10 Movies to Watch If You Like ‘Death Race 2000’
Death Race 2000 tells the sensitive story of Frankenstein (David Carradine), the defending champion of a televised transcontinental road race created by the U.S. government to distract and pacify the population. Duos of drivers adopt flamboyant personas and race cross-country, racking up points as they strike down unlucky pedestrians and fellow drivers alike. Luckily, scrappy resistance groups are hard at work to disrupt the contest. And even the mysterious Frankenstein has a trick or two up his sleeve.
Produced by Roger Corman, shot by Tak Fujimoto, and starring a young Sylvester Stallone, Death Race 2000 epitomizes the grim, satirical gait of 1970s science fiction. And listen, I get it. “It’s the future, and there’s no war because we’ve replaced war with a ridiculous sport where people die” sounds fun on paper. But as corporatocracy becomes more and more of a reality, 50-year-old films like Death Race are increasingly front-of-mind.
Speaking of dystopias, our would-be AI overlords are hard at work making sure all movie recommendations are force-fed to us by algorithms. And I don’t know about you, but I’d like to minimize the input of robots in my leisure time, wherever possible. So, if you’re craving guidance with more of a human touch, you’ve come to the right place. I promise to leave no tombstone unturned and to only recommend films I genuinely think are worth your time.
With all that out of the way, start your engines! Because if you’re a fan of Paul Bartel’s ultra-violent (and ultra-silly) cross-continental Death Race 2000, there’s more where that came from. Avoiding the obvious where possible (Mad Max, Battle Royale, etc.), I’ve assembled a collection of movies that have a similar feel to New World Pictures’ cult classic. From vehicular violence to sports-obsessed dystopias, here are 10 movies you should seek out if you enjoyed the blood-splattered satire of Death Race 2000.
1. The 10th Victim (1965) (dir. Elio Petri)
The 10th Victim is what you get when you let Europeans organize the Purge. And depending on how you feel about tiny sunglasses and wistful smoking, this is a good thing.
Based on a short story by absurdist sci-fi novelist Robert Sheckley, the film envisions a world where global conflicts are avoided thanks to “The Big Hunt,” which allows individuals with violent impulses to engage in legalized murder. Competitors alternate between hunting and being hunted, picking up corporate sponsorships along the way to pad out their generous winnings (assuming they survive). It’s all well and good, that is assuming no one falls in love (winky, winky).
Death Race 2000 fans will appreciate director Elio Petri’s pointed social commentary as well as the garishly mod production design. A woman murders a man with a gun bra in the first five minutes. And it doesn’t get any less wacky from there!
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2. They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969) (dir. Sydney Pollack)
Several movies on this list soften their satirical blow with comedy and camp (remember the gun bra from The 10th Victim? I do). Not so with They Shoot, Horses, Don’t They?, Sydney Pollack’s devastating Depression-era tragedy about the exploitative practice of dance marathons.
A real-life phenomenon, dance marathons originally began as fundraisers and charity events, only to mutate into a voyeuristic showcase of human desperation once the Depression hit (the last person standing could win the equivalent of a year’s salary). Nauseating and bleak to the bone, this is easily one of the greatest movies that’ll also make you want to walk into the sea holding a cinder block.
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3. Punishment Park (1971) (dir. Peter Watkins)
From Peter Watkins, a pioneer of the found-footage/mockumentary genre, Punishment Park is as provocative, chilling, and relevant today as it was 50 years ago.
The year is 1970. And in the face of growing civil unrest, President Nixon issues an executive order to arrest and detain “dangerous Americans” (feminists, students, conscientious objectors, civil rights activists, etc.). With every prison in the U.S. at full capacity, the White House implements a new program. Detainees are transported to the California desert where they face a tribunal of “unbiased” community members. Then, the prisoners must choose: serve their full sentence, or take their chances in Punishment Park, a deadly gauntlet that promises freedom to anyone who survives.
Presented in a documentary format, highly improvised, and starring non-professional actors, Punishment Park must be seen to be believed. Unless you’re the current American administration, in which case, please don’t watch this.
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4. Rollerball (1975) (dir. Norman Jewison)
There is no war. Only Rollerball.
Set in a far-flung future where corporations run the world (could you imagine?), our hero is Jonathan E. (James Caan), a celebrity Rollerball player who is asked to retire from the game. Refusing, Jonathan learns that his corporate handlers have grown fearful of his growing public influence. Out of bribes and ideas, the powers that be alter the rules of the game to “retire” Jonathan, whether he likes it or not. Directed by Moonstruck’s Norman Jewison, Rollerball characterizes the cynicism, violence, and prescience of 1970s sci-fi.
That said, of all the fake sports on this list, Rollerball is the one I’d most like to see realized for-realsies. You can’t smash roller derby and hockey together and expect me not to get excited.
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5. Damnation Alley (1977) (dir. Jack Smight)
In the market for a post-apocalyptic road trip? Look no further. In Damnation Alley, World War III has reduced the planet to an irradiated wasteland overrun with giant, man-eating insects. But our heroes need to get to Albany, New York, the only known place transmitting a radio signal.
Directed by Jack Smight (of Airport ’75 infamy), history remembers Damnation Alley as the other big-budget sci-fi movie 20th Century Fox released in 1977. In truth, the film is much more successful if you take it as it is: a charming nuclear holocaust hangout movie. Also, hello, teenage Jackie Earle Haley!
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6. The Cannonball Run (1981) (dir. Hal Needham)
If you heard the phrase “trans-American endurance race” and immediately blacked out from excitement, there’s a Burt Reynolds vehicle with your name on it. Pun intended.
Featuring one of the all-time ensemble casts (Farrah Fawcett! Dom DeLuise! Sammy Davis Jr!), The Cannonball Run does precisely what it says on the tin. Following a gaggle of colorful characters on an unsanctioned cross-country road race, Hal Needham’s car-based comedy has aged as gracefully as room-temperature mayonnaise. But where else are you going to see Jackie Chan drive a DL 4WD Subaru Hatchback?
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7. Eating Raoul (1982) (dir. Paul Bartel)
If the credits started to roll on Death Race 2000 and your first thought was “Oh my god, I must see what else this Paul Bartel character has directed,” I have delicious news for you.
Sure, you could watch 1976’s Cannonball, which saw both Bartel, Sylvester Stallone, and David Carradine return to the endurance racing subgenre. But the real move here, and I think you’ll agree, is to take a bite out of Eating Raoul, Bartel’s pitch-black comedy about a prudish married couple (Bartel and Mary Woronov) who dream of opening a restaurant. When the couple kill a drunken swinger in self-defense (hey, it happens), they realize the solution to their financial woes is right under their noses: lure, kill, and rob the rich sex pests infesting their apartment complex. What could go wrong?
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8. The Prize of Peril (1983) (dir. Yves Boisset)
The second film on this list based on a short story by Robert Sheckley, The Prize of Peril was first adapted for the German small screen in 1970 before the French got hold of it 13 years later. Directed by Yves Boisset (who would go on to win a plagiarism lawsuit against the filmmakers behind The Running Man), The Prize of Peril depicts a future where everyday people willingly participate in a popular reality TV show where they’re hunted for sport by volunteers. Whoever survives for four hours wins a cash prize. And desperate citizens like François (Gérard Lanvin) are willing to risk life and limb for a shot at financial security. Focusing more on back rooms’ scheming and Euro-punk aesthetics than extravagant Americana and action set pieces, Michel Piccoli gives Death Race 2000’s Junior Bruce a run for his money.
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9. The Blood of Heroes (1989) (dir. David Webb Peoples)
You’d be forgiven for dismissing The Blood of Heroes as a Mad Max rip-off. You would, however, be missing out on an underappreciated gem of the sports-dystopia genre. And we can’t have that, can we?
Written and directed by Blade Runner and 12 Monkeys scribe David Peoples, The Blood of Heroes takes place in a futuristic, war-blighted dust bowl where the only distraction is “The Game,” a gladiatorial football-ish sport played with a dog skull. While bloodied, broken teams limp from town to town in search of their next meal, the height of success lies deep underground in the subterranean Nine Cities. With more lived-in production design and world-building in its little finger than most modern blockbusters, The Blood of Heroes also enjoys a ridiculous ensemble cast made up of Rutger Hauer, Vincent D’Onofrio, Joan Chen, and Hugh Keays-Byrne. Australian actor Max Fairchild (of Mad Max fame) also enjoys a small, and frankly shockingly pathos-rich, role as a veteran Game player.
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10. Arena (1989) (dir. Peter Manoogian)
Starring Christopher-Reeves-look-alike Paul Satterfield, Arena is a good reminder that we just don’t make bad movies this good anymore.
Part Star Wars, part Bloodsport, Peter Manoogian’s patently insane sci-fi tale takes place on a spacecraft housing the titular “Arena,” an inter-species fighting championship that hasn’t featured a human contestant in half a century. Enter: the anonymously-named Steve Armstrong, who dreams of using Arena prize money to settle his debts and return to Earth. One of the biggest swings from Charles Band’s Empire International Pictures, what Arena lacks in social commentary it more than makes up for in its commitment to its silly made-up sport and imaginative creature effects. My money’s on the flesh slug!
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