Space Rage (1985)

Judge: "You're banished from Earth forever."

Grange: "Fuck you."

Two men must stop a criminal from destroying a space colony.
Starring: Richard Farnsworth, Michael Paré, John Laughlin, Lee Purcell, William Windom

Link to IMDB

The Colonel

The movie opens with a cold-blooded bank robber named Grange getting arrested and facing the court of law. It's 200 years in the future, so his punishment for murder is to be banished from Earth to a penal mining colony on a distant planet.

The planet, which looks identical to the Arizona desert in every way possible, is not just a prison, there's an entire community of people that help maintain the mining operations, and here's where we meet the Colonel. He's a retired L.A. cop that lives on a ranch, respected by the community and always willing to help the prison guards if needed.
One such guard is Walker, an expert bounty hunter that watches over the prisoners and catches anyone that tries to escape. Walker better be careful now that Grange has arrived, because he's immediately planning a way to break out and escape off the planet.


The first half of the movie is a bit slow as Grange deals with prison politics, but we also get to spend time with the Colonel and Walker, and these guys are pretty cool.
When Grange does escape, there's plenty of action ready to explode! All of the inmates escape at once and they start terrorizing the civilians. (I guess they're full of "space rage.") Walker's on the hunt, but he's outnumbered and outgunned, so the Colonel comes out of retirement to help kick some ass!

Walker                                                 Grange

There's basically no sci-fi elements here at all, instead it's more of a modern western with the desert planet serving as the wild frontier. The plot is simple, but it's fun and the three main characters are played perfectly. There's a lot of action in the second half, with dune buggy chases, explosions and gunfire.

Lots of this !

It's quite fun seeing Richard Farnsworth beat down bad guys and wield a shotgun. He's like a geriatric Dirty Harry! Space Rage is straightforward, predictable and sloppy, but it redeems itself by being consistently entertaining.


Be sure not to miss:
- Badass line delivery: "I'll help you, you sorry son-of-a-bitch."
- Also, Grange delivers some truly epic 'Fuck you's.
- 200 years from now and people are still playing "Asteroids" at the arcade.
- The repeated song "Blood Money" will forever be stuck in your head.

Internet review:
"Good? Bad? Heck, it's just plain fun." - Bushscoot

Should I watch it?
It's not amazing, but it is worth while.

Where can I find it?
Here on YouTube.

Space Rage gets...