I’ve been going crazy trying to remember this. This must have aired sometime between the late seventies and the mid eighties. It was a science fiction-adventure. This wasn’t a theatrical movie, but it wasn’t an ongoing series either. Maybe a short-lived series? Failed pilot? TV movie of the week? A group of people travel…to the center of the earth? Or back in time?
There was some kind of specialized vehicle…I want to say it was a drill machine, but it may have been a time machine? They start in “present day”, drilll…down into the earth, I think? Or maybe down to the bottom of the ocean? And come up in…prehistoric times? Or…something? I seem to have a memory of the vehicle coming up in a lake or a pond.
The general vibe is Journey to the Center of the Earth/Lost World. But I can’t remember what they find there.
All I can clearly remember is that the machine, the vehicle they use stops working because it runs on an array of batteries that are drained. I remember some older engineer guy saying they were “out of juice”. I can’t remember how they get back.
I think I know what you are thinking of. It was actually called “Journey to the Center of the Earth” and was a sci-fi update of the story made as a backdoor pilot in 1993.
Big stretch here but there was a very short run of a series in 1979 called Cliffhangers. It was three different stories that ran in 20 minute segments per episode. One of the stories was about a lost civilization deep underground. Wikipedia says it was a futuristic city. I only have a vague recollection of it.
A key element here would be the specialized vehicle aspect. I’m almost certain there was a drilling machine of some sort, running on batteries that were drained by the initial journey.
The setting for this was “contemporary” (70’s or 80’s contemporary), in other words the people in it and the tech were “our time” or near future. So At the Earth’s Core is out.
The Last Dinosaur has a lot of the right elements but the look of it isn’t triggering any memories, and none of the plot synopses I’m reading touch on the drained batteries, which were a significant plot point in whatever it was I saw.
I would swear this was in fact a plot point of the Last Dinosaur, but don’t quote me on it. I have this distinct memory of needing to fix/rehcarge/something the vehicle once they relocate it, and there being a narrow escape window probably due to the battle with the T-Rex. But I can’t find a plot synopsis that states the nature of the repairs either.
FWIW, this the first movie that sprang to mind when reading the OP.
All I remember is watching it with my dad when I was really young, and we both thought the dude who was hell bent on hunting the T-Rex was a bad mother fucker.
It may be a different movie. . .but I have extremely vivid memories of watching something with a drill based vehicle whee someone is explaining there is only enough juice - the fact that you identified the specific term definitely struck a chord - for one more trip. I have a memory of Dad explaining to me how batteries worked.
I FOUND IT!!! I went nuts looking for this movie as well and came across this forum, I became incredibly persistent LOL, The name of the movie is “The Last Dinosaur” Oh wow it brought back so many memories :) Hope this eases the mind! I cant post a link to the site unfortunately cuz I just made an account to fill that empty space with an answer. :)
A short-lived show on Sci-Fi, The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne, I think it was called, had a mole machine like the one you described. I don’t remember any dinosaurs, though.
It’s probably The Last Dinosaur. The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne is far to recent a show (I watched it and remember it well), the show/movie I’m thinking of was certainly from my early childhood, which means 70’s or early 80’s at the latest.
I seen that one to hugin I have been looking for it to from what I remember they was drilling down to the core and came up in like a lake with dinosaurs and some of them died or got hurt not all of them escaped but it had a sad ending if you find it will you let me know thanks
