# Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone

Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone is a 1983 American-Canadian science fiction action film. The film stars Peter Strauss, Molly Ringwald, Ernie Hudson, Andrea Marcovicci and Michael Ironside. The film's executive producer was Ivan Reitman, and it was directed by Lamont Johnson. The film's music score was composed by Elmer Bernstein. When the film was originally released in theaters it was shown in a polarized, over/under 3-D format. The film became part of the 3-D film revival craze of the early 1980s, being widely released after Comin' at Ya! (1981). The film is about a bounty hunter who goes on a mission to rescue three women stranded on a brutal planet and meets a vagrant teenage girl along the way.

## Plot

Set in the early 22nd century, the film opens with the destruction of a space cruise liner by a bolt of nebular lightning. The only apparent survivors are three beautiful women—Nova, Reena, and Meagan—who take refuge in an escape pod and land on the nearest habitable planet. There, they are quickly accosted by the hostile natives and taken aboard a sail-driven vehicle resembling a pirate ship on rails.
In space, an alert is broadcast for the safe return of the women with a reward of 3,000 mega-credits. A soldier of fortune turned small-time salvage operator named Wolff intercepts the message and tells Chalmers, his engineer, to check the ship's junky old computer for information about the world they are marooned on.
The planet, the two learn, is called Terra 11 and is a failed pre-war Earth colony that fell victim to a deadly plague and civil warfare and is still off limits due to quarantine. Wolff decides to risk the dangers as the reward will solve his debt problems and pay for much needed ship repairs.
After landing on the barren world, Wolff and Chalmers set out in a heavily armed and armored four-wheel-drive vehicle called the Scrambler. They become involved a battle in progress between a grotesquely-garbed group of marauders called Zoners and the band of rail-ship nomads led by the aged Grandman Patterson. The Zoners take the women before Wolff can stop them and fly away on jet-powered hang gliders.
Wolff learns from the nomads that the women were taken into The Zone which is ruled by Overdog McNabb, Patterson's sworn enemy since back when they were doctors sent to cure the plague and McNabb went bad. Returning to the Scrambler, Wolff finds that Chalmers—revealed to be a android—has been killed during the battle.
Wolff continues alone, but he soon catches a grubby teenage chatterbox who calls herself Niki the Twister trying to steal his Scrambler. Claiming to be an "Earther" like him, Niki "brainworks" that Wolff needs a tracker if he is to survive The Zone, and Wolff reluctantly decides to take her on as a guide.
In the meantime, the three women are taken before The Chemist, the chief henchman of Overdog, who administers pacifying drugs to the women and prepares them for Overdog's pleasure. A hideous, black metal-bodied cyborg who has declared himself planetary dictator, Overdog is linked directly into his fortress and has giant mechanical claws for hands and a face like a metal-toothed Phantom of the Opera.
Elsewhere, Wolff and Niki make camp, but soon come under attack by a strange plow-like vehicle. Wolff manages to disable the machine and learns the driver is Washington, an old military acquaintance of his from back when they both served in Sector Control who has since worked his way up to becoming Sector Chief of the entire Terra Sector.
Washington reveals that he has also come to Terra 11 to rescue the women so he can get the reward for himself. His only problem is that he crashed his ship and has no way off of the planet. Wolff refuses to help his rival and leaves him to fend for himself.
Still led by the enthusiastic if somewhat less than reliable Niki, Wolff gets into more predicaments as they are attacked by the ragged plague-scarred cannibalistic Scavs, various mutated humanoids, a subterranean tribe of aquatic Amazon-like Barracuda Women and a water dragon which the female warriors fear.
Losing his trusty Scrambler, he and Niki are forced to continue on foot across the desolate landscape. Eventually, they are found by Washington, and Wolff finds the situation reversed as, desperate for water for himself and the girl, he now begs his rival for help. They agree to a 50/50 split of the reward, with Niki assuming she will get her own "fifty fifties" share.
Now a team, Wolff and Washington sneak into Overdog's fortress, where they find the Zoners entertained by captured prisoners forced to run through a deadly maze of lethal obstacles, hazards and traps. Wolff spots the women being held in a cage and forms a rescue plan, but a bored Niki (who was left out of the rescue for her own safety) decides to snoop around.
She is captured and sent into the maze. Wolff spots Niki in the maze and, despite Washington's objections, heads back to rescue her, but the teenager manages to use her own youthful agility to reach the end. Overdog congratulates her and drags her back to his lair. There, she is hooked to a machine that slowly drains her life energy. The energy, in turn, recharges Overdog.
Wolff comes to the rescue and jabs a sparking power cable into one of Overdog's claws. The power feedback fries Overdog and causes cascading blowouts throughout the entire fortress.
As the fortress explodes around them, Wolff and Niki run for cover and are rescued by the timely arrival of Washington, who is driving the plow machine with Nova, Reena and Meagan driving the salvaged Scrambler. They all race out of the fortress just as it explodes behind them.
Back at his spaceship Wolff invites Niki to come with him, Washington and the rescued women back to Earth. The girl says she will only if they remain partners, and Wolff agrees.

## Main cast

* Peter Strauss as Wolff
* Molly Ringwald as Niki
* Ernie Hudson as Washington
* Andrea Marcovicci as Chalmers
* Michael Ironside as Overdog McNabb
* Beeson Carroll as Grandman Patterson
* Hrant Alianak as The Chemist
* Deborah Pratt as Meagan
* Aleisa Shirley as Reena
* Cali Timmins as Nova
* Reggie Bennett as Barracuda Leader
* Harold Ramis as Voice On Intercom (Uncredited)
* Colin Mochrie as Guard (Uncredited)

## Production
### Development

The film, which was announced in February 1982, was one of a number of 3D films made in the wake of the success of the Spanish-American 3D Western film Comin' at Ya!. Ernie McNab, the 3D designer on this film, said the effects would enable the audience to "really feel space". Producer Don Carmody said, "We never stoop to pop popcorn in your face. We do have one scene where laser beams and flame-blasters are bombarding the audience fast and furious, but these effects occur during a battle scene and appear valid." In 2015 Reitman said: "We had to have two cameras. We just shot it in what is now called "native" 3-D, and it was hell. And there were no screens that you could show it in. That was not really a practical idea in 1981."

### Casting

Ernie Hudson says when he was first cast he was told Jeff Bridges would play Wolff. Then Peter Strauss was cast in the role.

### Filming

Filming started under the title Adventures in the Creep Zone in October 1982. The original director was Jean LaFleur who had co written the original story and previously worked with producer Don Carmody. However, after only two weeks of filming, LaFelur and several other crew members were fired, reportedly because Columbia was unhappy with the film's progress. His replacement was Lamont Johnson.
Strauss said this led to changes to his character. "There were attempts to make him a little less tough and a little more gentle and responsive to the girl, Niki. Some of his grittiness in the earlier version was replaced with a notion of more gentleness." "It was difficult because things were always changing," said Hudson. "We changed the script entirely. When Lamont came in, we got a new script, a new everything. I ended up really liking Lamont. But it was very confusing, especially in the beginning."
Molly Ringwald said "I was always attracted to the character. The script was pretty — uh — but I figured that maybe I could change the dialogue a little when I got there. As it turned out, they were desperate to change the dialogue. I was quite relieved when Lamont showed up and said, 'This is awwwful. Let's change all this!' The script was re-written a lot. There was a train which started out as evil and wound up being good. People who were supposed to be friends ended up being enemies. It was confusing. I was lucky, though. All my material was improved."
Hudson felt the movie "was a real stretch for" Strauss "and the confusion didn't help [...] Wolff was a wonderful, Harrison Ford type, but that's not Peter. An actor has to take it his own way and do something totally different. Unfortunately, you're working with people who want the Harrison Ford thing, and they want it from you [...] Peter had to carry his first big feature through all that confusion, and it was very difficult."
Parts of the film were shot in Utah, including location shooting in: Kane Creek, Bull Canyon, along the Colorado River, Potash, Lower Shafer Trail, Potash Settling Ponds, Grey Hills, U.S. Highway 91, and the area south of Canyonlands Regional Airport. It was also shot in Vancouver.

## Soundtrack

The film's music was done by Elmer Bernstein who later called the film "too rushed. The studio's only concern was getting it to the box office to make quick money, riding an anticipated, lucrative 3-D boom. ... The producers didn't want to fool around. They were looking for a more conventional approach. So, I wrote it like a Western with lots of straightforward heroics and a conventional orchestra, except for the Ondes Martenot."

## Release

The film's advertising emphasized the 3D aspects. Columbia released Spacehunter on May 20, 1983, timed to be a week before Return of the Jedi.
It took $7 million in the first week However ticket sales dropped sharply. The film ended up grossing $16.5 million at the United States box office.
Hudson says he felt people went to the movie "and expected to see something different. If you don't have something really special and different, people just ask why they should spend money to see this thing? I don't think Spacehunter was daring enough; it wasn't really risky. We never lived up to our own publicity. It wasn't a bad story as movies go. And with Peter in it, I think people expected Spacehunter to be a serious film, and it wasn't serious at all."
While the film went mostly ignored at the U.S. box office, it did find some success on home video becoming the 10th best selling videocassette of 1983. As of 2024, the only 3D home video releases were the Japanese VHD release and the German Blu-ray from Koch Media, which is an anaglyph version derived from the VHD release.

## Reception

Variety called it "a muddled science fiction tale" whose editing prevented audiences from enjoying the well-shot action scenes. Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote that the film did more with its 3D than its contemporaries but was too crowded with derivative ideas to be memorable. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 27% and average rating of 3.3/10 based on 15 reviews.
C.J. Henderson reviewed Spacehunter in Space Gamer No. 65. Henderson commented "Watch for this one when it is finally released to cable, or to the video stores. This is one of those movies one gets more from in the living-room than in the theatre."
In a 2015 interview, Ivan Reitman referred to the movie as "...a terrible movie in 3-D.."

## Home media

The movie was released on DVD in the US by Columbia/Tri-Star in December 2001. It was released on Blu-ray by Mill Creek Entertainment in the US and Canada in May 2017 (without any supplemental features), by Via Vision Entertainment in Australia in March 2019, and by 101 Films in the UK in March 2020 (featuring a commentary with film historians Allan Bryce and Richard Holliss).