Bullet Points: Double Target

We’ve all heard our share of urban legends over the years. There’s the old killer in the backseat urban legend… There’s the one about Hall of Fame baseball player Wade Boggs drinking 64 beers on a cross country plane trip… An urban legend that I recall hotly debating in English Lit class during my sophomore year of high school was the one about there being two Ultimate Warriors (100% horse shit by the way)… And who could forget about the classic one about the munchkin killing himself on the set of The Wizard of Oz.

There is one universal question a person could ask about any urban legend… how in the hell did it start? After watching Double Target, I think I may have gotten to the bottom of how the urban legend about Bob Ross, the host of the classic PBS series The Joy of Painting, got started.

For those who have never heard it, urban legend would have us believe that Bob Ross was a sniper during the Vietnam war with over 100 confirmed kills and as a way to cope with all the lives he took during the war, he took up painting. Miles O’Keeffe plays a Rambo/Braddock like character who served in Vietnam named Bob Ross in Double Target. You get some guys sitting around the bar talking about that movie where a guy named Bob Ross is kicking ass and taking out bad guys left and right (and really. who wasn’t talking about Double Target back in 1987?). Then combine the Double Target talk with the fact that the actual Bob Ross was at one time in the military and it is easy to see how the Bob Ross urban legend could have been born…

• Father of Mine: Bob Ross (Miles O’Keeffe), is a soldier of fortune who proudly served his country during the Vietnam War. When Ross finds out the Vietnamese woman who he was romantically linked with and bore his child as a result of that relationship has died in a Vietnamese concentration camp (the Vietnamese prefer the name re-education camp), Ross makes his way back to Vietnam. Ross wants his son to live with him in the United States, but the Vietnamese government see things differently and tell Ross he has no right to take his son out of the country. Ross at this point is hell bent on getting his son, but there’s the question of how he is going to manage it… enter the United States government.

• Let’s Make A Deal: After a rash of terrorist attacks (which we see depicted in the opening minutes of the movie), the State Department has learned of the possibility of the Russians having a terrorist training camp somewhere in the jungles of Vietnam… the camp is reportedly not too far from the village where Bob Ross’ son is currently residing. But before they can act the State Department needs definitive proof this terrorist training camp actually exists. Ross is contacted by his old friend Colonel Waters, who suggests Ross (a highly decorated war hero) for the job to the man in charge of the operation, Senator Blaster. Not only is Senator Blaster and awesome name, the character is portrayed by the even more awesome Donald Pleasence. Pleasence is a real scene stealer as the quirky asthmatic senator, who rubs Bob Ross the wrong way from the word go. Ross sees Blaster as nothing more than a desk jockey, the same sort of desk jockey that cost the United States the Vietnam War. Blaster takes exception to these comments and tells Ross right to his face that he thinks he will fail at his mission and when that happens he will let him and his son rot in the jungle. And things are off to a great start as Ross agrees to do Blaster’s dirty work in order to get his son back.

• The Mission: Ross is going to get into Vietnam in a most unique fashion… by submarine. Ross is jettisoned from the sub torpedo style off the coast of Vietnam, where he immediately has to deal with a Vietnamese military patrol boat and a shark! Fortunately Ross learns that  “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” saying is true and the blood thirsty shark takes care of the patrol boat and this buys Ross the time he needs to get to shore before the shark looks for more to eat. Once in the jungle, Ross meets up with his contact for this mission Toro. Before they infiltrate the terrorist training camp, Toro takes Ross to the village where his son Jan lives. Ross promises Jan (nice name by the way) that as soon as he is done with his mission, the two of them will start a new life together in the United States and just like that Ross and Toro are on their way to the camp, posing as Russian soldiers delivering supplies.

• The Russians Are Coming: Once inside the camp, Ross finds out where they keep all the files and pulls out one of those cool spy cameras like they have in the movies (because this is a movie) and starts snapping pictures and gathering evidence. Toro is outside serving as the lookout and when he sees a helicopter approaching, his instincts tell him shit is about to get real and he runs inside to alert Ross. Toro’s instincts were right… the helicopter was transporting our head Russian bad guy Colonel Gacklin (Bo Svenson, Soda Cracker). It looks like our heroes Ross and Toro are toast with Gacklin and his troops surrounding the building, but then Ross and Toro come bursting out of the building riding a motorcycle with a sidecar as they attempt a daring escape (this was easily my favorite scene in the entire movie!) Ross and Toro do manage to escape against all odds, but completing the second leg of Ross’ mission to get Jan back to the United States is going to be even more difficult with a pissed off Gacklin and his troops hot on their heels, dealing with locals who Ross may or may not be able to trust and lets not forget Ross’s problems with the guy who sent him on this mission… Senator Blaster!

Vietnam themed movies were a dime a dozen in the 1980’s after the success of Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo films and Cannon’s Missing in Action series starring Chuck Norris, so it is no surprise I had never heard of Double Target prior to finding it during one of my routine scans of Prime Video. But thanks to Donald Pleasence, Double Target is now a movie I will never forget. Donald’s performance and some well crafted action sequences made Double Target worth watching… plus I may have discovered how that Bob Ross urban legend truly started.

Speaking of urban legends, did you hear the one about how all my reviews end with Bonus Bullet Points? Well, that’s no urban legend, that’s the truth…

• Worst Cover Nominee: Did someone think this cover would encourage rentals? While it is obviously a more accurate depiction of the hero of the movie than the cover I shared at the top of my review it is completely uninspired.
• Threatening Quote: “I’m gonna come back here and make you eat that damned inhaler and shove that briefcase up your ass too!” – Ross to Blaster
• Spoiler Alert: Toro was second only to Senator Blaster when it came to my favorite characters in Double Target. Toro goes out in a blaze of glory when he finds himself stuck in mine field. But the quick thinking Toro uses the situation to take out multiple bad guys… making himself one heroic martyr in the process.
• Favorite Quote:  “Listen, I’m an American. I don’t know shit from Shinola.” – Ross
• Comments Welcomed: I’m not exactly sure who is depicted on the Double Target cover used by IMDb (see below), but it sure as hell ain’t Miles O’Keeffe. If anybody knows who it is or anything about what appears to be a different movie named Double Target, leave the info in the comments section…