Bullet Points: Iron Thunder (1988)
The world of action movies is directly responsible for me knowing anything about the world of professional kickboxing. Action movies introduced me to some of professional kickboxing’s biggest stars… Gary Daniels, Dennis Alexio, Benny “The Jet” Urquidez, Jerry Trimble and Don “The Dragon” Wilson all became household names (in my household at least) thanks to them making the jump from the ring to the movies.
However, there is one pro kickboxer that made the jump to movies (or movie in this case) that I had no knowledge of whatsoever. I am talking about the star of 1988’s Iron Thunder and Memphis’ own, five-time karate/kickboxing world champion, Anthony “Amp” Elmore!
- Parents Just Don’t Understand: The movie begins with some outdoor karate training as the opening credits roll, before we go to a more traditional dojo setting. It is at the dojo, where we get to witness prized student, Anthony “Amp” Elmore, take his black belt test (which involves him punching the floor and learning to bear the pain)… Amp is all amped up about his accomplishment, but Papa Elmore does not share the sentiment. Papa Elmore’s disappointment with Amp’s life choices and hairstyle is only magnified when Amp’s Marine brother returns home from Vietnam. It ends up being a “if you are going to live under my roof” moment for Amp and his father.
- Karate Teachers Just Don’t Understand: Amp enters himself into a karate tournament and wins. When he takes his trophy to his Sensei, he does not get the reaction he expected. Amp’s Sensei is completely disgusted, he teaches Shotokan Karate direct from Japan not that strip mall karate that is all the rage and he doesn’t want his students entering into tournaments. Amp’s Sensei humiliates him in front of the class (some of whom get their licks in too). When it is all said and done, Amp is stripped of his black belt and kicked out of the school… Sensei tells Amp if he comes back, he will kill him! That’s a bit extreme.
- Finally… Someone Understands: When we next see Amp he has his own bachelor pad and he is paid a visit by his mischievous friend, Kingfish, who is a real scene stealer. When Amp tells Kingfish that his goal is to become a full contact karate kickboxer like the ones on TV, Kingfish is all about it! Kingfish volunteers to be Amp’s spiritual advisor and hype man, and the journey begins…
- Brought To You By Coors: Amp has his first professional bout and not surprisingly he is victorious. In fact, after the two setbacks with his father and his teacher at the start of the movie, it is pretty much clear sailing for Amp the rest of the way… he basically just beats everybody on his way to the top. The movie uses actual Amp fight footage to serve as his road to the championship. We then get a press conference which is seemingly attended by no press, to announce the big title match going down at the Cook Convention Center in Memphis between a trash talking Anthony “Amp” Elmore and the reigning world champion, Danny Bumpus. During all of this there is a ton of Coors sponsorship visible.
- Main Event Time: They make the big title match seem big… Amp gets a singing and dancing entrance akin to Apollo Creed in Rocky IV. Kingfish gets to sing the National Anthem (and it makes at least one woman in the audience tingle). There’s a little more sizzle in the match itself, when from out of nowhere Amp’s old Sensei jumps into the ring and slaps his former student to fire him up when he needed it most. The slap leads to Amp winning the title and a big celebration as the end credits roll.
Iron Thunder was a total vanity project, written, directed and starring Anthony Elmore. Considering the fact that Elmore had never made a movie before this with a bunch of “actors” who never made a movie before this, it’s not huge surprise that Iron Thunder comes off very “amateur hour”.
I do have to wonder if Elmore was ever considered for other movie roles like some of his kickboxing contemporaries were OR if Elmore didn’t want to give up the creative control he had making his own movie OR maybe Elmore just didn’t want to leave his native Memphis for a new life in Lalaland!?!
Before you leave, check out these Bonus Bullet Points…
- AKA: Iron Thunder is also known as Contemporary Gladiator, which is an awful title for a movie, but a decent title for a production company.
- If You Ever: …wanted to watch Anthony “Amp” Elmore take a cold shower, then Iron Thunder is the movie for you. AND if you REALLY wanted to see that, you may need a cold shower of your own.
- Missing in Action: According to IMDb, Iron Thunder has an 85 minute runtime. However the version I saw on YouTube only ran for 66 minutes. From reading the comments, there is some missing Iron Thunder footage out there and this was not an IMDb snafu.
- Memorable Quote: “The sum total of my existence… the reason for me living… is to get some pussy!” – Kingfish
- The Name Game: Not to be confused with 1998’s Iron Thunder starring Richard Hatch.
- Teaser: 1988’s Iron Thunder joins the likes of Masters of the Universe and Flash Gordon as 80’s movies that teased a sequel that never happened… although I can’t say I am as disappointed about Iron Thunder as the other two examples.
