Manu Bennett, Marci Miller, and Malcolm McDowell feature in the political satire and action movie Death Race 2050, which was released in the United States of America in 2017 and was directed by blog G.J. Echternkamp. This movie is a continuation of the film Death Race 2000, which was released in 1975. Roger Corman, who was responsible for producing both movies, referred to the first one as "a car-racing picture with some dark comedy" in his introduction to the latter.Death Race 2050's plot?
In 2050, the world is in the grip of a technological revolution. The Death Race serves both entertainment and population control in the United Corporations of America, which is beset by overpopulation and unemployment rates of 99.993%. The current Death Race spans from New York City to Los Angeles, and includes defending champion Frankenstein. Jed Perfectus, Minerva Jefferson, Tammy the Terrorist, and ABE, an evil, black, artificially intelligent, self-driving automobile, compete against Frankenstein in this film. Each driver is allocated a virtual reality proxy, a broadcaster who lets the audience to experience the race in VR. It doesn't take long for Frankenstein to get annoyed with his proxy, Annie Sullivan, and he dismisses her interview requests as well as her offers that his adversaries interview him instead.
As the racers make their way along the East Coast, renegades headed by an ex-network producer named Alexis Hamilton are setting up ambushes all throughout the region. As a result of Tammy and Minerva stealing cult members from one another for kills, a violent rivalry develops between the two of them. After falling victim to a trap set by the rebels, ABE has a glitch that causes it to murder its proxy and then give up the pursuit of figuring out its true purpose in life. At the first checkpoint, Hamilton gives Annie, who it turns out is her spy, the order to murder Frankenstein. Annie obeys. Her effort to woo him is fruitless since he is solely focused on achieving victory in the competition. In another part of his speech, the Chairman says that Frankenstein's continued existence has turned him into a burden for the company, while Perfectus will urge his dedicated supporters to die at his hands.
Day two of the marathon passes through the gun-toting heartland. Tammy's suicide bomber kills Minerva's proxy, Chi Wapp. Frankenstein's automobile gets stranded in a cornfield after taking a shortcut. Frankenstein defends against Resistance ninjas while Annie walks off. Annie tells Frankenstein she's a rebel at the second checkpoint. Frankenstein condemns both the rebels and the government, saying he simply wants to win. Minerva tells Annie at a pub that she's an academic who plays a hip-hop stereotype to live. Annie protects Frankenstein from Perfectus, who's envious of his notoriety and sex appeal. Meanwhile, Hamilton and the Chairman are collaborating.
The government prepares "authorized" routes for the drivers on the third day of the race to prevent Resistance assaults. Due to his right arm being wounded in his battle with Perfectus, Annie assists Frankenstein in shifting gears. Minerva pursues Tammy but jumps over a cliff in order to escape Tammy's suicidal proxy. Tammy gloats over Minerva's murder before an ABE drives her into the wall and self-destructs, killing them both. Perfectus takes a backroad to the finish line, while Frankenstein and Annie annihilate Hamilton and her rebels. Perfectus loses control of his vehicle and smashes into the virtual reality control booth, causing both cars to jostle for position. Frankenstein sends out a message to his admirers just before crossing the finish line, implying that the Chairman is worth 1,000 points. Following the Chairman's death, Frankenstein invites the audience to abandon their virtual world and participate in their own Death Race. Frankenstein and Annie stand in the distance as the nation devolves into turmoil, arguing that they should repopulate the land after the mayhem has subsided.
Roger Corman's Death Race 2050: trailer
This year's cast of Death Race 2050 includes
- Manu Bennett portrayed as "Frankenstein," the cybernetic veteran and champion of the Death Race.
- Donald Trump parody: Malcolm McDowell as The Chairman Of The United Corporations Of America; with a "slight comb-over in his hair".
- Annie Sullivan, Frankenstein's surrogate, is played by Marci Miller.
- As genetically enhanced athlete Jed Perfectus, the ideal driver, Burt Grinstead plays the part of him.
- Folake Olowofoyeku plays the hip-hop artist turned racer Minerva Jefferson.
- Tammy "The Terrorist," played by Anessa Ramsey, is the leader of a religious cult.
- Yancy Butler plays Alexis Hamilton, a former network producer now leading a rebel movement.
- Charlie Farrell as J.B., the male announcer for the Death Race.
- Grace Tickle, the female Death Race commentator and interviewer, is played by Shanna Olson.
- Leslie Shaw played Eve Rocket, who stood in for Perfectus.
- D.C. Douglas provides the voice for ABE, a self-driving racing automobile that is controlled by an artificial intelligence and is wicked.
- Chi Wapp is played by Pierre Paolo Goya Kobashigawa.
- Sebastian Llosa portrays Steve, a bystander who observes the Death Race in VR from Annie's point of view.
- Helen Loris plays ABE's programmer, Dr. Creamer.
How exactly was Death Race 2050 put together?
Corman was being interviewed by an Italian journalist at the time, and during the course of the conversation, the interviewer made the statement that The Hunger Games was very similar to Death Race 2000. This sparked the idea for Corman to create a sequel to the first picture. Corman approached Universal Pictures, who had created the contemporary remake (which Corman believed had discarded too much of the political commentary of the original), and explored the possibility of putting back the dark satire that was there in the original. Corman congratulated them on a job well done but pointed out that the death of pedestrians and ideas of a dysfunctional society had been removed.
Filming started while Corman was in his 80s, just around the time of the 2016 presidential election in the United States. It portrays a businessman who is currently the Chairman of the United States Corporations. "The president does have a hair style which may be approaching Trump's hair style, but I don't want to go too deep into that, since Trump will come and go and the film will stay."
Was Death Race 2050 an enjoyable experience?
"Even though the Death Race movie series is drawing to a close, there are a surprising number of Death Races in the franchise. Roger Corman returns to the Death Race franchise with Death Race 2050, the follow-up to the Jason Statham-starring Death Race trilogy from the late 2000s and early 2010s. In spite of being excellent films in their own right, they had very little in common with the original Death Race 2000 from the 1970s. A three-day race through dystopian America, where pedestrian deaths are awarded points for their over-the-top personalities, is how Corman gets this burning disaster back on track! A 50 at the end of the title this time around." - Film reviewer Decker Shado
The Making of 2050, The Look of 2050, and Cars! were released on DVD and DVD/Blu-ray in the United States, along with three making-of documentaries. Cars, cars, cars! On March 20, 2017, it was released in the United Kingdom.
On rottentomatoes.com, the movie currently has an approval rating of 88% as of the month of June 2020, based on eight reviews with an average rating of 6.8 out of 10.
Chris Alexander called the film "loud, shrill, spastic, sadistic, stylish, slipshod, stupid and smart" Nerdist reviewer Scott Weinberg called the film "clunky, ramshackle, and kitschy, but that's part of its charm." a website's Sebastian Zavala said it has "enough blood, guts, simplistic political commentary, scenery chewing, and terrible special effects to become a cult classic."