Set in the desolate, suspiciously Australian-looking dystopian future of the year 2000, Escape 2000 portrays the travails of "deviants"--including Steve Railsback and one-time Romeo And Juliet star Olivia Hussey--sent to re-education camps for antisocial behavior. Guarded by easily angered eunuchs and aristocratic overseers, the prisoners are forced to wear unattractive neo-futuristic jumpsuits, work long days gutting fish, and spend long nights in fear of being subjected to various low-budget torture devices. These include an incredibly rickety variation on the rack and a game involving oversized volleyballs filled with gasoline. An even more grim fate apparently awaits Hussey, Railsback, and others when they're chosen as targets in a human hunt, becoming what the villains might dub "the most dangerous game" if that wouldn't make Escape 2000's never-credited source of inspiration that much more obvious. Mercilessly hunted on vehicles that look more like remnants of the late '70s than products of the new century, Hussey and Railsback engage in a good deal of running and fighting, eventually getting the better of their oppressors and instigating a revolt. But can they withstand the wrath of fighter-plane stock footage? Will they fulfill the film-closing H.G. Wells epigram that "revolution begins with the misfits"? Might they secure a future in which men and women are free to wear jumpsuits of any color they choose? Director Brian Trenchard-Smith (Leprechaun 4: In Space) leaves some of these questions tantalizingly unresolved, suggesting that either the answers are left up to the viewer or budget constraints prohibited the filming of a proper denouement.
Most Dugg A.V. Club Articles
Advertisement
- Comments