Bullet Points: Whiteforce

There are times I really wish 1980’s Flash Gordon was a huge box office success. But then there are times I believe in the philosophy that everything happens for a reason.

If Flash Gordon was a money making machine it could have completely changed Sam J. Jones’ career trajectory and action movie lovers would have been deprived of some of the lower budget fare that Sam J. Jones became known for as time went on. Movies like Fists of Iron and Maximum Force would have looked and felt very different without Sam.

Then there’s movies like 1988’s Whiteforce that I wouldn’t want to even watch unless Sam was a part of it…

• Welcome to the Jungle: The movie begins with Johnny Quinn (Sam J. Jones) and his guide Jose roaming the jungles of Northern Thailand in search of Quinn’s friend and ISA (that’s International Security Alliance for those in the know) partner, Tom Irving (Ken Metcalfe, P.O.W. the Escape). When the duo find some dead bodies in the jungle, Jose freaks out and takes off without Quinn. Now Quinn is aimlessly wandering on his own… well, until three toughs surround him and take his secret agent watch and radio. This gives us an opportunity to see Quinn in action as he easily neutralizes his three tormentors and gets his gear back in short order. The good news continues when Quinn manages to find the camp that Tom is being held captive at… but the news turns very bad as Quinn is trying to extract Tom, who at this point had been tortured by drug kingpin Alex Korda (Tim Hughes). Korda has a going away gift for Tom in the form of the bullet that ends up killing Tom. Quinn manages to get a mini laser disc off of Tom before he narrowly escapes with his life.
• False Narrative: When Quinn gets back to ISA headquarters, he is in for quite a shock. One of his fellow agents, Stynes (Mike Monty, Blood Debts) accuses Quinn of murdering Tom Irving. Stynes even manages to produce a bogus recording of a conversation between Tom and Quinn that backs up Stynes claim. ISA boss Max Martinez (Vic Diaz, Firecracker) has no choice but to have Quinn arrested… which forces Quinn’s hand and he makes a run for it, managing to escape his ISA pursuers by disguising himself as a man in a wheelchair.

• Darling Nicki: The ISA aren’t the only ones after Quinn. Tom Irving’s daughter Nicki (Kimberly Pistone) believes the story she’s been told that Quinn killed her father and she is out looking for revenge. Nicki manages to track down Quinn in the men’s room at the train station, prior to Quinn trying to get out of town. Quinn does his best to reason with Nicki. When ISA bullet start heading in their direction, Nicki finds herself the reluctant partner of Quinn, even if she’s still not 100% that Quinn had nothing to do with her father’s death.
• Nobody Beats The Wiz: Quinn and Nicki pay a visit to Quinn’s tech buddy known as Wizard (Jaime Fabregas). Wizard is able to decipher the information on the mini laser disc and the information contained on the disc would crumble the diabolical plans of Alex Korda, who wants to control the opium trade around the world. Unfortunately for our heroes, Korda realizes this and sends out everyone he can to track down Quinn, Nicki and Wizard and retrieve the disc.

• Deal Breaker: I should probably point out that Korda’s man Stynes originally got the disc off of Johnny Quinn when Quinn first returned to ISA HQ after the death of Tom Irving. The disc ends up in the possession of just about everyone through out the course of the movie before Korda eventually gets the disc and drops it in some acid to destroy it. Shouldn’t Stynes have either destroyed the disc as soon as he got it off Quinn or at the very least delivered it to Korda so he could dispose of it? That one move would have made life much easier for our villains. Normally I want to see the villains get theirs because action movies are at their best when good eventually triumphs over evil. But in the case of Whiteforce, I did not want the absolute stupidity of the villains to go unpunished and fortunately it did not.

It may not be listed as such on IMDb, but Whiteforce was an action comedy… and sometimes the comedy was even intentional. As I alluded to in the intro, Sam J. Jones made this film work. Sam’s charming performance outshines every other aspect of the film and without him Whiteforce would have been a complete disaster.

Even with Sam J. Jones as the lead, I doubt Whiteforce was ever up for any awards… that is until these award giving Bonus Bullet Points…

• The Boba Fett Award: After Stynes and company fail numerous times to stop Quinn, Alex Korda calls in his #1 heavy, Bak Soo (Tsing Tong Tsai). Bak Soo is built up like this unstoppable menace, but he ends up getting taken out in his very first encounter with Quinn.
• The Scooby Doo Award: There is a scene where our heroes are trying to escape Korda’s boat that was a live action version of Scooby-Doo chase scene.
• The Gorilla Monsoon Award: I couldn’t help but think of the late, great Gorilla Monsoon when Johnny Quinn accused his guide Jose of having a negative attitude at the start of the movie. #Monsoonisms