Death Race has already opened up, crashed and burned, but there's plenty more futuristic sports action in store for moviegoers in coming months, including Tekken and Tron 2.
Will any of these match these classic futuresports movies of recent memory?
1. The Running Man 1987. Take the imagination and variety of WWE characters, give them whatever weapons they want, and you've got both the ultimate deathsport and a classic Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. What elevated The Running Man from the slew of generic "fight to the death" plot conventions was the showmanship. It was a commentary on reality TV before reality TV existed, but it was also just great fun to see Arnold dispatch everybody with their own tools. Buzzsaw "had to split" and Fireball got a light. Classic.
2. Rollerball 1975. We're talking about the original movie, not that 2002 remake. Teams skate around a track throwing a metal ball into magnetic goals. Some teammates ride motorcycles, too. All those wheels provide lots of dynamic motion to captivate viewers' excitement. The rules of this one made sense. Whose idea was that figure eight track in the remake?
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Rollerball (1975)
3. Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome 1985. This Mad Max sequel featured an updated version of the steel-cage fighting match, with each fighter hooked to an elastic bungee to bounce around the "dome." Various weapons are thrown in so there's no handicapping based on size and strength. Chainsaw beats club, regardless of its wielder. The only rules are: two men enter, one man leaves. Matches are used to settle disputes in Aunty Entity's (Tina Turner) post-apocalyptic colony. The weapons and bungee cord make the fights more dynamic than your average clichéd sci-fi scuffle.
4. Star Wars: Episode I--The Phantom Menace 1999. This prequel introduced the galaxy to podracing, a more rousing version of NASCAR. Podracers tilt on their sides to navigate treacherous terrain, and the crashes seem deadlier, even though the PG film didn't show any bodies. Never explained: Why are they called pods? They made a pretty cool video game out of this, too.
5. Back to the Future, Part II 1989. Picked because of competitive hoverboarding. Raise your hand if you believed that friend who told you hoverboards were real. Liar, everyone believed that one. While the movie only showed casual hoverboarding, you have to imagine that X-games evolved with technology. Imagine skateboarding without all the hassles of uneven land and gravity. Just coast along to pick up speed and do your tricks, with only that pesky water to slow you down.
6. Tron 1982. The pioneering computer-animated film featured lightcycle racing and disc competitions. Technically, this was a video game, but real pilots raced those cycles or hurled discs at each other. It also counts because it's awesome. The people actually become the bikes they race, and the trails they leave can trap their opponents. The discs seem to obey the laws of physics, bouncing off the walls. Hopefully the upcoming sequel will do something about the unflattering light suits.
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Tron
7. Death Race 2000 1975. In Roger Corman's original Death Race movie, the drivers were volunteer competitors, and they scored points on the road by hitting pedestrians. The low-budget exploitation movie also features future A-lister Sylvester Stallone battling former A-lister David Carradine behind the wheel.
-Fred Topel
