History Film / Rollerball

* {{Zeerust}}:
** Liquid-state computing and pistol-sized plasma blasters, yet their skaters never progressed from quads to blades? (The movie was made in 1975. In-line skates had been invented by then, but were practically unknown to the public until they were openly distributed in 1981, six years after this film's debut.)
** UsefulNotes/RollerDerby is skated nearly exclusively on quads (which are, in fact, specified in every code of the sport). So what would have been Zeerust in the 80s and 90s is not so much anymore (never mind that the rules of roller derby have evolved away from a ProfessionalWrestling style spectacle and toward genuine athletic competition).
** Zero itself also qualifies. A room-sized computer with giant rotary tape drives, the history of the 13th Century misplaced because a tape roll got lost?
*** The tape-drive computers are indicated to be outdated, containing information to be transferred to Zero. Zero, itself, is an advanced, futuristic computer using "fluidic" memory systems.

* PublicDomainSoundtrack: While there are some original compositions, some of the music in the movie is from the baroque/classical era.

* JerkassHasAPoint: the world the Corporations have created is in many ways a paradise, no crime, no war, no poverty, all at the cost of relative individual freedom. Bartholomew is correct in that Jonathon's cult of personality is putting that in peril.

** Rollerball, of course. (Quickly turning into a DeadlyGame as the story progresses.)

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: The librarian (played by Creator/RalphRichardson) who programs Zero, and, it appears, Zero, itself.

* CurbStompBattle: AND HOW!

* FictionalSport: Rollerball.

* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: The Tokyo fans are supposed to be chanting "Ganbare Tokyo!" (頑張れ 東京; roughly meaning "Hang in there, Tokyo"). While the phrase is grammatically correct and perfectly appropriate to the context, it's pronunciation is nigh-incomprehensible to a native speaker. The actual word is pronounced ɡã̠mba̠ɾe̞, with an 'e' as an 'set', however the extras pronounce it closer to 'gun-bear'.

* ArtisticLicensePolitics: A dystopian corporation-led society would likely result in the opposite of what the film depicts. Rather than a society filled with luxury at the cost of stunted freedom, it would more likely be a society where you can do nearly whatever you want with no laws or enforcement to stop you, with the downside being rampant poverty due to the excessive hoarding of wealth.

* CoitusEnsues: Jonathan and Aurora hook up in the locker room with not a word exchanged before or any sort of relationship.

%%* TheBigBoard

* BreakHisHeartToSaveThem: Jonathan trades Aurora to another team in order to get her out of danger.

* BreakHisHearToSaveThem: Jonathan trades Aurora to another team in order to get her out of danger.

!!The 2002 remake has examples of:

''Rollerball'' is a 1975 dystopian sci-fi/action film directed by Norman Jewison and starring Creator/JamesCaan. William Harrison adapted the screenplay from his own short story, "Roller Ball Murder".

There's also a 2002 remake, directed by Creator/JohnMcTiernan (who disowned it because of massive ExecutiveMeddling) and starring [[Film/AmericanPie Chris Klein]] as Jonathan, which features twice the blood and half the plot, as well as Wrestling/PaulHeyman as a game announcer.

* ExtremeSportExcusePlot: TheRemake makes it even more of an "excuse plot" than the original because it could have technically been any damn sport as the "circuses" in BreadAndCircuses in the middle of a modern-day miserable-miner-town Eastern Europe but the BigBad invented Rollerball to maximize potential worldwide ratings. And like other examples of this Trope, the plot conspires so that Johnathan will kick the bad guys' asses by going wild with a Rollerball ball instead of anything else within arm's reach.

* ExtremeSportExcusePlot: InAWorld where CorporateWarfare is waged through a sport and provides BreadAndCircuses, the man who plays it better can be a very visible symbol of obedience or rebellion.

* WhatHaveIDone: At first, Mackie doesn't mind shooting up the trees. But, after the other party-goers have gleefully shot the rest of them, she's clearly upset over the act.

[[caption-width-right:300:[[SchmuckBait Yeah, this seems safe.]]]]

* ExtremeSportExcusePlot: TheRemake makes it even more of an "excuse plot" than the original because it could have technically been any damn sport as the "circuses" in BreadAndCircuses in the middle of modern-day miserable-miner-town Eastern Europe but the BigBad invented Rollerball to maximize potential worldwide ratings. And like other examples of this Trope, the plot conspires so that Johnathan will kick the bad guys' asses by going wild with a Rollerball ball instead of anything else within arm's reach.