Bullet Points: Strike Commando
I did not think it was possible for a movie to contain more Reb Brown screaming than Space Mutiny. That is until I sat down and watched 1987’s Strike Commando and found out just how possible it was…
- Strike One: Reb Brown plays Sgt. Michael Ransom, he is a member of an elite military unit known as the Strike Commandos. The Strike Commandos have been called in to take out a Viet Cong weapon’s depot, but they are on a tight time table to plant explosives all around the depot and get the hell out… the time table is even tighter when the commanding officer of the operation, Col. Radek, gets antsy and orders the detonation to take place before the deadline… the premature explosion ends up taking out the weapon’s depot as designed but the Strike Commandos end up becoming collateral damage… with the exception of one Sgt. Michael Ransom, who was propelled into a nearby river when the explosion went off…
- Strike Two: Ransom was set adrift on the river and ended up near a village where a young boy named Lao found a barely conscious Ransom clinging to some branches floating in the river. Next thing we see is Ransom waking up in the village Lao calls home. Ransom finds himself surrounded by villagers in white face, all chanting “American” at him. The villagers believe Ransom is the savior they’ve been looking for. Their village has come under attack from the Viet Cong soldiers and a pair of Russians that showed up and killed the French priest that was the village leader. Ransom agrees to take some of the villagers with him as he attempts to return to the American line in Vietnam. On their journey through the jungle, Ransom comes across a radio and requests some choppers to take him and the villagers to safety. But when some Viet Cong soldiers stand between Ransom and the rendezvous point a fire fight erupts and once again Col. Radek ends up ordering the helicopters to return to base… fortunately for Ransom, one of the helicopters contains the Trautman to his Rambo, Major Harriman. The Major pretends not to hear Radek’s orders and goes in after his boy Ransom. With no transport out of the jungle and the bullets still flying, the villagers were forced to retreat back to their village, but Ransom promises he’ll come back for them.
- Strike Three: Major Harriman returns to the base with Mike Ransom, where Col. Radek awards Ransom the Silver Star. But Ransom doesn’t want a medal, he wants to go back and rescue the villagers who saved his life… but even the news that there are Russians involved doesn’t get Radek to agree to send a full team in to get the villagers and take out the Russians and Viet Cong who have been terrorizing them… instead he sends Ransom back out on his own, with a camera to get photographic proof of a Russian presence. When Ransom returns to the village he finds that all of them have been slaughtered… but there is one villager still clinging to life, the young boy who found Ransom, Lao. Lao with his last breath tells him that the Russian named Jakoda was responsible. With tears running down his face and Lao’s lifeless body in his arms Ransom screams JAKODA!
- You’re Out… of Control: Ransom is enraged, he finds the Russian camp and starts shooting it up and screaming the entire time… my favorite part is when he broke down Jakoda’s name while emptying his rifle into a hut… JAAAAA…. KOOOOOO…. DAAAAAA! Unfortunately for Ransom, Jakoda was not in the hut… instead he is right behind Ransom along with a bunch of Viet Cong troops who quickly surround Ransom take him prisoner, torture him and even force him to share a cell with a dead P.O.W. But none of that is able to break the best damn strike commando the world has ever seen, so the Russians try a different approach, and Olga (Jakoda’s female counterpart) tries to use reason with Ransom… but that fails too and Ransom ends up taking her hostage and escaping the camp. As Ransom and Olga are now traversing the jungle, luck shines on Ransom again as he comes across another radio… he contacts HQ and they once again agree to send a chopper to come get him… but this time Col. Radek will go get him himself. That’s about the time Olga drops the bombshell that Radek is in cahoots with the KGB!
The end of Strike Commando is like an action movie on speed… things are happening and happening quickly!
We get an entertaining final battle with Ransom and Jakoda engaging in some hand to hand combat, then the Vietnam War ends and Ransom learns that the dirty Col. Radek has fled and nobody knows where he went. Ransom vows revenge and that would have been the perfect spot to end the movie and set up a sequel and leave the audience satisfied but still wanting more.
But with 10 minutes to go, we jump ahead to present day Manila. Radek is living in Manila now and operating a shady import/export business. Mike Ransom arrives in Manila and things are suddenly not looking good for Radek and his business.
The rush job ending was not necessarily a bad thing, after all sometimes justice can be dished out swiftly… but in hindsight you realize some of the first two acts of the movie could have been tightened up a bit it would have made for a better balanced movie.
A major part of a balanced review is some Bonus Bullet Points…
- Familiar Face: Jim Gaines (Black Fire and American Ninja) played one of Radek’s soldiers, because it was an unwritten rule that Jim Gaines had to have a role in all 80’s action movies filmed in the Philippines.
- If You Ever: …wanted to hear Reb Brown tell a young Vietnamese boy that you have to climb a tree to get popcorn at Disneyland, then Strike Commando is the movie for you.
- The Sequel: There was a Strike Commando 2, but Brent Huff (Nine Deaths of the Ninja) took over as Mike Ransom.
