Maximum Overdrive

Maximum Overdrive (1986)

59 mistakes - chronological order

(6 votes)

Continuity mistake: When the bulldozer and army car show up at the Dixie Boy, the army car is missing the cap on the horn, but then when it is giving Morse code the cap appears.

Other mistake: Hendershott fires the L.A.W., then gets killed. Nobody reloads it, but Wanda fires it at the beer truck as she dies.

Movie Nut

Revealing mistake: When the trucks start circling the Dixie Boy the red garbage truck hits a telephone booth. A human arm is visible, you can also see an arm in the orange Bic truck when it cuts into the blue 15 truck.

Revealing mistake: When the red Autocar garbage truck hits the bible salesman's car, you can see a harness holding the two front tires in place for the truck to make the car fishtail.

Revealing mistake: When Hendershott is shot after shooting the bulldozer, you can see the blood packs used under his shirt.

Movie Nut

Revealing mistake: When the lawn mower starts itself and tries to pursue Deke, from the back, the front wheels are on the ground and rolling. From the front angle, the front wheels are off the ground. There is a piece of material on the front that was added to hide the steering rig used to make it turn to chase Deke, but the rig's wheels are just visible.

Robert Cotton

Continuity mistake: The angle and height of the bridge changes depending on close ups and long shots.

Visible crew/equipment: During the ballpark scene, when the cans strike the coach they show a shot of the kids and there's a person in the background with a blue shirt standing there, then the cans attack the kids and he's walking around like nothing's happening. Obviously he's not supposed to be in the movie.

Continuity mistake: When Curtis is looking inside the gas station, if you look to the left where the pile of junk is, there's a white vehicle that's missing both headlights. After the tow truck tries to hit Curtis the white vehicle in the junk pile has a brand new left headlight.

Audio problem: In the end when Brad is taking the dead woman's ring, the Happy Toyz truck is sitting there silently. If you look closely, you can see a gentle stream of exhaust from the pipes, meaning that the truck is idling. Yet a moment later you hear it starting up.

Factual error: A big sign at the pumps states that diesel is priced at $1.089, yet when the trucks are being filled, the price per gallon is around 55 cents. In the 70's, when product reached the $1 mark, pumps were set to half price, and the customer paid double the total, but by 1987, the time frame of the movie, the pump computers would have been replaced to show true pricing.

goofyfoot

Plot hole: All the vehicles and machines that came alive had some electrical component to them. Even though the little ATV with the machine gun on it would obey that rule, the machine gun isn't electrically connected. It shouldn't have been able to operate it.

poehitman

Factual error: When the fuel tanker comes over to have Billy drop fuel, he pulls the hose down and plugs it into the tank receptacle. The troubles here are that 1) the hose wouldn't be connected in transit, it would be stowed on the side unconnected. 2) elastic straps are usually employed to keep the hoses secured until the tanker gets to its destination to drop the load.

Movie Nut

Other mistake: When the Happy Toyz truck is first being fueled, the nozzle handle is locked into the fuel position. When you hear the click of the nozzle stopping, the handle doesn't disengage as it should. When the attendant checks it, he unlocks the handle, and doesn't squeeze it again. Even accounting for the comet's effects, the handle must be squeezed to splash fuel in the man's face.

Robert Cotton

Continuity mistake: When the newlyweds wait for the gap in the line of trucks, their car has a mattress on top, covering the car. But seconds later, it is gone and never reappears.

Continuity mistake: After Deke unloads into the burger joint's sign to silence the speaker, and in revenge for his dad, after all the commotion is done two holes magically appear in the front cover.

Movie Nut

Factual error: When they run out of fuel at the pumps, a truck with placard 1203 rolls up for Emilio to refuel the underground diesel tanks. Diesel is 1202 - 1203 is gasoline.

Visible crew/equipment: As Bill and the rest go back inside after the two trucks get blown up, the camera and cameraman are reflected in the door.

Movie Nut

Continuity mistake: When the Bible salesman pulled in, the left two hubcaps came off. Later, as the garbage semi goes to hit it, all four are missing.

Movie Nut

Brett: If you don't get your hand off my leg, you're going to be wiping your ass with a hook next time you take a dump.
Camp Loman: I never heard no talk like that when I was a boy.

More quotes from Maximum Overdrive

Trivia: The Dixie Boy Truck Stop was built strictly for the movie, and was not a functional stop. However, there were so many real truckers trying to pull in, that the film crew had to put up signs directing them not to stop by. After the filming, people got together and revamped it into a working place and tourist attraction, but closed it after a few months of bad business.

More trivia for Maximum Overdrive

Question: Why is it that the machines they used to fight back didn't try to attack the humans? The military vehicle had a .50 cal machine gun that shot AT them, but their guns seemed to work just fine.

applejackson

Answer: It should be noted, the ending title cards seems to set it up so there are no plot holes and answers any "why" questions (which, intentional or not by King, can be debated). While the opening premise is the comet's close pass by Earth caused all machines to turn on people, at the end, the Russians blew up a UFO 2 days later, suggesting that it was the aliens controlling the machines. Bill suggests aliens are trying to wipe out humanity (although at that point he's just guessing and had no evidence of an alien or UFO present), but it can be debated the actual premise was that aliens were just testing or experimenting on people.

Bishop73

Answer: The movie is infamous for its plot holes, among them this one, and "How come cars didn't start attacking people"? From the story point of view we can surmise that the M60 is part of the vehicle's structure, while hand-held weaponry stay inert.

Jukka Nurmi

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