Bullet Points: Irresistible Force

I am not sure what got CBS interested in martial arts stars in 1993, but that was the year Walker, Texas Ranger, starring Chuck Norris, first hit TV screens and it was also the year that Cynthia Rothrock found herself starring alongside Stacy Keach in the made for TV movie, Irresistible Force…

• Getting Too Old For This Sh*t: Harris Stone (Stacy Keach, Class of 1999) is a cop in the twilight of his career and while he is not necessarily ready to retire, he does have a plan to make his final years on the police force a little easier. Based on his research, female cops are less likely to draw their firearms and more likely to try to diffuse situations in non-violent ways. So Stone pitches an idea to his boss, Commander Poole (Paul Winfield, The Terminator) that he’d like to be paired with a female. Pooler offers Stone a police academy cadet who doesn’t look like she will be graduating since she failed the “hostage tactics” test after acing all the rest, but with Stone’s blessing Poole would be willing to give this cadet a pass, let her graduate and pair her with Stone. Stone says he would like to meet with her first…
• The Female of the Species: Harris Stone goes to pick up the cadet for coffee, her name is Charlotte Heller (Cynthia Rothrock, China O’Brien) or Charlie for those in the know. Stone doesn’t make the best first impression, getting Charlie’s name wrong on multiple occasions and sharing his male chauvinistic views of the world with her… but she really wants to be a cop and this is her chance to make that happen. Their lunch is interrupted when a call comes over the radio about a hold at a nearby car dealership… they respond. While Stone is assessing the situation and waiting for backup, Charlie decides she should just walk right in the front door since she doesn’t look like a cop, they’ll never suspect her… and she was right and she then proceeds to kick the shit out of all the armed robbers much to the surprise of Harris Stone. Stone then finds out the reason Charlie flunked “hostage tactics” was because she was too aggressive… insert sad trombone sound here.

• The Place To Be: Both Stone and Charlie are in hot water with Commander Poole after the incident at the car dealership and both find themselves suspended… Stone has been down this path before and after the day they’ve had, he invites Charlie to have dinner with him and his family. But Stone knows that he’s going to need to smooth things over with his wife with news of the suspension and springing a surprised dinner guest on her, so he decides to stop at the mall to pick her up something nice and Charlie accompanies him. But they are far from the only people at this mall… in fact today is the big grand reopening of the mall and it is filled with dignitaries including the Police Chief, the Governor and the Mayor… it is also about to be filled with a terrorist group known as the White Cobras including one of them disguised as a stripper popping out of a giant cake! The group is led by a man named James Barron played by Christopher Neame of Hellbound and Street Knight fame. And to make things more interesting Barron was arrested by Harris Stone in the past and Stone has had a theory about the White Cobras for years… although his peers believe it is more of an obsession.
• Die Hard in a Shopping Mall: After the birthday surprise, chaos ensues and people rush for the doors, Stone manages to get out before the impenetrable Chopping Mall style security doors shut… but Charlie is still inside! So now we get all the elements for “Die Hard in a Shopping Mall”… a well laid dastardly plan, a lofty set of demands that includes the release of 32 imprisoned White Cobras, $100 million in cash and enough armored cars to take them all to the airport… plus, Charlie the fly in the ointment! Although Charlie doesn’t have to ruin the White Cobra’s plans all on her own as she does get some help from teenager and self-proclaimed “mall rat” Jesse, who was abducted by Barron and the White Cobras as leverage to get Jesse’s father to be a part of their evil plan. Plus Harris Stone isn’t about to stand on the sidelines and leave his new partner to fend for herself, so Stone manages to shimmy up the garbage chute and get inside to join her in taking down James Barron and his evil plan!

I have this vision of a good portion of the audience tuning in to Irresistible Force on CBS to catch up with Stacy Keach, who they absolutely loved as Mike Hammer, and having no idea who Cynthia Rothrock was. At that point Rothrock had already made a name for herself in the action world but she wasn’t in any mainstream movies and certainly not on broadcast television (unless you count her KFC commercial), so the audience experiencing Rothrock for the first time had to be even more surprised at the amazing things she could do and her ass kicking style than Harris Stone himself.

Director Kevin Hooks got the most out of this made for TV Die Hard clone. The movie was also a “backdoor pilot” and considering the chemistry between Rothrock and Keach, I am actually a little surprised they didn’t end up giving this a go as a TV series.

You should probably give these Bonus Bullet Points a go…

• Dream Match: I really wish there was an action movie out there named Immovable Object so I could have a Gorilla Monsoon tribute edition of the Movie Kumite where the Irresistible Force met the Immovable Object.
• AKA: Irresistible Force was released as Power Cop in Germany.
• Familiar Face: Nicholas Hammond played Lieutenant Nash of the S.W.A.T. team, who finds himself at odds with Keach’s Harris Stone for most of the movie. Hammond is best known as the first ever live action Spider-Man in the short lived series/made for TV movies that interestingly enough also aired on CBS back in the day.
• Out of Context Quote: “I can’t get my britches buttoned.” – Commander Poole
• If You Ever: …wanted to see a mall with a motorcycle store inside, then Irresistible Force is the movie for you.