Bullet Points: Hurricane Smith
What happens when you mix a pre-existing weather disturbance with warm tropical water, some thunderstorm activity and low wind shear? The answer is a hurricane.
What happens when you mix Carl Weathers and the wonderful world of Ozploitation films? The answer is 1992’s Hurricane Smith.
- Land Down Under: When Billy “Hurricane” Smith (Carl Weathers, Action Jackson) receives the sad news that his mother passed away, he decides it is time to track down his sister Sally, who last he had heard was in Australia. So Billy leaves his construction gig in Marshall, Texas and makes his way to Australia’s Gold Coast and when he arrives his first stop is the immigration office… it is there Billy receives his first piece of disturbing news. According to the immigration officer, there is no record of his sister entering the country legally. Next stop Sally’s last known address in Australia…
- Hot Child in the City: When Billy arrives at the house Sally called home, he gets his second piece of disturbing news… this isn’t just a house, it is a whore house! Billy meets Julie (Cassandra Delaney) one of the working girls and a friend/co-worker of Sally. But before he can get any answers from Julie about what happened to his sister, he has a gun pointed at him by Shanks. Shanks is the stooge who runs the day to day operations at the brothel, one of the many illegal businesses of crime boss, Howard Fenton (Tony Bonner). Billy backs off and does leave, but promises he will be back. The meeting with Billy now has Julie preoccupied, as she too wonders what happened to her friend Sally and begins to fear the worst. This causes Julie to fail to perform her duties for an out of town businessman looking for some female companionship… this is obviously seen as problem and Howard Fenton’s problem solver is a guy named Charlie Dowd (Jürgen Prochnow, Air Force One).
- Party All The Time: Later that evening at a party being held at the brothel, Dowd confronts Julie about her failure to perform, he even calls her a lazy slut… fortunately for Julie, Billy made good on his promise, crashed the party and knocked Dowd out before he could have his way with Julie. But the good news won’t last long, since Billy has now made an enemy of the very dangerous Charlie Dowd. Dowd and his men eventually track Billy down. After testing Billy’s fighting abilities, they torture Billy, before eventually telling him his sister returned home and then dumping Billy out of a moving car. Dowd at this point believes he has eliminated the Billy Smith problem…
- Lost in Emotion: Fortunately for Billy, Julie is there to return the favor from earlier and she gets Billy a room at Griffo’s place. Griffo (or David Griffiths to those not in the know), is Julie’s grandfather. When Dowd finds out that Billy did not hightail it back to the States and worse Julie is helping Billy… Julie once again becomes a target and after narrowly escaping Dowd’s wrath, an emotional Julie finds herself in bed with Billy Smith. That escalated quickly…
- Rock You Like a Hurricane: Billy now makes it his mission to take down Charlie Dowd for what… he gets some help from Griffo, who is obviously not happy his granddaughter being threatened by a gangster like Dowd. And Billy and Griffo even get some surprising help from that stooge, Shanks, who genuinely does care for all the girls at the brothel. This leads to a fantastic scene involving some speedboats that teased the Hurricane Smith version of Action Jackson‘s “Hot. Hotter. Hottest.” moment. Plus, we get some helicopter action!
Hurricane Smith was a movie that had been on my wish list for quite some time and I am happy to report this did not turn out to be one of those “be careful what you wish for” scenarios. What it did turn out to be was further proof that Carl Weathers deserved more action movie roles with him in the lead role. The movie itself was average, but Weathers’ star power and screen presence take it up a notch. Having a veteran baddie like Jürgen Prochnow as the movie’s main villain did not hurt either.
It never hurts to read some Bonus Bullet Points…
- One Question: Who is the woman with Carl Weathers on the cover of the above Hurricane Smith DVD?
- If You Ever: …wanted to see a damsel in distress escape a pissed off gangster by hopping on a Sea World shuttle bus, then Hurricane Smith is the movie for you.
- Origin Story: We find out Billy got the nickname “Hurricane” after 14 year old Billy saved his sister in the middle of a hurricane.
- Australian for Yank: Billy is called a “Septic” by a cab driver and by Griffo… this is Australian slang for an American or Yankee. The full “Septic Tank” or “Seppo” are also used.
- Greatest Tag Line Ever: If Hurricane Smith does not have the greatest tag line in cinematic history it certainly has to be in the conversation… “He’ll Blow You Away.” Get it?
- Meta: During their initial meeting, Billy tells Julie he is staying at the Hotel APOLLO.
- AKA: Hurricane Smith is also known as Dead on Delivery.
