Sega’s fabled early racing game OutRun is getting a big-screen adaptation, thanks in no small part to the recent success of video game franchises on both the big and small screen. Films such as A Minecraft Movie and The Super Mario Bros. Movie, as well as TV shows such as The Last Of Us and Fallout have proven to Hollywood that these intellectual properties dug out from the toy bin of our youth are worth a fortune when adapted well.
According to Deadline, Universal is the studio behind making OutRun into a movie, and two big names are already attached. For better or worse, master-of-gratuitous-explosions Michael Bay has signed on to direct and produce the film, and Hollywood starlet Sydney Sweeney is producing as well. If anything, Bay should be able to convert the harrowing crashes in OutRun into excellent stunt work, while Sweeney has had a ton of recent success producing with projects such as Immaculate, in which she also starred. While she’s not reported to be starring in this movie, there’s always a chance she changes her mind.
Everything We Know About The OutRun Movie
Jayson Rothwell will be writing the script for the OutRun movie. His past credits include Polar, a Netlfix film that starred the excellent Mads Mikkelson. The rest of his resume on IMDB is a list of movies we’ve never heard of, which suggests penning OutRun will be a big step up for the writer.
Deadline reports that plot details for the movie are “vague.” What we can tell you is the game is pretty simple: avoid traffic while you try to reach one of five destinations before time runs out. You play some dude driving a non-standard Ferrari Testarossa convertible with a blonde woman riding shotgun. If you crash, the car immediately enters a barrel roll and ejects both passengers. Thanks to the absence of consequences in early video games, both characters just shake it off and get back in the car for some more crazy driving.
One big element of the game that hopefully translates well to film is its soundtrack. The score was composed by Hiroshi Kawaguchi and included three tracks from which you could select at the beginning. A fourth track is played at the end of the game when you beat it.
The Legacy Of OutRun
If you weren’t born in the 1970s, it’s difficult to understand the impact OutRun had in the 1980s. The game was launched in 1986 as a sit-down cabinet arcade game, some versions of which even had motion-simulators that turned and shook the cabinet in concert with the action on screen. That was pretty advanced stuff for the Reagan era.
OutRun was also quickly adapted for home game consoles, first launching for the Sega Master System in 1987 and then the Genesis in 1991. The game also appeared on many non-Sega systems, including the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo 3DS, and Nintendo Switch.
There were also many sequels. The arcade version had three: Turbo Outrun, OutRunners, and OutRun 2. The console version had even more: OutRun 3-D, Battle OutRun, OutRun Europa, OutRun 2019, OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast, and OutRun Online Arcade.
Before 3-D graphics, polygons, and even disc-based media, there were games like OutRun that pushed the boundaries of what 2-D pixels could do. The dips and swells in the road, the palm trees flying by your face, and the dotted lines on the road that whipped by you in a blur conveyed a sense of speed that was unmatched at the time of the game’s launch and for many years after. Games such as Forza Motorsport and Gran Turismo owe a huge debt to OutRun for taking the hand-off from Pole Position and making the next step in racing games a big one. We can’t wait to see it on the big screen.
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