Season 1 · Episode 8 ·
Maximum Overdrive
The Stephen King One About Killer Trucks
- Rotten Tomatoes
- 14%
- Budget
- $10 million
- Box office
- $7.4 million
Rotten Tomatoes score via Wikidata. Budget and box office via TMDB.
About the episode
This week on The Worst Movie Podcast, Ade and Aaron take a wild ride through Maximum Overdrive (1986), the only film ever written and directed by Stephen King — and for good reason. Fueled by cocaine, ACDC, and zero directing experience, it’s the story of killer trucks, homicidal vending machines, and a group of survivors holed up in a North Carolina truck stop wondering how this movie got made.
From a drawbridge that eats cars to soda cans that kill Little Leaguers, the guys break down every explosive and confusing moment. They talk about King’s on-set chaos, Emilio Estevez’s deadpan delivery, the horny newlyweds, and that unforgettable Green Goblin–faced semi that became the movie’s mascot. It’s a masterclass in 80s excess — part action, part horror, all nonsense.
Grab a can of soda, your ACDC mix tape, and join the hosts as they laugh their way through one of the most cocaine-fueled disasters in movie history. Because if Maximum Overdrive taught us anything, it’s that not even Stephen King can direct Stephen King.
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About the movie
When a comet passes close to the earth, machines all over the world come alive and go on homicidal rampages. A group of people at a desolate truck stop are held hostage by a gang of murderous 18-wheelers. The frightened people set out to defeat the killer machines…Or be killed by them.
- Director
- Stephen King
- Starring
- Emilio Estevez, Pat Hingle, Laura Harrington, Yeardley Smith, John Short, Ellen McElduff
- Runtime
- 98 min
- Genres
- Horror, Action, Science Fiction
Movie details via TMDB.
