Damnation Alley (film)
Damnation Alley is a 1977 post-apocalyptic film directed by Jack Smight, loosely based on the 1969 novel of the same name by Roger Zelazny. The original music score was composed by Jerry Goldsmith and the cinematography was by Harry Stradling Jr.
Plot
First Lieutenant Jake Tanner shares ICBM silo duty at an American air force missile base in the Californian desert with Major Eugene "Sam" Denton, who is requesting not to work with him. On their way to duty, Denton talks to Sergeant Tom Keegan, an aspiring artist. When the United States detects incoming nuclear missiles from the Soviet Union, Tanner and Denton launch part of the retaliatory strike. The United States is hit hard, although it manages to intercept 40% of the Soviet missiles.Two years later, the Earth has been tilted off its axis by the nuclear detonations of World War III; radiation has mutated giant scorpions, the planet is wracked by massive storms, and the sky is in a perpetual aurora borealis-like state. Tanner has resigned his commission and has been scouting Barstow while Keegan, who has also left the Air Force, has been painting as an artist in one of the base's out-buildings. Mutated giant scorpions menace the area. Later an airman falls asleep in a bunk and drops a lit cigarette onto a pile of Playboy magazines, which causes the entire base to catch fire and explode, killing most of its inhabitants including the base commander, General Lander. Keegan and Tanner are unscathed, as are Denton and Lieutenant Tom Perry, who were in an underground garage bunker.
Denton has been considering going to Albany, New York to find the source of the lone radio transmission that has been aired weekly since the war. He and the remaining others set out in two Air Force "Landmasters," giant, gas guzzling, 12-wheeled armored personnel carriers capable of climbing 60-degree inclines and operating in water. They must cross "Damnation Alley," considered "the path of least resistance" between intense radiation areas thus named by Denton. Along their journey one of the Landmasters becomes disabled in a storm and they encounter mutated "flesh stripping cockroaches" in the ruins of Salt Lake City that eat Keegan alive. Denton and Tanner also pick up two survivors: a woman in Las Vegas, Janice, and a teenage boy, Billy, discovered in an abandoned house. Later they fight off a band of crazed gun-toting mountain men they encounter in the ruins of a gas station. Denton uses a rocket launcher to destroy the gas station.
As they continue their journey, the Landmaster develops a problem with its drivetrain and they head to Detroit. Denton comments that it was "designed to use spare truck parts", semi-trucks in particular. In Detroit they enter a large wrecking yard in search of the needed parts. A large storm comes upon the group and they take shelter in their vehicle just as a tsunami washes them away. After the storm passes, they are adrift in a large body of water and it appears that the Earth has returned to its normal axis as the sky is clear. Using the Landmaster's amphibious capability, they reach land. As they are making repairs, they hear a radio broadcast of music and an attempt to reach survivors. After Denton makes radio contact, Tanner and Billy set out on Tanner's dirt bike to locate the source of the broadcast. In the final scene, they reach a surprisingly intact suburb of Albany and are greeted by its inhabitants.
Cast
- Jan-Michael Vincent as 1st Lt. Jake Tanner
- George Peppard as Major Eugene "Sam" Denton
- Dominique Sanda as Janice
- Paul Winfield as Keegan
- Jackie Earle Haley as Billy
- Kip Niven as Lt. Tom Perry
- Mark L. Taylor as Haskins
- Robert Donner as Man / Guard
- Murray Hamilton as General Landers
Production
Budgeted at US $7.2 million, Damnation Alley was helmed by veteran director Jack Smight, who had scored two consecutive box office hits in the previous two years. Filming began on June 21, 1976, east of the town of Borrego Springs, California, where a missile base set was constructed, as well as locations in Meteor Crater, Arizona, Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada, Salt Lake City, Utah, and the Mojave Desert in California. The lake scenes were filmed at Flathead Lake in Kalispell, Montana. Filming wrapped on August 13, 1976.
Production was rife with problems — the devastated landscapes and giant mutated insects proved to be nearly impossible to create, despite the large budget. For example, a sequence involving giant scorpions attacking a motorcycle was first attempted using full-scale scorpion props, but they did not work and the resulting footage was unacceptable. The solution was to use actual scorpions composited onto live action footage using the blue screen process in post-production. Another action sequence with giant cockroaches used a combination of live Madagascar hissing cockroaches and large numbers of rubber bugs which looked unconvincing onscreen, as the strings pulling mats covered in fake insects were plainly visible. To complicate matters, according to director Jack Smight in his memoir, studio chief Alan Ladd, Jr. redirected about a quarter of Damnation Alley's production budget as completion funds for George Lucas' lower-budgeted film, Star Wars. Smight was not made aware of the budget reduction on Damnation Alley until he neared its completion, which further compromised most of the remaining special effects work, for which there was now very little money left.
The original director's cut of the film delivered to the studio by Jack Smight in late-1976 ran 2 hours and 15 minutes. Even though the special effects work was not completed at that time, the studio made minor changes to the cut, and awaited the completion of the special effects work prior to releasing it. While the effects were underway, the completion funds were diverted to Star Wars, which eliminated several important effects scenes which had not yet been created, including the Minuteman III missile launch sequences, the base explosion, and importantly, the storm and tsunami in the last act. Because these scenes were cut, Fox relied on stock footage from other films for those particular shots.
Because of this, and the last-minute decision to add "radioactive skies" in special effects, Damnation Alley was in post-production well past the intended release date of December, 1976 due to the difficult process of superimposing optical effects on the sky in about 300 shots. This pushed the release date from December, 1976 to March, 1977, and then again to June, 1977. It was during this delay that 20th Century Fox went ahead and released their "other" science fiction film for 1977, Star Wars. The studio had planned to release only two science fiction films that year, with Damnation Alley intended to be the blockbuster.
Star Wars became a hit of epic proportions, and forced Fox to further delay and re-address a struggling Damnation Alley, which was still languishing in post-production special effects work. In a panic, the release date was delayed to December, 1977, but moved up to October when the studio realized it would go up against the release of an expected hit, Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind. With the additional delay, Fox went in to re-edit the entire film. Smight was already involved with another project during this time, so Fox took over the re-edit. The decision was made to cut down the length of the film to the bare-minimum running time of 90 minutes for a theatrical release, and large sections of the film were edited out by the studio. These cuts amounted to 44 minutes of footage, and included a major subplot of a love triangle between Tanner, Denton, and Janice. Many scenes early in the film at the missile base were excised as well - sequences which showed the breakdown of military order. Murray Hamilton was featured prominently in several scenes which were cut, as the now-despondent and alcoholic General in charge of the base. Critically, a physical confrontation between Tanner and Denton after the death of Keegan by "killer cockroaches" was removed. In spite of these major edits, Fox focused more content on the "Landmaster" vehicle, and the special effects, in direct response to Star Wars. The film underwent several name changes during this period, from the original "Damnation Alley" to "Salvation Road," and then to "Survival Run" up until shortly before the release, when it was again renamed "Damnation Alley." The film was finally released in the United States on October 21, 1977 to fleeting success when it opened, but poor critical reviews word of mouth tanked it at the box office.
Landmaster
Perhaps the most notable aspect of the film was the Landmaster vehicle, which features a hinged center section, and a unique rotating 12-wheel assembly. The "Landmaster" was custom-built for the film at a cost of $350,000 in 1976 by automotive customizer Dean Jeffries.The Landmaster was sold to a private owner in 2005 and was restored to its original condition as featured in the film. The Landmaster was then on the show car circuit for several years. In 2007 it was featured at the San Francisco Rod & Custom Show at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, California as part of a special exhibit with other notable movie and TV cars.
The Landmaster should not be confused with the superficially similar, but simpler Ark II.
Sound 360
A few big-city premiere engagements of Damnation Alley were presented in Sound 360, a high-impact surround-sound process.Jerry Goldsmith's score made good use of the wide stereo separation afforded by Sound 360, particularly in the opening theme, with fanfares emanating from each side of the theater in turn.
Reception
Damnation Alley opened in 1977, one year after it was filmed. After the release, it quickly left the theaters because it did not make enough to stay in the chain theaters, duplexes or triplexes. Dismissal of the film was noted, overshadowed by prior apocalypse-themed films like Day the World Ended and On the Beach. In some theaters during 1977, the film was paired with another film, Ralph Bakshi's fantasy Wizards, which was financially successful.In the UK, Damnation Alley was released in January 1979 as a double bill with Thunder and Lightning, another 20th Century Fox film from 1977.