Macabre…ish Horror Review: Space Truckers

Space Truckers, 1996/ 95 min.

Corporate mercenaries set up a perimeter on Neptunian moon, Triton in an attempt to stop a cyborg, they are taking heavy losses and the the lead scientist, Dr. Nabel (Charles Dance) turns it off with a remote. And he has enough cyborgs to take over a world and the Ceo E.J. Saggs (Shane Rimmer) has big plans for taking over Earth and they do not include Nabel.

Meanwhile, one of the last independent Space Truckers, John Canyon (Dennis Hopper), is delivering his load of GMO square hogs, two days late to it’s destination in Mars and the boss, Keller (George Wendt), is pissed. It turns into a potentially dangerous fight that could have killed everyone on the dock.

At a diner, Canyon meets Mike Pucci (Stephen Dorff), an aspiring young space trucker. While Canyon is at dinner, Keller takes the load without paying and tries to give the gig to Mike. Keller picks a fight and loses after getting sucked, butt first, out of a window.

Keeping off the trail of the cops, Canyon and Mike, takes the way through controlled by pirates, called the Scum Zone. A wasteland of derelict ships mostly handicapped by clusters of asteroids that often travel through that area.

And they picked up a load of supposed sex dolls whose destination is Earth. It’s a great job and pays five times the normal rate. And along for the ride is a waitress from the hub, Cindy (Debi Mazar), who promises to marry Canyon if he takes her to Earth.

But before they can get there they are hijacked by a giant oligarch passenger ship but it’s a pirate ship. The captain of this ship is Macanudo, in his old life he was known as Dr. Nabel. He is patchwork of man and machine with a pull chord reproductive system and he leads this band of misfits. His ultimate goal though, is to get back at Saggs, now president of Earth.

This movie is a sci fi comedy. And for a comedy there sure is a lot of violence and ‘gore’. The effects are very of the time (late 90s). It feels a lot like Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy or 5th Element but make it a lot more violent. It manages to be both not very bloody but also disgusting at the same time. Blood and guts seem to be every other color but red, except when a man is getting his teeth punched out. This was pretty fast paced and entertaining with a good cast, including Barbara Crampton!