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Silly post-apocalypse road movie is amusing enough to give it some sort of cult status, even though it's really not that good. The actors giving the better performances tend to get less screen time. One can see that the filmmakers, led by director Jack Smight, are clearly working against the limits of special effects technology at the time, rendering this more of a cheese fest than anything else. Those light shows in the stormy skies ARE pretty trippy, though. Pacing is adequate enough; this runs a scant 92 minutes long. But that makes one wish that more could have been done with the source material, a novel by Roger Zelazny (adapted for the big screen by Alan Sharp ("Night Moves" '75) and Lukas Heller ("What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?")). The movie is modestly diverting, but also disappointing.

WWIII causes complete devastation throughout the continental United States. A team of Air Force personnel who have designed ultra cool tanks / vans dubbed "Landmasters" decide to take the safest path possible (which one of them has named "Damnation Alley") to Albany, the only place from which they've ever received a radio signal. The characters include domineering tough guy Denton (George Peppard), cheerful Tanner (Jan-Michael Vincent), leading lady Janice (Dominique Sanda), easygoing Keegan (Paul Winfield) and teenager Billy (Jackie Earle Haley).

The odd lack of continuity creates some guffaw-inducing WTF moments; watch as switches are made from real people to dummies. The visual effects can charitably be described as negotiable. Still, there's some fun to be had in seeing giant scorpions super imposed on the desert settings. And if people aren't squirming from seeing those, there's an onslaught of killer armour-plated cockroaches that make quick work of one poor guy. Hell, there's even a bunch of survivalist rednecks (led by Robert Donner, who sports a hilariously ridiculous looking beard) with which to contend.

Co-starring Kip Niven ("New Year's Evil") as another of the military guys, this also features Murray Hamilton in a noticeable but non-speaking uncredited role.

At the very least, this has some decent widescreen photography by Harry Stradling Jr. and a typically excellent score by the always reliable Jerry Goldsmith.

This is one of the rare cases where it would be interesting to see somebody attempt another version of the tale.

Six out of 10.

The beginning of this film really shakes you up. The careful, measured tones coming from the missile base loudspeaker announcing the progress of "the war" belie the fact that at that moment scores of millions of people are being atomized as the bombs fall.

However, the aftermath seems to be typical post-nuclear mis-adventure, with the survivors from the base starting out on a cross-country road trip. The "Landmaster" vehicles add a jazzy and technie touch to the otherwise predictable trip. Wild weather, crazed hermits, and killer cockroaches require a little suspension of disbelief, but still keep the pace going.

Fans of "The A-Team" will like seeing George Peppard in a lead role, as the by-the-book superior officer who tries to keep the non-conformist junior officer (Vincent) in line. Dominique Sanda adds some nice eye candy as the token female member of the intrepid band of pilgrims, rescued by Peppard and company from the ruins of Las Vegas.

Overall, a pretty good film if you are looking for an evening of distraction and non-reality, if you can get past the opening sequence.

I had fond memories of this movie having seen it as when I was young in the early 80's, and then I made the huge mistake of watching it again recently.

There is no real plot to speak of, it's a straight story of a trip from point A to point B, the acting, what little of it there was, was fairly bad, and the special effects were anything but special.

I must assume most of the budget was spent building the Landmaster, because the effects were horrible, even for the period when this came out, especially when you consider Star Wars came out the same year.

I would say give this a miss, especially if you saw it as a child.

This notoriously hard to get (at least legitimately) movie follows the travails of five nuke apocalypse survivors in the late 1970s. Their task is to drive their armored personnel vehicle cum Winnabago from Bakersfield CA to Albany NY. On the way they stop off in Vegas, Salt Lake City and Detriot bumping into maniac mutant cockroaches and some radioactive hillbillies along the way. 99% of the time the sky is a swirling orangish red that transfers its Gatorade hues to most sequences in this movie. The locations are all dust, sand and rock... this is after all Damnation Alley and the Earth has been tilted off its axis. An absolute trash B movie that I'm sure many of those associated with would rather forget, it is nonetheless hugely compelling. After viewing you can appreciate the cult classic status of this film, yet to not be entirely sure why that is so.

Killer cockroaches, Jan Michael Vincent, Paul Winfield, George Peppard, giant scorpions, ultimate SUV's, inbred hillbilly types and dusty old Las Vegas where the slots still work...all combine to make a fun little, albeit cheesy, flick.

As a kid this movie was a fun Saturday matinee movie and to this day, still a fun Saturday Matinee movie...grab a big bucket of popcorn, turn your brain off and have some cheesy fun...

WW3 breaks out as US enemies launch a first strike with nukes, and the US counterstrikes.

The opening scene is a classic atomic war scenario, showing how something like missile control might work.

After MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) is over, the US and Russia have destroyed the world with all-out nuclear war.

Fallout begins. Giant scorpions? Why.

After the fallout shelter gets blown up for the dumbest of reasons, the surviving soldiers use the armored, 12-wheeled vehicles they call the "Landmasters", fitted with rocket launchers, flamethrowers, and cannons, capable of climbing 60-degree inclines and operating in water, in search of a radio signal from Albany, New York.

They must cross Damnation Alley, considered "the path of least resistance" between intense radiation areas.

The rest of the film is a simple plot A to B road trip through a post-apocalyptic landscape (mostly the desert).

The plot is boring, at best decently acted, and the camera work is shoddy. There are quite a few shots where you only see half of a person's head speaking or a full shot of somebody's back. They should have moved the camera like 1 cm to the left or something.

I do like the opening scene and the Landmaster vehicle.

4/10 below average.

Damnation Alley was quite an unlucky movie seemingly, it was put out with the idea that it would be another profitable sci-fi b-movie but unfortunately for it, a few weeks before it was released a movie called Star Wars was released which changed the rules for sci-fi forever more. To be honest though, I kind of like this one. It has its own significant factors too, for instance it's quite early in the cycle of post-apocalypse movies - the Mad Max series certainly seems to have borrowed some of its ideas – and so I think it's fair to say that its core look and feel went on to be used in quite a few similar movies in the 80's. Its story starts with a nuclear war devastating the world, leaving a small band of survivors in a desert outpost. After a while they are forced to set off on a journey to try and find other survivors in an all-terrain vehicle.

This one has a plot that boils down to a succession of set-pieces strung together along a hazardous trek. It's essentially a road movie...without a road. Along the way our heroes battle giant scorpions, swarms of flesh-eating cockroaches, mutant feral humans and they endure an electrical storm. They also pick up a woman and an incredibly annoying teenage boy. The film is chock full of corny dialogue and charmingly poor special effects but it remains entertaining nevertheless with good pacing and enough variety of events to ensure things remain interesting. It has to be admitted though that it does end with a very poorly conceived conclusion that felt like it was tagged on because the original idea was too expensive. But on the whole, I found this to be good fun mainly, certainly a fair bit better than its poor reputation suggests.

This is a really fun movie if you like post-atomic flicks! Or any Jan Michael Vincent flick, for that matter. The effects are sometimes cheesy, but overall the atmosphere and film-work on this are pretty decent! It's also fun to see Jan Michael 'AIRWOLF' with George Peppard "A TEAM" together. They make a good pair! The 'bug' scene is very fun- and includes some great Jan Michael motorcycle wheelies! The tornado scene is also cool. This movie definitely takes you to a different world, and the strange sky color throughout sort of makes everything seem - well- post atomic! It's a clever movie, not too violent, but it definitely is worth the buy! If you are a Jan Michael fan, this would be a MUST have as he looks fantastic as usual.

One of the most neglected aspects in appraising DAMNATION ALLEY is Jerry Goldsmith's tough and tender score, which seamlessly links together the plot, makes the frightening opening sequence even more frightening than it really is -- and sonically wallpapers over much of the less than stellar acting and action sequences.

Sadly, the soundtrack to Goldsmith's panoramic score has never been released (shame on Fox!) and only a sequence has been recorded (by Goldsmith, on a CD entitled FRONTIERS for Varese).

There are two officers in a missile silo. One turns to the other and says "I do not think we make a good team." Well, we will soon find out. Yep, it happens, the big one.

Now the few survivors after some post-apocalyptic local disasters go on a road trip to follow a signal and see where it leads them. We get to go with them on the road trip barely escaping big bugs, bad guys, and more. If they get there, what will they find?

It is fun to see the actors of the 1977 era playing in the movie. If you like post-apocalypse movies this is up there with the best of them. However, there is nothing to distinguish this from any of today's cheap T. V. programs pumped out by the Syfy (imagine greater) Chanel to placate the proletariat.

Any five DVD presentations named "Century of Science Fiction - Hosted by Christopher Lee "Christopher stated that the writer of the book (Roger Zelazny) knew that the film was going to be mangled, so he took the money and ran. The book or novella is more coherent and has a different message.

Wowza!

Now this movie aint great (far from it) but it aint horrid either. Just yer basic post nuclear sci-fi apocalypse survival flick.

Survivors get from point A to point B with a bunch of trouble in between. The trouble actually doesn't add up to much (look for roaches!) and the acting and storyline are at a minimum....BUT!!!!!!

The following things kicked ass!:

Beginning!--->creepy slow suspense as the world faces nuclear destruction!

Score!--->Great music sets the tone for the scenes (saving many)

Sky FX!--->tripped out! The skies are the best looking I've seen in any apocalyptic movie...way cool!

The SUV!!--->They actually built this thing! it works and works great! No scale model here, although I'm sure its looks are best viewed on the outside, but its done well, not cheap, handles the road great, and if i could find one, I'd buy it (look carefully at wheel design....amazing!)

Dats it, Dats all. B-movie sci-fi fun. No brainer..great for 2 for 1 rental, follow it with something that will get brain workin again.

This is an imaginative , action-filled adventure/thriller with some excellent moments , even if the storyline is not up to the scale of the tale . Science-fiction thriller gets off to a breathtaking start with the world ravaged by a searing nuclear holocaust . Succeeding a post-apocalyptic world, in which a group of survivors (Jean-Michael Vincent , George Peppard, Paul Winfield) at a military installation who survived World War 3 travel in all terrain , customized vehicles and hopefully their specially built vehicles will protect them along the way. Along the way finding other lost people (Dominique Sanda , Jackie Earle Haley) , strange settlements , fighting against the freakish weather , tidal waves , mutated beings, roaming survivors , weird animal life and other dangers . You have seen great adventures. You are about to live one. More than a movie. An adventure you'll never forget. The magnificent epic of five people who survive the nuclear holocaust and their incredible odyssey through the nightmare world it created. And now, you will not only see it, you will feel it, live it--in "Sound 360"--a revolutionary sight and sound experience !.

A nuclear holocaust film about a bunch of survivors attempting to drive across the desolate post-nuclear war country , complete with giant mutations, carnivorous cockroaches and while they hope more survivors are living. This apocalyptic sub-genre disappeared after its heyday in the 1950s , was revived by ¨Damnation alley¨ with giant mutations and roaming survivors . Stars a good cast such as : Jan-Michael Vincent , George Peppard , Dominique Sanda , Paul Winfield , Jackie Earle Haley and very secondary actors as Kip Niven and Robert Donner . While' it's a not a notable film , it's not particulary excellent , but simply acceptable and passable . The movie has its moments and considering the outdated premise , that's quite an accomplishment , adding the stunning musical score by the great Jerry Goldsmith as well as evocative cinematography by Harry Stradling Jr. The picture is passable and decent enough in spite of the giant scorpions , laser effects and flood are awful . Rated ¨Parents Guide¨, though it has not excessive violence , nudism , sexual scenes or profanity .

The motion picture was professionally directed by Jack Smight , American filmmaker with a penchant for the bizarre , macabre and extravagant entertainments . He began working for television in the early 50s . After successful ¨Harper¨ also with Paul Newman , in 1966 he realized the quirky caper titled ¨Kaleidoscope¨ . His best movie resulted to be ¨No way to treat a lady¨ , a very black comedy .Being continued by more peculiarities as ¨The Illustred man ¨. It's followed by the barely-released ¨Rabbit run¨, as he went on in TV films as ¨The screaming woman¨ , ¨The longest night¨ and ¨Frankestein: the true story ¨ . After that he directed unconvincing Sci-fi , as big war movie as ¨Midway¨ and one of ¨Airport¨ series . ¨Damnation Alley¨ is an acceptable and passable film , that turned to be such conspicuous lack of success what was a flop at box office ; however , nowadays , being best considered.

A stogie-chewing George Peppard heads a team that welds together an armored vehicle out of spare parts, taking satisfaction when a plan comes together.... Jan-Michael Vincent mans an AWOL missile-firing government vehicle copiloted by a cranky white-haired guy....

Capsule descriptions of "Airwolf" and "The A-Team"? No, you'd be better off watching an episode of either of those shows, but unfortunately I'm describing "Damnation Alley", the wildly unfaithful movie adaptation of the novel by brilliant Sci-Fi author Roger Zelazny.

Now, I'm sure few Zelazny fans would disagree that "Alley" is one of the least of his works, but this film takes Zelazny's somewhat decayed fruit and manages to squeeze onto the floor whatever juice it had in it, leaving only the decay.

All that remains of the book is the basic setting, the cross-post-apocalyptic-country road trip plot device (though with the book's suspenseful motivation for the trip replaced by a vague "let's see what's over there"), the "Run the storm or dig in?" scene, and a main character named Tanner. Well, I *guess* you can call him the main character. Just as Tanner and Denton take equal turns driving the truck (no, I will not call it a "Landmaster" -- Zelazny never would have given it such a dorky appellation), not even needing to tussle over the usual single steering wheel, Vincent and Peppard seem to be given completely equitable screen time in which to shine, an opportunity they each squander in equal measure.

Notice I did not say *Hell* Tanner. No, this is not the novel's violent last-of-the-Hell's-Angels anti-hero, but instead a pretty mild military boy who's, well, kind of cocky I guess, and, uh, likes to ride a dirt bike... (cue faux expectant look). But at least Tanner is inspired by the book. The rest of the characters are, well, uninspired, and purely the invention of the screenwriters.

And as for the setting, it's close enough to be recognizable, but is not the world that Zelazny was exploring in the book. Different post-apocalypse stories have chosen to stake their respective posts at different points along the timeline, from "28 Days Later" to the far-flung dystopias of "Planet of the Apes" and "The Time Machine". In the novel, Zelazny looked at the world a generation after the holocaust, an interesting point to examine, where government has established control again in the remaining population centers, and the recognizably ordinary lives people can lead in these pockets of safety is in sharp contrast to the nightmare world that lays down the road apiece. Instead of keeping this setting, though, the authors of this film decided to go with a world maybe a year or two after the bombs, which presents a much less interesting vantage than any of the time-points noted above. But even life at this point along the eternal road could have been interesting to examine, had the movie taken the time to do so. Unfortunately it did not, so I must respectfully disagree with those commenters who said that this was one thing the movie did well. What we get instead is mostly some people riding around the country and encountering dangerous situations that could be successfully transplanted to any time period.

I likewise must disagree with those that said that the movie did a good job portraying the experience of the military officers who witnessed the end of the world at the beginning of the film. While I realize that military personnel are trained to remain calm and productive under pressure, these folks witnessing the huge barrage of nuclear warheads showering down upon America didn't appear to be under pressure at all! People were milling casually around or sitting and doing their usual paperwork while the world ended! Pretty much the only expression of angst or concern we get is when Jan-Michael puts his head in his hands at the end of the sequence, but his portrayal could serve equally well for some other movie's 50th-billing character Man With Headache.

Other random things I must criticize: George Peppard's accent isn't particularly badly done, I guess, but it sure is annoying.

When the one reasonably likable character makes an exit, the other characters seem not to care very much, and seem not to display any sign afterwards that they remember such a character had ever been around.

As others have also alluded to, one of the most anticlimactic endings ever.

But the film is not wholly devoid of charm. The sky effects are indeed pretty neat-looking, and I'm sorry I didn't get to see them on the big screen, though the near-complete failure to try to maintain registration between moving (or even stationary!) ground and sky elements is very jarring and fake-looking.

Speaking of the sky, the film also does a commendable job of recreating the bizarre, scary, and vengeful weather depicted in the book.

The score is certainly not among Jerry Goldsmith's best work, but it's better than the material it underscores, and it has some kewl analog synth squawks you don't get to hear in his other work.

The truck is also pretty cool, though the stretchy material connecting the two halves looks comically flimsy in the harsh environments the truck rides through. Not surprised to hear that's the one element that does not survive on the show vehicle today.

But I have to say that if you insist on watching a movie where the main characters venture out from one of the remaining safe pockets of humanity in a dangerous post-apocalyptic world in their heavily armored, missile-firing truck, and occasionally drive dirt bikes out of the back of it, you would do much better to watch George Romero's "Land of the Dead" instead. (If the Landmaster or other elements of "Damnation Alley" provided any inspiration to "Land of the Dead", it's by far the best thing this bastard child of Zelazny has given to the world.)

This movie did have cheesy acting and special effects, but at least it wasn't filled with the fear, anxiety and hopelessness of the movie '' The Day After''. In order to enjoy ''Damnation Alley'', you really do have to turn off your brain and turn on your imagination. Unlike most, i actually liked the ending of this movie, it did at least offer hope that humanity wasn't completely wiped out in the nuclear holocaust. ''The Day After'' seemed to imply that all living things would eventually die in the aftermath of nuclear war.

''Damnation Alley'' is not my favorite movie by no means, but i watch it every time it happens to be shown on one of the cable channels.

A film I wanted to like, but I was left feeling quite indifferent. This adaptation of Roger Zelazny's novel turns out to be a junky, often exaggerated piece of cheap post-apocalyptic drive-in schlock that pales alongside its inspiration. The problem mainly lied with it lack of plot episodes within this road movie through a dangerous landscape and the ones they went with were quite flat and half-baked (obviously outside the killer cockroaches segment). In some aspects its budget couldn't entirely match its vision. What made the feature though were its steady performances (Paul Winfield is always a delight) and of course how can you pass on that vehicle --- "The Landmaster". Where can I buy me one of those? George Peppard and Jan Michael Vincent lead the cast, as two U.S Air force soldiers who survive a nuclear holocaust caused by WW3, causing the earth to tilt on its axis creating freak weather patterns (storms, floods) and mutated insects. So a small crew head out in two armoured vehicles through radiation affected areas known as "Damnation Alley" in their journey for survivors and a safe area. Also coming for a ride are Dominique Sanda, Kip Niven and a young Jackie Earle Haley who's pretty good at chucking stones. The special effects that are projected are chintzy with some blotchy optical effects. While limited, it has its moments, but I wished a little more did happen and that ending couldn't be any more sickening (, in a suger-coated sense).

"Nothing good happens by itself."

Apparently, this film was adapted from a book that was a bit darker and gritty than what we get here. What that is precisely, cheese. That being said, I also have to mention that I enjoy cheese so I enjoyed this film. Some of the effects are very dated now and when watching it again there are a few number of scenes in this one that were clearly padding, but I still enjoy it. Jan-Michael Vincent and George Peppard star in this movie, but the kid that turns up in the film was Jackie Earle Haley who was in Watchmen as Rorschach and suffice to say, you can definitely tell that it is him!

The story of this one has the world going through World War III which not only causes radiation, but also causes the world to shift its axis which causes storms the likes of which man has never seen before. Survivors at a military base decide to trek across country after an incident destroys and kills most of the men at the base in the hopes of making it to Albany where they had received a signal indicating that there may be more people alive. They go across country in two huge all terrain vehicles, but one of them is taken out rather early by a storm. They find a couple of other survivors along the way as well as a town infested with roaches, radiated rednecks and even more storms!

The film pretty much has them traveling through the wasteland with there being a few stops here and there and generally when there were stops, they either found something or there was trouble! We see Las Vegas, then Salt Lake City, but then we are not really shown where they are until they make it to Detroit. They kind of skipped ahead a bit as they make Albany kind of quickly. Granted, who wants to see every thing that happens, but it would have been cool to see a few more obstacles along the way!

In the end, I enjoyed the film. I liked the characters of Tanner and Denton as they do not exactly become good friends during the course of their journey, but the relationship improves as it goes. I really liked the cockroaches of Salt Lake as it was a better done scene than anything in the movie, "The Nest" which was about roaches! The vehicles were rather cool and overall it was a fun movie. The effects are not the greatest in the movie, but they do make the world seem like it is in the aftermath of a nuclear war, that is, until the end where it looks like everything is pretty much normal. I doubt everything would be completely back to normal in such a short time frame. Still, it is a nice distraction for an hour and a half and typical of those weird 70's science fiction films, just not quite as weird.

I liked this movie, the land rover scenes were the best part of the movie. the land rover was also used in a few other movies. i think the cyborg movie.

this movie was cheesy some, however with a bigger budget and a modern rewrite, this could be well liked, from virus to global warming or ice age.

It's them in the high tech land rovers that captured people and the neat stuff. in this day in age, it appears bad. But back in 1977, it was good.

The idea, people can survive after a nuke war, well we know if ya did it would be bad, but there has not really been a movie of survival after and during a lot of different disasters.

I enjoy this every time I watch it. Science Fiction with some very good and some mediocre visual effects. The cast does a good job. I liked the vehicle the "Landmaster." Jack Earle Haley, the kid in this movie is currently in a series on television, and it's pretty good. Most of the movie takes place as the people go from one place to another in the Landmaster, and the people and things they meet. Jan Michael Vincent and Haley get some motorcycle riding in. This was out of print for some while, also the newest DVD of this movie is slightly different than the one I originally saw. It is well worth the price of a rental, check it out and see what you think.

It's hard to believe the budget for this movie after you've watched it, to say that it hasn't aged well definitely gave me a good belly laugh out loud. No, its certainly has not aged well at all.

In fact Damnation Alley is so poor I struggled most of the time to watch it without finding something else to think about or do. The plot seems good on the face of it but it the comical execution makes it so tedious.

A group of survivors from a self destructive military base head off into the desert to play some poker machines, encounter some laughable armor plated cockroaches and later meet some radioactive hillbillies.

Points for the casting though and the occasional fiery explosion. The flood scene was pretty cool too.