The Delta Force (1986)

A 707 aircraft jetliner on its way from Athens to Rome and then to New York City is hijacked by Lebanese terrorists. The terrorists demand that the pilot take them to Beirut. What the ... See full summary »

Director:

Menahem Golan

Writers:

James Bruner, Menahem Golan

Stars:

Chuck Norris, Lee Marvin, Martin Balsam

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Chuck Norris	...	Maj. Scott McCoy
Lee Marvin	...	Col. Nick Alexander
Martin Balsam	...	Ben Kaplan
Joey Bishop	...	Harry Goldman
Robert Forster	...	Abdul
Lainie Kazan	...	Sylvia Goldman
George Kennedy	...	Father O'Malley
Hanna Schygulla	...	Ingrid
Susan Strasberg	...	Debra Levine
Bo Svenson	...	Capt. Campbell
Robert Vaughn	...	Gen. Woodbridge
Shelley Winters	...	Edie Kaplan
William Wallace	...	Pete Peterson
Charles Grant	...	Tom Hale (as Charles Floye)
Steve James	...	Bobby

Storyline

A 707 aircraft jetliner on its way from Athens to Rome and then to New York City is hijacked by Lebanese terrorists. The terrorists demand that the pilot take them to Beirut. What the terrorists don't realize is that an elite team of commandoes led by Major McCoy (Norris) and by Colonel Alexander (Marvin) as been called into service to eliminate all terrorists on the jetliner and who's involved in the hijacking and try to retake the plane before the terrorists kill all the hostages.

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Plot Keywords:

terrorist | pilot | hostage | commando mission | brutality | 

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Taglines:

The Delta Force face their deadliest mission ever.

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Thriller | War

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA Israel

Language:

English Arabic Hebrew Greek

Release Date:

14 February 1986 (USA)

Also Known As:

Delta Force

Filming Locations:

Ben-Gurion International Airport, Tel Aviv, Israel

Box Office

Gross:

$17,005,599 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Golan-Globus Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

125 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The movie was originally to be produced with the cooperation of Delta Force's real-life founder and original commanding officer, Col. Charles Beckwith. The producers wanted to tell the story of Operation Eagle Claw, the failed attempt to rescue the American hostages from Iran in 1979, but they wanted to change the story so that Delta Force completed their mission successfully. Colonel Beckwith left the project in disgust.

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Goofs

Captain Campbell announces over the P.A. that the flight time from Athens to Rome is 55 minutes. While a flight between those cities would land 55 minutes later in Rome due to the time zone difference, the actual flight time would be of 1 hour 55 minutes. (Even at the Boeing 707's maximum speed of 620 miles per hour, an actual flight time of 55 minutes would be impossible because of climb and approach speeds, etc.)

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Quotes

Bobby: I'll see you when I see you

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Connections

Referenced in Operation Dance Sensation (2003)

User Reviews

This would never get made today.

As a product of the eighties (I had the misfortune to be born at the very beginning of them), I grew up on movies like this.

One has to wonder what went wrong. In the late sixties and seventies, America was putting out some of the best movies in the world. The reason for this, in my opinion, is that Americans (as a people) were suddenly not afraid of having faults. Vietnam and Nixon made America realise that it had a dark side, and this came through in its cinema. The results were some of the most palpable incarnations of the anti-hero ever put to film.

Alas, in the eighties, something changed. Suddenly, American heroes were not only invincible, but ethically flawless and totally righteous too. 'The Delta Force' is one of the pinnacles of the American hero movie.

In a nutshell, some evil Arab types take a plane full of innocent Jewish Americans and it's up to Chuck Norris and his crew of bad-ass GIs (all of whom sh*t stars and bleeds stripes, of course)to save the day. Watching it in the ultra-liberal, post-911 21st century, it's hard to believe this film even got made. It's so un-PC that it make Bill Hicks look like Porky Pig.

But here's the catch, it's so damn refreshing to see a piece of action cinema that serves no purpose but to entertain that 'The Delta Force' becomes a beautifully nostalgic piece of escapism that is hard to resist.

It is certainly a flawed film. The editor and director could sure have used a few lessons in pacing, notably around the totally extraneous character development scenes where we have it reinforced beyond any doubt that Jewish Americans are beyond reproach. However, one is more than willing to forgive this insult when presented with such testosterone-infested action sequences and cocksure pro-Americanism. It's one of those films that is so bad it's good.

'The Delta Force' is a movie that necessitates the disengagement of the brain and the full attention of the balls. If you have the capacity to do this, and overlook the fact that it is a disgraceful tool of American propaganda, you'll love it. I can just imagine this being George Bush's favourite movie...

Chuck Norris is, in many ways, the ultimate American hero; ruthless but virtuous, kind hearted yet bad-as-hell, the underdog yet the victor. After saving American soldiers from those nasty far-Easterners in the 'Missing in Action' series, Chuckie truly outdoes himself here. Taken with a large pinch of salt, or as a very shrewd satire (a la 'Team America'), 'The Delta Force' delivers in ways Bruckheimer and can only dream of.