DAILY CALL SHEET: JULY 25, 2025

Maximum Overdrive (1986) After Earth passes through the tail of a rogue comet, everything mechanical on the planet comes to life with a singular purpose… kill all humans. Eventually, a small group of survivors hold up in a diner where they are besieged by an army of vehicles demanding that their gas tanks be kept full. The people soon realize they must escape to a technology-free island or spend the rest of their lives as slaves to the machines. Poorly directed by Stephen King, excellently scored by AC/DC, and memorable mostly for a truck with the Green Goblin's head on it, this is notoriously bad and simultaneously beloved. In short, it's from the 80's.

TIL: As it turns out in the movie, the machines aren't actually alive, but the idea still raises questions about whether they ever could be. Dr. Mariele Courtois of Benedictine College says no. When asked what is it that makes human beings different from machines, she answered, "An interior life… the idea and awareness of the personal destiny that God awakens in the individual when he creates a unique person. Machines using artificial intelligence can’t have an interior personal life where they are able to offer themselves as self-gift.” Or put another way, machines have no soul, and therefore can never be truly alive.

The Gumball Rally (1976) Upon hearing the word "gumball" declared, adventurous drivers from all around the country drop whatever they're doing and assemble in their fastest vehicles to participate in a totally illegal, rules be damned, coast-to-coast race across the United States. It sounds crazy so, naturally, Gary Busey shows up. One of the first of many films based on the real life Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash, this is neither the funniest nor the most memorable of the batch, but Raúl Juliá and some cool 70's rides make it worth the while.

TIL: On March 9th of each year, drivers from all over The Eternal City assemble at the Basilica di Santa Francesca Romana to honor the woman to whom the church is dedicated, St. Frances of Rome, the patron Saint of all those who pilot vehicles. Born in 1384, she would go on to found the Olivetan Oblates of Mary, an order still in existence today. What St. Frances is most known for, though, is the visions she had of a guardian angel who would light her way so she could travel safely. That was sufficient for Pope Pius XI, the first pope to travel by car, to declare her the patron of drivers.