The Sexmission (1984) cast now: one of the two frozen heroes is gone, the other turned 80 still acting
Two volunteers went into hibernation in 1991 and woke up where men were extinct and history had been girlbossed. Forty-plus years later, here's where the thaw left everyone.
If you grew up anywhere within broadcast range of Poland, you don't need Seksmisja explained. For everyone else: Juliusz Machulski's 1984 sci-fi comedy freezes two men — cocky everyman Maks and prim scientist Albert — as human guinea pigs, then wakes them in 2044.
Surprise: a rogue bomb has wiped out the male chromosome, society is an all-female underground bunker state, and our two defrosted idiots are the last men on Earth. Chaos, quotable to this day, ensues — Maks's panicked "Ciemność! Widzę ciemność!" ("Darkness! I see darkness!") is basically a national proverb now.
Jerzy Stuhr — Maks
Stuhr was already a Krakow theater heavyweight when he improvised half of Maks into legend, and he spent the next four decades as one of Polish cinema's true giants — actor, director, professor, rector of the Krakow theater academy. He died on July 9, 2024, at 77, after years of stacked health battles: laryngeal cancer, two heart attacks, a stroke. He worked nearly to the end anyway, because of course he did.
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His screen partner took the loss personally. "Someone very close to me has passed away… a wonderful, warm, beloved, dear colleague," Olgierd Łukaszewicz said, recalling how Stuhr would arrive on the Seksmisja set half-dead from theater rehearsals in Krakow and still be the funniest person in the bunker: "I witnessed how those jokes of his were born."
"I was wrong. It was Jerzy who was right." — Łukaszewicz, on doubting Stuhr's improvised comedy on set, then watching it become the movie
Olgierd Łukaszewicz — Albert
The other half of the duo just hit a milestone that would make Albert reach for his instruments: Łukaszewicz turned 80 on September 7 — together with his twin brother Jerzy, a noted cinematographer born 40 minutes ahead of him. The twins celebrated the jubilee with the Polish film world laying flowers at their feet, and Olgierd is still working: over 100 stage and screen roles and counting, from Wajda films to Faustyna to years spent running the Polish actors' union.
He remains a working actor at 80, and the family roast game is also intact. Asked once for acting tips on set, his cameraman twin replied:
"I can't help you — watching you act makes my stomach hurt."
The rest of the bunker, briefly
- Juliusz Machulski, writer-director, was 28 (!) when he made it; still writing and directing, still Poland's heist-comedy king.
- Wiesław Michnikowski, the film's shriveled Her Excellency with a secret, died in 2017 at 95, a comedy legend in his own right.
- The film itself never left — it's still in TV rotation, still packing quotes into everyday Polish, still the rare sex comedy from 1984 that people watch on purpose.
Previously we wrote: Mikey and Nicky ending explained — why Elaine May burned 3 times more film than Gone with the Wind for that last scene
