Ep. 20: Death Race 2000

In the year 2000 hit and run driving is no longer a felony. It's the national sport!

Roger Corman's incredible cult classic puts soon-to-be screen legends Sylvester Stallone and David Carradine behind the wheel of trans-American racing machines designed to do two things: go fast and kill pedestrians! Death Race 2000 is a hilarious and bloody satirical look at sports and media culture in America, that deftly trades barbs with the viewers, mocking their obsession with celebrity culture and their belief that the triumvirate of government, religion, and mass media ever has their best interest in mind.

No, Death Race 2000 instead laughs at that unholy trinity's bloodlust by turning a major sporting event controlled by those powerful entities into a literal massacre.

And the crowd goes wild for it!

In this episode we break down all of those themes, as well as discuss the controversial (ancient) arcade game that spun out of this film. Cassie raises interesting questions about the film's final scene. Ryan proposes an unconventional way to make modern sports more entertaining. They both explore the various atrocities that major sporting events sportswash across the globe. Plus, of course, with this being the first Roger Corman film we've covered on the show, they've got a crash course on cult cinema's most legendary producer for you!

Oh, and for reference, here are this year's scoring revisions:

Women: +10 points
Teenagers: +40 points
Toddlers: +70 points
Anyone over 75 years old: +100 points

Death Race 2000
Directed by Paul Bartel
1975, United States

Incredibly Strange Video is produced and edited by Ryan Quinn and Cassie Kay. Follow us on Bluesky @isvpodcast.bsky.social for updates on the newest episodes!

Theme music:
The End by EVA
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0

All excerpts from the films discussed are used for educational and critical purposes only.