Original Title:

Alternative Title(s):

Year of Release:

1995

Duration:

97 minutes
 

Country of Origin:

US

Tagline(s):

Reviewed Version Rating:

UK PAL DVD 18

Jo Lara certainly won't win any awards for his acting, but I was happy enough with his performance in the underrated American Cyborg: Steel Warrior. It was a post-apocalyptic film that had an interesting science-fiction story (good enough to be used again in Children of Men), and it had the appearance of a relatively expensive production. Two years later he returned to the genre in Steel Frontier, and this is a much more traditional style of PA. We have elements of Mad Max with a taste of World Gone Wild. It also leans heavily on the spaghetti western genre, and is full of cliché’s from both genres. What it has in common with American Cyborg is the apparent budget. Whether it's an illusion or genuine, it seems as if quite a lot of cash has been splashed on this film, and this money helps immensely, because this is an action flick first and foremost, and good action costs money.

The story follows a lone stranger who, just like in every wasteland PA before this (and since), roams the barren land for no particular reason, scavenging for food and trying to look as cool as possible. Lara plays our hero, Yuma, a wannabe Mad Max/Snake Plissken/nameless drifter, with his long dark hair being his only really distinctive feature (although very common during the mid 90’s in other genres). For some unknown reason, all post-apocalyptic wanderers are drawn to trouble. Who knows why, but if there’s a town in distress, they can get there in a blink of an eye. They may claim they want to live alone, exploring the hills, but there's nothing more tempting than a good old bit of heroism.

Yuma helps a victim of the Death Riders to die.

Today’s town to be saved is New Hope, a happy friendly western-looking place where the residents somehow create power from old car tyres, via some kind of bubbling vat (hey, it may be possible, don’t ask me). After our initial introduction to Yuma, who finds a dying man out in the desert, the titles start proper and we get to meet the United Regime, more commonly referred to as the Death Riders, your typical group of mercenaries controlled by a maniacal leader who thinks he's helping the world by forcing his control over everything he can get. For you PA fans, you may be shocked to hear that there is NO VOICE-OVER at the beginning of the film! Finally, they realise that it’s pretty damn easy to work out what’s going on. Still, it’s traditional and I miss it.

After an interesting composite shot of the whole group of Death Riders driving through the desert in a superb and various collection of PA’d vehicles (most taking some kind of style from previous PA films) we get to see them all drive into New Hope. The fearful residents try to flee, and some try to fight, but the Death Riders seem to take it all in their stride. The maniacal leader I mentioned a moment ago turns out to be none other that Brion “Blade Runner” James, a PA regular and one of my favourites. Brion plays General J.W. Quantrell with typical gruffness, barely saying anything. The town takes a few minutes to be subdued, enough time for Quantrell to enjoy a nice shave at the local barber’s. A few explosions later and the town is under the control of the United Regime. The scene as a whole is a little bit disjointed, but it’s a good action-filled start.

The towns police car looks suspiciously like the car in Karate Cop (Picture), both hand painted.


The first of many explosions.


Ackett never seems at ease with the attitude of the United Regime.


Quantrell, on the other hand, loves it.

That night the able-bodied men are given the option to join the Death Riders or die. Most are gunned down after refusing to join, although a couple join and are branded with their half moon logo. Quantrell then addresses the town, making it clear that they all now work for him. Quantrell’s son is left in charge with a group to look after the town, and Quantrell leaves to move on to new conquests, and to save the film's producers some cash. Despite hot-headed Quantrell Jr being left in charge, it's pretty clear that Quantrell’s right-hand man Ackett (Bo Svenson) is where the real power and respect lies.

Jr is a real pain in the arse.

Meanwhile, one of the Death Riders, played by Jim Cody Williams (he’s called Charlie but I prefer Tash due to his huge moustache) is busy leering at the town’s Blonde Babe Sarah (Stacie Foster). Tash is followed everywhere he goes by Chickenboy, played by Brian Huckeba (see our interview), a mentally deranged sidekick and mascot for the Death Riders who lends a comic element to the film and constantly copies and emphasises everything Tash says. As is so plainly obvious, Sarah is waiting for a hero just like Yuma to come and rescue her and her town from this terrible fate.

The next day the Death Riders are busy encouraging the townsfolk to work harder down at the tyre pit. “Come on you dirty tyre chuckers. Chuck them tyres!” shouts Tash encouragingly. During the night some of the townsfolk had fled to the surrounding desert, and a group of Death Riders vehicles are roaming the surprisingly well-maintained (apart from a few rusting wrecks) roads, looking for escapees. Yuma is seen sitting on his motorbike at the side of the road and playing his harmonica when the Death Riders pull up. “Hotter than devils piss out here.” comments one Death Rider. A little bit of banter between them makes it clear that they both want a chase, so off rides Yuma followed by the Death Riders. A great little chase that involves some superb crashes follows, and Yuma’s bike is impressive with its grenades and voice-activated minigun hidden in the back. Yuma nearly destroys all the pursuers, but is headed off by some other Death Riders who capture him at gunpoint.

Slo-motion crashes? Yes please!

Quantrell Jr is pretty pissed off that so many people ran away, and is angered further when he finds out that Yuma has cost him a few of his men. A heated meeting in Jr’s office shows that Jr is really just a stupid, overconfident squirt. Interestingly, right-hand man Ackett suggests a showdown between Jr and Yuma, knowing fine well that Yuma will easily win. A combination of his overconfidence and Ackett’s comment of “That’s how your daddy would do it.” persuades Jr to agree to the shootout.

Out in the street all the Death Riders watch, and Yuma easily humiliates Jr by shooting the gun out of his hand and repeatedly hitting it while it's floating in the air. Finally he catches the gun, and Jr is so angry he orders his men to kill Yuma. Ackett tells them to belay the order, and Yuma makes it clear that he never intended to fight with the Death Riders in the first place. He wants to join them, and Hackett can see huge potential in him. Jr is pissed off, but Yuma brands himself with the logo and is then given a friendly initiation from the rest of the Death Riders (a gang beating).

Yuma's initiation involves a branding and a friendly beating.

Yuma recovers from this beating in no time (typical), and heads off to the local “liquor pit” to get to know his fellow Death Riders. Tash drags Sarah to the bar, desperate to win some money at poker before he, er, pokes her. Predictably, Yuma gets into a game with Tash and wins (by cheating) not only all of Tash’s money but Sarah, too. Yuma heads off for a nostalgic chat with Ackett, sending Sarah back to her home (a pretty cool old airplane). Ackett harkens back to the good old days before the group came to be known as Death Riders (the were originally Survivors). Meanwhile, three of the locals waltz into the bar with guns and demand that the Death Riders leave. Bad move. All of them are quickly killed.

Later that evening a drunken Death Rider reports that some people have been spotted on the outskirts of town. All the Death Riders are drunk, and Yuma cleverly orchestrates a situation where the Death Riders start shooting at each other believing them to be enemies. A sizeable chunk of the men are killed, and Yuma is luckily not suspected. Yuma celebrates by playing the American national anthem on his harmonica.

The next day, Tash heads off to the tyre fields to find Sarah, and drags her off to an abandoned building. Before he manages to rape her, Sarah’s young son turns up with a slingshot (yes, she has a son). Chickenboy goes mental, screaming at the kid, so the kid fires at him, killing him outright. Tash is distraught, but before he can gain his revenge Yuma turns up (of course). A brief fight occurs, and is prematurely ended when Sarah uses Yuma’s gun to shoot Tash.

Chickenboy goes wild.


Tash gets what he deserves.

When the rest of the Death Riders find the bodies, they all instinctively know it was Yuma, and we all instinctively know that all hell is about to break loose. Yuma knows there's no benefit in running, so instead he marches straight into town. Time for another western showdown, but this time its one against six (if you don't coun't Yuma's two guns).

“Not a weapon cleared a holster.” whispers Jr in awe as all six of his men bite the dust. The remaining Death Riders chase after Yuma and there's a gun battle. Yuma, of course, kills most of them. One of the Death Riders, Kinton (played by well-known Kane Hodder) who so far has not really had any input in the film, manages to shoot Yuma a couple of times, apparently in the chest, but when has that ever held a hero down? They both drop their guns, and Yuma eventually wins by dropping Kinton into the tyre refinery to his fiery death.

 
Bullets can't keep Yuma down.

The only two remaining Death Riders, Ackett and Jr, argue about who’s fault the situation is. Ackett walks away and Yuma, who is bleeding heavily and preparing to reload his pistol, bursts into the room, not realising Jr is there. Time for another showdown! This time Yuma manages to load his gun and fire before Jr can reach his pistol. 

Nice. Yuma stumbles outside to see Ackett driving away in a jeep. He's given the chance to shoot him, but as the only Death Rider he ever respected (and who didn’t shoot at him, and even saved his life earlier) he lets him go. The townspeople are pretty annoyed as they know that Ackett is going to Quantrell and will return with reinforcements. Yuma is still bleeding, and just about manages to tell the townsfolk that they should start sticking up for themselves before he collapses from his injuries.

That night Yuma gets some nursing from Sarah, and they almost kiss before her son walks in. Yuma has a pretty cool gadget that seals his wounds. This isn’t the first bit of unusual technology in the film. Earlier there were some advanced binoculars, an electronic rodent tracker (hard to explain – see the film), a cool little water filter and the aforementioned voice-activated minigun in his motorbike, thus raising questions about what year this is set. My guess is that the nukes landed about 15 years after the film was made, so a couple of years from now, and this is set between 5 and 10 years after that. My guess is 2020, that optimum PA date that appears again and again (alongside 2019).

 
Futuristic technology in a western town.

The next day half of the townsfolk leave. Sarah and her friends tell them all to stay but they don’t listen. Meanwhile, Ackett arrives at some underground bunker from which Quantrell seems to be controlling his empire. He certainly isn’t going to let some little trye town threaten his new world order, so he sets off with full force to squash the rebels.

Loads of people leave knowing that Quantrell will be on his way for vengeance.


Quantrell loves his light up maps.

So how do the remaining townsfolk prepare for the impending invasion? They stick the kids in some bunker and load a few weapons. Sarah tracks down Yuma who is busy playing his harmonica again, and finally they embrace, until the sound of the town bell signals the arrival of Quantrell.

Quantrell arrives on the outskirts of town to find his son and his men stood up in rough wooden coffins blocking the road. Quantrell screams out in anger. Ackett’s poor effort of consolation angers Quantrell even more, and Quantrell takes out his rage on Ackett with his double barrel shotgun.

Seriously pissed off, he storms into town. Nobody is around, so he sends half his men into the buildings. Further out of town, one of Quantrell’s drivers spots Yuma and drives straight at him. Brilliantly, it’s a trap, and the car ends up down a big hole, and the hole just so happens to be full of explosives. Seconds later Yuma starts letting off more explosives. Half of the town is rigged to blow, and we get to see lots and lots of buildings blowing up, taking half of the Death Riders with them. I would love to know where he got all the equipment from, and the time to rig it, but hey, there could be a reasonable explanation, and who can resist explosions(they do look so nice against the blue sky)?

Once the explosions have died down, and most of the remaining Death Riders are surrounded in the town centre, the remaining townsfolk jump out from their hiding places and the gunfight begins. Yuma, naturally, has the biggest gun he could possibly carry (see the showdown at the end of Stryker).

Eventually, Quantrell spots Yuma, who we suddenly realise is standing atop a huge chimney-type structure about 80 meters up. If we skip back in the film a couple of minutes, we can see that it took Yuma roughly fifteen seconds to get from his location where he was about to get run over by the Death Rider and to get to his top-of-the-tower location where he was detonating the explosives. Now that's some impressive off-screen teleportation. Quantrell sends his men up the tower to get Yuma. Elsewhere, one of the townsfolk is confronted by her son, who became a Death Rider earlier in the film (an almost exact replica of a scene in World Gone Wild). Two seconds later a second Death Rider turns up and shoots the son, who had froze in shock, and mother retaliates by shooting the second Death Rider.

When the Death Riders reach the tower they start to climb up via the inner ladders. Bad idea! Yuma lights a fuse, throws a rope of the side of the building, and abseils down. Kaboom! Yes, Kaboom! This is one hell of a big explosion, and only that word can explain it half-decently. Kaboom! Superb, and not one ounce of CGI.

One superb explosion!

Yuma shoots the last remaining Death Riders, and then Quantrell and Yuma spend a few seconds shooting at each other point blank and totally missing. For no good reason, Sarah’s kid, who decided that it was too boring in his safe bunker, decides to hide in the back of a beefed-up school bus (part of Quantrell's convoy) parked near the exit of town. Yes, the same bus that Quantrell decides will make the perfect get-away vehicle.

Yuma jumps in a black van and Sarah follows in a truck. After lots of pretty cool bumping and grinding, and lots of wide angle shots from a helicopter, Quantrell decides to start dropping grenades. One of these distracts Yuma, who piles into a roadside wreck and files into the air. Some great slow-motion and a huge smash. Any normal person would be dead, but Yuma simply jumps out and gets in the truck with Sarah.

Another stupid kid in a PA film.

So the chase is back on, and the truck soon catches up to the bus. Action man Yuma manages to jump onto the top of the bus, smash through the front window and grab the steering wheel, turning it sharply and causing a huge crash. The bus rolls multiple times in yet another “must die” incident. Unfortunately for the occupants of the bus (Quantrell, Yuma and the kid) the worst is yet to come. Sarah slammed on the brakes immediately, but not in time, and the truck ploughs through the middle of the bus in a huge explosion splitting it in half. Amazingly Sarah's vehicle is not damaged.

Nobody (not even Arnie) should survive that crash.

Sarah runs over and finds the kid, who is almost unhurt. Shocking! Both Quantrell and Yuma are lying on the tarmac, blood on their faces, and just in reaching-distance of their pistols. Both slowly come to, realise what’s happening, and reach for their gun. Yuma, of course, is the quickest, and Quantrell gets what he deserves.

So, all off back to New Hope to rebuild civilization and live a happy life? Not exactly. There's a character I hadn’t mentioned earlier, due to his insignificance, a crazy guy who lived in New Hope and babbled on about how he knew who Yuma was. He suddenly appears on Yuma’s bike, saying he knew Yuma would need it. Yuma, who almost instantly recovers from his injuries, wraps Quantrell’s body in a tarpaulin and loads him on the back of the bike. “Who are you?” asks Sarah's kid. Yuma hands him a roll of paper and rides off into the sunset. Sarah and the kid check out the paper, and see a wanted poster for Quantrell. Yuma was a bounty hunter all along, doing it all for the money.

Final Thoughts:

When I first saw the film, I didn’t see the ending twist coming. Then my friend informed me that he could tell almost from the beginning. I’m not sure whether he was telling the truth, or whether I'm just easily deceived, but I liked the twist, and was really pleased with it.

The music is full of character with lots of drums, the odd bit of monk chanting and a little bit of computer synth. It adds a lot of atmosphere to the film and is a real asset. The camera work is solid, and there's some good use of helicopter shots in the chase sequences.

I like the way that they have managed to squeeze a lot of interesting character’s into this. Various small parts have a lot more colour than in your average PA, and there are a lot of Death Riders and townsfolk who seem quite interesting despite their relatively small screen time. In fact it’s the main characters who are your stereotypical characters, and the supporting characters who add the interest.

I find it strange that despite this being a pretty good PA flick it is still much less well-known that a lot of worse films. The story is nothing special, but the action is fun and it appears that a lot of money was spent on it. I give it a big thumbs up and highly recommend it to all PA fans.

Alternative Versions:

Connections With Other PA's:

Critic's reactions:

Regular Movie Goers Reaction:

Actually a fun mindless movie. Watchable.

For the PA Collector:

An important PA for your collection. Essential.

Links / External Reviews: 

http://www.badmovieplanet.com/unknownmovies/reviews/rev444.html

"The whole movie is slickly made; it's obvious that a lot of time and expense went into making it a good-looking movie. New Hope is a vast collection of wreckage and ruined buildings all put together to make something resembling a community. The collection of souped-up vehicles on display would fit comfortably with the altered and armoured vehicles found in any of the Max Max movies. And the cinematography is, as it is typical for a PM Entertainment movie, first rate, lensed by PM  co-founder Richard Pepin."

Countries Released:

Mostly worldwide on VHS and DVD.

DVD Release Info:

Various budget DVD releases. My copy has a trailer, despite the cover only listing a scene selection in the extra features box. It can be found relatively easily on eBay.

Actual Budget/Guessed Budget:

Our Score:

 8 out of 10

Media:

Advertisement Poster(s):

Press Cuttings etc:

Wanted