Watched a movie a long time ago about a guy who crashes his spaceship and is taken prisoner and forced to fight against others in an underground arena/maze/game thing. The hero competes in gladiator like events repeatedly. At the end he escapes to a spaceship and flys away. My father remembers women being the Captors. I watched it on TV in the late 80's early 90's w/ brother and dad, we are all still trying to find out what is was called! We've seen all the Mad Max movies and Running Man. I've watched trailers for Metalstorm, Spacehunter, The New Barbarians, etc... haven't seen any familiar scenes.
Movie is similar to Running Man where the main character is forced to fight others.
The movie seems to have a similar appearance to Mad Max 3.
I wonder if this could be "Survivor" (1987). The protagonist does come back from space at the beginning, and it does have a "Road Warrior" feel.
There is a TV made movie: 'Planet Earth' (1974)
In the year 2133, and on an Earth devastated by a nuclear war decades before, a team from PAX (which means peace, and is the one city which escaped the destruction of the earth), is conducting a survey of central California. PAX is a scientifically based society dedicated to restoring civilization and peace to the world. Returning to PAX headquarters, the team is attacked by a group of mutant humans known as the Kreeg. After a struggle, the PAX team manages to escape in a subshuttle, a vehicle that can travel long tubes which connect settlements (these were built during the early 1990s, before the final conflict of the 20th century). One of the team, Pater Kimbridge (Rai Tasco), is badly wounded and needs a bioplastic prosthesis to repair the damaged pulmonary artery sheared away by the Kreeg's rifle shot, and save his life.
PAX Team 21, led by Dylan Hunt (John Saxon), with members Baylok (Christopher Cary), Isiah (Ted Cassidy), and Harper-Smythe (Janet Margolin) heads out to locate a missing doctor, Jonathan Connor (Jim Antonio), who is the only surgeon who can perform the delicate heart surgery in the time Kimbridge has left (a few days). Their search leads the team to the Confederacy of Ruth, a society of latter-day Amazons, where women are dominant and men are enslaved. As a ruse, a woman in the PAX group, Harper-Smythe, binds Hunt and enters the city with him. Once there she meets Marg (Diana Muldaur), the leader of the women, who claims Dylan as her own property.
While captive, Hunt learns that the men are subjugated and kept under control by a drug that is put into the food.
Harper finds her way into the women's village where she befriends one of the women. Later, Harper challenges Marg for the ownership of Hunt. Harper defeats Marg and gains respect of the community. She then enlists aid to find Dr. Jonathan Connor.
Dylan and Harper finally meet Doctor Connor and learn he has developed an antidote to the drug. Meanwhile, the Kreeg are headed to attack the women's community. Harper convinces Marg to trade Connor for Dylan. While leaving, Doctor Connor places the antidote in the food supply. The Kreeg attack the village and are fought off by the help of the males, who have defended the females. The women of the village decide that the drug should no longer be used.
The PAX team returns Dr. Jonathan Connor safely to PAX where he successfully performs the surgery on Pater Kimbridge
This doesn't appear to be it. Thank you for the help though :cheers:
Sounds a little like Spacehunter:Adventures in the Forbidden Zone (http://www.badmovies.org/movies/spacehunter/ (http://www.badmovies.org/movies/spacehunter/)), but the gladiatorial stuff was mostly at the end of that.
Perhaps, " Hell Comes to Frog Town" ? Wild guess
This is a WILD guess but it sounds to me like you're mashing memories of two or more movies together. My best guess of which movies they might be:
ARENA (This is NOT the Pam Grier movie.) - Have only seen a trailer but it involves a human wanting to enter a galactic gladitorial contest. Apparently humans aren't allowed and so, uhm, whatever.
SLAVE GIRLS FROM BEYOND INFINITY - Two women escape a jail cell aboard a space ship, steal a shuttle, crash land on a planet, and are hunted like prey.
THE NEW GLADIATORS - This has a very similar plot to THE RUNNING MAN. Guy is forced to fight in gladitorial combat, to be broadcast on TV, in a post-apocalyptic future.
Quote from: Kester Pelagius on December 10, 2008, 03:17:44 PM
THE NEW GLADIATORS - This has a very similar plot to THE RUNNING MAN. Guy is forced to fight in gladitorial combat, to be broadcast on TV, in a post-apocalyptic future.
I love New Gladiators. Effin' awesome!
I have viewed Spacehunter trailer, doesn't appear to be it, I don't remember main character having any side-kick, i'll probably go rent it to be sure. Survivor seems a close match, can't find any trailers for the movie though, probably rent it as well.
Pretty confident about the details i listed, collaborated w/ brother and dad about what we remember, all pretty similar memories.
Not Planet Earth, totally different look and storyline. Its not Hell Comes to Frog Town, Arena, SLAVE GIRLS FROM BEYOND INFINITY, or THE NEW GLADIATORS, nor A Boy and His Dog, or Metalstorm.
I'll give Spacehunter and Surivivor a check, thanks for the help guys!
Not giving up...
Definitely not Spacehunter, just watched it...
Did you figure it out?
When i read your blog about this movie i too remember all of those details and iam trying to find it, although this is a year later.
Did you have any luck????????
It sounds like space hunter to me.
Things I remember from Space Hunter..
Creatures that came up from the water covered in scaly slime..
A tall man with metal devices like a lfe support system..
Molly Ringwald as a kid riding around with a man in a dunebuggy..
A labrynth of machines to kill you..
and women as prisoners..
To the original poster:
Do you remember anything else about the movie?
Can you describe the space ship?
Any memorable VFX?
Do you recall what channel you saw this on? (Premium cable or commercial?)
Recall the appearance of any of the actors?
Costumes?
Were there robots?
Animals?
:question:
"Survivor" (1987) still fits most of this.
Another possibility is "2019: After the Fall of New York" which I have reviewed: http://www.badmovies.org/movies/2019after/
A last chance, which does not fit too well, but a little, is "America 3000."
Could it be Tron?
Still at the search. Still trying to find a trailer for Survivor (1987).
Some key memories:
-Main character is held with other captors.
-Main character makes it through gladiator style obstacle course. Originally crowd was cheering for him to fail...but after he makes it people begin to cheer for him making it through (like Rocky IV).
-Ending scene has main character coming out of very large tunnel (desert environment). There is some form of large spaceship there, he checks some things on it and flys away.
Movies reviewed:
Mad Max (all)
Running Man
Spacehunter
Tron
Hell comes to Frog Town
Arena
Slave Girls from Beyond Infinity
The New Gladiators
Logan's Run
2019 After the Fall of New York
Thank you for the great ideas...its time to put this 15+ year mystery to rest lol.
Ultra-Warrior (90)
Not ultra warrior. Still at the search in 2021.
I remember the hero was caged, and is let out to go through a gauntlet like obstacle course. I remember some kind of big fire trap being an obstacle. The bad guys are dressed like the WWF Road Warrior wrestlers.
I very well may be mixing up different movies. I do recall clearly the fire trap scene.
Thanks!
I bought Space Hunter a few years ago and watched it. It didn't seem like the movie from my memories, although it does fit a lot of the criteria, especially the ending with the spaceship.
Quote from: lopehole on May 19, 2009, 02:43:27 AM
Still at the search. Still trying to find a trailer for Survivor (1987).
Some key memories:
-Main character is held with other captors.
-Main character makes it through gladiator style obstacle course. Originally crowd was cheering for him to fail...but after he makes it people begin to cheer for him making it through (like Rocky IV).
-Ending scene has main character coming out of very large tunnel (desert environment). There is some form of large spaceship there, he checks some things on it and flys away.
Movies reviewed:
Mad Max (all)
Running Man
Spacehunter
Tron
Hell comes to Frog Town
Arena
Slave Girls from Beyond Infinity
The New Gladiators
Logan's Run
2019 After the Fall of New York
Thank you for the great ideas...its time to put this 15+ year mystery to rest lol.
Survivor ends with the hero and heroine looking out over the sea so that is definitely not your film.
I found some worthy candidates to research your find, Lopehole:
QuoteThe Aftermath (1982)
tagline; Hell in the Aftermath; who will survive?
Mad Max's bizarre mutant biker-gang leader was (strangely yet memorably) called Toecutter. The Aftermath has a gang of mutant weirdo bikers led by B-movie god Sid Haig's 'Cutter'. Despite the utter lack of originality, the story (slightly influenced by Planet of the Apes: astronauts return to Earth to find it a post-apocalyptic wasteland inhabited by gangs of violent criminals et cetera) and direction actually make this a very watchable B-movie.
QuoteEndgame (1983)
tagline; For An "Endgame" Champion In The Year 2025, There's Only One Way To Live. Dangerously
'Escape from Mad Max 2' again; this film shares many parallels with the later The Blood of Heroes (see below) and looks forward to The Running Man, but is much more fun than either. Telepathic mutants, violent game shows, warriors, what's not to like?
QuoteStryker (1983)
tagline; After the holocaust, nothing matters but survival also, perhaps better; The Odds are a million-to-one. And Stryker is the one.
Uninspired taglines for an uninspired movie; Filipino exploitation master Cirio H. Santiago (TNT Jackson, Nam Angels) directs this opus in which, after the inevitable apocalypse, the world is running out of water (of course), and a group of Amazons guard the last known freshwater spring but are attacked by a gang of blah blah blah, until moody, monosyllabic tough guy "Stryker" turns up to help them out. You know the rest.
http://williampinfold.com/the-lucky-ones-were-the-first-to-die-the-1980s-post-mad-max-apocalypse/ (http://williampinfold.com/the-lucky-ones-were-the-first-to-die-the-1980s-post-mad-max-apocalypse/)