Bullet Points: Cyber-Tracker 2
Before I begin my review of Don “The Dragon” Wilson’s 1995 film, Cyber-Tracker 2, it would probably be beneficial if I gave you a quick recap of the events of the first film…
- Previously on Cyber Tracker: Eric Phillips (Don “The Dragon” Wilson) battled an evil senator who was looking to use a new “computerized justice system” for his own personal gain. Along the way, Eric met Connie Griffin (Stacie Foster), a reporter by day/leader of a radical group known as the UHR (Union for Human Rights) by night. Eric and Connie fall in love and together take down the bad guys including the nearly indestructible cyborg police officers known as Trackers.
- On The Right Track: As the movie opens we see now undercover cop Eric Phillips (Don “The Dragon” Wilson) on a mission to take down a gang of violent counterfeiters. This opening sequence gets things going in the right direction. We see Eric arrive to the rendezvous point via speedboat, we get the obligatory martial arts action required when you cast Don “The Dragon” Wilson in your movie and in an interesting twist we witness Eric Phillips being saved from certain doom by… get this… a Tracker! That’s right the same Tracker technology that was running roughshod over the original film, has been repurposed for good in the sequel. It is safe to say that Eric Phillips has put his distrust of the Trackers behind him, the same can not be said for Connie, who is now Mrs. Connie Phillips…
- Nose For News: Connie may have left her UHR days behind her, but she is still one helluva reporter. Connie learns that some of the technology behind the Tracker program has gone missing and she can’t help but wonder who took it and what they plan on doing with it. But before she can dig deeper on that story, she needs to attend a press conference that the Governor of California is holding… But Connie never makes it to the press conference. Connie is abducted by some baddies and an exact cyborg replica heads to the press conference in her stead. When Evil Cyborg Connie shows up at the press conference something seems a little off to her co-worker Jared (Steve Burton), but to everyone else, they just assume ace reporter Connie Phillips is there to ask the Governor some questions. And Evil Cyborg Connie does ask the Governor her question, right before she shoots him dead. Eric is watching this all unfold on live TV and to his credit he never once believes that was actually his wife who shot the Governor. But the question does come to Eric’s mind… what happened to the real Connie Phillips? Connie proved she still had some of her radical terrorist days in her and manages to escape from her captors and reunite with her husband and as they say it is déjà vu all over again, with Connie and Eric battling the forces of evil.
- Faces… Old and New: In addition to our male and female leads returning for the sequel, Jim Maniaci, who played all the Trackers in the first Cyber Tracker was back for more Tracker fun in this one… I also mentioned the Jared character earlier played by Steve Burton. Jared was a member of the Union for Human Rights in the original film and is now Connie’s cameraman… Cyber-Tracker 2 introduces us to an old UHR friend nicknamed Tripwire. Tripwire is an explosives expert and has also been secretly hoarding an arsenal of weapons, just in case the Tracker problem ever returned. Tripwire was played by John Kassir, who is probably best known as the voice of The Crypt Keeper from Tales from the Crypt… Since all the villains were eradicated in the original, Cyber-Tracker 2 gives us a fresh crop of bad guys including international arms dealer and a former CIA agent, Paris Morgan (Anthony DeLongis, Masters of the Universe). Mr. Morgan is the man in charge, but he would be nothing without his henchwoman Ms. Kessel or his tech guru Ruben Carpenter, who was able to create the next gen Trackers that can be made to look like any other person on the planet (instead of them all looking like Jim Maniaci). This breakthrough is how we got Evil Cyborg Connie and eventually get Evil Cyborg Eric! …But to me the best addition to the Cyber Tracker family was Eric’s boss Commander Swain, played by the late Tony Burton of Rocky fame.
Cyber-Tracker 2 was fun, but I would put it a notch below Cyber Tracker and the reason I say this is because they did not fill the Richard Norton void from the original. Norton was a great adversary for Don “The Dragon” Wilson in Cyber Tracker in terms of physicality and martial arts skills. But we did not get that level of competition for “The Dragon” in Cyber-Tracker 2, which is a shame since there were plenty of martial artists available and in Hollywood at the time that would have been able to fill that role.
PM Entertainment knew the formula for making an enjoyable action movie. There are car chases, a shootout in a church, an exploding helicopter and the finale with our heroes tracking down Morgan’s secret Tracker lab and taking the fight right to the villains. I would also like to make special mention of Evil Cyborg Eric… the movie is worth watching just for the novelty of seeing Don “The Dragon” Wilson as a bad guy!
I know the formula for an enjoyable review on this site usually involves Bonus Bullet Points…
- Missed Opportunity: Given PM Entertainment’s penchant for giving a wide variety of actors and actresses the opportunity to become action stars, I found it odd that Steve Burton never had his chance to star in his own PM Entertainment project. Burton had the leading man looks and was in great physical condition yet the opportunity never came. An educated guess on my part would theorize that Burton’s General Hospital contract/schedule prohibited from pursuing a career as a direct to video action star. Years later Burton did get in on some action of the video game kind when he became the voice of Cloud Strife in the Final Fantasy series.
- If You Ever: …wanted to see Tony Burton engage in a computer hacking battle, then this is the movie for you.
- Product Placement: When Eric Phillips comes home after a hard day of busting counterfeiters, he is less than enthused to find that all there is to eat is cold pizza. But it isn’t just any cold pizza, it is cold Pizza Hut pizza.
- Virtueless Reality: It must have been a requirement in the 1990’s that every fifth direct to video movie made had to feature some form of virtual reality. Cyber-Tracker 2 shoehorns a character named Amanda into the film. Amanda is the niece of Swain and a martial arts student of Eric Phillips. During a scene where she is training with Eric, Amanda straps on a virtual reality helmet and goes one on one with a simulator. Amanda then disappears from the film shortly there after.
- If You Ever: …wanted to see Don “The Dragon” Wilson interact with Don “The Dragon” Wilson’s severed head on a table, then this is the movie for you.
