Bullet Points: Survival Game
Trans World Entertainment never really got the notoriety (or infamy) of some of its independent peers of the 1980s like Cannon Films and Empire International Pictures. But during their run TWE did have some memorable releases including Pray for Death and Killer Klowns from Outer Space.
But TWE also had some less memorable releases, movies that I honestly have never heard anyone talk about… movies like 1987’s Survival Game…
- War Games: The movie starts with four weekend warriors participating in some of the war games provided at the War In Peace Survival Camp while some leftover music from American Ninja plays. When one of the four wannabe soldiers finds himself in a precarious position doing the rope shimmy exercise it is Mike Hawkins (Mike Norris, Death Ring) to the rescue. But no good deed goes unpunished as they say, Mike is dressed down by the proprietor of the War In Peace Survival Camp, Col. Wilcox aka Sugar Bear. Sugar Bear served with Mike’s father in the Vietnam War and is like an uncle to Mike and he as much as he enjoys having Mike around at the camp, he is pushing him to go back to school and make something of his life.
- Collision Course: Mike heads home after surviving the latest Sugar Bear lecture and Mike is still on the jazz from his Survival Game rescue, so he cranks up the radio as he is cruising down the road… faster than the posted speed limit. Meanwhile also on the road and heading in Mike’s direction is C.J. Forrest (Deborah Goodrich), who is running late for a very important date, so she blows through a stop sign and WHAMMO! C.J. and Mike collide and run each other’s cars off the road. The vehicular damage is minimal, no one was injured and both are blaming each other for the accident… but C.J. doesn’t have time to exchange insurance info or file any police reports, she tells Mike to meet her later at the restaurant she works at and they can sort everything out.
- Freebird: C.J. Forrest is the daughter of Dr. Dave Forrest (Seymour Cassell, Eye of the Tiger). C.J. was heading to meet her father who was getting out of prison after 17 years. Dr. Dave created a powerful hallucinogen and distributed it… which is what landed him in jail. Dr. Dave swears up and down he never sold the stuff, he gave it away… but there are others who believe that Dr. Dave and his cohorts made millions off the stuff. So needless to say, C.J. is not the only one interested in her father being out of prison.
- Three’s a Crowd: Mike shows up at the restaurant later that evening just like C.J. asked him to, but C.J. and her father are having a heart to heart so C.J. doesn’t have time for Mike yet again. But a bumfuzzled Mike is not taking no for an answer, so when C.J. and her father leave the restaurant Mike follows them out to the parking lot and that’s where he witnesses some guys snatch up Dr. Dave and Mike intervenes before they could do the same to C.J.
- Name That Tune: C.J. has plenty of time for Mike now as the two find themselves at the War In Peace Survival Camp and having a little slumber party action while Bill Withers’ “Lean on Me” plays and the two get to know one another a little more and figure out what their next move should be. The next day they go to C.J.’s apartment to see if there is a message on her machine concerning her father and any potential ransom demands… there’s no message, but there are two goons waiting for C.J. …Mike once again steps in and helps get C.J. out of harm’s way all while a rip off of Harold Faltermeyer’s “Axel F” plays. But the goons don’t give up that easily and that prompts a foot chase, a foot chase that finds Mike and C.J. ducking and dodging their pursuers in a department store while The Kingsmen’s “Louie Louie” plays. I feel like whoever conceived this sequence was sampling some of Dr. Dave’s hallucinogens. After the “Louie Louie” scene this was a made movie for me and Survival Game instantly became my all-time favorite Mike Norris movie and I am not sure that anyone in the world has ever admitted to having a favorite Mike Norris movie, but I just did and the movie isn’t even all that great.
With millions of dollars potentially at stake Survival Game becomes more of a Who Can You Trust? Game. Seymour Cassell is a scene stealer, Deborah Goodrich is a classic damsel in distress, Ed Bernard is named Sugar Bear and Mike Norris… well, he is in the movie.
- AKA: Survival Game was released as DynaMike in Germany.
- If You Ever: ...wanted to see a local television commercial for an extermination company with a Terminator parody theme, then Survival Game is the movie for you.
- Branding: Dr. Dave’s hallucinogen was known as Forest Fire. Smokey the Bear would not approve.
- Spoiler Alert: I am about to spoil the big reveal at the end of the movie… after denying the existence of the two million dollars the entire movie, Dr. Dave finally remembers that not only was there two million dollars, he also remember where he hid it… inside C.J.’s favorite over sized teddy bear. How did Dave get the money inside the bear without damaging the bear? Build-a-Bear wasn’t a thing back in 1970.