Movie Type: Action Thriller, Police Detective Film
Themes: Lone Wolves, Drug Trade, Rogue Cops
Main Cast: Chuck Norris, Henry Silva, Bert Remsen, Molly Hagan, Joe Guzaldo
Release Year: 1985
Country: US
Run Time: 100 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Not to be confused with the 1960 film of the same name, this fast-paced karate action flick stars Chuck Norris, still riding high on his karate film successes of the early '80s, and several years away from starting his popular Walker: Texas Ranger TV series. In this story he plays Eddie Cusak, a painfully honest police sergeant who just misses pulling off a drug bust -- it seems another gang got there before him, wiped out the competition, and made off with a fortune in white powder. A bad move -- this means nothing less than all-out war between the two rival gangs, with the police caught in the middle. Cusak has other problems as well, one of his team killed an innocent bystander during the raid and he is duty-bound to squelch any cover-up. With enemies on both sides of the law, he then has to take on the drug cartel with nothing more than cannons, machine guns, shotguns, pistols, a robot car, and other sundry artillery to help him out. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
Dennis Farina - Dorato; Mike Genovese - Tony Luna; Nathan Davis - Felix Scalese; Ralph Foody - Cragie; Allen Hamilton - Pirelli; Ron Henriques - Victor Comacho; Ron Dean - Brennan; Wilbert Bradley - Spider; Gene Barge - Music; Ronnie Barron - Doc; Dennis Cockrum - Hood in Tavern; Zaid Farid - Hood in Tavern; Joseph Kosala - Kobas; John Mahoney - "Prowler" Rep.; Andre Marquis - Sanchez; Mario Nieves - Pompas; Miguel Nino - Efren; Les Podewell - Coroner; Nydia Rodriguez Terracina - Partida; Jerry Tullos - Review Board Clerk; Don Pike - Hood on Yacht; Alex Stevens - Angel; Michael E. Bradley - Dispatcher No. 3; Catalina Caceres - Grandmother at Hearing; Lou Damiani - Gamiani; Jack Decker - Dispatcher No. 1; James Fierro - Vito; Jeff Hoke - Gallery Artist; Jack Kandel - Eenie; Shirley Kelly - Artist's Benefactor; Sue Kelly - Dispatcher No. 2; Tom Letuli - Samo; Martha Oton - Tony Luna's Mother; Trish Schaefer - Molly Luna; Frank Strocchia - Police Gym Attendant; Sally Anne Waranch - Children's Counselor; Angela Zimm - Gallery Person; Gary Pike - Scales's Driver; Howard Jackson - Officer Jackson
Credit
Mickey Antonetti - Costume Designer, Jay Hurley - Costume Designer, Jennifer Jobst - Costume Designer, Andrew Davis - Director, Christopher Holmes - Editor, Peter Parasheles - Editor, David Michael Frank - Composer (Music Score), Lillian Toth - Makeup, Maher Ahmad - Production Designer, Frank Tidy - Cinematographer, Raymond Wagner - Producer, Karen O'Hara - Set Designer, Scott D. Smith - Sound Recordist, Robert Wall - Stunts, Aaron Norris - Stunts, Michael Butler - Screenwriter, Patrick Sheane Duncan - Screenwriter, Mike Gray - Screenwriter, Dennis Shryack - Screenwriter
It was typical for the genre and the star but filmed on location in Chicago with a few sub-plots. It featured Norris as Sgt. Eddie Cusack, a streetwise plainclothes officer who takes down a crime czar / drug lord responsible for officers being wounded in a botched drug raid. In the film's climax Norris teams with a more than menacing crime-fighting robot named "Prowler". "Code of Silence" is a slang term for a police officer's cover for one another in circumstances where an officer makes a mistake or is corrupt. This plays a subplot whereby every officer in the station covers up for an aging, alcoholic officer who accidentally a teenage boy then covers up the murder by planting a gun on the victim. Norris's character is the only one to speak out against the corrupt officer and is temporarily ostracized by most of the other officers in his unit.
