Bullet Points: Scorpio One (1998)
What better time to review a Jeff Speakman movie that I have been meaning to get to, than on his birthday!? And this isn’t just any Jeff Speakman movie, this is Jeff Speakman in space!! This is Jeff Speakman in 1998’s Scorpio One…
- Two Cold Scorpio: The movie begins aboard the United Nations Space Station known as Scorpio One. We see a crew member enter one of the labs, bringing coffee to two of the scientists on board who are completely engrossed in their work. The crew member then grabs a floppy disc labeled cold fusion and he then slinks out of the room… like he doesn’t want anyone to know he took that cold fusion floppy disc. Then we see said crew member mess with Scorpio One’s oxygen supply and if it wasn’t already obvious, this crew member is engaging in espionage… but before he can make his escape capsules, a fire starts on board Scorpio One! In a panic, the crew member/spy accidentally releases one of the Scorpio One’s escape capsules before he actually got into it… this causes him to float off into space, while the entire crew of Scorpio One dies in the fire.
- Stone Cold: NASA obviously wants to know what the hell happened on Scorpio One, so they are sending a shuttle crew led by Commander Wilson (Steve Kanaly, Double Trouble). The CIA also has an interest in what happened on Scorpio One (and the cold fusion disc!) so they want to send one of their best, Jared Stone (Jeff Speakman, The Perfect Weapon) on the shuttle along with Wilson’s crew on the Space Shuttle Atlantis, which includes Carter (Robert Carradine, Number One with a Bullet) and Shannon Brey (Robin Curtis, Recoil). But wait there’s more… a team of five Army Rangers, led by Till (Brent Huff, The Bad Pack).
- Blood Runs Cold: When the Space Shuttle Atlantis makes it to Scorpio One, they quickly find the evidence that there was a fire onboard and they also make the grisly discovery of all of the dead crew members… but then bad things start to happen. The Atlantis loses power, one of the Rangers ends up dead and when our hero, Jared Stone finds the cold fusion floppy disc, he almost ends up dead too… it’s clear there is a rogue element or elements on this mission. Stone vows to find the saboteur and kill them! …Meanwhile back on Earth, we are introduced to a power hungry politician, Senator Treadwell (Lance LeGault, The Silencers), who has ties to arms dealers and a shady corporation… the type of shady corporation that would probably like to get its hands on cold fusion technology!
Scorpio One‘s greatest strengths and weaknesses were one in the same. The movie had a quality cast… but there just wasn’t enough screen time to go around for all of them. And in the case of Jeff Speakman, there wasn’t enough of him doing what Jeff Speakman does best… kick ass!
Another obvious weakness was the special effects. I had already tempered my expectations before I even hit play on Scorpio One, considering this was a direct to video movie from the fine folks over at Royal Oaks Entertainment and not a major Hollywood blockbuster.
If you want to be like me and say you’ve seen Jeff Speakman in space, then I’d suggest giving Scorpio One a watch. If you want to read some Bonus Bullet Points, then just keep scrolling…
- Familiar Face: George Murdock played CIA Director Wilfrid Parlow. I recognized Murdock from his roles in Breaker! Breaker! and Firepower among others. .
- Bastard Count: Scorpio One = Bastard Two
- Directed By: Scorpio One was directed by Worth Keeter. Other Keeter movies we have covered over the years include Trapper County War, Hijack and Memorial Day, which also starred Jeff Speakman.
- Quasi Futuristic Building: Remember that shady corporation I mentioned with ties to Senator Treadwell? They have an office in Los Angeles and their building looked exactly like the Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant.
- Wurst Music Ever: The music in Scorpio One was composed by David and Eric Wurst.
