Death Race (franchise)

Death Race 2000 is a 1975 cult action film. In the near future, the ultimate sporting event is the Death Race. Contestants score points for running people down as they speed across the country. The sport has crazed fans who sacrifice themselves to the drivers. A covert group is trying to bring an end to the immoral Death Race and has infiltrated one of their followers into the race as a navigator of the top driver. In the end, the lives of the competitors, the President and the Death Race itself are in peril.

The screenplay was based on the short story "The Racer" by Ib Melchior.[1]

Death Race is a 2008 remake (although director Paul W. S. Anderson stated in the DVD commentary that he thought of the film as a prequel) of Death Race 2000. In the year 2012, the economy of the US collapses, causing unemployment and crime rates to skyrocket, and a sharp increase of convicted criminals, which leads to privatized prisons for profit. Claire Hennessey (Joan Allen), the warden of Terminal Island Penitentiary, earns profits from the pay-per-view broadcast of a modern gladiator game called the "Death Race", with the prisoners as the players. The racers, along with their navigators, drive a three-part race over three days on a closed track at Terminal Island, with various pressure plates: swords activate the racers' offensive weapons, shields activate defensive weapons such as oil, smoke, and napalm, and skulls ("Death Heads") activate deadly metal traps which rise up from the track. The reward for the drivers is that if one racer wins five races, they will be granted their freedom by Warden Hennessey.

Death Race 2 is a prequel to the 2008 film, Death Race. Getaway driver Carl "Luke" Lucas (Luke Goss) is arrested after a robbery for his crime boss Markus Kane (Sean Bean) goes wrong. As his accomplices are robbing the bank, two police officers casually enter the building. Luke tells his accomplices to abort, but they refuse; Luke intervenes, resulting in the death of one of the three accomplices. Luke shoots and kills one of the officers and dumps off his accomplices in order to fulfill Markus's wishes. In doing so, Luke is eventually captured by the police following a high-speed chase and sentenced to serve time on Terminal Island. Markus, worried that Luke will trade info on his crimes for immunity, discovers his location and orders his men to take Luke out.

Death Race owner Weyland (Ving Rhames) has been forced to sell the rights to Niles York (Dougray Scott), a British billionaire who acquired the rights by hostile takeover. York reveals that he intends to relocate the Death Race to the deserts of Africa. Before leaving, Weyland arranges Lucas to have surgery to heal the infected and deadly scars on his face sustained from the previous film Death Race 2. With Carl Lucas, a.k.a. Frankenstein (Luke Goss), one win away from gaining his freedom, York coaches Lucas to lose his race and threatens his life if he fails to comply.

Corman made Death Race 2050, a sequel to his original film, shooting in Peru starting in February 2016. It stars Malcolm McDowell, Manu Bennett, Burt Grinstead, Marci Miller, Folake Olowofoyeku, Anessa Ramsey, Yancy Butler, and Charlie Farrell, and was directed by G. J. Echternkamp.[2] The film was released in the United States on DVD and DVD/Blu-ray combo on Jan 17, 2017, with three making-of documentaries: The Making of 2050, Cars! Cars! Cars!, and The Look of 2050.[3]

Death Race: Beyond Anarchy is a sequel to the 2008 film, Death Race, being directed by Don Michael Paul and features the return of Danny Trejo and Frederick Koehler. It also stars Zach McGowan, Christine Marzano, Danny Glover, and Lorina Kamburova.[4][5]

Deathsport is a 1978 science fiction B-movie produced by Roger Corman, directed by Allan Arkush and Nicholas Niciphor

A comic book sequel series titled Death Race 2020 was published in April-November 1995 by Roger Corman's short-lived Roger Corman's Cosmic Comics imprint. It was written by Pat Mills of 2000 AD fame, with art by Kevin O'Neill. The pair had already worked together on several comics, including Marshal Law. The comic book series, as the title indicates, takes place 20 years after the film ended and deals with Frankenstein's return to the race. New racers introduced here included Von Dutch, the Alcoholic, Happy the Clown, Steppenwolf, Rick Rhesus and Harry Carrie.

The comic book series lasted eight issues before being cancelled and the story was left unfinished in the end.

• The 1976 video game Death Race was inspired by the film Death Race 2000. A remake of the same name was released in 1990 on NES
• The 1982 video game Maze Death Race for Sinclair ZX81 computers (and 1983 for Sinclair ZX Spectrum computers) resembles the film by its cover artwork, title, and car-driving content.[7]
• The Carmageddon video game series (Carmageddon, Carmageddon 2: Carpocalypse Now and Carmageddon 3: TDR 2000) all borrow heavily from the plot, characters and car designs from the film Death Race 2000.

The 2017 TV show Blood Drive also draws from the Death Race series. Instead of killing people to earn points, people are sacrificed to the cars' engines, which have been modified to run off human blood rather than traditional fuel.[8]