Dead Man Walking
THE STORY: I'd rather not spend all of my time watching cheesey movies now that the weather is nice. But what happened is I had to return a movie to the video store and I happened to spot this one...I remember renting it years ago....about ten years ago...and I thought it was stupid then. So I couldn't resist renting it again. (I'm weak that way.)
It seems that in the year 1997 half of the worlds population has been destroyed by a super plague. The corporations took over. Take my word for it, because thats all the info you get. Healthy citizens get to live freely. Plague victims get to live in the 'plague zone' which is a bigass desert junkyard looking place, and then there are non-contagious victims of the plague who will die within one or two years called Zero-Men. The zero-men play suicidal games with each other like russian roulette. Well, Leila, the daughter of a Unitus corporation executive and her father are driving through a desolate area in a limo with Chaz, the flunky. An escaped zero-man convict named Decker and two others hijack the limo and kidnap Leila. Chaz escapes with his life, but the cops won't pursue Decker into the plague zone. Chaz goes to a nightclub called the Zero club and recruits John Luger, a zero-man on the edge. Luger (Wings Hauser) and Chaz go into the forbidden zone after Decker, who jumps them and buries them up to their necks in the desert. They escape and head to Cafe' Death, a plague zone night spot, (The plague zone seems like a big desert with squatters and the occasional small town...who supplies food, power, etc is a mystery.) but get jumped by Decker again, who captures Luger and tortures him. Chaz shows up later and they once again try to free Leila from Decker who...well, jumps out and shoots Luger in the arm! Then he beats the crap outta Chaz. Decker keeps catching them with their pants down! Well, enough is enough. Decker tries to use Leila as a shield but Luger shoots him in the arm anyway. Then Decker tries to run Luger over but Luger jumps over the car hood and simultaneously shoots him in the head. While Luger is tending to the injured Chaz Decker revives, even though he has a 100% fatal disease and just got shot in the head.He must be related to Jason Voorhees. Chaz is telling Luger that the pills he carried (but Luger traded for weapons earlier) are a cure for the plague. Unitus Corporation has had a cure for five years but patent problems kept it off of the market. While Chaz is telling this to Luger, Leila picks up a pistol and shoots the still-alive-but-mortally-wounded Decker dead. Luger, Chaz and Leila drive to the border of the plague zone where Luger drops them off to the authorities then announce that he's going to Unitus. The last we see of him is a newscast informing us that Luger has broken into Unitus and stolen the files for the cure.
This movie suffers from the scourge of many cheapo 80's flicks...bad sets. You can tell the budget was small because it all seems to have been filmed in a desert or junkyard. In the 80's these 'end of the world-killer plague-dystopian society were all the rage...even if the movies sucked. (not all of them did, but....)
BEST LINE: "People have been dying for five years and theres a cure?" -Luger totally apalled that Unitus Corp. has withheld a cure.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?:
1.) THERES A CURE? What possible patent problems could there be for a cure to a disease that has killed HALF OF THE WORLD'S POPULATION? That is such a ridiculous premise, that Unitus Corporation couldn't release the cure because of patents that it really needs no further explaining. Just think about it!
2.) I have to ask...why the hell would a super rich guy and his 20 year old daughter be driving through a desolate wasteland filled with desperate dying plague victims in a limo with no guards or escort?
3.) Why didn't Decker kill Chaz after he killed Leila's father. He doesn't plan on using her for ransom (or he would have told Chaz that before locking him in a van)!
4.) When Chaz meets Luger its in the Zero Club, where the Zero Men drink and play suicide games. Luger is putting a bomb together and asks Chaz to hold it while he deactivates it! So Luger built a timebomb in the club and has to disarm it in 45 seconds. Chaz , being an idiot doesn't put the bomb down and exit stage left at a range walk! Why should he risk getting blown up just to talk to Luger? There are plenty of Zero Men!
5.) What the hell is a body counting station? In the middle of the Plague Zone Unitus corporation has a facility to count the bodies of the dead manned by TWO guys! Of course, anyone can walk in....so Decker walks in and kills the two guys...serves them right for taking such a stupid job!
NUDITY AND SEX: None
HUH?: The plague zone seems hard to contain. first its as big as all outdoors with no visible barrier except for the two guards we get to see. Its not like there a 'Berlin wall" around it. Whats the point in rounding up plague victims and not making sure they can't infect the rest of the population?
When Luger and Chaz go to the Cafe' Death to look for Decker, Luger leaves his Uzi in the car! What a dumbass! He expects to find this homicidal maniac Decker there but he leaves his weapon in the car!?
Chaz has pills that are the cure for the plague. Luger doesn't know this so he trades the pills for a weapon and supplies. chaz is an asshole, though...he didn't tell Luger because he' have to share them and he could've saved the life of Pookie, a plague victim they met. what a dick. What i'm suprised at is the fact that Chaz openly took the pills in front of three plague victims! He could have walked off and done it in secret! He wasn't real smart in trying to keep it a secret!
THE TALLY: Wings Hauser (who is in a buncha movies including A Soldiers Story and Vice Squad) isn't very exciting as Luger, but I think he's trying in this piss poor role to show a man with nothing to lose. People will be interested to know that Chaz is played by Jeffrey Combs (Re-Animator, and the alien Weyoun the Vorta on theTV show Deep Space Nine) and Decker is played by Brion James (from the movies Blade Runner and Mutator and a few others...you've seen him before, believe it) There is cheese in this movie but you'll have to work hard to make it fun cheese.