What happens when you mix cold medicine, Jack Daniel’s and a dystopian movie? Last night, I found out.
I have been under the weather for the past few days, which sucks because classes started over those same few days. Luckily, it was all about going over the syllabi. I am not a big medicine taker, but my wife convinced me that I needed something. I am certain she was right.
Reason #32 to get married = There is someone around to make you take drugs when you are sick.
She also thought that a little whiskey might help. Before you start thinking that she was trying to kill me by mixing medicine and whiskey, I need you to know that we have a happy home. Whiskey is an old remedy for colds and such. Grandmothers used to give it to kids. Of course, that is the old days. Today, that would be considered child abuse and somebody would call the government.
Reason #14 not to trust the government = They make you stop taking home remedies for sickness and make you buy health insurance.
I don’t know if whiskey cures a cold, but it certainly makes you think the cold is going away.
So, I was filled with cold medicine and drinking Jack Daniel’s when I got the urge to watch The Last Chase, a movie about a bleak future. Being a movie made in 1981, that bleak future was supposed to happen about ten years ago. It’s always weird to watch a movie depicting a future that is currently the past. That’s why movie makers and religious leaders who predict the end of the world should follow the same rule. When you envision a future of destruction, set the date a long way into the future.
Anyway, the movie stars Lee Majors, Burgess Meredith and Chris Makepeace.
It was supposed to be the transition of Majors from television star to movie star. That didn’t happen. Instead, he was making this movie while Ryan O’Neal was stealing Farrah Fawcett from him.
At least, that is according to an interview with the director.
Burgess Meredith was not far from the success of Rocky, and I wonder why he signed up for this.
Chris Makepeace was the Jesse Eisenberg of the 1980s, playing the intelligent kid who did not fit in with everyone else.
He was in a couple of hits like Meatballs and My Bodyguard, and I began to wonder whatever happened to him. A quick Google search didn’t tell me much. According to the Internet Movie Database, he last appeared in something in 2001. There is a Chris Makepeace tribute page, but it is lacking, as well.
Now, back to the movie. Gas shortages and a plague sent the United States into a tailspin. In the future, the government has clamped down and declared no privately owned vehicles. Everyone is controlled by public transportation. Franklyn Hart is a former race car driver who longs for the old days. He rebuilds his car and plans to drive it across the country to California, which has gained its independence.
A young kid from a boarding school doesn’t fit in with his classmates and spends his time hacking government computers. He hitches a ride, and the two head out.
The government tries to stop them by getting a fighter pilot to chase them down and kill them. He wants to be a free as they do and sacrifices himself so they can make it to their destination.
I have watched the movie a bunch, but this was the first time I have seen it with drugs and alcohol in my system. This is what I picked up.
In the coming apocalypse, our cities will not be destroyed by bombs or rising sea levels. They will be overcome by matte paintings.
Taking drugs and drinking whiskey will make you feel numb.
In the future, Smokey the Bear is still fighting forest fires.
Speaking of smokey, it would be nice if cops of the future really drove black and white golf carts.
When our society breaks down and we abandon the heartland, the Native Americans will take their land back.
Only in the movies can the guy find a woman in the woods to hook up with.
The kid learning how to drive in a race car is like taking a driving test at the Indy 500.
The government will stop trying to control Utah and Arizona. Apparently, they are too difficult to deal with.
The future will have sex clubs and promote group sex. The government much think that mass sex is the same a mass transportation.
Even in the future, the government will find a reason to massacre Native Americans.
In the future, a plane can be refurbished in a couple of hours.
For some reason, the look of boarding schools never change. Just ask the X-Men.
Coca-Cola still has a fizz after twenty years in the can.
Combining cold medicine and Jack Daniel’s is an enlightening experience.
Speaking of Jack Daniel’s, it is timeless and will continue to be produced in the future. Same label and everything.
Computer technology will regress to look and function like computers in the 1980s.
Colonel Steve Austin could have ran to California on one leg.
Lee Majors ages more gracefully in the movies than he does in real life.
By they way, he took his stage name from Johnny Majors, who played and coached football at the University of Tennessee.
Since it is football time, that is probably a good one to end on.
SBI: A Thinning Crowd 
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