Weirdhouse Cinema: Warriors of the Year 2072
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What is the premise of Warriors of the Year 2072 and its place in 1980s Italian cinema?
This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeart Radio.
Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb.
And this is Joe McCormick. And today on the podcast, we're going to be talking about the 1984 Italian dystopian action film, Warriors of the Year 2072, also known as Rome 2033. Yeah, it's a different year. They both are. Rome, 2033, Cullen, The Fighter Centurions, also known as The New Gladiators, and so on and so on. A lot of titles in the different international markets. Just a warning up top about this one. To any viewers who have photosensitive epilepsy, like one third of this movie is in strobe lights. But they're very cool scenes. You can make the call on whether it's worth it.
Yeah, we'll have a lot to say about the lighting here. The title, I have to admit, for this one is pretty generic and easy to get lost in the shuffle when it comes to particularly Italian genre films of this period. I think the generic title is one of the reasons I never actually watched this one until now. It sounds so much like The New Barbarians, one of the names for a pretty insane post-apocalyptic Enzo G. Castellari film, which also has Fred Williamson in it.
He was doing all of these. I haven't seen that one. I might have to check that out. I do like some Castellari. But of course, this movie was not Enzo G. Castellari. It was directed by the one, the only, Lucio Fulci. I will. My opinion is this is not one of his best, but it was, at least to me, highly amusing. So I would not put it on the shelf with like the Gates of Hell trilogy or Conquest. I think those are like my favorites of his. But this is also not on the bottom rung for me. It's somewhere in the middle.
Yeah, yeah. I'd certainly argue that it's far from the worst. And, you know, for instance, unless your appetite for sweat spandex and Keith Emerson just overpowers everything else, 2072 is an easy pick over 1984's Murder Rock. Though some people may absolutely love Murder Rock, fair enough. But I would say that I think Warriors of the Year 2072 is absolutely a must-see if you were at all a big fan of Fulci's aesthetics, because it's pretty much his only science fiction film. As we've discussed before—
It makes me want more. Yeah,
yeah. I wish— Yeah, it's it's one of those situations where you're like, man, we could have we could have had at least one more proper Fulci at full
power sci fi film. Like, can you imagine Fulci doing a space movie? This one isn't in space, but like Fulci doing a Star Crash style Gonzo space opera that could have been amazing.
Yeah, like even if it was terrible, I would want it. Because, you know, as we've discussed before, despite his enduring fame as a master of dreamlike horror and gore, he directed various pictures of different genres, including westerns and comedies. But the only other contender for a Fulci sci-fi is his 1965 comedy 002 Operation Moon, which... which I think has some people, some Fulci completists have found things to enjoy in it. But it's a black and white picture. It's a different era of Fulci. And it is not like the second helping of full-blown Fulci future that you're going to be left pining for after this picture.
Warriors of the Year 2072 is not quite as immediately recognizable as Fulci Aesthetics, as I would say like his horror films are. You know, you watch one of his Jallo movies or one of the zombie, you know, the gore horror movies. Those, like, within a minute, you know who directed this. You know, there's just, there's a... tangible quality. It might be kind of hard to say what it is, but it has something to do with weird dreamlike images, things that don't make narrative sense, and yet they strongly kind of resonate in the gut. There's that weird perverse sensibility with gore, like, let's get a closer look at that,
you know, all
these kind of fulchy things. This movie doesn't quite go all the way there, but there are muted aspects of all that stuff at play if you know what to look for. And there's one scene that really screamed Fulci to me.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the premise of Warriors of the Year 2072 and its place in 1980s Italian cinema?
0:00–17:40
2
How does Lucio Fulci’s direction shape the film’s visual style and sci‑fi elements?
17:40–34:27
3
Who are the main characters and what roles do Jared Martin and Fred Williamson play?
34:27–49:02
4
What is the significance of the ‘kill bike’ death‑sport and its opening action sequence?
49:02–1:02:57
5
How does the movie explore entertainment as a tool for social control and media manipulation?
1:02:57–1:18:23
6
What are the key plot twists involving the supercomputer Junior and the AI villain Sam?
1:18:23–1:32:17
7
How does the climactic gladiator showdown resolve the film’s themes of violence and resistance?
1:32:17–1:42:21
8
What lasting impressions does Warriors of the Year 2072 leave for fans of Fulci and dystopian sci‑fi?
1:42:21–1:44:36