# Futuristic-ish football movie in the era of Rollerball? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 23, 2015, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-ish-football-movie-in-the-era-of-rollerball/713443 "2015-02-23T21:12:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2015, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-ish-football-movie-in-the-era-of-rollerball/713443/1 "2015-02-23T21:12:57Z")
This one’s bugged me for a while. I can clearly remember the print ads and I’d swear the movie’s title was “Combat Football.” The cutline was something like “At the two-minute warning… they give the quarterback a rifle.” The image was a grainy sports-action shot of, well, a QB holding a rifle. That led me to think it might have been “Two Minute Warning,” but that’s a different football-stadium-with-a-rifleman flick. Anyone? ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-ish-football-movie-in-the-era-of-rollerball/713443/2 "2015-02-27T03:42:01Z")
Anyone? Bueller? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-ish-football-movie-in-the-era-of-rollerball/713443/3 "2015-02-27T03:55:59Z")
It actually sounds like a joke from/about the orginal version of [The Longest Yard](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071771/). ---
**Author:** ![yellowjacketcoder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4bbf92/32.png) [@yellowjacketcoder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowjacketcoder)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-ish-football-movie-in-the-era-of-rollerball/713443/4 "2015-02-27T04:04:46Z")
What you first mentioned made me think of the opening football scene in _Starship Troopers_, but that’s not it. But if you find out, come back and tell us, because that sounds like an awesome movie. ---
**Author:** ![yellowjacketcoder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4bbf92/32.png) [@yellowjacketcoder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowjacketcoder)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-ish-football-movie-in-the-era-of-rollerball/713443/5 "2015-02-27T04:05:51Z")
Also, I assume you are not talking about [The Last Boy Scout](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Boy_Scout) ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-ish-football-movie-in-the-era-of-rollerball/713443/6 "2015-02-27T04:21:47Z")
There’s a book titled _[Killerbowl](http://www.amazon.com/Killerbowl-Gary-K-Wolf/dp/038504738X)_ Does the cover look familiar? ---
**Author:** ![duality72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duality72/32/3910_2.png) [@duality72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duality72)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-ish-football-movie-in-the-era-of-rollerball/713443/7 "2015-02-27T18:24:26Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > There’s a book titled _[Killerbowl](http://www.amazon.com/Killerbowl-Gary-K-Wolf/dp/038504738X)_ Does the cover look familiar? Interesting [plot summary of Killerbowl](http://recoveringhopper.blogspot.com/2010/09/killerbowl.html). ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-ish-football-movie-in-the-era-of-rollerball/713443/8 "2015-02-28T01:32:59Z")
Just to clarify, I assume the OP is referring to the original \*[Rollerball](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollerball_%281975_film%29)\*which came out in 1975, not the godawful remake from around 2000. Right? Either way, nothing rings a bell for me… ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-ish-football-movie-in-the-era-of-rollerball/713443/9 "2015-02-28T01:57:15Z")
[You aren’t half-remembering the old Harlem Heroes strip, by any chance?](http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/8458/harlemheroes05.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2015, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-ish-football-movie-in-the-era-of-rollerball/713443/10 "2015-03-01T04:43:12Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > There’s a book titled _[Killerbowl](http://www.amazon.com/Killerbowl-Gary-K-Wolf/dp/038504738X)_ Does the cover look familiar? That’s a cartoonish version of what I recall as a photograph in the movie ad. Doesn’t seem to be a movie version. However, it’s by Gary Wolf… the author of the book that became Roger Rabbit. I wonder if it was a premature ad for a failed movie project. ---
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2015, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-ish-football-movie-in-the-era-of-rollerball/713443/11 "2015-03-01T05:51:44Z")
Too bad nobody knew. It’s sounds fun. I did have to ask myself if Rollerball set a time frame for the action. Looks like 2018 was the setting. We’ve only got a couple years to get the NFL to change the rules!!! ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2015, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-ish-football-movie-in-the-era-of-rollerball/713443/12 "2015-03-03T15:46:40Z")
This can’t be it, but ‘futuristic football’ reminded me of the old Rutger Hauer movie: [The Blood of Heroes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blood_of_Heroes). It’s like a futuristic football movie where they use a dog’s skull as the football. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2015, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-ish-football-movie-in-the-era-of-rollerball/713443/13 "2015-03-03T16:05:47Z")
Aye. **Enright3** , that came to my mind also (although I know the movie as _Salute to the Jugger_) but there’s no guns that I recall in the movie, just lots of blunt force violence within the game. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2015, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-ish-football-movie-in-the-era-of-rollerball/713443/14 "2015-03-03T16:18:00Z")
Norman Spinrad wrote a short story titled _The National Pastime_ about the invention of Combat Football. Played in the summer, players wore only shorts and shoes, no protective gear and literally no holds barred in tackling, blocking or beating the living daylights out of the other players. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2015, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-ish-football-movie-in-the-era-of-rollerball/713443/15 "2015-03-03T16:20:16Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Norman Spinrad wrote a short story titled _The National Pastime_ about the invention of Combat Football. Played in the summer, players wore only shorts and shoes, no protective gear and literally no holds barred in tackling, blocking or beating the living daylights out of the other players. Kind of reminds me of a story I wrote back in college featuring Full Contact Night Golf. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2015, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-ish-football-movie-in-the-era-of-rollerball/713443/16 "2015-03-03T16:47:58Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > Kind of reminds me of a story I wrote back in college featuring Full Contact Night Golf. 😃 There’s also Ultimate Discus.