 Buick Riviera armed with 4 German hood-mounted MG-34s and 2 internal PPSh-41 submachine guns also with 2 Uzis mounted in the grille. Crashes into a beam after being blinded by smoke from Ames, and Pachenko is later killed by Ames by snapping his neck.
- Pontiac Trans Am - Carson's Car. Has a M134 aiming backwards for defense, and a .50 caliber turret on top of his car which is operated by his navigator. It is destroyed by the Dreadnought.
- 1972 Buick Riviera "Boat tail" - Riggins' car. Is blown up in the 2nd stage, along with Carson caused by The Dreadnought. Caltrops for Defense and twin Browning M1919 machine guns in the passenger side windscreen.
- Jaguar XJS - British sports car driven by Travis Colt with 2 .50 cal M2 Browning machine guns. Set on fire by Ames and loses control, being tossed in the air after being T-boned by Joe.
- Chrysler 300C - Luxury sedan driven by Grimm armed with 3 hood-mounted FN MAG58s with no stocks and a missile on the passenger side roof and an oil slick for defense. It loses control after hitting caltrops from Riggin's "Boat Tail" and is blasted off the track by 14K's missile launcher.
- BMW E32 - Siad's car. Armed with a single M134. Destroyed after driving into a Death Head while pursuing Grimm.
- The Dreadnaught - A semi-trailer built by Hennessy with .50 caliber Browning heavy machine guns, flame thrower, spikes on the wheels, bulldozer blade, chained caltrops and a M1A1 tank turret. Destroyed after running into a Death Head activated by Ames and Joe.
- 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS - Custom muscle car driven by Case, arriving at the junkyard in Mexico City, before the ending.
Production
In March 2002, director Paul W.S. Anderson revealed that he was directing a remake of Death Race 2000Death Race 3000 at (1975) entitled Paramount Pictures (which owns television and internet rights to the original, with the former currently being handled on Paramount's behalf by Trifecta Entertainment & Media) based on a script by J. F. Lawton. The remake would be produced by the producer pair Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner. Anderson described the remake as a riff on the first film. "It's not a straight remake at all. The first movie was an across-America race. This will be an around-the-world race. And it's set further in the future, so the cars are even more futuristic. So you've got cars with rockets, machine guns, force fields; cars that can split apart and re-form, a bit like Transformers. Cars that become invisible," the director explained.[6][1] though the film is referred to primarily as a remake in reviews and marketing materials. Comingsoon.net reported that "Paul saw his film almost as a prequel if anything; almost the genesis of the Death Race,"Two years later, Roger Corman, the producer of Death Race 2000, elaborated that he had an option agreement with producer Tom Cruise, and that Cruise would portray the lead role. The director said that Cruise had not been happy with the first two screenplays and that a third one was underway.[7] In June 2006, producer Jeremy Bolt reported that Anderson would direct the remake of Death Race 2000 after completing Resident Evil: Extinction (2007). The producer described the remake's new tone: "We've basically taken the idea of reality television and extended it twenty years. So it's definitely a comment on society, and particularly reality television, but it is not as much a parody or a satire as the original. It's more straight."[8] The following August, Paramount ended its relationship with Cruise/Wagner Productions, and Death Race was placed in turnaround. According to reports, when the project was discovered available, Universal Studios acquired it. Cruise and Wagner resumed their roles as producers, and Anderson returned to write and direct the film.[9]
In April 2007, actor Jason Statham entered negotiations to star in Death Race, with production slated to begin in late summer or early fall.[9] Anderson described that Death Race would take place in a prison, and that the film would be "super-violent" like its predecessor. "It has little echoes of the original – a lot of people get run down, but rather than having the points system, which had no pay off anyway, it's a pure race. It's more like Gladiator, with the last person standing – or driving, winning," explained the director.[10] Filming on Death Race began in Montreal in August 2007.[3]
Release and reception
The film was originally scheduled for release on September 26, 2008, but was moved to August 22, 2008.[11]Critical reception
The film has received generally negative reviews from critics. It currently holds a 42% "Rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes,[12] and a rating of 41 out of 100 on Metacritic.[13]Robert Koehler of Variety called Death Race "as hard as metal and just as dumb" and criticized it for removing the humor of Death Race 2000.[14] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film half a star (out of four), calling it "an assault on all the senses, including common."[15] Keith Phipps of the A.V. Club said the film is "ideal for those who want to watch a bunch of cars blow each other up, without having to think about it all that much."[16] Marc Savlov of the Austin Chronicle called Death Race "one of the most boring drags of all time."[17]
Peter Hartlaub of the San Francisco Chronicle called the film "an ill-advised and severely wussified remake."[18] Elizabeth Weitzman of the New York Daily News gave the film one and a half stars (out of four), calling it "junk" and saying that "the chases are pretty cool, but there's absolutely nothing else to see."[19] A positive review came from Nathan Lee of The New York Times, who said that "the movie is legitimately greasy, authentically nasty, with a good old-fashioned sense of laying waste to everything in sight."[20] James Berardinelli of ReelViews awarded Death Race a score of two and a half stars (out of four), saying that it's "weak when it comes to things like plot, character, and acting, but it's very good at provoking visceral reactions."[21]
Box office
The film grossed $36,316,032 in North America and $39,361,483 in other territories, totaling $75,677,515 worldwide.[22]Home media
The DVD and Blu-ray were released in the United States on December 21, 2008.[23] There was also an unrated edition released. The Blu-Ray version of the movie features a Digital Copy of the film. In the DVD commentary, Anderson further elaborates on his thought of the movie as a prequel more than a remake.Music
The score to Death Race was composed by Paul Haslinger who recorded the string portion of his score with the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the Sony Scoring Stage.[24]The soundtrack was released on August 19, 2008.[25]
Similarities to the original
- Frankenstein wears a mask and black leather jumpsuit. When outside his car he never removes his mask.
- Like Matilda The Hun, there is a character with a fascist theme.[26] Pachenko is leader of a white power skinhead gang who wears a swastika and a Confederate flag.
- All but two of the cars have a female navigator[27] (one contestant drives alone while Joe's navigators are men).
- Frankenstein's navigator is under orders to stop Frankenstein winning the race in both versions.[28]
- There is more than one Frankenstein. When the original dies a replacement is trained to take on his role.
- Machine Gun Joe kills members of his own pit crew.
- Frankenstein's navigator disguises herself in his costume to deceive the authorities.
- In both films there is an authoritarian tyrant: Mr. President (original) and Hennesey (remake) who get killed by Frankenstein at the end.[29] Both their deaths involve a bomb; in the original Frankenstein planned to kill the president with a grenade while in the remake Ames sends Hennesey the explosive she planned to kill him with before his last race. Ultimately it is Coach who detonates it in revenge for tampering with his car.
