10 Badass Sports from Science Fiction

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With the Super Bowl all wrapped up we’re left with a huge void in sports. Sure, there’s the NBA and NHL, but I don’t really get consumed by them until playoffs roll around in a few months, and they’re not as hard hitting as football can be. To help keep us occupied until the sports world resumes, we’re relying on some killer sports from the world of sci-fi. Besides, with all this crazy winter weather we’d rather just stay in doors, kick back a few beers and watch mayhem. Without further ado, here’s 10 Bad-ass Sports from Science Fiction

10. Pyramid

The game of Pyramid was popularized by the TV series Battlestar Galactia. The object of the game is to score a goal by getting the ball into the top of a pyramid, except that’s it a full contact sport. Think of it as a cross between basketball, lacrosse and rugby.

9. Robot Jox

This is from the 1990 film of the same name. The plot centers around a post-nuclear war Earth where the two controlling superpowers, the Americans and Russians, settle every issue with giant robots controlled by people in a gladiator style event.

8. Pod Racing

We were all severely disappointed by The Phantom Menace, but I think we can all agree that the pod race was pretty sick.

7. The Running Man

Some people may say that this doesn’t exactly count as a “sport” because it’s actually a reality show. But, come on, how many reality shows out there are dealing with death matches?

6. Wrestling Zombies

This gem is a 1961 Mexican film entitled Santo vs. The Zombies, where masked wrestler Santo must battle a mad doctor and his army of zombies. That’s right. A Mexican wrestler fighting zombies. Classic.

5. Rakeboarding

This is from the short-lived TV series Max Headroom in 1987. The idea for this sport is pretty sick. Teenagers are placed on motorized skateboards and slash at each other with spiked gloves in a stadium, kinda like another gladiator type of event, for the sake of gaining viewers for a TV network. While the execution of rakeboarding may look dull, the concept is amazingly bad-ass.

4. Thunderdome

This is obviously from the third installment of the Mad Max franchise, 1985′s Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. The actual sport is a gladiatorial duel, except it’s in a cage and to the death. What makes this a truly bad-ass event is that there’s only one rule, “Two men enter, one man leaves”.

3. The Arena

This is a boxing sport called “The Arena,” just like the title of this 1989 direct-to-video release. The Arena is a kick-ass sci-fi sport because it isn’t Rocky vs. Apollo, it’s about a human being pitted up against aliens. If they’re anything like the aliens in Alien or Predators, I’m not betting on the human.

2. Rollerball

We’re talking about the game in the original 1975 film, not that horrible of excuse remake in 2002. Regardless, the popular sport in the world of 2018 is essentially a full contact version of Roller Derby, where players will employ any means necessary to score points, which sometimes means the addition of motorcycles. It’s almost as bad-ass as it gets.

1. Death Race

Death Race 2000 was released two months before Rollerball in 1975. For many sci-fi fans it’s far superior than Rollerball, and we have to agree. Afterall, it’s got a bad-ass title and is delivers exactly what’s promised, a murderous transcontinental race. It’s such an awesomely sex and violent film that Roger Ebert gave it zero stars during his review. And, Sly Stallone is in it. It really doesn’t get much better than that.

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Albert Costill

Just a typical guy that wants an ice-cold PBR with some pizza and wings to go with football on a Sunday. Since venturing into the blogosphere many years ago to discuss his favorite tunes, Al has now moved onto publications by Alpha Brand Media such as AMOG and SoJones to blab about anything and everything else that matters.

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