Non-Horror Exploitation: Warlords of the 21st Century (1982)

Post-apocalyptic films set in the near future were hot stuff in the 80's. It's almost as if the people in the 80's were afraid of what would come in the future. Either that or they just loved a good post-apocalyptic action movie every now and then. Luckily that's exactly what Warlords of the 21st Century (also known as Battletruck) is.

Survivors of the oil-wars are terrorised by Straker and his gang. Straker travels through the wasteland with an enormous armored truck which strikes fear into the hearts of the survivors. When a girl named Corlie escapes from Straker's camp Straker is determined to do anything to get her back. Corlie though is now protected by a mysterious motorcyclist named Hunter. Hunter isn't afraid of Straker and his truck and believes there is always a way to fight back.

You can describe Warlords of the 21st Century by one word: Cool! Just like in post-apocalyptic/sci-fi movies like Escape From New York and Mad Max the badguys are dressed strangely and are mad as hell. Their leader is an evil mind named Kramer, who is very decently portrayed by James Wainwright. As seen in the plot Kramer travels in a huge truck that you can only describe as bad-ass to the max.

Warlords of the 21st Century is shot in New-Zealand. As we all know the landscape of New-Zealand lends itself perfectly for various movies. This time there are no hobbits wandering around, this time we get futuristic looking vehicles and it's cool as fuck. Many aerial shots are shown during race and/or chase scenes, and with good reason. Seeing a huge 18 wheeler drive full speed on dirt roads next to huge cliffs is impressive to say the least.

Sure te story is slightly standard. We've got the typical loner who has to save the sweet girl out of the hands of the evil. But who gives a rat's ass, it's a perfect outlet to show some good ol' fashioned action. And that's exactly what we get, including a stunning last 10/15 minutes.

It's not the most original movie you'll ever see but it has all the ingredients a genre-fan like me wants to see in a movie like this.
- Post-Apocalyptic wasteland? Check!
- Life saving, mysterious loner? Check!
- Cool villain? Check!
- Bad-ass huge armored truck? Check!

The only real criteria you could give is that the movie perhaps should have lasted 10 minutes shorter. +-90 minutes was a bit too much in my opinion.

Fun Facts (source: IMDB)

The top speed of the battletruck was 65 km per hour; it was the largest motorized film prop ever built in New Zealand. 

Director/co-writer Harley Cokeliss came up with the story when he was living in Los Angeles in 1975. He was inspired by the mid-'70s oil shortage and the size of the huge oil trucks transporting gasoline to various stations in the Los Angeles area.