Revenge of the Electric Car is a film that feels bigger than your everyday documentary; it makes you feel as if you’re a part of a social movement. In the current political and economic climate there have been many debates raging over freedom of speech, sexuality, racial equality, same-sex marriage, abortion rights, who’s at fault for America’s recessions. Revenge of the Electric Car focuses on one of the biggest: the great debate over what to do about America’s dependency on foreign oil. Many Americans believe it is our Achilles’ heel and will lead to the loss of our position as the dominant world power and our eventual demise.

Many people worry about how we are going to fix the problem. Is it a problem that can be fixed, and who will fix it? The film points out these questions that began looming on the horizon nearly 15 years ago. The automobile was targeted early on as the first source of our problems, and it holds a large brunt of the responsibility. As the second half of the 20th century arrived, it felt as if manufacturers didn’t care about the problem, as they kept developing gas-guzzling muscle cars and SUVs. While America’s Big Three carmakers concentrated on bigger, stronger and faster, Japanese manufacturers were working on cars that would change industry trends. In the late 1990s, Toyota changed the playing field with one odd-shaped car known as the Prius.

American manufacturers began trying to get into the green car market by making the low-fuel emission car even more earth friendly by introducing an all-electric vehicle, the EV1. It was a car that looked and felt like it was from the future. My father had one, and it felt like riding in a space vehicle from “The Jetsons.” It was a very unique and cool car, but the EV1 couldn’t catch on with the masses and GM quickly recalled it, and all electric cars where sent into an abyss.

As the Prius’ popularity grew and established itself as the green car, American and foreign manufacturers grew envious and came to believe that the electric car could work. As the film vividly illustrates, no one believed that more than former General Motors top dog Bob Lutz. He decided to give drivers both options of fuel or electric in the Chevy Volt. Also on the frontier is Tesla Motors, founded by millionaire and PayPal entrepreneur Elon Musk, and Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn, whose main goal is to commercialize the electric car and produce mass quantities so that everyone can afford one, with the plug in LEAF.

Revenge of the Electric Car provides us with insight into the struggle of making the electric car work, and how it has resurged and is back for revenge. I feel that electric cars will succeed and revolutionize the oil/gas dependent car industry.

Revenge of the Electric Car releases in select theaters Oct. 21.