Elect me!!!
Terminal City Ricochet is a 1990 Canadian dystopian comedy film directed by Zale Dalen.
The story takes place 20 Minutes into the Future in the Crapsack World of Terminal City, one of only six inhabitable cities left on Earth due to pollution and nuclear fallout and where pieces of a disintegrating space colony are constantly falling. The town is ruled by the murderous, despotic corporate overlord mayor Ross Glimore (played by Peter Breck of Maverick and Black Saddle), who has brainwashed most of the population into obeying him and buying his company's products with televised propaganda. His secret police force, headed by Glimore's right-hand man Bruce Coddle (played by Dead Kennedys lead singer Jello Biafra), exists to persecute dissenters; mostly artists and punk rockers. After rebellious paperboy Alex Stevens is framed for terrorism, he meets disappeared former hockey star Ace "The Saviour" Tomlinson (Germain Houde), and they join forces with a revolutionary band of punks and artists led by Beatrice (Lisa Brown) to take Glimore down.
The movie was filmed in Vancouver and features a soundtrack rife with musicians from the city's punk rock scene of the late 1970s and 80s—some of them collaborating with co-star Biafra—as well as a minor role for D.O.A. frontman Joe "Shithead" Keithley . Biafra's collaborations with D.O.A. and Nomeansno for the soundtrack led to him writing and recording full-length collaborative albums with each, respectively titled Last Scream of the Missing Neighbors and The Sky Is Falling and I Want My Mommy.
Though not particularly well-remembered, it has become a minor Cult Classic with a Cult Soundtrack; both the DVD and album are available through Biafra's label Alternative Tentacles.
Terminal City Ricochet contains examples of:
- Acme Products: Virtually everything in Terminal City is made by the Glicor Corporation.
- Amnesiac Hero: Ace "The Saviour" Tomlinson has both long-term and short-term memory loss from taking a hockey puck to the head and doesn't remember who he is or what he had just been arrested for when we meet him.
- Axe-Crazy: Alex's brainwashed mother starts chopping down his bedroom door with an axe after he refuses his nutrient slurry and locks himself in there to ignore her.
- Beehive Hairdo: Many of the women in Terminal City—the ones obsequious to Glimore, at least—sport ridiculous-looking bouffant hairstyles.
- Black Comedy: Several examples, but the darkest instance is undoubtedly the young boys on TV obliviously describing the police shootout in their home as "neat", followed by one of them saying to their father (the victim) "Daddy, wake up".
- Book Ends:
- The film starts and ends with newspaper headlines; at the beginning they depict Glimore's ascent to power, and at the end they detail his fall.
- A group of people are watching Lupo the Butcher at the start of the film, and a short clip from the same cartoon is the last thing we see before the credits roll.
- Brainwashed: Alex's mom buys into Glimore's propaganda hook, line and sinker and is convinced her son is really a terrorist.
- Brain with a Manual Control: Scientists in Glimore's employ experiment on a boy by putting a mind-control device in his brain; in the film's climax, Ace reveals him to the people by using a joystick to make him walk around.
- Bread and Circuses: Glimore's public re-election celebration is a chintzy spectacle featuring bodybuilders, go-go dancers, and a live band.
- Capitalism Is Bad: Basically the entire movie in a nutshell.
- Comically Missing the Point: As Coddle's cronies are distracted by falling space junk, one of them sees a side of beef fall from the sky and screams indignantly, "They're eating meat up there?!"
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Ross Glimore, the greedy, dictatorial, murderous, Satan-worshipping mayor.
- Crapsack World: Only six cities in the world are still inhabitable, a corporate despot rules the town, there are almost no birds left alive, and flaming space junk regularly falls from the sky. Needless to say, Terminal City is not a fun place to be.
- Culture Police: Terminal Citizens are kept on a short leash when it comes to media diet and artistic expression; dissident artists are publicly shamed on television, rock music has been banned, and the film begins with a public screening of the comedically violent cartoon short Lupo the Butcher (by future Ed, Edd n Eddy creator Danny Antonucci) being raided by the cops.
- Dance Party Ending: The film ends with the main characters enjoying a D.O.A. concert in a liberated Terminal City.
- Deus ex Machina: Just when Bruce and his cronies are about to murder all the protagonists and escape seems impossible, space junk starts falling from the sky and distracts the villains in time for the heroes to gain the upper hand.
- Extinct in the Future: Birds are apparently extremely endangered in-universe due to environmental degradation; the mere sighting of a starling outside of town is a newsworthy event, and the trees outside Glimore's vacation home in the woods are fitted with speakers that play recordings of birds.
- Eye Scream: Bruce tortures Glimore's head scientist by sticking a lit cigarette in his eye.
- Faked Kidnapping: Ace's harebrained scheme to kidnap Glimore's stepson Jim turns into this when Jim reveals he hates his stepfather and agrees to join forces with the protagonists.
- Faking the Dead:
- The Terminal Citizens are told that hockey star Ace "The Saviour" Tomlinson was killed by a puck to the head; he's later revealed to be alive, but in hiding and suffering from head-trauma-induced memory loss. It's later implied he was also lobotomized.
- Later on, Glimore falsely announces that the "terrorists" have killed his stepson Jim and that his "kidnappers" Ace, Alex and Beatrice were killed by police before sending his cronies to kill them all for real.
- The Famine: Meat is rare in Terminal City and police informants are rewarded with it.
- Fun with Acronyms: The initials of the secret police force, the Social Peace Enforcement Unit, spell out "SPEU" (spew).
- Future Food Is Artificial: An everyday meal in Terminal City is a nutrient goo dispensed from the bottom of a TV set. (Though it does apparently come in a variety of colours).
- Gaia's Lament: The weather report calmly warns viewers of nuclear winter, birds are near-extinct, meat is a rare item, and Terminal City is one of only six livable cities left on Earth.
- Hard Truth Aesop: Ace announces to the TV audience at the end of the film that ultimately, it was they who allowed Glimore to take power and that only they can overthrow him.
- Hell-Bent for Leather: Glimore's private army of "bikercops" dress head-to-toe in black leather rather than typical police uniforms.
- Hollywood Satanism: Glimore is an adherent.
- I Own This Town: Ross Glimore, literally. He runs not only the town, but also the company that makes everything in it.
- Ironic Name: Joe Keithley's character Officer Friendly is anything but.
- Just Ignore It: Space junk crashes into Glimore's backyard during his re-election party right as a live broadcast from his kitchen is about to commence; both he and the TV host carry on as if nothing is happening while utter pandemonium occurs quite audibly in the background.
- Kick the Dog: Ross Glimore runs over a woman whose dog had just been crushed by falling space junk (and had been wearing a sandwich board for his re-election campaign) with his car.
- Large Ham: Glimore is one on the campaign trail.
- Lobotomy: It's implied that Ace underwent one after Glimore faked his death.
- MacGuffin: Glimore spends most of the movie searching for a missing key he thinks possesses voodoo powers; it turns out his stepson Jim has been wearing it as an earring, and it opens a vault containing video evidence of his crimes.
- Meaningful Name: Ace's nickname "The Saviour" becomes appropriate when he ends up being the one to finally convince the Terminal Citizens that Glimore is evil and that they must overthrow him and take back control of the town.
- Moose and Maple Syrup: Downplayed; the movie is a Canadian production, and the popularity of hockey and Danny Antonucci cartoons, references to Elmer the Safety Elephant, the presence of French-Canadian hockey players and the spelling of the word "saviour" would seem to indicate that it takes place in Canada, but other than that the Canadianness doesn't jump out... perhaps the movie takes place in a post-nation-state world.
- My Nayme Is: The surname Glimore is pronounced "glimmer". (Or maybe the surname Glimmer is spelled Glimore).
- Nightmare Sequence: While hiding out in Glimore's vacation home, Alex dreams that Glimore, Bruce, and their wives barge in, terrorize him, kill his compatriots, snort a mountain of cocaine and ransack the place.
- Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Ace "The Saviour" Tomlinson has an extremely English name and an extremely French-Canadian accent; he's played by Québecois actor Germain Houde. (Though it's possible that the character is descended from British immigrants to Quebec.).
- No Communities Were Harmed: Terminal City is an Expy of Vancouver, Canada, where it was filmed and of which "Terminal City" is a nickname. The film's title was taken from a hockey team called the Terminal City Ricochets.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Jello Biafra said in an interview that Glimore is a composite character of various right-wing political leaders and rich Vancouver plutocrats, including then-Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney and then-British Columbia premier Bill Vander Zalm, who had vowed to crack down on "welfare deadbeats" as mayor of Surrey and accumulated something of a cult of personality dubbed "Vandermania" during his provincial election campaign.
- Patched Together from the Headlines: Glimore's sacrifice of a young girl in a cult ritual is clearly inspired by the moral panic surrounding supposed instances of "Satanic ritual abuse"
throughout the 1980s and early 90s; to this day, conspiracy theories and rumors continue to circulate about powerful figures engaging in the ritualized abuse of children. - Peace & Love Incorporated: Bruce Coddle's secret police force is officially known as the Social Peace Enforcement Unit.
- Phony Psychic: In addition to being head of the secret police, Bruce Coddle markets himself as a voodoo guru.
- Police Brutality: Terminal City is rife with it, especially since the police force was privatized.
- Polluted Wasteland: Most of the world seems to be this in-universe, with Terminal City being one of the only remaining inhabitable cities. The words "nuclear fallout" in a weather report carry about the same weight as "partly cloudy". (It's not clear whether the fallout is from nuclear war or industrial accidents).
- Poster-Gallery Bedroom: Alex's bedroom walls are covered in D.O.A. posters; frontman Joe Keithley has a supporting role in the movie, their music appears on the soundtrack, the band has a cameo at the end, and their former manager Ken Lester is a co-writer.
- Privately Owned Society: Mayor Ross Glimore is a former talk show host and CEO of Glicor who bought the local hockey team, rigged the mayoral election, and privatized the police service. A newspaper headline during the opening credits indicates his corporate-friendly rule has attracted many multinational corporations to the city.
- Propaganda Machine: Glimore controls all the media in Terminal City and uses it to propagate Blatant Lies constantly.
- Putting on the Reich: Ross Glimore's campaign materials have a red, white and black colour scheme, and after he's arrested he writes a book in prison called ''My Struggle''.
- Reckless Gun Usage: We first see Officer Friendly scratching his nose with the barrel of his gun, and other cops are shown accidentally shooting several people.
- Saving the World With Art: The main resistance movement against Glimore's rule is made up of artists and punk rockers. In turn, the government seems genuinely threatened by them, judging by the presence of a TV show called Artists On Trial that aims to slander them.
- Secret Police: Run by Jello Biafra, no less!
- Shout-Out: The TV show Artists On Trial calls the artist I, Braineater a "psychosexual pervert"; I, Braineater is a real Vancouver-based artist (real name Jim Cummins) who is also a veteran of the original Vancouver punk scene. His band, also called I, Braineater, is featured on the film's soundtrack and his art is featured in the network's hideout.
- Show Within a Show: We're shown several examples of the trashy TV shows broadcast in Terminal City, including Artists On Trial (in which dissident artists are publicly shamed and slandered) and Frontline Crime (which glorifies the private police force).
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Other characters occasionally use curse words throughout the film, but Commander Crutcher of the "bikercops" swears constantly at Alex while brutalizing and arresting him.
- Spinning Paper: The opening titles are interspersed with pictures of newspaper headlines detailing the rise to power of Ross Glimore, the consolidation of his corporate and media empire, and the "death" of hockey star Ace Tomlinson. The spinning papers return at the end of the film to document Glimore's downfall and the liberation of Terminal City.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: The Terminal City media machine assures the populace that flaming space junk doesn't fall from the sky.
- The Stool Pigeon: Alex's best friend Chip tries to give him up to the authorities in exchange for a reward, which turns out to be meat, which is now rare in Terminal City.
- This Is a Work of Fiction: Before the credits roll, we are shown the disclaimer "Any similarity between this film and real life just happens to be the way things are."
- Trauma Button: Ace gets a foul taste in his mouth and has the urge to spit whenever Ross Glimore's name is mentioned.
- Vote Early, Vote Often: A newspaper headline shown during the opening titles hints that Glimore became mayor through voter fraud; he's quoted as saying "machines don't lie".
- Working-Class Hero: The main protagonist of the film, Alex, is a paperboy for the Terminal City Truth.
- Would Hurt a Child: A young boy has the top of his head sawed off to have a Mind Control implant put in it, and at the end it's revealed that Ross Glimore murdered a young girl in a Human Sacrifice ritual.
- Un-person: Glimore faked the death of hockey star Ace Tomlinson by having him take a puck to the head during a game; he had just witnessed Glimore sacrifice a young girl in a voodoo ritual.
- Video Full of Film Clips: D.O.A.'s music video for "Behind the Smile" is full of clips from the film.
- Villain Song: Not featured in the film itself, but co-star Jello Biafra and Nomeansno's song "Bruce's Diary" from their collaborative album The Sky is Falling and I Want My Mommy is this for Biafra's character Bruce Coddle.
- You Killed My Father: Ross Glimore's son Jim is actually his stepson. Jim's real father was Ross's lawyer who knew too much, and Jim watched Ross murder him on a fishing trip.
