Braddock: Missing in Action III (1988)

Braddock mounts a one-man assault to free his wife and son who are still being held in a Vietnam prison camp.

Director:

Aaron Norris

Writers:

Arthur Silver (characters), Larry Levinson (characters)

Stars:

Chuck Norris, Aki Aleong, Roland Harrah III

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Chuck Norris	...	Col. James Braddock
Aki Aleong	...	Gen. Quoc
Roland Harrah III	...	Van Tan Cang
Miki Kim	...	Lin Tan Cang
Yehuda Efroni	...	Rev. Polanski
Ron Barker	...	Mik
Floyd Levine	...	Gen. Duncan
Jack Rader	...	Littlejohn
Melinda Betron	...	Thuy
Rick Prieto	...	CIA Agent (as Richard Prieto)
Jan Michael Shultz	...	CIA Agent (as Jan Schultz)
Keith David	...	Embassy Gate Captain
Robert Jochheim	...	Embassy Guard
Thuy Lien Samora	...	Embassy Secretary
Pita Liboro	...	Lin's Friend

Storyline

Colonel James Braddock has a Vietnamese wife who was supposed to leave Vietnam with him when they evacuate. But she loses her papers and wasn't allowed in the embassy. Braddock went looking for her and her friend took the bracelet Braddock gave his wife and was in an explosion. When Braddock finds the body with bracelet, he assumes it's his wife so he leaves Vietnam. 12 years later a Reverend in Vietnam who was visiting the States approaches Braddock telling him that his wife is alive and that he has a son. Braddock doesn't believe him at first but when a man at the CIA asks him to meet with him, Braddock realizes it's true. So he tries to get them out. So he contacts a friend in Thailand to get what he needs. As they are about to leave, the CIA tries to stop him but Braddock gets away, gets his equipment and heads to Vietnam. When he arrives he goes to the orphanage for Amerasian children, where the Reverend works. He takes him to them and is surprised to see them and his son resents...

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Plot Keywords:

kung fu | cult film | vietnam | colonel | prison | 

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Taglines:

He's fighting for everyone who can't fight back.

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Genres:

Action | War

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

22 January 1988 (USA)

Also Known As:

Braddock

Filming Locations:

Philippines

Box Office

Gross USA:

$6,193,901

Company Credits

Production Co:

The Cannon Group, Golan-Globus Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

101 min 88 min (video) 83 min (cut)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Stereo (4 channels)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The opening of this film establishes the character of Jim Braddock as having been present during the fall of Saigon in 1975. However, this completely contradicts the events set out in, Missing in Action 2: The Beginning (1985) which shows Braddock being captured in Vietnam in 1972 and held as a P.O.W. for over ten years prior to his escape and the events that take place in the original, "Missing In Action." Therefore, there is no way he could have also been in Saigon in 1975.

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Goofs

The Bangkok Metropolitan Police vehicles seen in the film (using a Mitsubishi Lancer sedan) are painted in a blue and white livery - the real-life Bangkok Metropolitan Police vehicles are painted black and white.

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Quotes

Lin Tan Cang: [Lin, Braddock's Vietnamese wife, has been waiting 13 years for his return] Oh, it doesn't matter.

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Connections

Referenced in Remo, Rambo, Reagan and Reds: The Eighties Action Movie Explosion (2014)

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Soundtracks

Freedom Again
Composed by Ron Bloom
Performed by Ron Bloom
For TMF Communications
Lead vocals by Lenny McDaniel

User Reviews

Chuck Norris replaces Vietnam with burning crater, rescues some children

Rounding out my Chuck Norris Triple Feature DVD, we have "Braddock: Missing in Action III," undoubtedly the best in the series and probably the only 80s action movie to come anywhere near "Commando" in terms of awesomeness. Here Chuck discovers that his wife and son are still alive under Communist rule in Vietnam, but the CIA is wary of letting him go there, most likely because the last time they asked him to accompany them there, he almost restarted the war. Chuck of course scoffs at this and leaves anyway ("Don't step on any toes, Braddock." "I don't step on toes, Little John--I STEP ON NECKS.") For some reason, upon his return to Saigon, it turns out the Vietnamese military generals still want him dead for his war crimes. The same war crimes that had him imprisoned in a POW camp for 10 years! They just cannot let this go! By the series timeline, this means that the Vietnamese government has been holding a grudge against this one particular guy for almost 20 years (what did he do, exactly? Raze a village?).

Once a Colonel Quoc gets wind of Chuck's presence, he ambushes Chuck, shoots his wife, and attempts to torture him and his son. Chuck escapes. This angers Quoc so much that he decides to kidnap about 40 random children out of spite. He takes the kids to a base and locks them up for God knows what purpose, and one of his soldiers attempts to rape an 8-year-old girl. Fortunately, Chuck ambushes him and implants a bomb in his stomach and his entire body explodes right in front of the girl. Hats off to Chuck for saving her from a traumatizing experience. Then he completely wipes out the base in about fifteen minutes, and packs all the kids into a truck for a quick getaway while being pursued by a helicopter. Here is the movie's only true dip in logic, as the helicopter fires rockets at them and Chuck drives the truck through enormous flames multiple times and the kids inside are somehow not roasted alive. But that detail is a small price to pay for the levels of excitement throughout the movie. It has three times as much action as the previous installments and some convincing scenes of total chaos, as well as Chuck doing somersaults through windows even though there are doors available, all combining for a hearty 10/10. See it.