Best Defense (1984) on Netflix
Wylie Cooper is an engineer whose gyroscope for a new Army tank fails a crucial test. Two years later, Lieutenant T.M. Landry is sent to Kuwait with that tank.
- Netflix4.2/5
- IMDb3.9/106,768 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
At a defense contractor whose future depends on its next contract, engineer Wylie Cooper is in charge of the DYP-gyro for a new Army tank, and the gyro fails a crucial test. Cooper later meets Frank Holtzman, another engineer who has designed a gyro of his own; Holtzman puts the plans for it into Cooper's briefcase before a meeting with Jeff, an undercover agent. Holtzman is killed shortly afterward, leaving Cooper with the designs. His co-worker Steve Loparino puts Cooper's name on them, and when the gyro works, Cooper is credited with saving the company. In 1984, Lieutenant T.M. Landry and his crew take the XM-10 tank equipped with that system to Kuwait, where the tank handles so badly that the men can barely steer it.
Cast
- Mark Arnottas Harvey Brank
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Best Defense (1984)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The film did not originally feature Eddie Murphy's character T.M. Landry and was solely a Dudley Moore film. After preview screenings were received poorly, the studio suggested filming a role for Murphy, whose part is almost completely unconnected from the rest of the film.
- A scene shot during the reshoots had Moore and Murphy's characters Wylie Cooper and Landry meet, but it was cut, along with several other scenes important to the original plot, to fit the newly shot Murphy material in.
- The immense losses theater owners suffered on Best Defense led to the outlawing of blind bidding contracts in Pennsylvania and to the overall decline of the practice.
- Footage of David Rasche from this film was successfully used as a screen test for his lead role in the 1986 comedy television series Sledge Hammer!
