Death Race 2000

Oooohhh...that'll knacker the suspension...


In a dystopian society in the distant future (At the time) of the year 2000, a new national sport was declared. A group of specifically selected professional racecar drivers are selected to take part in a race...with a twist - instead of seeing who can make it to the finish line, the competitors are required to score points by running over as many people as possible, with different levels of points allocated to different age groups (Guess which type gets the second-highest addition to your score...). The competitor with the highest score wins. Sound familiar?

Death Race 2000 is a 1975 action movie from the mind of the king of B-movies himself, Roger Corman, based off the short story The Racer by Ib Melchior. Although Roger Ebert gave this movie zero stars when he reviewed it, the campy style, over-the-top mayhem and fantastic actors (David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone, anyone?) have made this movie into one of the definitive examples of a Cult Classic, and should definitely be watched by anyone with the slightest interest in just sitting back, relaxing and just enjoying some mindless fun with some wonderful set-pieces in play.

Received a remake in 2008, which went for the Darker and Edgier option, and set itself up as a semi-prequel. The cinematic Spiritual Successor to Death Race 2000, however, was not the official remake, but The Asylum's Mockbuster Death Racers, which retained the dark comedy of Death Race 2000.

Tropes used in Death Race 2000 include:
  • Artificial Limbs: Frankenstein has supposedly been in so many wrecks, he's more machine now, than man.
    • Played straight with his right hand. Not only is it fake, but he uses it to store a grenade, for the sole purpose of suicide bombing the president. The hand is later used by Annie to take out Machine Gun Joe.
  • B-Movie
  • Baby Boomers
  • Badass Cape: Frankenstein
  • Berserk Button: Frankenstein didn't take kindly to Machine Gun Joe roughing Annie up. There's a reason why Joe shows up in the next part of the race with a black eye.
  • Blood Sport: Issued by THE GOVERNMENT, no less!
  • Car Fu
  • Catch Phrase: Grace Pander speaks of everyone as a "dear friend of mine."
  • Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys: The French are the government's scapegoats for the disruptions in the race La Résistance are responsible for.
  • Crazy Jealous Guy: Both Frankenstein and Machine Gun Joe. When Frankenstein sees Annie talking to Joe, he walks up to Joe's navigator much to her shock and makes it look like he's hitting on her, while telling her "Just tell him, I was whispering sweet nothings in your ear." Joe of course, who couldn't hear the two talking, takes the bait and even hits his navigator. Turns out Annie was simply giving Joe wrong directions, to give Frankenstein an advantage.
  • Dead Baby Comedy: Babies score the second-highest value.
    • The bracket group is referred to as "toddlers under the age of 12," but the graphic used to represent such group is a baby in a diaper.
    • The resistance uses that to their advantage by baiting Nero The Hero with a fake baby housing a bomb.
  • Eating the Eye Candy: Frankenstein asks Annie to check the engine, if you look closely at his expression, you can clearly notice he's checking out her rear from the rear view mirror.
  • Epic Race
  • Fan Service: Looking for T and A? Just watch the first pit-stop scene! This movie hasn't got ANYTHING to hide!
    • Strangely, all the male drivers and navigators in this scene received towels to cover themselves from the waist down; the women, on the other hand, get absolutely nothing whatsoever.
  • Fictional Political Party: Frankenstein runs over "The Deacon of the Bipartisan Party" for 50 points. Apart from both running and sponsoring the titular death race and having religious figures in positions of power in the party, not much is known about this party's platform or political views.
  • Fight Scene: You'd never guess, but Kwai Chang Caine can kick Rocky's ass.
  • Genre Savvy: When Frakenstein allows Annie to drive, he does two things. 1. he hops from seat to seat to make sure he stays in the car in case Annie decides to drive off without him or run him over. 2. Makes sure Annie is in front of the car so that if she does anything funny, he'll be in a position to kill her. When he makes Annie give him the drivers seat back, she tries to go behind the car before he makes her go in front again. To show how serious he was, he revs the engine before questioning her on where they were actually going.
  • Gorn: The gorier bits are only on screen for a brief moment before cutting over to Junior. Somehow, the brevity of the gorn increases the impact.
  • Groin Attack
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: Machine Gun Joe machine guns the audience at the start, just for booing him.
  • Happily Married
  • Irony: At one point, the caretakers of a geriatric home put out several old people on the road so that the racers run over them. Frankenstein decides to run over the caretakers instead.
  • La Résistance
  • Legacy Character: Frankenstein is revealed to be one.
  • Meaningful Name: Frankenstein. See also Names to Run Away From Really Fast
  • Mauve Shirt: Nero, Matilda the Hun, and Calamity Jane (as well as their navigators).
  • Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Frankenstein and "Machine Gun" Joe Viterbo. And rightfully so.
  • One World Order: Implied by the President having a summer house in Moscow and another in Peking.
  • Only Sane Man: Machine Gun Joe, is the only one doesn't openly buy that the French is responsible for the deaths of Matilda The Hun and Nero The Hero. Even calling out Mr. President's representative for lying to them.
  • Pretty in Mink: Matilda's white mink jacket and helmet.
  • Rule of Three: During the second pit stop. Joe demands three times the musicians playing in the background to stop playing. The third time he broke the violin in two.
  • Shirtless Scene
  • Sitcom Arch Enemy: Frankenstein and Machine Gun Joe are implied to be that for each other. Machine Gun Joe, is jealous of the fame and popularity Frankenstein has and tries to antagonize him every chance he gets. Whilst Frankenstein and Annie get even with him, during his attempts. He spits on Frankensteins car, Frankenstein threatens him while Annie gives him wrong directions. He roughs up Annie and Frankenstein kicks the crap out of him. In the end Annie finishes him off using Frankenstein's hand grenade.
  • Soundtrack Dissonance: Soft jazz for a love scene? Makes sense. Soft jazz while careening towards a cliff, not so much.
  • Stealth Pun: Frankenstein's right hand, which he keeps hidden under a glove for much of the movie, is actually a grenade that he plans on detonating when he shakes hands with the President after the race... or a hand grenade, if you will.
  • Those Wacky Nazis: Matilda The Hun and her navigator pretty much embody this trope for stylistic purposes. Said navigator went on to become a congressman in Real Life.
    • Emphasis on the "stylistic". There are several black spectators cheering in her section.
  • Trope 2000
  • Vehicular Combat
  • Weaponized Car
  • Would Hit a Girl: Machine Gun Joe
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