Terminus

There are great designs here. Interesting ideas. But it seems noone really tried writing a script. No stakes are given. No real goals. The hero truck tries to get to Terminus. How far they have left? No clue. Is there an impending deadline? Maybe. At the beginning they talk about shaving off an hour of transport time. Great. Then they stand still for a day or so. No penalty.

There is something about 80s movies and there is something about European movies that makes me enjoy them. Luckily this film has both, as a French-German coproduction featuring (mostly) actors from all over the world. I mean, you have Karen Allen, which we know from Raiders of the Lost Ark, is dubbed in French and appears to be the main character. Until she doesn't. Then we have Johnny Hallyday, the man who brought rock and roll to France, who's character arc is fascinating because he is a tragic hero for no reason whatsoever. There is Julie Glenn, playing Princess, because why not? Her father wrote the movie. And Gabriel Gabon, who one would recognize from the STNG episode The Bonding more than from anything recent he's done. Finally, Jürgen Prochnow. He's a big, known actor, so we'll give him three roles! And every one of these people are acting, only in different films. There is absolutely no consistency. I half thought that they tried to do three movies, all having Jürgen Prochnow in them, failed, then stitched this together and dubbed it in French for continuity.

Now, the story. There is none. There is a truck that must reach a mysterious destination as part of a sport that no one seems to be aware of. There are high stakes (5 million francs! - pinkie finger to mouth) but also hidden high stakes. They are so large and so hidden, that we never find out what they are. The sport apparently consists of a red truck that has to be stopped by grey trucks from reaching a destination (one that was never designed with a truck parking). Only the grey trucks are so small that I can't understand how they were supposed to stop the big red one without self destructing. There is a whole quarter of the story dedicated to a backward militaristic region that has no relevance to the major plot of the film (or maybe has the only relevance). Everything from cars, trucks to wooden shacks seems to smash into something and explode. Then there are doctors, clones, laboratories and mysterious "press and authorities" that are so mysterious (yeah, you guessed it) that we never see them. Nor any world order that would permit such things.

Bottom line: I miss the craziness of the films back then, the risk taking, the possibility for something like this to exist. It's a bad film, but it feels wild, inspiring, almost magical, because in this day and age you cannot find stuff like that anymore even in the lowest budget tiers. Everything is curated, standardized and put in little boxes that all look the same. Terminus is a wild ride in the head of a random guy who thought of a vague story, got together a bunch of people and acted on it.

Do not be fooled be the PG rating. Within the first 8 minutes F-bombs were dropped twice plus other expletives. There were harsh comments about war and ethnicity. I stopped watching.

Terminus is much more about style than story. It embodies that second half of the 80s where bizarre and unexplained aesthetics were cool for their own sake. You want a gender-ambiguous evil boss with bright red hair? You got it. A man randomly doing dumbbell presses in the background of the henchman's lair? Okay, fine. Primitive wire-frame 3D graphics with no purpose other than to "look cool"? Naturally. A truck run by a talking computer with real lips? What more could you ask for?

Well, a cohesive plot for one. Terminus drops you into its world with many questions and only a few answers. It makes the viewer the fish out of water and you either go with it or you don't.

The loose plot revolves around "The Game". The goal of the game is for "The Driver", piloting what looks like a large armored motor home outfitted with a talking computer and several gadgets, to reach the end. If they reach the end they'll win their weight (literally) in gold. What is the broader purpose of the game? Entertainment? A bread and circuses tool of the government? It's never quite explained.

Having grown up on video games in this era, where many had only the barest suggestion of a plot and your imagination was left to fill in the blanks, I wonder if it's vagueness was intentional. Very often the goal of video games was simply to get to the end of the level and onto the next. The "why" was a distant second to the joy of dodging and shooting enemies, racing against the clock or using your arsenal of weapons and gadgets.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing, particularly in contrast to the way many modern films set up questions but then beat us over the head over-explaining the answers. Leaving a few questions unanswered makes these worlds feel bigger and full of possibilities. Though, even if this was the intent with Terminus, one might decide it went too far and simply leaves us confused.

I was first attracted to Terminus because of Karen Allen, who is only in the film for the first third and was obviously hired to lend star power. Still, after the excellent Star Man (1984), it's hard to believe this is what she chose to do next.

Terminus is trying to be a great many different films in one. Part Mad Max, part techno-future dystopia, part American tough guy 80s action film, part super vehicle (Knight Rider, Airwolf) - all while infusing everything with a Euro-jank earnestness. In its defense, it never feels like it's ticking off boxes to achieve this. It falls short, but it does try.

This isn't a good film and only recommendable to those who seek out this kind of below grade trash.

It's cheesy '80s visuals and sounds have aged well and will definitely take you back to those simpler times when the imagined dystopias of back then sometimes seem preferable to the daily reality of today.

Unlike Mad Max, we do not much about any apocalyptic event occurred before the time of the story which takes place in a near future. A strong government is ruling, rogue-military and police are keeping peace, borders are close and secured, and above all, no game is allowed. "Game leads to thinking, and thinking to rebellion". On the other side, an underground mad scientist called "Sir" (Jurgen Prochnow, excellent as usual)is trying to perform cloning experimentations and cybernetic enhancement of the human brain, by helping his own clone (called "Doctor") to create two children whose brain has been upgraded and own will annihilated. The boy "Mati" is the last product of the "Doctor". In order to test him, "Sir" has organized a forbidden game which consists of a truck race across forbidden areas and borders, to reach the "Terminus", i.e the hidden base of the "Doctor". In fact, "Sir"'s purpose is to create an army of young devoted and intelligent fellows in order to take power over the government. Leading the truck race, Mati has created a new era of a computer, "Monster", integrated to a truck driven by Gus, a female truck driver. Somehow, "Monster" experiments failures which do not appear to be purposeless.

Relationships between the two drivers and "Monster", Mati, an orphan girl met in a prison camp, are the heart of the story, and their hope and faith in freethinking, love and protection of the most defenseless ones, is considered to be the main danger for both the government and "Sir".

This movie is dealing with a chase, a race, manipulations and strange hope.

The cinematography is very unusual, the Grey/green/red colors remind the visual universe of sci/fi comics. You need to enter this very personal environment to be delighted in watching this movie.

I remember I was astonished as a teenager, seeing this movie in theaters, long ago.

Karen Allen, Johnny Halyday and Jurgen Prochnow, as well as "Monster" performed this unusual movie as if they were part of Glenn's universe and bad dreams.