On June 19, 1987 the Earth passed though the huge tail of a rogue comet. Suddenly all mechanical objects turned on and begin to attack humans. A drawbridge lifts while a line of cars are on it and sends them and the people in them either plunging into the water or sliding down and ramming into other cars. A soda machine shoots cans as missiles killing people. A steamroller runs over a kid. One kid, Deke (Holter Graham) gets away. Looking for his dad he heads for the Dixie Boy truck stop.
Curt (John Short) and Connie (Yeardley Smith) are newlyweds. They stop at a gas station to fuel up. A broken down tow truck tries to run Curt over. They jump back in the car and take off. On the highway a Mack truck tries to shove them off the road. They manage to weave enough to force the truck off the road and down an embankment. The truck crashes and bursts into flames. Two miles down the road they end up at the Dixie Boy tuck stop.
At the Dixie Boy truck stop, just outside of Wilmington, North Carolina, gas station attendant Duncan (J. C. Quinn) is blinded by gasoline suddenly shooting from the pump hose. Inside another person is electrocuted by a pinball machine. Waitress Wanda June (Ellen McElduff) is injured by an electric knife. Bill Robinson (Emilio Estevez) is a short order cook at the Dixie Boy. He is also an ex-con and under the thumb of his boss Hendershot (Pat Hingle). Various customers are inside the diner when all hell breaks loose. Suddenly driverless tractor trailer trucks from the highway begin circling the truck stop, continuously. Everyone in the truck stop is trapped. Anyone who tries to leave gets squashed. A small military platform truck with a machine gun attached shows up and sprays the diner. Using its horn the military mule signals in Morse code to anyone left alive in the diner. They want gas.
“Maximum Overdrive” was released in 1986 and was directed and written by Stephen King. The music was done by AC/DC. It is a horror movie with some black comedy undertones and some camp tossed in. King loosely based his screenplay on his own story “Trucks”.
The film was nominated in 1987 for two Raspberry Awards, “Worst Director” for King and “Worst Actor” for Estevez. Both lost to Prince for “Under the Cherry Moon”. In 1988 it was nominated for "Best Film" at the International Fantasy Film Awards. King eventually disowned the film and described it as a "moron movie". He considers the process a learning experience, after which he intended never to direct again. When asked why he hasn't directed a movie since "Maximum Overdrive", Stephen King responded "Just watch Maximum Overdrive."
As a former cocaine addict, King admitted to being coked up for the entire time he was making the picture and admitted to not knowing what he was doing at the time. King makes his cameo in the beginning of the film. He is the dork at the ATM machine that calls him an asshole.
In the scene were the steamroller runs across the baseball field and runs over one of the kids, King asked the special effects team to put a bag of fake blood near the dummy that was to represent the kid so that when it was run over it would splash blood on the roller and then smear it over the grass repeatedly as the steamroller kept going. During the scene the bag of blood exploded a little too soon and fake blood went everywhere. The effect was as if the kid’s head had exploded. King was thrilled with the results, unfortunately the censors were not and the shot had to be cut.
I am one of those in the minority that actually liked this movie. It is a guilty pleasure and a fun memory. It’s plain and simple. Anything with a motor tries to kill anything that breathes. I believe in my heart that it absolutely deserved both Razzies and King and Estevez were ripped off. If you’re looking for the blue plate special in the form of some decent truck crashes and explosions don’t look any further. You’ll get all that and some nice head banging music on the side.