by Frank Calvillo
Even for a film partially belonging to a genre which was already beginning to feel dated at the time of release, the 1977 thriller Rollercoaster boasts one of the most spectacular openings ever. The film starts off with shots of a tranquil seaside amusement park featuring an average-looking young man gazing from a pair of binoculars at the park’s staff performing their opening duties as customers begin pouring in. It’s all wonderfully normal, wonderfully peaceful, and wonderfully suspenseful as it sets the scene for a tension-filled experience with moments which do manage to rival any real-life theme park ride.
In Rollercoaster, an unknown young man (Timothy Bottoms) is traveling around the country to various theme parks where he is setting off homemade bombs on rollercoasters and sitting back as horrendous carnage ensues. When an engineer of one of the parks uncovers the young man’s pattern, he and a head federal agent (Richard Widmark) team up to stop the madman from committing what is to be his ultimate act of terror.
There’s no question that Rollercoaster contains plenty of disaster movie DNA. For a start, the film was billed as being presented in “sensurround,” a high-definition sound quality, which signified the kind of gimmick popular with disaster films back in the day, but which is now seen as somewhat laughable. Likewise, as with virtually all disaster films, there are an assortment of recognizable faces which pop up throughout the course of the movie, from Henry Fonda in a supporting role as Segal’s boss to then-current glam rock band Sparks appearing as themselves in the film’s final act. There are also the quirky side characters and multiple action sequences taking place, both of which are considered disaster movie staples. Unfortunately for Rollercoaster, the film is not particularly well-remembered in the disaster genre since such a film was starting to be considered out of style by the time it came around. However, Rollercoaster proves to be one of the few disaster films which still holds up.
The reason for the film’s potency is the fact that Rollercoaster functions as a thriller about the horrors of homegrown terrorists, as well as a disaster film. There are truly endless amounts of suspense to be had as the audience waits for the opening explosion to take place while Bottoms walks around the park playing games and eating cotton candy as one group after another boards the rollercoaster he’s set up as his first target. He’s toying with the patrons as the filmmakers are toying with the audience with regards to when the explosion will actually happen. The waiting is beyond excruciating. All of the rollercoaster sequences are shot well with plenty of screaming, which keeps the audience on their toes as they don’t know if it’s another act by Bottoms (whose entrances are so subtle, yet manage to shock every single time) or business as usual. Meanwhile the gathering of a handful of theme park bigwigs in a hotel suite at the disturbed man’s request, as well as his continuous cat and mouse-like chase with Segal, further adds to the suspense showing that the film didn’t need a rollercoaster with a bomb strapped to it in order to achieve thrills. A few more sequences would have edged the film into full-on disaster (rather than thriller) territory, but this must have certainly been a conscious effort on behalf of the filmmakers who didn’t want to make a flat-out genre effort.
In my humble opinion, Rollercoaster is one of the few films which captures Segal’s underused leading man abilities, while Widmark enjoys a great latter-day role. Both men enjoy some pretty decent chemistry which manages to carry them through a number of interesting scenes together. Meanwhile, Susan Strasberg is only on hand as Segal’s girlfriend because the film needs a damsel to place in harm’s way later on. No one in the cast comes close to touching Bottoms. though. The actor has such a nice guy, all-American everyman quality, which makes him all the more sinister and terrifying when playing his character. In an Oscar-worthy performance, Bottoms makes for a highly effective villain, conveying his madness through the most thoughtful of facial expressions as the majority of his scenes are by himself.
Watching Rollercoaster was certainly a thrilling and entertaining experience. However in light of recent real-life events, it was hard not to view the film with a small, yet unmistakable level of sadness. Places such as amusement parks and nightclubs were meant for escape and enjoyment, where people could be free to let their guard down and feel wonderfully vulnerable with the feeling that nothing in the ugly, outside world could touch them. After the first explosion in the film, an elderly amusement park worker tells Segal, “I’ve been here 40 years. Nothing like this has ever happened before.” Not only does that line give the film a definite poignancy that most forget actually popped up in the genre on occasion, but it also said so much about the changing times and a way of life that no longer was.
The Package
Aside from a handful of original marketing materials, the Blu-ray for Rollercoaster comes complete with an interview featuring the film’s writer/producer Tommy Cook, who spends half of the time talking about the various life events which inspired him to create the film’s story. The animated Cook eventually goes on to recall his various notes on certain aspects of the film he felt needed work, all of which were turned down by the studio.
The Lowdown
A decent disaster effort and a crackling suspenser, Rollercoaster will forever change the image people have always had about an otherwise escapist pastime.
Rollercoaster is now available on Blu-ray from Shout Factory.
