Movie Review – Missing in Action 2: The Beginning (1985)

In 1984 the world was introduced to Missing in Action, a Chuck Norris action film that took us back to Vietnam in search of American soldiers still classified as being missing in action (MIA).

In Missing in Action, we learn that Colonel James Braddock (Chuck Norris) was himself a prisoner of war (POW) with other American soldiers in Vietnam.  They were tortured, and later Braddock lead a revolt against the Vietnamese captors and escaped from the jungle.

Missing in Action 2: The Beginning tells that captivity and escape story in greater detail.

Directed by Lance Hool, Missing in Action 2: The Beginning stars Chuck Norris in the role of Colonel James Braddock, an officer in the U.S. Army’s special forces who becomes a prisoner of war when his helicopter is shot down in Vietnam.  Supporting him is Soon-Tek Oh playing the role of the sinister Vietnamese POW camp leader Colonel Yin.  You’ll also find Professor Toru Tanaka as one of the guards in the camp.

That’s about it for the cast of this film.  Everybody else is a nobody in Hollywood.

Missing in Action 2: The Beginning (1985) – (c) Cannon Films / MGM

Missing in Action 2: The Beginning takes place back in the Vietnam War.  Colonel James Braddock (Chuck Norris) joins his fellow soldiers in a UH-1 Huey helicopter.  They take off and fly to a nearby landing zone where fellow American soldiers are pinned down by the Viet Cong.  Col. Braddock and his men are able to use the Huey’s weapons to pin down the enemy.  They land and pick up a few soldiers, but the Viet Cong shoots a missile and it hits the Huey.  As the helicopter descends and threatens to crash, Col. Braddock orders his men to jump out of the chopper.  He’s the last to leave before the chopper crashes in a fiery explosion.

The American soldiers are all classified as missing in action.  This includes Col. Braddock, Captain David Nester (Steven Williams), Lieutenant Anthony Mazilli (Cosie Costa), Master Sergeant Ernest Franklin (John Wesley), and Corporal Lawrence Opelka (Joe Michael Terry).  They are all captured by the Viet Cong and taken to a prisoner of war camp.

Missing in Action 2: The Beginning (1985) – (c) Cannon Films / MGM

Colonel James Braddock is the highest ranking officer and leader of the American prisoners.  He’s the person who answers to Vietnamese Colonel Yin (Soon-Tek Oh), a sadistic man looking to break the American prisoners.  One of the Vietnamese guards is Lao (Professor Toru Tanaka), a man who likes to throw his weight around and beat the prisoners.

Col. Braddock accuses Col. Yin of abusing the Geneva Convention and the rules governing the treatment of prisoners of war.  Col. Yin just laughs at Braddock’s words, claiming that the men are not prisoners of war but merely prisoners of the Vietnamese society.  It’s a technicality.  That doesn’t really matter though as Col. Yin guarantees that the prisoners will be released just as soon as Braddock signs a confession for his alleged war crimes.  Braddock refuses to sign anything.

Yin also assures the prisoners that the compound is escape proof.  Should they manage to get past a guard, they’ll have to deal with the rugged mountainous terrain, sheer cliffs, and a heavily guarded wooden bridge.

Missing in Action 2: The Beginning (1985) – (c) Cannon Films / MGM

The men are kept busy working in a garden.  One of the soldiers makes a run for it and reaches the bridge.  Halfway across the bridge he’s stopped by a Vietnamese guard.  The guard uses a flame thrower (on a wooden bridge, mind you) to cover the soldier in flames, burning him alive.  The burning man falls off the bridge and plunges into the river.  His body is then swept over a waterfall and beaten on the rocks beneath the falls.

Back at the POW camp, Captain Nester has sided with the enemy.  He urges his fellow Americans to give in to Yin’s demands, but they refuse.  They’re not about to shame themselves and turn traitor, even if it means more cruel suffering as a prisoner.

Missing in Action 2: The Beginning (1985) – (c) Cannon Films / MGM

Later that day Opelka is pulled from his jail cell and stood before the camp’s commanding officers.  Yin states that Opelka has been tried and found guilty of war crimes.  One of the guards puts a pistol to the side of Opelka’s head and pulls the trigger.  The hammer clicks but the pistol is unloaded.  The guard pulls the trigger a few more times to further psych out Opelka.  He’s thrown back into his jail cell and left to wrestle with his emotions.

The next day, Colonel Yin tries to get Colonel Braddock to sign a confession and save the lives of his men.  Braddock refuses, and he’s sent back into the compound.  Lao strikes Braddock from behind, knocking him to the ground.  A couple of men come to his aide while Lao beats up Opelka.  Braddock comes to Opelka’s aid and pushes aside Lao.  Colonel Yin likes Braddock’s fighting spirit, so he arranges a fight in the compound.  Instead of fighting one of his guards, Yin orders Braddock to fight against Nester.

Missing in Action 2: The Beginning (1985) – (c) Cannon Films / MGM

The fight between Braddock and Nester is fairly one-sided to Nester’s advantage.  This is because A) Braddock doesn’t want to fight the man, and B) Braddock’s legs are still in shackles, preventing him from kicking or having good footing.  Braddock eventually fights back using his fists.  Braddock wins when he has Nester in a choke hold.  Lao tries to pull him off Nester, but Braddock strikes Lao and sends him to the ground.  Lao eventually gets up and kicks Braddock repeatedly.

Missing in Action 2: The Beginning (1985) – (c) Cannon Films / MGM

Later, Colonel Yin is about to punish Franklin in front of everybody, but Braddock requests to take his place.  He’s the highest ranking officer amongst the prisoners, and he expects to take the worst of the beatings.  The guards bind Braddock with rope and dangle him from his feet.  In a more interesting method of torture, the guards place an angry rat in a bag and then slip the bag over Braddock’s head.  The rat scratches and claws his face.  When the bag is removed we see that Braddock bit the rat, killing the rodent.

One day the men are out working in the garden again when they hear an approaching helicopter.  The prisoners are anxious as they believe it’s a friendly patrol out looking for them.  As the guards make the prisoners head underneath the trees, Opelka makes a run for it.  A guard shoots at him but misses.

Missing in Action 2: The Beginning (1985) – (c) Cannon Films / MGM

The helicopter lands, but it’s not an American chopper.  Out of the Huey climb a group of Vietnamese prostitutes.  They’re there to pleasure the camp’s guards and further humiliate the prisoners.  The chopper’s pilot is a man named François (Pierre Issot).  François helps Colonel Yin smuggle opium through the country.  He advises Yin to get rid of the prisoners as he’s heard reports of an international organization searching the nearby mountains for prisoners of war.  François later boards his helicopter and flies away.

That night, Colonel Braddock is sent to see the camp’s commander.  Braddock is informed that his wife is going to marry another man.  She had Braddock legally declared dead and is moving on with her life.  She mailed a letter to Braddock, but the commander burns the letter right in front of Braddock, not allowing him to read it first.

Missing in Action 2: The Beginning (1985) – (c) Cannon Films / MGM

The next day, a guard catches a man named Emerson (Christopher Cary) taking photos of the POW camp.  Emerson is taken to Colonel Yin, and he informs the colonel that more men like himself are out in the nearby jungle.  This camp has been marked with a locator, and if Emerson doesn’t report back to his commanders soon, then an assault force is going to attack the camp.  If Yin agrees to release the prisoners, then Emerson will report in and call off the assault.

Yin considers his options and decides to let Emerson go.  Before leaving, Emerson heads into a cell to talk to the prisoners.  At first the prisoners are thrilled that they’re being released, but that quickly changes when Emerson reveals that he was just bluffing to Colonel Yin.  He’s alone.  There is no strike force.  Emerson was there to take pictures and prove that the prisoner camp existed.

They hear a helicopter approaching again and one of the prisoners informs Emerson that it’s François returning to pick up the hookers.  Emerson is alarmed as François knows him, and he’ll tell Colonel Yin the truth about his phony strike team.  Emerson tries to flee but he’s stopped by the guards.  Sure enough, François tells Yin the truth.  Emerson is then shot in the head by a guard and executed.

Missing in Action 2: The Beginning (1985) – (c) Cannon Films / MGM

This whole time in the camp, Franklin has been suffering from malaria.  He continues to deteriorate, and that night he reaches the breaking point.  Colonel Yin offers to give Franklin an antibiotic shot.  That is, as long as Braddock agrees to sign a confession.  Braddock finally agrees and Yin injects Franklin with the antibiotic.  Braddock then signs a confession, and the men are placed in a different cell.

Braddock and Mazilli are horrified when Franklin suddenly becomes worse.  They fear that he’s been poisoned.  Yin returns and tells them that instead of an antibiotic, he injected Franklin with a massive dose of opium.  There’s nothing that anybody can do for Franklin now.  The guards take Franklin outside and placed on a wooden platform.  Braddock watches in horror as Yin uses a lighter to ignite the platform, creating a fire and burning Franklin while he’s still alive.

This is the tipping point for Colonel Braddock.  Now it’s time to kick some ass.

Missing in Action 2: The Beginning (1985) – (c) Cannon Films / MGM

Braddock is being held alone in his jail cell.  He pretends to hang himself, and when a guard checks on him, Braddock strangles him quietly.  He then slips out of the cell and makes his way unnoticed across the compound.  He quietly kills another guard and then reaches the heavily guarded wooden bridge.  To avoid the patrolling guards, Braddock slips underneath the wooden suspension bridge and crawls along the bottom of it, safely reaching the opposite side of the ravine.

Missing in Action 2: The Beginning (1985) – (c) Cannon Films / MGM

Operation Payback is in full effect as Braddock kills another guard and steals his uniform.  He then steals some weapons from a shack and heads back into the jungle.  Disguised as a Vietnamese soldier, Braddock uses a flamethrower to kill some guards, burn their shack, and then burn and destroy the wooden suspension bridge.  That’ll help prevent any Vietnamese re-enforcements from arriving.

Braddock returns to the compound and launches his attack.  He’s able to free Mazilli, and the two of them make their way to the ravine and the spot where Emerson claimed that he hide some climbing rope.  They find the rope as the guards locate the two escaped prisoners.  Braddock uses a rifle and holds them back as Mazilli escapes down to the river.

Braddock heads back into the jungle and leads the guards on a wild goose chase.  He ultimately ditches them and then runs into Opelka.  It turns out that Opelka was hiding in the jungle and waiting for an opportune moment to return and help his colleagues.  Braddock welcomes Opelka’s help, and the two of them return to the compound.

Meanwhile, Colonel Yin has seized François’ helicopter, and he sends some of his men out to hunt for the escaped prisoners.

Missing in Action 2: The Beginning (1985) – (c) Cannon Films / MGM

The guards are in the middle of the compound and one of them shoots Colonel Yin as a show of good faith to Colonel Braddock.  Opelka notices that the boots on the man shot do not belong to Yin.  It’s a trap.  Just then the helicopter returns, and Braddock and Opelka notice that the soldiers captured Mazilli.  The real Colonel Yin holds Mazilli hostage to try to draw out Braddock.

Time expires and Braddock doesn’t reveal himself.  Nester offers to be the person who shoots Mazilli.  Instead of shooting him, Nester shoots some of the guards instead.  Nester is ultimately gunned down and he dies with honor.  The battle continues as Mazilli is rescued and helps Braddock and Opelka fight the guards.  Colonel Yin is ultimately forced to fight from a shack, and Braddock destroys it with a couple of grenades.  He later enters it and sees what look like Yin’s boots on a dead body.

Braddock has Mazilli and Opelka board the Huey helicopter and then fly away for good.

Missing in Action 2: The Beginning (1985) – (c) Cannon Films / MGM

After the helicopter has left, Colonel Yin emerges from his hiding spot in the floor of the shack.  He thinks that he’s alone until Baddock reveals himself from a shadow in the building.  Yin is unarmed and insists on fighting hand-to-hand.  Braddock agrees, and for the next five minutes Yin is Braddock’s human punching bag.  Braddock uses a variety of martial arts moves to beat Yin and get some revenge for his fallen soldiers.  The fight ends when Braddock partially reaches into Yin’s chest and touches his heart.  Yin is still alive but unable to move as Braddock leaves the building.

The helicopter has returned and Braddock uses a remote control to detonate the explosives that he planted in the shack, killing Yin for good.

Missing in Action 2: The Beginning (1985) – (c) Cannon Films / MGM

Missing in Action 2: The Beginning ends as Braddock, Mazilli and Opelka fly away in the Huey helicopter.

So is Missing in Action 2: The Beginning a good film?

Missing in Action 2 should probably be classified as a film that should have never been made.  At least, not made with this script, director, and most of the no-name actors.  The general story for this film certainly had a lot of potential, but in the end this film is generally considered as a waste of time.  Only hardcore Chuck Norris fans will find any entertainment here, and what entertainment there is is on the small end of the scale.

What’s interesting is that Missing in Action 2 was actually filmed before part 1, but when the first film was in production it was seen as a superior film.  So instead of it being a sequel, the 1984 film was released first and this original first film was turned into a prequel.

As I said, this film is a huge loss of potential.  If the resources weren’t there from the beginning to make it a great film, the producers should have just taken about thirty minutes of content from this story, made it fantastic, and then added it to the content of 1984′s Missing in Action film.

Alas, that didn’t quite happen.  What we have here in this film is a fairly lame plot, bad acting by unknown actors, too little combat for a Chuck Norris film, and generally a waste of time.

Missing in Action 2: The Beginning (1985) – movie trailer

But they didn’t take that route and the result is Missing in Action 2: The Beginning.  It’s a craptastic film that fails on many levels.  There are a few semi-decent moments in the film, namely the last part where you get a flamethrower, machine guns, explosions, and Chuck Norris finally using his martial arts skills to kick some ass.

Unfortunately, even the die hard Chuck Norris fans may find themselves mostly bored with this film.

Colonel Braddock – [to Colonel Yin] “You really didn’t think I’d leave without making sure you were dead?”