Following a lethal plague which has wiped out millions of people and a severe oil crisis that has caused driving to be outlawed, an authoritarian government has come into power and set up restrictive, rigidly enforced codes of proper conduct that have made individual freedom a thing of the past. Stubbornly rebellious former race car driver Frank Hart (an appropriately stalwart and rock-like Lee Majors), frustrated with the fascist society he can't comfortably acquit himself to the stifling dictates of, decides to drive his red Porsche to the still liberated California, taking equally recalcitrant electronics whiz kid Ring McCarthy (winningly played by Chris Makepeace) along with him on a perilous trek across America's desolate abandoned highways. Shrewd regime toady Hawkins (finely essayed to smug'n'smarmy perfection by George Touliatos) assigns batty old ace Air Force pilot J.G. Williams (a delightfully spunky Burgess Meredith, howling like a crazed bloodhound and clearly having a grand old time mugging it up) to track Hart down and kill him.An on-target celebration of rugged individualism and a frightfully prescient pre-90's prediction of mass bureaucratic conformity taken to a hideously repressive extreme, "The Last Chase" really cuts it as a rip-roaringly exciting and effective futuristic sci-fi/car chase action thriller movie ode to "stand up to the Man and to hell with the System" status quo defying rebellion and independence. Director Martyn Burke (who co-wrote the nicely thoughtful script with Roy Moore and C.R. O'Christopher), aided by Gil ("Blood Beach," "The Manipulater") Melle's jaunty, swelling score, keeps the pace rattling along at a crisp, steady tempo, occasionally pausing for moments of quiet introspection and character development which ensure that the film has plenty of heart to spare (the rapport between Hart and McCarthy is especially breezy and appealing). Moreover, this feature's portrait of a seriously uptight, anal retentive, overly rule conscientious no-fun near future society has uncanny parallels to nauseatingly stuffy 90's political correctness, thus giving the picture a topicality and resonance that's sadly still quite timely even today. An extremely good, pleasingly provocative and rather scarily prophetic science fiction film.

Have seen this movie and think it's terrific! Here's what Laszlo Uriel "laszlo-laszlo" (San Francisco, CA USA) has to say about it. It sums up my thoughts as well.One has to wonder whether this movie was the inspiration for Al Gore's desire to ban internal combustion automobiles. In any case, this movie shows the kind asinine totalitarian regime Socialists seem to be trying harder and harder to turn the United States into. It gives us a taste of the sort of top-down, "obey the rules or else", brainwashing type of society we could find ourselves in if we're not careful.Having been 'convinced' over the years to submit to authority and preach the 'goodness' of the new oligarchical system compared to the 'badness' of the old individualistic system, Lee Majors' character, an ex-race car driver, find encouragement in a few short pirate television transmissions. "Radio Free California, calling America" inspires him to dig up and reassemble his hidden race car, and flee the defacto prison the east coast has become.In true neo-Democrat/Socialist style, he is ordered stopped at any cost, preferably by being killed. A single Vietnam War aircraft and its pilot (Burgess Merideth) are pulled out of mothballs and a bottle, respectively, for this task.Other means are also employed along the way to try and stop the car and its occupants, including a Stalin/Mao-esquire slaughter of a group of innocent people who took them in to give them medical care.Now in 2005, since California is literally going broke spearheading the Union away from individual rights and toward Socialism, the idea of "Radio Free California" returning to machines and to personal liberty takes quite a leap of faith, but it's a fun 3000 mile trip across the country nonetheless.As the story goes, the Social dystopia was able to take hold after a disease wipes out much of the population. Since the time the film came out, 1980, the likelihood of such massive devastation from disease has only increased. And never has the proverb "Power corrupts; Absolute power corrupts absolutely" been any truer than it is today.I don't agree for a second that the point of this movie was to encourage the worship of the internal combustion engine or petroleum products. But yes, in the case of Lee Majors' character and the race car, it was a gasoline engine that was the appropriate, if not the only tool capable of escaping tyranny.If this movie is one big ad for big oil companies, does that mean every movie about police who use firearms to help arrest evil-doers, or which shows someone defending their own life with a firearm, is just a big ad for Colt or Glock? Loners who are ticked off at the system trying to pound them into behaving like everyone else will like this movie. I loved this movie! But if you're into that whole "ride public transit or go to jail" thing, you'll only like the first 15 minutes of this movie...so have your Michael Moore tapes ready.

Where's Michael Caine when you need him? I've seen most of the many seasons of MST3K, but this rare pre-1st season flick (episdoe K-20) is easily one of the worst movies ever made. Three "stars", Lee Majors, Chris Makepeace and Burgess Meredith, struggle through the worst batch of cinematography ever, delivering lines which must have been written by a secret Dick Cheney-style workgroup composed of Exxon and GM lawyers trying to cut funding for mass transit and energy efficiency research. Looks like it was filmed in almost total darkness, possibly on Super 8. Makes Logan's Run look like the cinematic Sistine Chapel crossed with Shakespeare. I can't imagine watching it without the commentary of Crow and Servo since it's unwatchable even with it. Clearly what's needed in Hollywood is some sort of 401K which prevents the need for actors to take on bad movies like this in order to pay for their health care. With its "rights to pollute and drive" theme, by the end, I'm half expecting to see a Charlton Heston cameo where he delivers his "cold dead hands" speech. Lee, I could have forgiven you for this in 1989, but 1981?

Seeing a movie like this gives me a feeling deep in my bowels that someday, I might become an action movie hero. This is an incredibly horrifying movie about the future that could be. I was compelled to watch this movie from front to end, hoping that somehow this movie could get cheesier, and my wishes came true. It is great to know that once an incredibly bad movie gets worse, that it comes out on top again as an entertaining vision of our fears as they were in the early-Eighties.