Stephen King’s directorial debut turned out to be his directorial swan song. Maximum Overdrive, released twenty-two years ago today, is based on King’s short story “Trucks,” in which the motorized vehicles of the world spontaneously become self-aware and hostile toward humans. The short-story is more dour and ends with an impractical apocalypse in which the vehicles have enslaved humankind, forcing the survivors to pump gas, a power dynamic that the narrator believes could last until the vehicles rust over and fail to run, but could last beyond that if the cars and trucks and motorcycles and even planes somehow coerce humankind to build replacements.
Homepage of horror author Johnny Compton.
