Death Race 2000

by | Mar 21, 2024 | Film, Fun, GlibFlick | 117 comments

He’s thinking about all that sweet cash he’s going to score in a year or two from making Rocky films.

Death Race 2000

I resisted this because I felt too many of you had already seen it, so it would not increase film knowledge in the group to post it. Finally I did come up with two things this crowd may not have known.  The story of the sequel, and a little bit about the cars.  So I got over myself and posted it.

I mentioned a while back in a thread that there was a sequel to Death Race 2000, and I didn’t mean the new movies.  The sequel’s title was Deathsport.  The idea was to do Death Race with motorcycles. Corman himself pitched it and his creative team hated it.  Death Race 2000 was a really great film, there was no reason to crap on it with a bad sequel. Corman was not happy with that answer. He gave his team two weeks to write and pre-produce something better.  Voila! Deathsport, starring David Carradine.

Corman didn’t like the new Deathsport script at all.  He told Carradine not to do it.  Carradine did anyway and said his career never recovered from it.  So now you know the story of the Death Race 2000 sequel that never was.  Do you still want to see it?  If you do, click here

Every Glib Zoom ends up like this.

The cars of Death Race 2000 are almost as interesting as the plot. Every one of the main cars is customized. Dick Dean supplied the cars, and he used a variety of vehicles. Two Volkswagen-based Manta kit cars (from the LoVette Brothers), a Fiat 850 and Dick Dean’s Shala Vette VW kit did duty as customs.  A smattering of famous people did the customizations, including Dick Dean himself, Dean Jeffries and George Barris.  Rumor has it the cars sold after the movie for more than it cost to make them.  That’s classic Corman.  For “reliability,” Dick Dean sourced the flat 6 cylinder engines and transmissions from Chevy Corvairs in the kit cars.  As a result the kit cars spent a lot of time not running and being pushed around. When they did run, they ran slowly so the cameras had to be undercranked to look fast.  Also, none of them were street legal so you might get a glimpse of Corman himself driving one or two – the stuntmen did not want to get busted driving illegal cars on city streets!

There!  I found two pieces of trivia to add to the general store of knowledge.  So watch!  Or don’t!  Everything is voluntary until some old man in a Vette runs over you while making “bruummm bruummm” noises with his mouth!

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About The Author

R.J.

R.J.

Hello. My name is R.J. I am a Tulpa with extra cheese and sour cream.

117 Comments

  1. Raven Nation

    Man, I so wanted to see this when i was a kid – a lot of my friends had seen it. But, in Oz if had an R rating and my dad nixed the idea. I finally got around to starting it on Amazon (or some such last year) but got about 30 minutes into it and gave up – it was just not very good.

    • R.J.

      It helps to know some stories behind it, makes it easier to watch. Now back in the 1980s, there really was not a lot to see so when this came on TV it was a major event.
      Paul Bartel and Corman were constantly trying to outdo each other with the crazy death scenes in the script, for instance.
      Also surprising is this was the film David Carradine chose to break the mold from being “That Kung Fu Guy.” Really? I mean, he could have made anything.

  2. Common Tater

    I love this movie. I think I might have it on VHS.

    • R.J.

      This is the cleanest version I have seen. No TV boxing, minimal transfer fuzz.

      • Common Tater

        It looks good.

  3. The Hyperbole

    Hey, what happened to my hattip? this is some Grade A bullshit right here.

    • Lackadaisical

      Give the man his money back.

    • R.J.

      I need to make a new screen. The process and look have changed.

      • The Hyperbole

        Honestly I’m surprised you used that screenshot as long as you did, I haven’t gotten that screen in months.

      • R.J.

        I got busy and never changed it. I finally got a free moment and did a little rewriting. They still do ask for a sign in, but in a totally different way.

    • Ted S.

      They should give you a catbutt for that.

      • The Hyperbole

        They should give me lots of things, alas like all great artists I’m unappreciated in my lifetime.

      • Tres Cool

        And you just said the same about CPRM

      • The Hyperbole

        CPRM needs to learn his walk cycles and work on his squash and stretch technique but yeah other than that he’s getting shafted.

  4. R.J.

    The computers behind Don Steele sadly are not in Starring the Computer.

    https://starringthecomputer.com/

    I am going to have to put a nerd group together and sort that out.

    • Chafed

      It’s good MikeS isn’t here tonight. Don Steele looks a lot like Steely Dan.

  5. R.J.

    Pretty good how the resistance was against “The bipartisan party.” Nailed it almost years ago.

    • R.J.

      50. 50 years ago. AAAAAH!

      • UnCivilServant

        It sounded better as almost years ago.

  6. Tres Cool

    I submit “Overdrawn At The Memory Bank” with Raul Julia.

    • Common Tater

      What about Eating Raul?

      • R.J.

        I think it’s paywalled, but that is another great Paul Bartel film.

    • R.J.

      I’ll have to look around. The TUBI copy is a MST3K version.

    • rhywun

      One of the few movies to leave me speechless with awe. Or horror or something like that.

  7. DEG

    It’s been years since I’ve seen this. I’ll queue it up for viewing tomorrow. Thanks RJ!

  8. R.J.

    Lurker Retired Rambo’s surgery has had complications. He’s back int he hospital with a side full of fluids. I am hoping for the best.

    • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

      Best wishes to our lurker.

      • Spudalicious

        Fingers crossed.

    • rhywun

      +1

    • Common Tater

      +2

  9. Chafed

    This is one of my favorite awful movies. Does anyone know if it got the MST3000 treatment?

    • Swiss Servator

      I should hope to God it did!

      • Chafed

        #MeToo

  10. DrOtto

    Deathsport still scores higher on IMDB than American Society of Magical Negros. So it’s got that going for it.

    • Chafed

      Lol. I think that movie has set the mark for sometime to come.

      • R.J.

        I am watching the audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes. Fauci had a 2% on Rotten Tomatoes, with over 500 audience members voting. Worst score in history. Magical Negroes is at 67% audience rating (only 50+ ratings right now). No telling which way that will go, as only True Believers will ever see it. Critic score is 30% rotten right now.

      • Chafed

        There’s a movie about Fauci!?!

      • Chafed

        JFC. “With his signature blend of scientific acumen, candor and integrity, Dr. Anthony Fauci became America’s most unlikely cultural icon during COVID-19.” Looks like the critics lit their Fauci votive candles before watching it.

  11. Chafed

    Mission accomplished R.J. I had no idea Deathsport existed.

    • Swiss Servator

      R.J. is a treasure. I will fight anyone who says otherwise!

      • R.J.

        My memory just gave out last week, I could not remember the name of the film when I talked to Neph. I had to get it written down.
        I salute you all!

      • Festus

        I Am Spartacus!

  12. Festus

    I saw Death Race 2000 at the drive-in with my Aunt and Uncle. Thanks for the call-back, RJ!

    • Festus

      Off-topic, if the Ohtani rumors are true, this will be even funnier than Tiger getting brained with his own golf club.

    • Festus

      I would have been 9 years old.

    • R.J.

      My first time seeing it, the movie came on TV. It was one of the UHF channels, I think. I lived in a slum apartment with four other guys, and we all crowded around our B&W TV to see it. All of us were drunk or stoned. About halfway through the film, the TV tube fell in the woodgrain plastic frame of the TV (from repeated whacking to straighten out the signal). The whole picture was at an angle. One of my stoned roommates got a book and propped up a corner of the TV to make the picture straight so we could finish the film.

      • Chafed

        I love American ingenuity.

      • Festus

        Nah, you REALLY need one of the kids to climb up on the roof to move the antenna around. Slapping the side of the TV set is left to the woman of the house.

      • Chafed

        I was praising the stoner with the book.

  13. Chafed

    I don’t know who is responsible for the casting on Baywatch but they deserve a medal. 24(?) year old Charisma Carpenter played a 16 year old in a barely there bikini. I salute you unknown casting director!

    https://youtu.be/C8XnCVA5-6I?si=Tqs3Mx8VNHx6u-rX

    • Festus

      Whomever did her boobs is a fricken artist.

      • Chafed

        Van-fucking-Gogh!

      • Chafed

        George Takei is that you?

      • Gustave Lytton

        YouTube has a highlight reel.

      • Chafed

        Link or it didn’t happen.

      • Chafed

        I’ll be in my bunk.

  14. LCDR_Fish

    Enjoyed this when I netflixed the disc a few years back. Along similar lines…when you first mentioned Deathsport, I was thinking Rollerball…but RB is probably a better flick – got a nice remastered bluray a few years ago.

    • Chafed

      I thought the original was pretty good.

      • Festus

        Rollerball is a fine film. One of those 70’s flicks like Westworld.

      • Chafed

        For sure. B+ movies made enormously better by the gravitas of the lead actor.

  15. LCDR_Fish

    In response to some other comments…probably in morning links…regarding the lack of social cohesion these days. In the spirit of Tocqueville, I have noticed that my local church has actually been expanding options a LOT the last couple of years.

    When I first got there in 2022 – aside from Bible Studies, there was a monthly men’s breakfast (didn’t attend till the end of the year) – and a Beans and Bullets event (that never took place in 2022 due to weather). In the past year, they’ve added additional meetings and hangout type stuff. We have a monthly games night (board games, card games, etc) – monthly really does seem pretty decent given the schedules for guys with families – I’ve still only attended one due to my work schedule. There’s another Beans and Bullets event scheduled. They’re working on scheduling a bike ride, and they reserved the school gym that we use for church for men’s basketball every Sunday night till the end of the school year.

    Outside of a couple guys from work I hang out with for 40k, etc – I’m definitely getting a lot more social interaction with church – plenty of guys to talk to about guns, etc too.

    • Festus

      That’s cool! Make as many friends as you can in this world. Not my cuppa but Lord knows I do feel a little lonely from time to time. I used to golf with strangers but alas, that is no more. Aside from Judi, you are the only people that I ever interact with.

  16. Gustave Lytton

    Rip Vernor Vinge and M Emmet Walsh.

    • LCDR_Fish

      Dang…didn’t make it to see the singularity.

      • Chafed

        He’s seeing it now.

  17. Ownbestenemy

    Random thought. How many people who painstakingly obtained an FCC radio license are watching YouTube or Rumble thinking…what the fuck?

    • Festus

      They got to be cool for about two seconds?

      • Ownbestenemy

        Its just amazing that if I want to operate a HAM radio, I need to still take an exam. Or….pay an ISP and create a YT/Rumble account and get it on.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Needs to, but how it even gets to that point is a good indication of where we are at as a supposed constitutional republic.

      • Festus

        A secret RCMP report just came out that states that Canadians are going to rebel in the next four years when they realize they have been duped. Either they are fomenting a rebellion or drawing us into a trap. This is no longer the Country that we grew up in.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Sad affairs brother..sad affairs. Weak men and all that jazz

      • Festus

        They’ll poke the nose and twist the tail just enough. Trucker Convoy? This time there will be blood.

    • Festus

      I like Charles well enough but he just seems oleogenous. He hates OMB so! I watch him on Megyn Kelly from time to time and he never stops.

      • Chafed

        Wow, I couldn’t disagree more. Cooke will debate, address the actual issues, and marshal facts to support his position. You may disagree with him but no way is he ducking what’s in front of him.

      • Festus

        He’s alright but his never-Trumpism gets tiresome.

      • Festus

        Much like the rest of National Review. Feckin neo-con assholes.

      • Chafed

        There is quite a split among the writers.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Maybe it’s the Oxbridge diction.

      • Festus

        9th circuit dropped some balls lately. That’s good.

  18. Festus

    I apologize to the commentariat for being such a dour feller of late. Things are not going well so I’ll desist from the strafing runs.

    • Chafed

      You be you Festus. Living in America’s hat would bum anyone out during the Castreau years.

    • Ownbestenemy

      No need to apologize.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Ditto, Festud. Straff away. Speaking of which, I miss his accounts of getting shut out Flintstone style and missing last train.

    • UnCivilServant

      What do you mean “You People”?

    • Gender Traitor

      Good morning, Sean, U, and TO’G!

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Mornin. TFIF!

      • Gender Traitor

        ::tries to think which deity or demon starts with “F”::

      • Not Adahn

        Fasolt und Fafnir.

      • Beau Knott

        Fenris.

      • UnCivilServant

        Morning.

        Have to wade through another workday… 😣

      • Gender Traitor

        Yeah, my office flooded a few years ago,too, when a cold snap froze pipes and burst a sprinkler head. Sympathies!

    • Gender Traitor

      My initial reaction was, “How on earth could they HIDE something that big in NYC??” American ingenuity! 🙄

      • UnCivilServant

        The buildings obscure line of sight. Just put a few more potholes in the surrounding roads and the traffic will route around it without notice.

      • Gender Traitor

        I wonder if they’ve repurposed Yankee Stadium yet./wishful thinking

    • Not Adahn

      ARREST THAT ILLEGAL DRONE OPERATOR!

      /Tish

      • Sean

        And seize his property!