Damnation Alley

This was 20th Century-Fox's big-budget science-fiction project in 1976. Hoping it would be a success, the studio made an effort to focus all the marketing on this film. At the same time, Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) was a little-publicized modest film, and the studio was convinced that it would fail. Ironically, Damnation Alley bombed while Star Wars became the biggest box office hit in history.

Roger Zelazny, the author of the novel "Damnation Alley", hated the film version.

The 12-wheeled "Landmaster" vehicle used in the film was created by Jefferies Automotive in Universal City, California. Despite the appearance of two "Landmasters" in the film, only one was built at a cost of $300,000 in 1976. The Landmaster is powered by a 391 cubic-inch Ford industrial engine, and features a fully-functional, custom-built "tristar" wheel arrangement, which could actually help it "crawl" over boulders. It also used an innovative steering mechanism that guided the vehicle, not by the front wheels, but by "bending" the middle section with hydraulic rams to affect a turn. The Landmaster's bodywork was made with 3/8-inch steel plating, which helped it tip the scales at over 10 tons. It was so tough, in fact, that it survived a 25-foot jump during testing with no damage. Once filming was completed in 1976, the Landmaster sat outside Jeffries Automotive for over 25 years, occasionally being used for television series and commercials. In 2005, it was purchased by a collector in Sacramento, California, and restored to a similar (but not exact) condition as it was for filming. After making an occasional local car show appearances, the Landmaster was vandalized while in storage, and then sold to legendary automobile customizer Gene Winfield. As of 2019, the original "Landmaster" is alive and well, and is available for public viewing at Gene Winfield's Custom Shop in Mojave, California, 100 miles north of Los Angeles. It is missing the rocket launcher and machine guns as seen in the film, but is otherwise intact and drivable.

The infamous armor-plated "killer cockroaches" are in fact Madagascar "hissing" cockroaches. In reality, they are three-inches long (as seen in the film), and are quite benign. They make the "hissing" sound to communicate with one another, and when they are agitated. Live roaches were used in close up shots, but rubber mock ups were used in the wide and group shots.

After poor initial box office returns, was packaged as a double feature with the similarly under-performing Wizards (1977).