Maximum Overdrive
A desperate band of strangers trapped at a remote truck stop must outwit and destroy a horde of sentient, homicidal 18‑wheelers before the relentless metal menace kills them all.
“Imagine your worst nightmare...machines take over the world!”
Synopsis
When a comet passes close to Earth, machines around the world suddenly come to life and begin a wave of homicidal violence. At a remote truck stop, a group of people finds themselves taken hostage by a gang of murderous 18-wheelers. Faced with the threat of the killer machines, the terrified survivors attempt to find a way to defeat them—or risk being killed by them.
Credits
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How many hands made this film
The scale of the collaboration
Principal cast & crew: 31
These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.
Why a floor?
This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.
Craft leads on file
Edited by Evan A LottmanShot by Armando NannuzziScored by Ac DcDesigned by Giorgio Postiglione
Box Office
1986 · Box office
📉 Underperformed — grossed 0.7× its budget
Why 2.5×?
Cinemas keep roughly half of every ticket sold, and a wide release’s marketing often costs about as much again as the film — so a movie needs to gross around 2.5× its production budget just to break even theatrically. It’s a rule of thumb, not the studio’s ledger (home video and streaming come later).
Worldwide gross
$7.4M
Opening weekend: $3.2M — 43% of its US run. Front-loaded — most of its money arrived opening weekend.
Opening week (7-day): $4.6M — 62% of its US & Canada run.
Peak 1,198 theaters
Also known as
- Rhea M - Es begann ohne Warnungde
- Brividoit
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Cast & Crew
31 unique people credited
Top billed cast
Supporting cast
13Barry Bell
as Steve
John Brasington
as Frank
J Don Ferguson
as Andy
Leon Rippy
as Brad
Robert Gooden
as Barry
R Pickett Bugg
as Rolf
Giancarlo Esposito
as Videoplayer
Martin Tucker
as 2nd Man
Marla Maples
as 2nd Woman
Ned Austin
as Bridgemaster
Richard Chapman Jr
as Helper
Bill Huggins
as Umpire
Stephen King
as ATM Asshole (uncredited)
Directors
1Writers
1Producers
1Other crew
5Parents Guide
AI Personalities
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Where to watch
Not currently streaming on any platform we track.
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