Megaforce (1982)

Megaforce (1982)

Taglines: When the force was with them, NO-ONE stood a chance!

Megaforce involves two fictional countries, the peaceful Republic of Sardun and their aggressive neighbor Gamibia. Unable to defend themselves from a Gamibian 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 from throughout the western world, equipped with advanced weapons and vehicles. The MegaForce leader, Commander Ace Hunter (Barry Bostwick), will lead a mission to destroy the Gamibian forces, which are ironically led by his rival, and former military academy friend, Duke Gurerra (Henry Silva).

While Hunter composes an elaborate battle plan to destroy Gurerra’s forces, Zara tries out to become a member of MegaForce. As she executes the various tests, Hunter’s feelings of affection toward her grow. And while she passes the tests, he is unable to allow her to participate in their raid, because her presence, as an outsider, would disrupt the trust and familiarity of his force.

Eventually, MegaForce successfully para-drops its 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 high-tech vehicles (which they program to self-destruct), the team successfully makes it on foot to the last plane, except 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 has lost the battle, Gurerra shows admiration for Hunter’s cunning, and he gives his old friend a thumbs up.

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, George Furth, Evan C. Kim, Ralph Wilcox, Robert Fuller (who, years later, admitted to being less than fond of the picture) and Henry Silva.

Megaforce Movie Poster (1982)

Megaforce (1982)

Directed by: Hal Needham
Starring: Barry Bostwick, Michael Beck, Persis Khambatta, Edward Mulhare, George Furth, Henry Silva, Anthony Pena, Mike Kulcsar
Screenplay by: James Whittaker
Production Design by: Joel Schiller
Cinematography by: Michael C. Butler
Film Editing by: Patrick Roark, Skip Schoolnik
Set Decoration by: Rochelle Moser
Art Direction by: Carol Wenger
Music by: Jerrold Immel
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: June 25, 1982

Views: 113