Megaforce
 |
This article may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding references. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. More details may be available on the talk page. (June 2011) |
| MegaForce | |
|---|---|
 MegaForce movie poster |
|
| Directed by | Hal Needham |
| Produced by | Andre Morgan Albert S. Ruddy |
| Written by | Phil Feldman André Morgan Hal Needham Albert S. Ruddy James Whittaker |
| Starring | Barry Bostwick Michael Beck Persis Khambatta Edward Mulhare |
| Music by | Jerrold Immel |
| Cinematography | Michael C. Butler |
| Editing by | Patrick Roark Skip Schoolnik |
| Studio | Golden Harvest |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | June 25, 1982 |
| Running time | 99 min. |
| Country | United States Hong Kong |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $20 million (est.) |
| Box office | $5,675,599 |
Megaforce (or MegaForce), is an action film made in 1982 directed by former stuntman Hal Needham. The film starred Barry Bostwick, Persis Khambatta, Michael Beck, Edward Mulhare, Evan C. Kim, Ralph Wilcox, and Henry Silva.
The film featured a "phantom Army of super elite fighting men whose weapons are the most powerful science can devise", including realistic 3-D holograms and combat vehicles such as a motorcycle called the "Delta MK 4 Megafighter" equipped with missile launchers. The movie included extreme scenarios such as motorcycles (and dune buggies) launching missiles which proved lethal for main battle tanks. The dune buggies, "megadestroyers" or "megacruisers", also had lasers that could destroy a tank in a single shot. In the film finale, the main character's motorcycle activates small (~2 ft or 0.6 m) fold-out wings and flies.
It was also made into a computer game most notably for the Atari 2600. It was planned on being re-released on the Xbox 360 via its Xbox Live Arcade download services sometime in 2009.
The film was a critical and commercial failure in its release and was nominated for three Razzie Awards, Worst Picture, Worst Director and Worst Supporting Actor (Michael Beck).
A sequel titled Deeds not Words was considered, but it was scrapped due to poor performance of the original film. Delta Force, the 1986 Chuck Norris blockbuster, had a plot very similar to MegaForce, and in the movie, Norris rides a motorbike which fires missiles.
[edit] Plot Synopsis
The story involves two fictional countries, the peaceful Republic of Sardun and their aggressive neighbor Gamibia. Unable to defend itself from the Gamibia incursion, Sardun sends Major Zara (Persis Khambatta) and General Byrne-White (Edward Mulhare) to ask the help of MegaForce – a secret army composed of international soldiers equipped with advanced weapons and vehicles. The MegaForce leader, Commander Ace Hunter (Barry Bostwick) accepts the peacekeeping mission when he learns his rival, and former military academy friend, Duke Gurerra (Henry Silva) is leading the Gamibia invasion.
While Hunter composes an elaborate battle plan to destroy Gurerra's forces, Zara tries out to become a member of MegaForce. Although she passes the tests, Hunter's growing feelings of love toward her prevent him from accepting her on for such a dangerous mission.
Eventually, MegaForce successfully para-drops it's attack vehicles into Gamibia and Hunter mounts his sneak attack against Gurerra's forces. Although they manage to destroy his base, Gurerra has set a trap for them at the team's only means of escape – a dry lake bed where the cargo planes will pick them up. Gurerra sends his tanks to secure the lake bed while Hunter comes up with a plan to attack Gurerra from behind by crossing over a mountain range the enemy tanks had turned their backs toward.
The plan succeeds, and MegaForce manages to break through Gurerra's tanks, but one of MegaForce's cargo planes is damaged in the process. Having to abandon their hi-tech vehicles, (which they program to self-destruct), the team successfully makes it on-foot to the last plane, save for Hunter. The commander instead, makes his own dramatic escape on his motorcycle after it deploys airfoils and a rocket motor and catches up with the cargo plane in midair. Although he lost the battle, Gurerra shows admiration for Hunter's cunning and gives his old friend a thumbs up.
[edit] In popular culture
In the DVD introduction to the season two South Park episode, "The Mexican Staring Frog of Southern Sri Lanka", Trey Parker graphically describes MegaForce as if it were the plot for what the viewer is about to see. Matt Stone stops Parker mid-sentence and reminds him that he is describing the movie MegaForce and not their episode. A disappointed Parker remembers and says, "We should have done MegaForce, that was a sweet movie, we should have done that." Their film Team America: World Police includes a number of apparent references to the film, including similar scenes of a flying motorcycle and an underground base where the hero meets various specialists.
Mattel also produced a Vertibird and Hot Wheels play sets based on the MegaForce theme.
A video game based on the film was released in 1982 on the Atari 2600.
An album was released on Boardwalk Records, with the theme song done by the group 707, was released as a single reaching the mid level of the charts in the U.S.A. and Canada. The soundtrack was released on Compact Disc in 2011 by BSX Records.
[edit] External links
- Megaforce at the Internet Movie Database
- Megaforce at AllRovi
- Film review at Surfin' Dead
- Fan Site - MegaForce HQ
|
||||||||
