Mad Max/Running Man similar movie

[lopehole]

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.

[Andrew]

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.

[ajax7925]

 
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

[lopehole]

This doesn't appear to be it. Thank you for the help though

[Dave M]

Sounds a little like Spacehunter:Adventures in the Forbidden Zone (http://www.badmovies.org/movies/spacehunter/), but the gladiatorial stuff was mostly at the end of that.

[Rumblestealskins]

 Perhaps, " Hell Comes to Frog Town" ? Wild guess

[Kester Pelagius]

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.

[WilliamWeird1313]

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!

[lopehole]

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...

[lopehole]

Definitely not Spacehunter, just watched it...

[mfireboy8]

Did you figure it out?

[Clayton]

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????????

[samuraix]

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..

[Kester Pelagius]

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?

[Andrew]

"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."