Surviving the Game (1994) is one of those ’90s gems that, to this day, I cannot believe exists. With a concept so strange encapsulated by an ensemble so eclectically bizarre, this is a film I have to recommend on its absurdist basis.

Looking at its core, Surviving the Game is a battle of man versus nature versus the social elite. It’s essentially a survival story which riffs on the premise of Richard Connell’s classic, The Most Dangerous Game. The difference here is that this time we’re set in the modern era, and led through the world by one of Hollywood’s least convincing actors: rapper turned actor Ice-T, a man responsible for such acting gems as this.

T plays Mason, a man with depleted self-respect who’s ready to try anything to make a quick buck. This leads him to Thomas Burns (played by Rutger Hauer) and company, a group of so-called philanthropists who want to take Mason on a trip through the woods, on the condition that he serve as their guide. Already suspicious, Mason encounters Doc Hawkins, a chilling, over-the-top character played by the delightfully creepy Gary Busey, who sends the message that perhaps this hunt isn’t what it’s cracked up to be and, by morning, helps push Mason out the door for a head start in what’s now deemed a good ol’ fashioned manhunt.

From here the film follows Mason as he learns to survive off the land and hatches a series of makeshift plans that feel contrived, yet shocking. This includes burning down a cabin by tampering with chemicals, rigging ATVs to explode, and somehow living off a land that a presumably city-based slicker would have little to no expertise within. Think of this like Predator, but with someone who shouldn’t be able to pull off the same feats as a Schwarzenegger or soldier-type.

After spying on the hunters’ camp, Mason soon learns why the hunters are out here. Many of the men in the company are violent by nature, some have been pushed to violence and, as in the case of the weirdest hunter, some seek revenge against the general homeless populace for their acts of terror.

Inevitably, things boil to a showdown between our acting juggernauts, Hauer and T. But believe me, dear reader, this is no “tears in the rain” type standoff. Instead, it’s a crazy-weird brawl that ends with explosions and mayhem before T walks off into the sunset.

Why you should see this: It’s almost too funny not to catch a look at this film. Up until Coolidge Corner released their calendar for this month I had no idea this thing even existed, and now that I do, I can confidently say that Ice-T has had one of the most bizarre careers full of being a weird badass with some great gun safety tips. Overall, Surviving the Game is one of those rare escapist films that you wouldn’t mind seeing a little buzzed on the first weekend of the New Year.

Surviving the Game
1994
dir. Ernest R. Dickerson
96 min.

Screens Friday, 1/6, @11:59PM & Saturday, 1/7, @11:59PM @Coolidge Corner
Part of the Ongoing Series: After Midnite