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By Robert Scucci
| Published
“Mad Max” is its own genre, and if video stores still existed, I would contact them every day until they built out a shelf that accommodates this indisputable fact. Dead End Drive-In (1986), Wheels of Fire (1985), Waterworld (1995), and The Rover (2014) all take different pages from the same playbook, and for my money, there’s nothing better than a good old-fashioned war set in the wasteland.
The Mad Max setup works exceptionally well, and can thrive on a tight budget if practical effects are applied with care and the editing does all the heavy lifting. 1986’s Future Hunters is one such movie. It is clearly rough around the edges, but it’s put together so well that you’re willing to strap in and see where it takes you.
Make sure you’ve got some extra ratchet straps on hand, because it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
To Save The Future, You Must Find The Shaft Of Destiny!
Future Hunters kicks off in the year 2025, in a post-nuclear dystopian society. At its center is Matthew (Richard Norton), the obvious stand-in for Max Rockatansky. After a run-in with the future’s warlord, Zaar (David Light), and his marauders, Matthew unearths the Spear of Destiny from a temple and is whisked back to 1986, when there’s still enough time to keep the world from collapsing. In this timeline, he meets an anthropologist named Michelle (Linda Carol) and her boyfriend Slade (Robert Patrick), who suddenly have the weight of the world on their shoulders.
With his last dying breath, a fatally wounded Matthew tells Michelle and Slade to find the spear’s missing shaft, which will complete the artifact and allow it to be used against the evil forces that be. If I tell you what happens next in Future Huntersyou wouldn’t believe me, and I don’t want to spoil this one for you. So instead, I’m just going to give you a sizzle reel of what makes this movie so great.
Michelle and Slade travel the world, leaving no stone unturned in their quest for the Shaft of Destiny. They really don’t have much to work with, but they’re whisked away to Philippine jungles and get into fights with Nazis, Mongol warriors, and dwarves. When you think they’ve had enough, they’re abducted by Amazon women and find themselves constantly at odds with Zaar, who is also looking to complete the artifact, and Bauer, the head of a Nazi expedition who happens to be searching for the shaft so it can be reunited with the Spear of Destiny.
Along the way, there’s no shortage of biker gangs and seasoned martial artists who make every step of this journey feel like an insurmountable obstacle. I don’t even want to know what the body count is here, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it neared the triple digits.
Too Many Bad Guys To Count
While I admit that Future Hunters has too many antagonists to reasonably measure with human words alone, this movie is never not fun. What it may be lacking in fight choreography, it more than makes up for with Gervacio Santos’ editing. Every frame feels deliberate, as if Santos already had a firm grasp on the technical side of cutting together a high-octane action thriller, but there’s an artistry to it, too, that cannot be overstated.
We’re not working with a lot here, but every detonation feels earned, and whenever you think the camera is going to take a break and soak in the scenery, it’s already shock-cutting to another montage of shell casings flying and bodies dropping.
It’s seriously a beautiful thing to see play out on screen. By all measures, Future Hunters is a B-movie that was likely produced for less than a million dollars. Robert Patrick commands every scene he’s in, whether he’s the badass hero of the coming wasteland or so far in over his head that he doesn’t know how to handle himself. He toes that line perfectly, and the balance is never compromised, no matter how ridiculous things get.
If you’re a fan of all things Mad Max, this is one of those imitations that strays so far from the source material that probably inspired it that it becomes a sample size of one. I’d bet you anything that if George Miller saw this one, he’d feel like his legacy was not undermined by the film, but enhanced by it.
Future Hunters takes an already over-the-top setup and pushes the envelope so far that you can’t help but admire it. It’s truly one of a kind, and deserves your attention the next time you want to trudge through the wasteland but crave a flavor that’s more wild than anything you’ve seen in this wheelhouse before.
As of this writing, you can stream Future Hunters for free on Tubi.
