History Film / TheFinalSacrifice

''The Final Sacrifice'' is a noble but doomed attempt to produce an old-fashioned adventure film in rural Canada with [[NoBudget an ultra-low budget of around $1500]] and an inexperienced cast and director. It is best known thanks to [[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S09E10TheFinalSacrifice its appearance]] on ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000''.

Directed by Tjardus Greidanus, a film student at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, it utilized a cast of local theater actors and fellow students. It received a VHS release under the title ''Quest for the Lost City'', and occasionally aired on Canadian television in the early '90s, but remained extremely obscure until it was discovered by Best Brains and featured on [=MST3K=].

* BondJamesBond: "The name's Rowsdower. ''Zap'' Rowsdower."[[note]]'''Crow:''' Oh, yeah? Well I'm Bilge Stinkwater.[[/note]]

Ruled by the evil Satoris, an ancient cult of [[{{Mooks}} Canadian wrestlers]] is bent on world domination. Instrumental to their plan is a map to the ancient [[{{Precursors}} Ziox]] cult idol, recently discovered by young Troy [=McGreggor=]. When the cult [[CallToAdventure invades his home to recover the map]], he flees and ends up in the bed of a passing pickup truck, driven by the film's hero--a burly, surly Randy Bachman-lookalike hilariously named [[AwesomeMcCoolname Zap Rowsdower]]. At first, Rowsdower considers turning Troy over to the police, but after the boy helps him to fix his broken-down truck and Rowsdower helps Troy escape from the cult leaders again, he decides to let Troy stay with him. Rowsdower and Troy become friends and together search for the [[MacGuffin lost idol]] before the cult can claim it and take over the world.

* AwesomeMcCoolname: What the film thought "Zap Rowsdower" was.
** FailOSuckyName: What "Zap Rowsdower" turned out to be.
** InherentlyFunnyWords: What "Zap Rowsdower" became.

* OffTheGrid: Mike Pipper lived at one of his base camps, and completely lived with no electricity or phone service.

''The Final Sacrifice'' is a noble but doomed attempt to film an old-fashioned adventure film in rural Canada with [[NoBudget an ultra-low budget]] (around $1500) and an inexperienced cast and director. It is best known from [[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S09E10TheFinalSacrifice its appearance]] on ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000.''

Ruled by the evil Satoris, an ancient cult of [[{{Mooks}} Canadian wrestlers]] is bent on world domination. Instrumental to their plan is a map to the ancient [[{{Precursors}} Ziox]] cult idol, recently discovered by a young boy, Troy [=McGreggor=]. When the cult [[CallToAdventure invades his home to recover the map]], he flees and ends up in the bed of a passing pickup truck, driven by the film's hero--a burly, surly Randy Bachman-lookalike hilariously named [[AwesomeMcCoolname Zap Rowsdower]]. At first Rowsdower considers turning Troy over to the police, but after Troy helps him to fix his broken-down truck and Rowsdower helps Troy escape from the cult leaders again, he decides to let Troy stay with him. Rowsdower and Troy become friends and together search for the [[MacGuffin lost idol]] before the cult can claim it and take over the world.

The map leads Troy, and eventually Rowsdower, all over Alberta, through some unlikely caves, and finally to the unkempt shack of a hairy, grizzled fugitive by the name of Mike Pipper. Pipper was a partner of Troy's late father, and archaeologist who studied the ancient Ziox civilization; he has been hiding in the woods from Satoris for seven years (who never found him, even though it took Troy and Zap a few days at most). Pipper reveals that the cultists are the last descendants of the Ziox, an ancient culture whose civilization was destroyed by their god after they turned away from it and worshiped an evil idol instead. According to Pipper the Ziox built a [[{{Atlantis}} great city]] that was more advanced than "anything the ancient Egyptians or Romans ever knew", but their god sank the city in a month-long rainstorm.

The movie was directed by Tjardus Greidanus, then a film student at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, using a cast of local theater actors and fellow students. It received a VHS release under the title ''Quest for the Lost City'', and occasionally aired on Canadian television in the early '90s, but remained extremely obscure until it was discovered by Best Brains and featured on [=MST3K=].

[[SimilarlyNamedWorks Not to be confused with]] ''Film/ChildrenOfTheCornIITheFinalSacrifice.''

''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' episode recap [[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S09E10TheFinalSacrifice here]].

* ChromosomeCasting: Other than the ''very'' brief appearance of Troy's aunt, every character in the film is male.
* ColdOpen: The movie opens on a scene of Satoris' cultists chasing someone through the woods before going into the opening credits.

** So 7 years after killing Troy's father, the cult just happened to find out where Troy lives and decided to storm his house right around the time when Troy looked through his father's old notes and found the map to the Ziox ruins?

* DisappearedDad: Troy's dad was killed by the cult in the beginning of the film.
* EightiesHair: Zap Rowsdower's mullet. Satoris had one at the start of the film as well, before trading it in for a slick feather job.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: A visual one. One concerning Rowsdower's past. In the very first shot of the film the mook on the left applies his red mask...it's definitely Rowsdower! His wrists are [[CallForward even bandaged]] from the ordeal later shown in the [[CatapultNightmare nightmare scene.]] This would be easy to miss since the viewer's eye would be naturally focused on Satoris & the campfire to notice.

* FruitCart: During the chase scene early in the film, the goons chasing Troy in their vehicle plow into some trash cans, just because.

* GrumpyOldMan: Mike Pipper turned into one of these over time.

** They can't capture a scrawny teen on a bicycle, even when they regroup and chase him in a car.
** Troy eludes capture again by ''lying on the ground.'' They walk right past him without bothering to look down.

* InherentlyFunnyWords: Aside from Zap's name, the Ziox, which sounds too much like Hydrox, a cookie sandwich that predates Oreos.

* LowSpeedChase: Toward the end of the movie, the Ziox mooks chase Rowsdower up a hill. But the hill they're climbing happens to be ''incredibly steep'', so they all run up the hill slowly.

* DarthVaderClone: Satoris. Tall and imposing? Check. Wears black clothes? Check. Deep voice? Check.

* ChromosomeCasting: Other than the ''very'' brief appearance of Troy's grandmother, every character in the film is male.

* EightiesHair: Zap Rowsdower's mullet. Satoris [[http://oi60.tinypic.com/35d15iu.jpg had one]] at the start of the film as well, before trading it in for [[http://oi60.tinypic.com/21mwwhi.jpg a slick feather job.]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: A visual one. One concerning Rowsdower's past. In the very first shot of the film the mook on the left applies his red mask...it's [[http://oi58.tinypic.com/2eznupv.jpg definitely Rowsdower!]] His wrists are [[CallForward even bandaged]] from the ordeal later shown in the [[CatapultNightmare nightmare scene.]] This would be easy to miss since the viewer's eye would be naturally focused on Satoris & the campfire to notice.

The map leads Troy, and eventually Rowsdower, all over Alberta, through some unlikely caves, and finally to the unkempt shack of a hairy, grizzled fugitive by the name of Mike Pipper. Pipper was a partner of Troy's father; he has been hiding in the woods from Satoris for seven years (who never found him, even though it took Troy and Zap a few days at most). Pipper reveals that the cultists are the last descendants of the Ziox, an ancient culture whose civilization was destroyed by their god after they turned away from it and worshiped an evil idol instead. According to Pipper the Ziox built a [[{{Atlantis}} great city]] that was more advanced than "anything the ancient Egyptians or Romans ever knew", but their god sank the city in a month-long rainstorm.

** Basically everything Troy and Zap need to find, including the final objective, is within a very short driving distance away from Troy's house.

%% * TheGuardsMustBeCrazy

%% * TheDrifter: Zap.
%% * TheHero

%% * TellMeAboutMyFather
* TitleDrop: Failed.