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 small-time salvage operator named Wolff intercepts the message and heads to the planet along with his female engineer Chalmers. They learn that the planet, Terra XI, is a failed colony that fell victim to a deadly plague and civil warfare. Wolff risks the dangers, believing that the reward will solve his debt problems.
After landing on the barren world, Wolff and Chalmers set out in a four-wheel-drive vehicle called the Scrambler. They become involved a battle in progress between a group of marauders (called the Zoners) and a band of nomads (the Scavs). The Zoners take the women before Wolff can stop them and fly away on jet-powered hang gliders. Wolff learns from the Scavs that the women were taken into The Zone which is ruled by Overdog, the Scavs' sworn enemy. Returning to the Scrambler, Wolff finds that Chalmers—revealed to be a gynoid—has been killed during the battle. Wolff continues alone, but he soon catches a teenage Scav, Niki, trying to steal his Scrambler. She convinces Wolff that he needs a tracker if he is to survive The Zone, and Wolff reluctantly takes her lead.
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. Overdog is a hideous cyborg with giant metal claws for hands.
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 a former military acquaintance of his, a soldier named Washington, who reveals that he, too, has come to rescue the women. 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 Niki, Wolff gets into more predicaments, from being attacked by mutated humanoids, to strange Amazon-like women and a water dragon (which the Amazon-like women fear). He loses his trusty Scrambler and is forced to continue on foot. Eventually, they are found by Washington, and Wolff finds the situation reversed as he now begs his rival for help. They agree to a 50/50 split of the reward.
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 safety) decides to snoop around. She is captured and sent into the maze. Wolff spots Niki in the maze and tries to rescue her, but she uses her prowess 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 thus 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 another commandeered vehicle. They all race out of the fortress just as it explodes behind them.
Wolff invites Niki to team up with him, and she agrees since they made good partners.
Production
Development
The film, which was announced in February 1982, [6] 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". [7] 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." [4] 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." [8]
Casting
Ernie Hudson says when he was first cast he was told Jeff Bridges would play Wolff. [9] Then Peter Strauss was cast in the role. [10]
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. [10] 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. [10] His replacement was Lamont Johnson. [11]
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." [12] "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." [9]
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." [13]
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." [9]
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. [14] It was also shot in Vancouver.
Release
The film's advertising emphasized the 3D aspects. [16] Columbia released Spacehunter on May 20, 1983, timed to be a week before Return of the Jedi . [17]
It took $7 million in the first week [18] However ticket sales dropped sharply. [19] The film ended up grossing $16.5 million at the United States box office. [3]
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." [9]
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. [20]
