Films That Time Forgot

Spacehunter: Adventures In The Forbidden Zone (1983)

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Reviewed by Keith Phipps
July 23rd, 2003

Life seems pretty sweet for space drifter Peter Strauss at the beginning of Spacehunter: Adventures In The Forbidden Zone. Sure, his computer, voiced by Spacehunter producer Ivan Reitman, reminds him that he owes his ex-wife alimony, but with sexy partner Andrea Marcovicci at his side, why worry? But as plot turns quickly reveal, Strauss has been living a lie. When he and Marcovicci answer a potentially profitable distress call from an escape pod that crash-landed on a barren planet, they find themselves in the middle of some internecine warfare that leaves Marcovicci not only dead, but also exposed as an android. "Best damn model they ever put out," Strauss says mournfully, before hitting her self-destruct button and pursuing the hang-gliding hooligans who absconded with the escape pod's three comely passengers. Along the way, he picks up a guide: an excitable, chipmunk-voiced moppet played by Molly Ringwald. In space, no one remembers your 16th birthday, and it hasn't been prom night in the Forbidden Zone since metal-encased tyrant Overdog (Michael Ironside) took over the planet. After forcing Ringwald to bathe, Strauss reluctantly allows her to join him on his quest. To secure their bounty, they must fight obese zombies, swamp amazons, Overdog minions, future Ghostbuster Ernie Hudson, and many objects that fly directly at the camera to take advantage of Spacehunter's 3D technology. Meanwhile, Ironside prepares to meet his new prisoners, remarking, "Young girls are so much nicer to touch, especially if they don't have any scars." Eventually, the presumably scar-free Ringwald falls into Ironside's lair, only to be rescued at the last minute by Strauss and the newly cooperative Hudson. Reassessing his loner lifestyle, Strauss then allows Ringwald to join him for more three-dimensional spacehunting adventures, in a final scene that leaves the door open for many as-yet-unproduced sequels.