Death Race

Plot

In 2012, the United States' failed economy and rising crime rates led to an increased number of privatized prisons. At one such prison, Terminal Island Penitentiary, Warden Claire Hennessey profits from livestreaming Death Race, a three-day event where inmates race weaponized cars on a trap-filled track to win their freedom.

In 2020, popular masked Death Race driver Frankenstein approaches the finish line, pursued by his rival "Machine Gun Joe". The former's navigator, Case, says his weapons have malfunctioned and urges him to stop. Requiring one more win for his freedom, he refuses. She ejects before Joe destroys Frankenstein's car, killing him.

Industrial worker and ex-con Jensen Ames, who used to be a well-known, successful racer, now struggles to support his family as the steel mill he works at closes. When he returns home, a masked attacker knocks him out. He wakes with a bloodied knife and his wife Suzy dead, before he is arrested. Framed for murder, he is sentenced to life imprisonment while his baby daughter Piper goes into foster care.

Six months later, Jensen is transferred to Terminal Island, where Hennessey offers him freedom in exchange for standing in for Frankenstein at the latest Death Race. Jensen accepts and meets Frankenstein's pit crew, Coach, Gunner, and Lists, who suspect Hennessey is using him to increase ratings. On the first day of the event, Jensen meets Case, who reveals their car's weapons are malfunctioning again. He becomes distracted after recognizing another driver, Pachenko, as Suzy's killer. Jensen confronts Pachenko, who admits Hennessey ordered him to frame Jensen so she could use him and his racing talent to replace the previous Frankenstein.

On the second day, Jensen threatens to eject Case unless she reveals the truth about the malfunctions. She admits she was offered release papers in exchange for sabotaging Frankenstein's car to keep him from winning so Hennessey wouldn't have to free him. Jensen tricks Pachenko into crashing his car, then kills him by snapping his neck. Hennessey releases the "Dreadnought", a multi-weapon tanker truck, to further increase ratings and kill off drivers; Jensen and Joe work together to lure it into a trap and destroy it. The day ends with them as the only survivors. Aware that Jensen knows she won't let him win so as to keep him, Hennessey orders her second-in-command Ulrich to plant a bomb underneath Jensen's car. Jensen approaches Joe and proposes a plan.

Cast

Additionally, David Carradine makes a vocal cameo appearance as Jensen's unnamed predecessor as Frankenstein, reprising the role from Death Race 2000.

Production

In March 2005, following the success of Alien vs. Predator (2004), director Paul W. S. Anderson revealed that he was directing a remake of Death Race 2000 (1975) entitled Death Race 3000 at Paramount Pictures based on a script by J. F. Lawton. The remake would be produced by the producer pair Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner. Anderson described the remake as a riff on the first film. "It's not a straight remake at all. The first movie was an across-America race. This will be an around-the-world race. And it's set further in the future, so the cars are even more futuristic. So you've got cars with rockets, machine guns, force fields; cars that can split apart and re-form, a bit like Transformers. Cars that become invisible," the director explained. Comingsoon.net reported that "Paul saw his film almost as a prequel if anything; almost the genesis of the Death Race", though the film is referred to primarily as a remake in reviews and marketing materials.

Two years later, Roger Corman, the producer of Death Race 2000, elaborated that he had an option agreement with producer Tom Cruise, and that Cruise would portray the lead role. The director said that Cruise had not been happy with the first two screenplays and that a third one was underway. In June 2006, producer Jeremy Bolt reported that Anderson would direct the remake of Death Race 2000 after completing Resident Evil: Extinction (2007). The producer described the remake's new tone: "We've basically taken the idea of reality television and extended it twenty years. So it's definitely a comment on society, and particularly reality television, but it is not as much a parody or a satire as the original. It's more straight." The following August, Paramount ended its relationship with Cruise/Wagner Productions, and Death Race was placed in turnaround. According to reports, when the project was discovered available, Universal Studios acquired it. Wagner resumed her role as producer without Cruise, and Anderson returned to write and direct the film.

In April 2007, actor Jason Statham entered negotiations to star in Death Race, with production slated to begin in late summer or early fall. Anderson described that Death Race would take place in a prison, and that the film would be "super-violent" like its predecessor. "It has little echoes of the original – a lot of people get run down, but rather than having the points system, which had no pay off anyway, it's a pure race. It's more like Gladiator, with the last person standing – or driving, winning," explained the director. Filming on Death Race began in Montreal in August 2007.

Music

The score to Death Race was composed by Paul Haslinger and conducted by Tim Davies. Haslinger recorded the string portion of his score with the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the Sony Scoring Stage.

The soundtrack was released on August 19, 2008, by Back Lot Music and Intrada Records.

Release

Death Race was theatrically released in the United States on August 22, 2008, by Universal Pictures. The film was originally scheduled for release on September 26, 2008, but was moved to its current release date; the September 26 release date was kept for the film's release in the United Kingdom.

Home media

The DVD and Blu-ray were released in the United States on December 21, 2008. There was also an unrated edition released. The Blu-ray version of the movie features a Digital Copy of the film. In the DVD commentary, Anderson further elaborates on his thought of the movie as a prequel more than a remake.

Reception

Box office

Death Race grossed $36.3 million in the United States and Canada, and $39.7 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $76 million. Opening on August 22, 2008, to 2,532 theaters, it grossed $12.6 million in its opening weekend, during the closing of the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Critical response

The film received mixed reviews from critics. On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, 41% of 155 critics' reviews are positive, with average rating of 5.2/10. The website's consensus reads, "Mindless, violent, and lightning-paced, Death Race is little more than an empty action romp." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 43 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore during opening weekend gave the film an average grade of "B+" on a scale ranging from A+ to F.

Robert Koehler of Variety called Death Race "as hard as metal and just as dumb" and criticised it for removing the humor of Death Race 2000. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film half a star (out of four), calling it "an assault on all the senses, including common." Keith Phipps of the A. V. Club said the film is "ideal for those who want to watch a bunch of cars blow each other up, without having to think about it all that much." Marc Savlov of the Austin Chronicle called Death Race "one of the most boring drags of all time."

Peter Hartlaub of the San Francisco Chronicle called the film "an ill-advised and severely wussified remake." Elizabeth Weitzman of the New York Daily News gave the film one and a half stars (out of four), calling it "junk", and saying that "the chases are pretty cool, but there's absolutely nothing else to see." A positive review came from Nathan Lee of The New York Times, who said that "the movie is legitimately greasy, authentically nasty, with a good old-fashioned sense of laying waste to everything in sight." James Berardinelli of ReelViews awarded Death Race a score of two and a half stars (out of four), saying that it's "weak when it comes to things like plot, character, and acting, but it's very good at provoking visceral reactions."

Prequels and sequel

The film is followed by two direct-to-video prequel films, Death Race 2 (2010) and Death Race 3: Inferno (2013). Both take place before this film and were filmed in South Africa. The films were directed by Roel Reiné, and star Luke Goss, Tanit Phoenix, Danny Trejo and Ving Rhames all appeared in the prequels. Lists and 14K are the only returning characters and are portrayed by Frederick Koehler and Robin Shou, respectively. A fourth film is a direct-to-video sequel to the first film, titled Death Race: Beyond Anarchy (2018), also featuring Lists, making him the only character to appear and be played by the same actor in all four films.