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This film is an odd fish to watch. Not that this is a bad thing. Some of the effects are cool and the Fashions by Mad Max are in the pre-gothic stage of expression. A movie that begs to be MST3K'ed.

This film was actually and originally released in 3D.

I remember seeing this movie in the theater when I was real little.  I can remember it being in 3-D and being really freaked out on the verge of screaming at the scene where the android melts near the begining (hey I was real young).  Anyways, I haven't thought about this movie in awhile so i'm going to have to try to dig up a copy of it and rewatch this stinker.    

Oh, Lord, what a horrid, horrid decade. Three-Dee is THE low point of cinematic development; video porn is, relatively speaking, a grand achievement. Not only were "Spacehunter" and "Metalstorm" created simply to showcase (and exploit) the process, but we also sat through (it 'we' were stupid idiots) "Comin' At Ya!," "Jaws 3-D," "Friday the 13th Part III," "Treasure of the Four Crowns," the re-releases of the (cough) 'classics' "House of Wax" and "Dial 'M' For Murder," plus others that I've forgotten by accident or design. The most horrible of all, though, was "Starchaser: The Legend of Orin." Filmation-Saturday-morning-quality animation? In 3D? Plot, characters, and whole swaths of dialog and other elements stolen from "Star Wars?" Oooh. Like a diamond drill, burrowing into my forehead...

This is one of my favorite all time corny-as-hell goofball guilty pleasure movie of all time (and you'd be surprised by how many of those there are)!
I too saw this in the theatre when I was like 7 3/4 years old, because at that time you still use fractions to describe your age. I didn't know what 3-D was and actually swerved and ducked in my seat during the opening scene where fragments of the exploding Starliner cruiser zoomed towards the screen (isn't that cute?).
The dialogue ranges from the classic -
"Most people like to stick with something. But you, you're like fly s**t on a window. First breeze that comes by and you're gone."
To the ludicrous -
"Better not skizz my home or I'll have my father split your face. And I got brothers too!"
The film is a hoot from start to finish. A real treat to anyone who still enjoys those corny campy sci-fi movies from the early eighties. I'm not saying you won't want to throw stuff at the screen. But you've really gotta love this stuff to have a film like this so close to your heart.
FYI: this film was released not two weeks before another corny sci-fi 3-D film set in the desert - Metalstorm: the Destruction of Jared-Syn. Yor was released the same summer too I remember *shudder*.
Okay, now that I've shown that I know waaay too much about this film, I'll just say thank you so much for giving the first legitimately humorous and accurate review of this film I've seen online.

This movie is goofy, but its a kick to watch.  

My theory on the Forbidden Zone, it is nothing more than a polite nickname for Molly Ringwald's then illegal underage
pootwang.

I learned many things from this film, and many more questions.

In the future, all hot dogs will be square shaped.

Why would anyone even want to go to a place called the forbidden zone? Is the temptation of forbidden fruit that bad?

Still Spacehunter is a far better Star Wars ripoff than the Hasslehoff disaster Starcrash.

Never got to enjoy (???) this movie.
Why? well it was originally released in 3-D and if you sit to the side of the theatre you lose much of the effect and secondly if you take your four year old who won't keep his glasses on you get distracted a lot. Well I tried anyway.

I was 14 when I first saw this so don't panic when I say I thought Molly was sexy as Hell!  I can't believe there no images/movie of her bondage scene (where Overdog is draining her).  Too hot (geez, I'm 34 and I still tingle just thinking about it - going to lay down now).

Programmers at my local TV must just love this one. I may have watched 3 or 4 times. As goofy as Freddy Krueger giving his girlfriend a massage, but strangely effective. The scene with the Chemist's creations (those mutant kids with molotov cocktails) was scary, others plain silly (those humongous things... ugh!) but it is actually a really enjoyable film if you stop questioning every scene.

Why there are not more movies like this one? Oh, and I agree, Molly Ringwauld was reeeeeaaaaalllll sexy here.

I remember watching this film when I was like 7.  Those fat maggot guys oozing out of the ceiling freaked the heck out of me.

I remember accidently seeing this on cable years ago. I had never heard of it before then. I could tell by the way the credits ran that it had been filmed in 3D. Molly Ringwald was a big star by the time I saw this little number, and Strass was already a well known talent. I remember wondering "What the hell are these people doing in this piece of s**t?" I was facinated with the SUV. My nephew was a kid at the time and between us we had enough LEGOs to build an alternate universe somewhere...we spent the next few months building bad assed intergalactic SUVs, complete with plasticine bounty hunters and tracker rats. It was firecracker heaven for awhile there. Then it passed and I had forgotten completely about this movie till I came across it here. I remember the overblown music every time the SUV went chugging over the terrian. I've always liked Ironside in these roles. He's what John Saxon always tries to be in these roles...mean and nasty and scary. Saxon only ever manages to look like a greasy wannabe. I'm going to have to find a copy of this, just to refresh my memory of it. I love a good bad film...the fact that I saw this but can't really remember it says a lot. It has to be a bore for me not to have it thoughly locked away in my cerebrial files. Bab is Bad, but boring is totally unacceptable.

The best part in this movie is when someone says to Molly Ringwald "Your just a baby, I bet your barely out of your diapers!" and Ringwald says "I'm not out of my diapers!"  Wrong choice of words there, Molly.

Overall this is an effective film.  I've never seen it in actual 3D, so I can't say how effective the 3d effect is, but at least this movie doesn't beat you over the head with "sticking things into the camera lense" shots so common in cheesy 3D films.

Peter Strauss definitely has that "what the hell am I doing in a movie like this" look throughout the film (a la Timothy Dalton), but he and the rest of the cast work well.  I give both the script and Molly Ringwald credit for having her character speak in a degenerate dialect that adds an air of authenticity to the proceedings without being forced.  This movie is competently made and it takes itself seriously, so there aren't many unintentional laughs here unless you find the whole 80's post-apocalyptic genre ridiculous.  A good "popcorn" movie.

This movie was fun! Some good shoouts and action scenes, mutants and amazons, space babes, dudes on hang gliders badass Road Warrior-like vehicles, more space babes and that obstacle course at the end? Goofy fun. The space effects in the beginning when the spaceliner blows up are actually very very good!

My favorite scene is when they stumble into a nest of what appear to be genetic crossbreeds of uncle fester and a moth pupae. I'm sorry but if I where these folks I definitely wouldn't be scared by a bunch of squealing fatass aliens trying to, I dunno, sit on me to death?

I just barely remember this one, but I liked it.  Corney, yes (but then they usually were) but it was still cool.

I was wondering if anyone knew a way I could get my hands on the original 3d version of this movie.  I have some friends that work in a theater, so purchasing an orignal reel could possibly be an option. Thanks.
    Kent

Me and my mom went and saw this in 3D.  Yep.  We had a great time and Molly was cute but a tad annoying...still cheezy fun!  I don't know if mom'll sit and watch it with us now...  Also check out Ice Pirates with the late Robert Urich for similar cheezy Sci-Fi fun!

Correction on Ringwald:  she'd only been in 3 other films including the wonderful Tempest, also P.K. and the Kid (?) and Packin It In (?).  Plus the Facts of Life thing (ha ha) and was still somewhat unknown.  I'd never heard of her.  16 Candles and Breakfast Club came directly after...and then...everybody knew who she was.

Correction again.  Oops.  I read that wrong...sorry.

Wonderful trash! beutifully shot in 3-D. See it!

Man ho man i am glad that i have bought this one on dvd.

This is a classic of the 80 sci fi movies and one of the best ones.

I was very scared to see this movie again, last time i add seen it was around 1987, and again today in 2004, it has aged wonderfully and the special effects where quit amazing.

Maybe the movie was campy, but I'd love to be the guy to rescue Molly Ringwald :-)

The film wasn't so bad! I seen it for first when I was about 5 years old, and I was so amazed on it's environment and the machine design was wonderfully done for show a Post-Apocalyptic world in an another planet. By the way I still don't know those country sides(rocks, desert sides) played on a forgotten area, or needed to travel to an another country.
The laser effects and the android was the two special effects what thrown up the film to the most sci-fi times in that age I thinks.
Washington's harvester/tractor thingy and Wolf's jeep was so unique, and that film's style gave me a lot of help to advance my art style. My favourite and funny scene was the action with the train what have been attacked by Overdog's bike warriors.
Wolf: -I join.
Chalmers: -Whose side?
Wolf: -To my Own. Cover me!

Yes, this one's a great peice of pulp sci fi "western." Nothing wrong with that, it never really tried to be anything but something to munch your popcorn to. The reason I love this flick is because it's one of the handful of films that a guy named Mike Minor worked on as an art director. Other films of his include the Trek episode, "The Tholian Web," Star Trek: TMP, Flesh Gordon, and The Cat From Outer Space. Tragically, his career was cut short by the AIDS epidemic of the late 80's/early 90's. The guy really knew how to make things look cool, if it was a rusted out future SUV, or a gleaming cat's eye spaceship.

I would drive across town to see that in a heartbeat.

Not to be creepy (for a change), but I can't be the only 8 year old who felt an unusual 'stimulation' at the sight of Claw-borg's methods. (I can't say his real name, I just can't)

Another cool movie from the past. I hadn't thought about this movie for a long time. Now bits and pieces are coming back, but I am also remembering bits of Ice Pirates so its confusing. I never saw this in 3-D, but I did see it on its premier cable run so I was pretty young when it came out. I do remember that creepy scene with the children and that eerie noise they made. And yes, Molly was a hotty, I had a crush on her. The 80's were decade for awesome cheesy movies. Man, where have they all gone?

I think this is number 47 in a list of sci-fi/fantasy films in which, at the end, as soon as the baddy-boss is seen off, his entire fortress collapses and all his minions also die/surrender/vanish. Convenient for the goodies, eh? Wish real life were like that!

 I was Manager/Projectionist in 1985 and had the pleasure of running this fine film. And you have got to see it on a big screen in 3-D if you ever can. You don't see the really great mistakes they made after ratio mods are done for DVD. In the beginning of the movie where the life pod crashes you can see the studio parking lot just over the ridge line. And my all time favorite B-Movie story ever. The attack of the fat people. (Did anybody wonder why they were hanging upside down from the rafters?) The script that was sent to special effects makeup read "Fat People" and they apparently didn't read any farther than that. So they showed up to the director with fat people costumes. It was a legendary fail. I Love It. Besides that none of those 80's flics that had Michael Ironsides chewing the scenery can be called anything but epic. Including the spazz-fest  that was "Highlander Two". :cheers: