Bullet Points: Fatal Combat

Toronto native Jeff Wincott first found fame on the Canadian television series, Night Heat where he played Detective Frank Giambone for four seasons. When the series concluded, Wincott found himself making direct to video action movies like Deadly Bet, Mission of Justice and Open Fire in the United States. But it wasn’t long until his native land came calling again…

In the mid-90’s Wincott made several movies with Director Damian Lee in Canada including the subject of this edition of Bullet Points, 1995’s Fatal Combat…

• The Villain: An eccentric, Houston Armstrong (Richard Fitzpatrick,When the Bullet Hits the Bone) broadcasts No Exit, an extreme American Gladiators style show from an abandoned mining compound in The Great White North. No Exit features competitors who are recruited against their will and forced to fight to the death. Armstrong’s audience for this barbaric broadcast are wealthy clients from around the world… because as action movies have taught us time and time again, the rich and elite love to watch people fight to the death.

• The Hero: Jeff Wincott portrays Professor John Stoneman. Stoneman is an interesting character. He is a 10th degree black belt yet the class he teaches is all about taking the path of the peaceful warrior and remaining passive in the face of aggression. Stoneman is anti-violence and believes violence should always be the last resort. Stoneman is the last person, you’d expect to be involved in a “fight to the death” style competition, but fate intervenes…
• The Parking Garage: John Stoneman accompanies his pregnant wife Carmel to an ultrasound appointment. After the appointment, as John and his wife make their way to their car… John realizes he forgot his credit card with the receptionist. John goes back to his card and his wife stays behind in what action movies have taught us time and time again is one of the most dangerous places on earth… the parking garage! Cue a group of horrible human beings, who make their way out of the shadows and begin to terrorize Carmel, who has locked herself in her car. The bad guys smash the windows, pull Carmel out of the car and that’s about the time John shows back up and tries to reason with the thugs… when that doesn’t work he kicks their asses… but Carmel is caught in the crossfire and one of the bad guys stabs her right in the stomach… filled with rage, John Stoneman kills the guy who stabbed his wife and unborn child.

• The Recruitment: The Stoneman story is all over the news, with reporters barging right into Carmel’s hospital room. All the media coverage grabs the attention of Houston Armstrong… so he sends his head recruiter Tayback (Douglas O’Keeffe,The Killing Man) to snatch up John Stoneman… and where does the snatching take place, the same damn parking garage where John’s wife was stabbed! As a bonus, one of John’s students who was checking in on his professor, Jason Samuels is scooped up too.
• The Show: It doesn’t take long for John and Jason to get the lay of the land where the No Exit compound is concerned, moments after sitting down in the cafeteria for the first time Darcona (Sven-Ole Thorsen, The Running Man) comes over and gets in the face of John Stoneman and shoots some innuendo Jason’s way, this scene is total foreshadowing of what is to come for both men where Darcona is concerned and if it wasn’t obvious enough that the final fight in the movie was going to be Stoneman vs. Darcona, the montages that built both men up make it perfectly clear.

Fatal Combat could have been just another entry in the “forced to fight” sub-genre, but Jeff Wincott’s performance as the reluctant warrior and the inclusion of Sven-Ole Thorsen, put it a notch above. I also liked the fact that there was a conscious effort to make the battleground for each fight unique and the inclusion of hovercrafts, I didn’t see that coming… the little things often make a big difference.

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• If You Ever: … wanted to see Jeff Wincott mock Bruce Lee and then act like a major league asshole, then this is the movie for you. Putting this into context, this was part of an exercise Professor Stoneman does for his class with his prized pupil Jason Samuels. Wincott was so convincing however, it made me think about how awesome it would have been if Wincott would have had the opportunity to play an action movie villain.
• Quality Line: When hyping up the final match between John Stoneman and Darcona, the announcer hypes it as “The Thinker vs. The Stinker”.
• Complaint Desk: There is one gripe I’d like to make in regards to Fatal Combat and that was the use, or should I say OVERUSE, of the static screen television shot as a transition between scenes. I am sure someone thought it was a great idea… they were wrong. It was annoying.
• Cut the Cord: At one point we listen in on a sales pitch that Houston Armstrong is making to a potential No Exit subscriber. Subscribers are provided a receiver box and an hour before every new episode of No Exit is about to air they receive a phone a call… the subscription fee is one million dollars. And you thought your cable bill was high!
• AKA:  Fatal Combat is also known as No Exit. In Germany, the movie was released as Knockout.