Final Mission (1984) User Reviews

The Executioner meets First Blood with a large side order of cheese!

[HaemovoreRex · 6/10 · 18 June 2006]

Ah - 1980's B-movies, you just can't beat 'em!

They possess a peculiar certain style and cheesy charm that is sadly completely lacking in modern movies of the same nature.

Straight off the bat, just check out the rock soundtrack in this film for starters - you already know that this is going to be a great ride from the very opening riff!

Then we come to all the clichés that seemingly by contractual obligation MUST be present in all films of this ilk of the time.....a warehouse shootout complete with stereotypical crooks who launch tirades of expletives at the surrounding law enforcement officers, a scene set in a seedy strip joint complete with a lingering shot of the dancer taking off her bra, our heroes family getting slaughtered by the bad guys, our hero tossing in his police badge etc etc etc - it's all here!

The film is completely unapologetic in its utilisation of such clichés and in addition it merrily rips off scene after scene from movies it is copied from. But who cares when a movie is this much fun!

The plot? Well compendiously we first meet our hero in 'Nam in 1972 as he beats seven shades of sh- ahem, excrement out of a traitorous comrade who has joined ranks with the VC. Fast forward to the present day (well the 1980's anyway) and our man is now a tough as nails police officer who sorts things out the good old fashioned way i.e he kills the criminals with extreme prejudice!

Not everyone is impressed with such forceful methods however and a local gang of hoodlums decide to teach our boy a lesson which involves breaking into his house one night to presumably murder him and his family......bad move, for our hero slaughters all of the miscreant scum bags bar one who runs back to his boss to ask for help.

And who is the crooks boss? Why it's none other than the traitorous toe rag from the pre-credits sequence!

To cut a short story shorter, the boss (a typically sadistic 1980's movie psycho villain) manages to blow up our hero's family thus prompting our man to swear an oath of revenge which he resolves to carry out in true Charles Bronson style.

But what an anti climatic revenge it proves to be! Our hero simply grabs a big machine gun out of a store window and blows his nemesis off of a roof top in an amazingly lacklustre scene (someone should alert health and safety about leaving fully loaded guns where the public can get hold of them!)

Was that it? Well as it happens no that's not the end, for the film suddenly takes a different direction....it just so happens that the dead villains brother was the local towns sheriff who now swears an oath of revenge himself!

This prompts him to assemble a rabble of Rednecks to hunt our man down like a wild animal! Yes folks we're in First blood territory now as our misunderstood hero is now forced to employ all of his Vietnam learnt skills in order to survive (including in one bizarre scene presumably lifted from Dr Dolittle, our man hypnotising a dog!!!!!)

Of course a bunch of hillbillies are no match for a decorated Green Beret and he makes short work of the fools thus necessitating the sheriff to next call out the National Guard!

Matters further escalate out of control with all the stress causing our hero to have a mental breakdown of sorts and subsequently believing that he is back in the war!

Lots of shooting and grenade throwing ensue with casualties aplenty for the ill prepared soldiers.

What can I say? The movie is certainly no masterpiece and it's as derivative as hell but frankly as I said earlier, who cares - it's tremendously entertaining in a 'so bad it's good' type way.

The final shot has our boy, now perilously short on ammo, screaming like a maniac whilst opening fire against overwhelming odds just before that cheesy rock track kicks back in and the picture freeze frames - genius!!!

For fans of cheesy 1980's action movies, this is a must see!

Fast Paced Action

[astromax · 5/10 · 9 February 2008]

I did enjoy this movie even though it was almost a duplicate of Sylvester Stallone's 'FIRST BLOOD'.

I do think that if a higher budget had have been given the movie could well have been a block buster. It carries the undertones of a damn good story line and the need for higher rated actors. Released in 1984, it is very much the basis of 'FIRST BLOOD' although the off set for revenge is based on rape and murder. Acted very well with depth at times and the need to push the boat out this movie in my opinion should be watched to help bring fourth the true critic with an understanding of low budget and where we would be without the low budget movies. I own a copy and would not depart with it for any amount of money. Like I said previously, it's low budget, average acting and a copy cat story but a great, great movie.

Far cry from First Blood but still o.k.

[actionfilm-2 · 9 January 2008]

Vietnam war vet Vince Deacon is a S.W.A.T. team leader who is suspended from duty for killing too many bad guys. While on a camping trip his wife and son are killed by a group of men led by a villain from his days in the 'Nam. The trauma of losing his family forces him to go on a killing spree against the people responsible leading him into shell shock. The adventure goes from Los Angeles into the jungles of Laos (actually the Phillipines).

This film was directed by Cirio H. Santiago, responsible for several grade-B military style action films made in the Phillpines. Star Richard Young is an average looking Joe but gives a nice performance and handles action scenes well. This low budget film was made 2 years after First Blood and barrows from it the idea of a 'Nam vet being pursued by authorities through the outdoor wilderness. In First Blood the character of Rambo did his best to avoid murdering anyone. But the Vietnam vet character in Final Mission has no such qualms and mows down many of his pursuers in a hail of bullets. Director Santiago appears to have fun when staging battle scenes, like a youngster playing with a set of toy soldiers. This film contains nudity and is of course, filled with scenes of violence.

Action Vehicle For The Lead Extends Beyond What Would Make It A Contender for Worst Film Of The (Any) Year.

[rsoonsa · 1/10 · 11 May 2011]

Richard Young plays as Vince Deacon, a much honoured veteran of the Vietnam War, and subsequently a supervisor of a Los Angeles Police Department (L.A.P.D.) SWAT team. Action opens in 1972 with Vince in a combat situation crammed with slaughter deep inside of a Laotian jungle (performed by a Philippine jungle) where a former Army comrade, Slater (John Dresden) has turned traitor, thereby siding with the Viet Cong. Deacon naturally finds such apostasy to be unacceptable and, going on a rampage, thrashes Slater to a pulp. With the war past, the film's locale shifts to another form of violence-filled civilisation, in Los Angeles, where Deacon, married and having had a son, does his fighting to the service of the L.A.P.D. Slater, discovering Deacon's whereabouts through television news reporting, arranges for thugs to attack Vince's wife and child in their home. Deacon frustrates this felonious attempt, in the process killing one of the intruders. Although quite possibly the only person in the world who would not be supportive of Vince's resolute defence of his family, Deacon's supervisor, in expected Hollywoodian fashion, demands to be given the hero's badge, while suspending him from active duty, thereby allowing the Deacons to immediately take a much-needed vacation. A weekend of camping is planned in a somewhat bucolic forested region, this seeming to be just what is needed to lift Vince's spirits, but Slater has not been dissuaded by the failure of his henchmen, and renews his assault against Deacon's wife and son. A mania for revenge then possesses the former Green Beret. He soon discovers that he must confront not only the treacherous Slater, but also the latter's rural sheriff brother, an assemblage of imbecilic rednecks, and even the National Guard, all of whom must be vanquished before he may be declared the winner of what has become a brutal contest of wills. It may not be surprising if a viewer decides that much of this action seems familiar, since a good deal of the narrative is derivative from films of a similar forgettable nature, notably, and virtually scene for scene identical with, the initial "Rambo" movie: FIRST BLOOD, that was completed two years prior to this thing, but with a much larger budget. As Deacon avenges himself upon his sundry tormentors, it becomes increasingly obvious that due attention has not been paid by the production team to the film's dialogue as to its action sequences. Yet after all, this is a stuntman's picture, explosives specialists following close behind in importance, each within a pre-CGI environment, and even though the work offers essentially only an assault upon a viewer's sensibilities, this has an advantage of eliminating any need for a decision as to whether or not it will be watched more than once.

Total Rip-off of "First Blood".

[Zorin-2 · 1/10 · 15 January 1999]

I bought this movie for .99 cents at a video store, and to tell you the truth, it wasn't even worth that. It's low budget with bad editing and is a total rip-off of Sylvester Stallone's "First Blood". Don't bother, rent the "Rambo" movies instead!

"Armed with an MG-82---It will take an Army to stop him!"

[tarbosh22000 · 7/10 · 14 May 2010]

"Armed with an MG-82---It will take an Army to stop him!" Who can resist another story about a guy who comes back from Vietnam and gets revenge on some bad guys? NOT US! "Final Mission" is trying to ride the coattails of the contemporary classic "First Blood". There are many similarities but "Mission" has its own charm.

Vince Deacon (Young) is fighting in the jungle of Laos. It turns out his former buddy Slater, is a traitor working with the VC. After an unnecessary but surprisingly welcome decapitation, we are brought into present day L.A., where Deacon is a tough guy working for the LAPD SWAT team. He breaks up a kidnapping dispatching "Ogre" with ease. He gets suspended for excessive force by classic Irish Captain, Captain O'Riley.

Deacon goes on a vacation with his wife and son (who has a bowl haircut) to Pinesville, a rural fishing area. The family is cavorting around and having a grand ole time, then tragedy strikes. A boat explosion kills Deacon's wife and son. Now Deacon is roaring through the small town and trying to get answers and bloody revenge. The sheriff in Pinesville, who resembles Bocephus-era Hank Williams Jr. is a corrupt yokel and his deputy "Moose" is no better. Slater lives on a ranch in town and the local police which may or may not include his brother are all against Vince. But Vince has two tricks up his sleeve, one is his partner Isaac who comes to his aid and the other is breaks into a weapon store and steals a gigantic machine gun. Which is apparently called an MG-82. Most small town gun stores have an MG-82 and unlimited ammo right behind the glass.

What ensues is a barrage of gun-shooting, grenade-throwing violent assault and it goes so out of hand the Army has to step in to stop one man. It's the actual army vs. the steadily-going-insane one man army. Luckily, Vince is the woods just like in "First Blood". Will the war ever be over for Deacon? Find out today! One of the best parts of the movie is the theme song to "Final Mission" called "Always on my mind" by Steve Butler. Not to be confused with the Willie Nelson song of the same name. This is a rockin' tune in the A.O.R. vein of Foreigner and Rainbow. The filmmakers know they have a hit song on their hands because they play it at least four times.

Accept this "Mission" and watch this classic tonight! Comeuppance Review by: Ty & Brett For more insanity, check out: comeuppancereviews.com

This is one funny movie!

[Captain_Couth · 7/10 · 15 October 2003]

Final Mission (1984) is one of those cheesy, no budget First Blood rip-offs. Unlike the other Rambo wannabes, this movie's great. The director has no shame, he blatantly copies scene-for-scene and shot-for-shot from First Blood. Others may see this as a rip-off, I see it as a funny, horribly acted, badly written and cheesy as hell action picture. There are many scenes from this movie that still boggle my mind. Even today I still wonder if a Gun shop would have an M-60 machine gun (with a full cartridge box) in a storefront window display or is it really sanitary to use a dirty knife to pop out a bullet?

I highly recommend this movie, it plays like a comedy instead of a serious action/revenge film. A word of advice, stay away from open motor boats. They always seem to explode in these type of movie.

Highly recommended.

A (for the cheese factor) F (as a straight movie)

One of the greatest B movies of all time

[sam-122-74905 · 10/10 · 17 August 2017]

I found this VHS in a 99 cent bin in 2002 and have loved it ever since. This is one of the most awesomely stupid movies ever made about the Vietnam war, and the pinnacle of Cirio Santiago's illustrious career.

Hard boiled LAPD cop Vince Deacon has his family in Los Angeles killed by a gang called the Main Street Men, who work for a traitor Deacon had put in jail during the Nam, so he goes AWOL on a quest for revenge, killing several thousand random men in khaki uniforms in the process. Who really cares who they are or why they're fighting - the entire film is just scene after scene of anonymous men with guns running onto the screen and getting machine gunned by Deacon, throwing up their arms and yelling "AAH!" as they die. In the meantime, he dunks a man's head in a urine filled toilet, stabs a steroid addict to death, and drives around at night while the incredible "Always on my mind" theme song by Steve Butler plays, again and again. Not long after, a man runs around on fire, screaming in pain. At some point a black guy makes his way into the movie, brandishes a gun and says some cool tough stuff. I think there was also a woman at one point, but she's not important. All that matters is the belt fed machine gun Deacon finds in the display window of a suburban boutique store, with about 200,000 rounds of ammo conveniently stored with it.

It's a Z grade Cirio Santiago film with barely competent actors and cheap effects, what do you expect? Perfect blend of dumb action and laughable dialogue. Would have been a great candidate for "Mystery Science Theater 3000" treatment.

Best news: If you like this movie, Cirio Santiago made at least 400 other films exactly like it, all of which are either about post apocalyptic motorcycle gangs, the Vietnam war, or some combination of both (Nam Angels).

OK First Blood ripoff

[sunny-2 · 8/10 · 16 August 1999]

Of all the "First Blood" ripoffs that hit the screen in the eighties this filipino-made movie is clearly one of the better ones. Acting is pretty lousy (with the notable exception of Kaz Garas as the sheriff) but the movie has its good moments.

Standard revenge picture

[lor_ · 16 March 2023]

My review was written in September 1986 after watching the movie on Thorn EMI/HBO video cassette.

"Final Mission" is a routine action drama about a war vet out for revenge. Filmed by prolific Filipino helmer Cirio H. Santiago at the beginning of 1984, pic bypassed theatrical release for the home video market.

Richard Young portrays Vince Deacon, a Vietnam vet living with his family in California, who is suspended from the police force for being ultra-violent with thieves. The punks laer boobytrap his boat on a family outing, blowing up his wife and kid. It's revenge time.

A key subplot involves a turncoat who was at odds with Vince back in Laos in 1972 and turns out to be involved with the punks who killed his family. Final reel is a manhunt in a forest with Vince as the prey, heavily influenced by "First Blood".

As usual with a Santiago film (he cranks out about two a year like clockwork), technical credits are good. Acting is okay, with a guest appearance by John Ericson as a military expert who helps Vince figure out who had the explosives expertise to help the punks blow up his boat.