Speed Zone (1989)

Speed Zone (also known as Cannonball Fever), released in 1989, is a comedy set around an illegal cross-country race (inspired by the Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash).

The film stars many alumni of SCTV, including John Candy, Eugene Levy, and Joe Flaherty. The cast also includes Donna Dixon, Matt Frewer, Tim Matheson, Mimi Kuzyk, Melody Anderson, Shari Belafonte, Dick and Tom Smothers, Peter Boyle, Don Lake, Alyssa Milano, John Schneider, Brooke Shields, Michael Spinks, Lee Van Cleef, Harvey Atkin, Brian George, Art Hindle, Louis Del Grande, Carl Lewis and Richard Petty.

Jamie Farr cameos as "Sheik Abdul ben Falafel", who says in an interview that he is retiring from racing. Farr and his character are the only actor and character to appear in all three films of the Cannonball Run movie universe.

John Schneider makes a cameo as the driver of the Lamborghini Countach at the beginning of the movie while being chased by an assortment of police cars, and is seen wearing an orange racing suit with a Confederate flag on it, a nod to The Dukes of Hazzard character Schneider played.

Lee Van Cleef, in one of his final appearances, is in the same scene playing an old man teaching his son how to skip stones on a pond as the Lamborghini drives past.

The premise is that all the racers are arrested before the race begins, and the sponsors have to quickly line up new racers.

Synopsis

An assortment of people gather at a countryside inn in preparation for the infamous "Cannonball Run," an illegal three-day cross-country race from Washington, D.C. to Santa Monica where the winner and five runners-up will receive $1 million. However, the hot-headed Washington chief of police Spiro T. Edsel (Peter Boyle), along with his long-suffering sidekick Whitman (Don Lake), arrests all of the drivers to prevent the race from happening. As a result, sponsors must find replacement drivers by the next day.

Actors