Bullet Points: Assault on Devil’s Island
The year was 1997. World Championship Wrestling was on fire with a dastardly Hulk Hogan on top as the head of the New World Order. WCW Monday Nitro was delivering monster ratings for TNT, so it was no surprise when the Turner execs wanted to capitalize on the popularity and greenlit a made for TV movie starring “Hollywood” Hulk Hogan. And Assault on Devil’s Island was born…
- Classic Hogan: Hulk Hogan may have been playing bad guy on WCW programming, but in Assault on Devil’s Island he played Navy SEAL Mike McCord and he had hair!. As the movie begins, McCord along with Roy Brown (Carl Weathers, Action Jackson) are leading a SEAL team on a mission to take down notorious drug kingpin Carlos Gallindo (Billy Drago, Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection). There’s a wildcard joining McCord and the team for this mission, Fraker (Trevor Goddard, Men of War). As a longtime wrestling fan, it felt like history was repeating itself… McCord makes mention that Fraker seems to be wound a bit too tight as the team makes their way to Gallindo’s hacienda in San Dominico, but despite seeing an obvious warning sign, McCord proceeds with Fraker at his side…. it was like “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff and “Macho Man” Randy Savage all over again. And like Macho and Wonderful, Fraker betrays the team and reveals that Gallindo paid him big bucks to do so. Death Wish 3 fans would have immediately been suspect of Fraker based solely on his name.
- Ravishing Russian: While McCord had an unexpected foe, when the shit hits the fan in San Dominico he ends up with an unexpected ally in the form of Hunter Wiley (Shannon Tweed, Steele Justice)… DEA Agent Wiley has been working undercover for months, getting extremely close to Gallindo. How close? Well, there’s one scene which proved I was watching the home video version of the movie, because I am fairly confident Shannon Tweed’s boobs weren’t out for all to see on basic cable back in 1997. Wiley drops her Russian cover (and totally believable Russian accent) and saves McCord from being beheaded… which is about the time Roy and his version of “Old Painless” show up and the bullets really start flying. McCord and team (with the captive Gallindo) end up making their escape in the shark infested waters off the coast of San Dominico… which includes McCord being bit by one of the sharks and shoving a grenade in a shark’s mouth. Obviously being killed by a shark didn’t work for McCord brother!
- This Ain’t Over: When McCord and company get back stateside, McCord does not hide the fact that he plans on going back to San Dominico to get the body of his fallen SEAL brother, JJ… AND getting even with that “rat bastard” Fraker. That’s when Andy Powers (Martin Kove, To Be the Best), former SEAL who traded that life in to be a government suit, steps in and reminds McCord that the mission was successful… Gallindo is in custody and that McCord does not have authorization to return to San Dominico. Mike McCord resigns right then and there! Wiley, who was responsible for the millions of dollars of diamonds that were being used to finance her “drug deal” with Gallindo, wants to go back and get the diamonds before Fraker uses them for nefarious means so she is now joined at the hip with McCord… But things aren’t over were Gallindo is concerned, he may be in custody but it doesn’t mean he can’t strong arm his attorney into delivering some messages… the first one is to Fraker. It’s a reminder that if Fraker can’t get Gallindo out, Fraker won’t get paid as promised. The second one is to Gallindo’s head of security with orders to kill Hunter Wiley!
- Fraker! Fraker!: There’s no way Fraker is going to leave that much money on the table, so he hatches a plan to kidnap the beloved United States gymnastics team. The plan was a solid one and before they know it, the gymnasts find themselves being held prisoner in a partially submerged cage on Devil’s Island in the Gulf of Mexico. Now Fraker can use the gymnastics team as a trade for the release of Carlos Gallindo. When Fraker’s demands come in, the powers that be don’t want to attempt a rescue, instead they decide to comply with Fraker’s demands and they select Andy Powers to personally accompany Gallindo. Andy disagrees with the decision, but will follow orders… but first Andy pays his old buddy, Mike McCord, a visit at Mike’s home in the Florida Keys offering up any and all recon and intelligence he has on Devil’s Island… off the books of course. The old Andy is back!
- Devil’s Island: Getting on to Devil’s Island undetected is nearly impossible. You can’t get there by sea, you can’t get there by air… the only way is underwater and the waters surrounding Devil’s Island are shark infested! Once they get on the island, they’ll have to deal with Fraker and Gallindo’s security force and the head of security himself, Creagan (Billy Blanks, Showdown). In fact, we get a lengthy Mike McCord vs. Creagan battle, while Roy and Wiley attempt to rescue the gymnasts with “Old Painless” once again coming into play… Spoiler Alert! Creagan ends up defeated, the gymnasts are rescued, Wiley is scantily clad, Fraker ends up in the shark infested drink and Gallindo is going back to prison! …The movie wraps up with Davis forming the Shadow Warriors, setting up for more. Rumor has it, that if Assault on Devil’s Island performed well in the ratings (and it did) a weekly series (that would be packaged with a second night of prime time WCW programming) was a possibility. The series never happened but we did get more of Mike McCord, Roy Brown, Andy Powers and Hunter Wiley in the 1999 sequel, Assault on Death Mountain!
If there is ever another attempt at doing another live action G.I. Joe movie, I would suggest giving a copy of Assault on Devil’s Island to whoever is making it. Assault on Devil’s Island had a foursome of unique heroes (with a few background players) and a trio of memorable villains (with an army of cannon fodder bad guys) and kept it simple. And that’s all it needed to be, to be an entertaining action movie.
Assault on Devil’s Island was already on my list of movies that I wanted to cover for February, but given the heartbreaking Carl Weathers news last week, it quickly moved to the top of my list. There is a reason there was a huge outpouring of love for Carl Weathers on social media this past weekend… the man made every project he was in better. His charisma, his physicality and his screen presence made him beloved by fans all around the world. It didn’t matter if it was a blockbuster film, a television series or a made for TV movie… Carl Weathers always brought his A game and more importantly brought out the best in those around him. Quite simply, Carl Weathers was one of the best to ever do it.
I once asked Carl Weathers about his Action Jackson co-star, Chino “Fats” Williams on social media and he said the Chino had a smile that lit up a room… I would bet that those who had the good fortune of working with Carl over the years would say the same thing about Carl and his big laugh.
Bonus Bullet Points
- AKA: Assault on Devil’s Island was also known is also known as Shadow Warriors.
- Exploding Helicopter: While recuperating from his shark bite at his home, McCord (along with Wiley and Roy) is nearly taken out by a pre-emptive strike that involved a helicopter full of Gallindo’s henchmen opening fire on the heroic trio. The end result has McCord blowing up the helicopter with a rocket launcher!
- Starrcade: TNT added a little insurance that fans of their hottest program, WCW Monday Nitro, would tune into Assault on Devil’s Island by including cutaways to the contract signing for the big “Hollywood” Hulk Hogan and Sting title match that was set to take place on pay-per-view two months after the premiere of Assault on Devil’s Island as the main event of that year’s WCW Starrcade.
- Familiar Face: Marc Macaulay played the coach of the gymnastics team who perishes after he realizes something is not right with the trip to the “Bahamas” that he and his team were gifted. I always remember Macaulay from his work in 2004’s The Punisher, Passenger 57 and Plato’s Run.
