Death Race 2000

Set in a future America where a brutal transcontinental road race has become the nation's leading sporting event, Death Race 2000 follows a competition in which drivers score points based on the pedestrians they run down. Five two-person teams take part in heavily armed cars, and the reigning champion, the masked and mysterious Frankenstein, returns as a national hero. His main rival is the volatile Machine Gun Joe Viterbo. At the same time, a resistance movement works to undermine the race and the government behind it, and Frankenstein finds himself carrying a passenger tied to that underground opposition.

Paul Bartel directed the film, his second feature after Naughty Nurse and the one that sits between that debut and Cannonball in his filmography. Charles B. Griffith and Robert Thom wrote the screenplay, and Jim Weatherill produced it for New World Pictures. David Carradine plays Frankenstein, with Simone Griffeth as Annie Smith and Sylvester Stallone as Machine Gun Joe Viterbo. Mary Woronov, Roberta Collins and Martin Kove appear among the credited cast of 35.

Released in April 1975, the film runs 80 minutes and mixes action, comedy and science fiction. It took in about 8 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 6.2 out of 10 from roughly 34,000 votes, and on TMDB it also sits at 6.2 from around 594 votes, while its critics' rating stands at 6.3 from 84 reviews, placing it close to the audience scores.