Death Race 2000 (1975) on Netflix
In 2000, a totalitarian America runs the Transcontinental Road Race, where drivers score points for killing pedestrians. Frankenstein races with Annie Smith, a navigator from the resistance.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb6.2/1033,212 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes81%
Trailer
Plot summary
After the World Crash of '79 brings widespread unrest and economic ruin, the United States is placed under martial law as a totalitarian regime. To pacify the population, the government stages the Transcontinental Road Race, whose drivers score bonus points for striking and killing pedestrians. The 20th annual race, held in 2000, brings five competitors with wrestling-style personas and themed cars: Frankenstein, the mysterious champion and national hero; Machine Gun Joe Viterbo, a Chicago gangster; Calamity Jane, a cowgirl; Matilda the Hun, a Neo-Nazi; and Nero the Hero, a Roman gladiator. Joe, second in the standings, is determined to beat Frankenstein. A resistance group under Thomasina Paine plots to sabotage the race and seize Frankenstein, and Paine's granddaughter Annie Smith rides as his navigator, planning to lure him into an ambush.
Cast
- Carle Bensenas Harold
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Death Race 2000 (1975)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Roger Corman wanted Peter Fonda for the lead role of Frankenstein, but Fonda called the script too ridiculous to make; David Carradine took the part instead, hoping it would prove he was more than just Caine from the TV series Kung Fu.
- Shelley Winters turned down the role of resistance leader Thomasina Paine; dialect coach Harriet White Medin won the part instead by giving a pitch-perfect impression of Eleanor Roosevelt at her audition.
- Actress Mary Woronov did not know how to drive, so the crew filmed her close-up driving shots by towing her car behind a flatbed truck.
SPOILER
Director Paul Bartel and star David Carradine clashed badly enough during filming that Bartel considered replacing him with Lee Majors; the two later overruled producer Roger Corman's preferred ending, in which the reporter character would be shot by FBI agents, and instead filmed Frankenstein running the reporter over with his car.
