Unbeknownst to me, a special "Superfan" edition of "Rad" was released on AltaVod in 2020. It includes "original bonus footage and an exclusive Q&A with the Rad cast, moderated by The Lonely Island's Jorma Taccone." I bought it, mostly to define exactly what the bonus footage is.
Before the bonus footage, obviously there is a remastered version of the movie. It looks good.
Bonus footage. First, there is the aforementioned interview with the cast. It includes Bart Conner, Bill Allen, the co-writer of the script Sam Bernard and the producer/actor Talia Shire. It's a fairly standard interview with many of the stories and factoids that we've heard already. There's one notable thing within it and I'll be making a post about that later.
Secondly, there is a promotional "making of" film from the time of the movie's release. Aside from the novelty of a 1980s documentary (it reminds me of "Plymouth International Ice Spectacular"), it's mostly just filler: how the movie was made, who's in it, constructing Hell Track, footage from the set. There is one gem. It contains an alternate angle of "Hollywood" Mike Moranda's second dramatic exit of the day. That is the gold nugget in the tons and tons of dirt. Will we ever again uncover more footage of his iconic wipeout? I doubt it. I would share a screenshot but the image is interlaced and so the still looks so bad it's not worth sharing.
Finally, there are interviews with Bart Conner, Bill Allen, Lori Loughlin and Hal Needham. The interviews were conducted at the time that the movie was being made. Aside from the fact that interviews with Hal Needham seem fairly rare, and you learn a little bit more about the actors, it's standard stuff.
And that's it. The movie and special features are all combined into a single video file, which is annoying, but in keeping with the experience of a VHS.
