Space Truckers (1996)

Costume Design by:

- Ann & John Bloomfield ( notable efforts: The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970), Doctor Who 'The Face of Evil' & 'The Talons of Weng-Chiang' (1977), The Wicked Lady (1983), Conan the Barbarian (1982), Conan the Destroyer (1984), Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987), Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), The Mummy (1999), The Mummy Returns (2001) )

The title tells you all you need to know about what this film's about! A surprisingly overlooked effort by cult director Stuart Gordon, mostly famous for his gorey comedic horror films made for Empire Pictures, this film details a dystopian future where corporations have taken over all of space, with unlucky spaceship crews totally at their mercy - and if that sounds familiar, then yes, this was definitely poking a bit of fun at Alien whilst extrapolating its more satirical elements. Space Truckers details the struggle of space trucker John Canyon (Dennis Hopper), along with his would-be replacement Mike (Stephen Dorff) and sweetheart Cindy (Debi Mazar), to get a mysterious shipment to Earth on time, whilst facing several threats such as asteroids, space pirates and the murderous cyborgs that happen to be his shipment. The costumes in this film, designed by John Bloomfield in perhaps his only proper science-fiction outing since the Doctor Who serial 'The Face of Evil' in 1977, reflect the grubby and tacky corporate world the film is set in, with most of them reflecting the trucker theme very well. John Canyon is for the most part in a futuristic riff on a trucker's outfit, wearing a battered denim vest with leather pads over the shoulders, and a cap that has had its top cut in half to be able to fit inside a spacesuit. Meanwhile, his would-be replacement Mike is usually in a bright green shirt, string top and leather vest, worn with flightsuit trousers.

A lot of the various corporate uniforms of the film are actually rather garish, such as the 'official' trucker uniform Mike briefly wears as part of his career in the 'InterPork' company, which consists of a bright pink vest and overalls. His boss Keller (George Wendt) wears a more typical outfit mostly notable for the pink warning stripes and pig-patterned tie (again, as he's an official of a pork company), with a fair few of the background truckers in the space diner in very garish outfits as well - notice the fellow in the cowboy hat and bright blue overalls emblazoned with red and yellow logos (these are the logos of the fictional beer company whose products characters regularly drink out of in the film).

Cindy, the waitress of the space diner that Canyon and Mike meet each other on, is first seen in a futuristic riff on a cowboy outfit, wearing a translucent lilac shirt with yellow bandana, a similarly translucent pink miniskirt, and a white stetson and wrist cuffs, both being made partly with see-through plastic. A lot of the costumes in this film utilize synthetic materials, partly to fit a parodic take on 'futuristic' costume design, partly also as a more tacky future.

Cindy's second outfit is a clear example of the use of plastic in the film's costumes, wearing a see-through plastic jacket over a red leather vest and shirt, as well as blue flightsuit trousers. The plastic jacket seems to be made of the same material as raincoats and ponchos tend to be, with red markings on the sleeves as well.

Cindy's final outfit is a brown fabric top that is also made with bright green thread that actually goes over the brown fabric of the main jacket, being similarly worn over a vest and with trousers.

Some of the film's most memorably creative costumes are sadly not seen in full, these being the makeshift jacket worn by the rather shady Mr. Zesty (Birdy Sweeney), as well as the dress worn by the android woman in a toilet that doubles as an escape hatch. Zesty's outgit is coated in electronics and mechanical pieces, with his even his goggles having such patterns painted on them - it gives him the appearance of looking like a massive circuitboard (Bloomfield was certainly used to being able to make 'junk' outfits work!). Meanwhile the android lady is black and pink striped top worn with similarly patterned gloves and, keeping in with the film's costume design sense, a clear plastic top worn over it.

There are of course futuristic suits in this film as well, these being worn by the conniving corporate leader E.J. Saggs (Shane Rimmer) and his lackeys. Saggs always wears silvery jackets made of some sort of synthetic material, whough his second one has a bit of a snakeskin pattern to it and has red lining along one side of it. His henchmen however have their suits made out of some golden material, worn with goggles.

Canyon and company get hijacked by a group of space pirates lead by Saggs' former assistant Nabel (Charles Dance), who just wears a leather jacket and military cap so I didn't find it worth noting in detail. However, there is his deputy Mr. Cutt (Vernon Wells) who along with the other pirate crewmen is definitely inspired by the post-apocalyptic bandits of Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (it's no surprise that Cutt is played by the same actor as Wez from that film!), though this wasn a year after Bloomfield had been costume designer on Waterworld, which was just 'Mad Max on water'.

Lastly, are the bulky spacesuits that are stored onboard Canyon's space truck, which are grubby, brown and were intended by Bloomfield to be a cross between a spacesuit and a diving suit. It should be worth noting that the spacesuits in Alien - which definitely provided some inspiration for the sequences where the spacesuits are used in Space Truckers - were also intended to resemble a diving suit as well, though the Space Truckers suits are a bit less obvious about that in some ways!