10 Stephen King Fan Theories That Make Appalling Sense
3. Maximum Overdrive Is A Prequel To Pixar’s Cars
Stephen King’s first and only attempt
at a directing a movie arrived in 1986 in form of sci-fi comedy-horror Maximum
Overdrive. Adapted from his own short story Trucks, the movie depicts a world
in which previously inanimate machines suddenly take on a life of their own and
start killing humans left, right and centre.
It wasn’t greatly received and King has since admitted that he was off his !*$% on cocaine while making Maximum Overdrive. He’s since vowed to never again direct a movie after the experience, but it nevertheless generated a rather intriguing fan theory.
In the film, a sh*t-tonne of suddenly sentient machinery and electrical appliances start going crazy – vending machines, hairdryers and lawnmowers included – but it’s trucks and cars that prove the most deadly after a horde of them trap a motley crew of survivors in a roadside truck stop.
They eventually escape to an island and a title card informs us that Russians apparently shot down the UFO that caused the machine revolt and everything returned to normal. But what if a few sentient trucks and cars remained and eventually managed to do away with all of humankind?
Which brings us to the theory: Maximum Overdrive basically lays the groundwork for the automobile-centric, human-free universe that we see in Pixar’s Cars. Only by the time Cars is taking place possibly thousands of years later, the automobiles have forgotten all about the gruesome, murderous means they employed to overpower humanity and now live a happy-go-lucky Pixar existence as friendly cartoon cars and trucks.
But we know the truth.