‘Right now, there are 5 million people watching TV; even another nuclear attack would not disturb them.’
After the holocaust, a totalitarian state keeps the population distracted with a deadly game show on television. The programme’s champion gets an offer to smuggle a small group of mutants out of the city, but the mission is fraught with danger…
More post-apocalyptic shenanigans from Italy, courtesy of co-writer and director Joe D’Amato. Al Cliver and Laura Gemser star with notable support from genre favourite George Eastman and the ubiquitous Gordon Mitchell.
The world has gone to hell in the years since the nuclear apocalypse, with survivors either mutated by the radiation or ruled by an oppressive, totalitarian government. The people are distracted by ‘Endgame’, a gladiatorial contest broadcast live on television. All-time champion Ron Shannon (Cliver) has drawn three notable opponents for his latest match: the giant Woody Aldridge (Bobby Rhodes), the lethal Gabe Mantrax (Alberto Dell’Acqua) and old rival Kurt Karnak (George Eastman). During the battle through the tunnels of the old city, Cliver is cornered by Eastman but emerges victorious, thanks to the help of telepathic mutant Lilith (Gemser). She has sought him out to offer him a job, escorting a small band of her kind out of the city under the noses of the brutal Security Services run by Col. Morgan (Mitchell).
Cliver accepts the well-paid job and recruits a band of cutthroats to help, including martial artist Ninja (Hal Yamanouchi), the one-eyed Bull (Gabriele Tinti) and knife man Kijawa (Nello Pazzafini). Accompanying the mutants is neuroscientist Professor Levin (Dino Conti), who is particularly keen to protect young boy Tommy (Christopher Walsh), whose powers go far beyond telepathy. Fleeing Mitchell and his men, they make it out to the open country but find themselves menaced and attacked by the tribes of mutants living in the wasteland. One encounter after another leaves their numbers depleted, and Mitchell and his army are close behind.
Wielding gladiatorial combat to a post-apocalyptic scenario seems like a perfect fit. It interested director George Miller enough for him to incorporate it into episode three of his wasteland saga ‘Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985). In this instance, there’s even a terrific poster showing a bare-chested, well-muscled warrior armed to the teeth for combat with ruined buildings and a dune buggy taking flight behind him. It looks amazing. Perhaps not surprisingly, however, it has nothing to do with the finished film. Instead, the audience gets a pretty standard, low-budget adventure with a few science fiction trimmings and faint traces of John Carpenter’s ‘Escape from New York’ (1981) and Miller’s ‘Mad Max 2/The Road Warrior’ (1982).
The concept of hunters tracking human prey can be traced all the way back to a 1924 short story, first filmed as ‘The Most Dangerous Game’ (1932) with Leslie Banks and Fay Wray. Multiple variations followed both on the big screen and episodic television. In 1953, author Robert Sheckley put a satiric spin on the idea with the futuristic game show depicted in his short story ‘Seventh Victim.’ There were several direct and indirect adaptations of the concept, the best known probably being ‘The Running Man’ (1987) starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, taken from the Stephen King novel of the same name.
Initially, D’Amato’s film follows this basic template. There’s even a heavy dose of the satiric element present in Sheckley’s work and Elio Petri’s film version, ‘The 10th Victim/La decima vittima’ (1965). This takes the form of an oily TV host (David Brown) who comments on the action with a smarmy grin while constantly pushing the programme sponsor’ Life Plus’, a high-energy vitamin pill. However, once the initial contest is over, the deadly gameshow is abandoned for the rest of the film. The reason may have been the practicalities of the production. The ‘gladiatorial games’ consist of Cliver and his opponents creeping around in old underground tunnels littered with rubble and rubbish. There’s some gunplay and hand-to-hand fighting. The contest we see exhausts the possibilities of both action and location.
After that, D’amato and our band of mercenaries and mutants head for the great outdoors, where access to a couple of dozen old motorbikes and a willing stunt crew provides far more opportunities for mayhem. It also reduces the story to straightforward terms, negating the necessity for more complex world-building and even some basic explanations. The mutants need to get to a rendezvous point in the middle of nowhere to meet people who will take them somewhere safe. Where that might be and who these people are remain a mystery. Furthermore, who is this authority that Mitchell apparently represents, and why is he so keen to destroy the mutants? Everyone seems to think they are disgusting, so that’s reason enough. He’s also commanding the Security Services, which consists of men in black raincoats, gas masks, and tin helmets. They have an ‘SS’ logo on their uniforms and vehicles. It’s not exactly subtle.
Taken as a simple post-apocalyptic action flick, it works if you keep your expectations in check. There are plenty of bullets flying around (especially on the soundtrack), stuntmen flying off crashing motorbikes and a smattering of blood, torture and nudity for those who want it. However, there is some interesting work from Barry Hills and Patrick Russell in the make-up department. As scientist Conti explains at one point, radiation has caused ‘Involution’ with some affected taking on simian characteristics or regressing into aquatic forms, making a fine excuse for some ‘fish men’ and ‘monkey dudes’. Although this idea is inherently ridiculous, the make-ups are strangely compelling, especially given what was likely limited resources. There’s also the occasional creative tidbit in the script, such as the idea that telepaths can’t bring themselves to kill because they would suffer the mental death agonies of their victims. It’s no surprise, however, that D’Amato is more interested in the next guy falling off his motorbike than spending time developing the idea.
The acting honours rest with Eastman; his natural screen charisma and sheer physical presence carry the day. Sadly, Cliver and Gemser are no more than adequate leads, although it’s fair to say that the script gives the entire cast just basic archetypes and no more. However, there is some splendid lighting and cinematography from Federico Slonisco (actually, director D’Amato working under one of his three trillion pseudonyms!), and the music by Carlo Maria Cordio is nicely understated. The action sequences are serviceable, although limited in scope, and the fight choreography is decent, if a little repetitive. It would have been good to see more of Yamanouchi as he seems to have some decent moves in his arsenal, but it’s no surprise that most of Cliver’s ‘Magnificent Seven’ have little to do. A couple of lines of dialogue here and there, a few close-ups during the big fights and the inevitable death scene. The audience knows that’s all they’ll get and D’Amato does not disappoint.
Cliver was born in Egypt in 1951 and began his screen career in Italy at the end of the 1960s, even appearing in a small role in Luchino Visconti’s Oscar-nominated epic ‘The Damned/La caduta degli dei (Götterdämmerung)’ (1969). He scored his first leading role in Ruggero Deodato’s ‘Waves of Lust/Ondata di piacere’ (1975). More adult-themed projects followed, such as ‘Black Emmanuelle, White Emmanuelle/Velluto nero’ (1976), starring Gemser in one of the title roles. A change of pace came with Lucio Fulci’s ‘Zombie Flesh Eaters/Zombi 2’ (1979), and he also appeared for the director in ‘Black Cat/Gatto nero’ (1981) and ‘The Beyond/…E tu vivrai nel terrore! L’aldilà’ (1981). Establishing his post-apocalyptic credentials with ‘2020 Texas Gladiators/Anno 2020 – I gladiatori del futuro’ (1983) for D’Amato, he re-teamed with Fulci for ‘Rome 2033 – The Fighter Centurions/I guerrieri dell’anno 2072’ (1984). His working relationship with Fulci continued until ‘Demonia’ (1990), his last film before he retired from the screen.
After an unusual opening, a fairly standard wasteland adventure with decent technical aspects.