| survives this game. Shannon kills Mantrax and the baldy, but is out of ammo when Karnak comes after him. Laura Gemser helps him beat Karnak, because she's a mutant telepath.He aggrees to help her in her quest to get a whole bunch of mutant telepaths out of the city, and to safety past the wasteland because government troops dressed as evil nazis are shooting them on sight ( how's that for a half-assed holocaust allegory by D'Amato...he was probably trying to make up for his incredibly incoherent 2020 Texas Gladiators). Being the money hungry celebrity that he is, Shannon first does an ad for the energy drink Lifeplus ( which seems uncannily similar to the energy drinks now appearing on our supermarket shelves to cater to rat-race living : rare thoughtful social commentary by D'Amato). He then assembles a group of warriors to take on this mission. He starts at a Kung Fu Dojo, where he meets Ninja ( Al Yamanouchi-The New Gladiators). Ninja displays his skill by giving a student the touch of death. When others try to help him, Ninja says " It's no use. He's dead". No wonder attendances at this kung fu school are down. Shannon also enlists the aid of a guy with an eye patch, a Terry Funk lookalike, and a strongman who kinda looks like Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys. Together they take the telepaths on an action packed trip across the wasteland. Along the way they encounter a lot of enemies. They run into a bunch of blind murderous monks ( Joe obviously saw Tombs of the Blind Dead) who are using a captured telepath to help them see to kill. Instead of rescuing the poor bastard, our heroes send him to meet his maker. This whole action sequence is pretty good. Theres a lot of weird stuff in this movie. The professor who is with the telepaths is meant to be old, but looks about 40. This is explained away later in the film when Laura Gemser tells Shannon that the professor uses the same youth serum the President used to use ( but at least this explains why Ronald Reagan hasn't aged in 20 years). It also includes the only scene I've seen of Laura Gemser being raped by a blue mutant with scales, and why does she telepathically tell Shannon she's o.k. ? Is she enjoying it? Endgame is one of the more action packed, atmospheric, yet just cheesy enough Italian post nukes, and yet another that was ripped off by The Running Man.It's one of those movies thats good for any time of the day. If you don't blink at the end, you'll spot Michele Soavi in a Hitchcockian cameo as a chopper pilot. |
