Four miscreants rob a train of millions of dollars worth of gold bullion, but how to spend it? It's hot stuff. Fortunately, the group's leader, Oscar Beregi, has worked out a plan. They simply drive into the desert and put themselves into a state of hibernation for a hundred years. When they emerge, in 2061, the heist will have been long forgotten.
Of course things go wrong. One of the men dies accidentally during the hundred years. Simon Oakland, the greediest and least thoughtful of the remaining three, runs over one of the others. Now only Beregi and Oakland are left to pack their knapsacks full of stone-heavy gold and set off along a desert road, hoping to find a town.
Beregi runs out of water. Oakland, all evil grins, offers to sell him a drink of water for one bar of gold, later raised to two bars. The deranged Beregi beans Oakland and makes off with the little bit of gold he's still able to carry.
He's finally spotted by a tourist couple and with his dying breath offers them a bar of real gold to drive him to town. Ironically, in the preceding hundred years, the alchemists have found a way to manufacture gold and it is now as cheap as plastic.
Nobody can be as villainous as Simon Oakland at his best. Even when he plays an ordinary role, he comes across as bossy. And Beregi is just as good an actor, although in his career he was largely constrained to the tube. Happily, make up didn't squirt oil all over everyone, as they did in "The Lonely", in order to suggest perspiration. You don't really sweat in the desert because of the low vapor pressure. I drove though this filming location, Death Valley, in the middle of summer with a guy who drank beer after beer and never urinated. He didn't have to. He sweated it out and it evaporated at once.
Of course things go wrong. One of the men dies accidentally during the hundred years. Simon Oakland, the greediest and least thoughtful of the remaining three, runs over one of the others. Now only Beregi and Oakland are left to pack their knapsacks full of stone-heavy gold and set off along a desert road, hoping to find a town.
Beregi runs out of water. Oakland, all evil grins, offers to sell him a drink of water for one bar of gold, later raised to two bars. The deranged Beregi beans Oakland and makes off with the little bit of gold he's still able to carry.
He's finally spotted by a tourist couple and with his dying breath offers them a bar of real gold to drive him to town. Ironically, in the preceding hundred years, the alchemists have found a way to manufacture gold and it is now as cheap as plastic.
Nobody can be as villainous as Simon Oakland at his best. Even when he plays an ordinary role, he comes across as bossy. And Beregi is just as good an actor, although in his career he was largely constrained to the tube. Happily, make up didn't squirt oil all over everyone, as they did in "The Lonely", in order to suggest perspiration. You don't really sweat in the desert because of the low vapor pressure. I drove though this filming location, Death Valley, in the middle of summer with a guy who drank beer after beer and never urinated. He didn't have to. He sweated it out and it evaporated at once.