Week 14 (Sept. 20 – 26) – THE END! Post-Apocalyptic Cinema: Make sure to pull the ladder up on the way out
Originally titled John Travis: Solar Survivor, this was written and produced by Ronald L. Marchini, executive-produced by his wife, Jo Anne Marchini and directed by Paul Kyriazi (Death Machines, Ninja Busters).
I was dreamin’ when I wrote this; forgive me if it goes astray. But welcome to 1999! According to this movie, the world won’t end with a whimper or a nuclear bang. It will end because the sun decided to get extra spicy. Thirty years of relentless solar flares have scorched the Earth into a wasteland of dust, desperation and questionable fashion choices. In case you wonder, could this happen? Just think of how it’s 90 degrees in the northeast in September.
If you get kissed by a solar flare, you don’t get a nice tan. No, bullshit science here to explain that you turn into a psychotic, murder-happy maniac. The U.S. government is holed up like cowards in NYC and D.C. while the rest of humanity is split between fortified redoubts, roving bands of scummy slavers and heroic lone wolves who know their way around a roundhouse kick. Speaking of currency, forget Bitcoin: the new gold standard is unradiated water, gasoline and women.
John Travis (Ron Marchini) is a mullet-rocking security patrol leader — one could say he’s an Omega Cop — working for a sanctuary compound commanded by none other than Batman himself, Adam West (as Prescott). Travis and his crew get dispatched to crash a slaver auction and take out the notorious bandit kingpin, Wraith. Naturally, things go completely pear-shaped. A massive shootout erupts; Travis’s entire squad bites the dust, and backup radios in with some classic corporate HR news: Due to solar flare interference, you’re fired. Don’t come home.
Stranded in the gritty urban ruins, Travis does what any hyper-masculine 90s action hero would do: he frees three captive women, drags them to his totally rad, abandoned baseball stadium hideout and tries to keep everyone alive. After an ill-fated detour to a local clinic run by Stuart Whitman (who sadly catches the crazy radiation bug and has to be put down like old Yeller), Travis heads back to Prescott’s compound, only to find Wraith’s goons laying siege to the bunker.
With the base thoroughly compromised, Prescott radios in a heroic final order: Blow everything up. Travis and his newly acquired lady squad rig up the explosives, level the compound and ride off into the sunset to chill by the untainted mountain lakes of Montana.
Troy Donahue is in this, and I feel bad that I had to write that.
Omega Cop was followed by a sequel, Karate Cop.
You can watch this on Tubi.
