P.O.W. The Escape (1986) on Netflix
Col. James Cooper is captured in a North Vietnamese P.O.W. camp. Commander Vinh offers to guide him to the American sector if Cooper will help Vinh emigrate to America.
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Plot summary
Colonel James Cooper, an American airborne commando, comes to Vietnam in 1973 to free imprisoned American soldiers. He ends up a prisoner in a North Vietnamese camp that holds paratroopers and other soldiers. With the war nearing its end, camp commander Vinh is ordered to send Cooper, the highest-ranking officer there, to Hanoi for prosecution. Instead, Vinh proposes a trade: he will guide Cooper to the American sector if Cooper helps him emigrate to the United States. Cooper dismisses the offer, so Vinh warns that the camp's other prisoners will die if he refuses. Cooper agrees, but only if every prisoner comes along. Vinh, short of time, accepts, and the group sets out in two jeeps and a truck, with the prisoners in a tank truck and Cooper riding with Vinh through North Vietnamese-controlled territory and jungle.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about P.O.W. The Escape (1986)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The Philippine shoot of P.O.W. The Escape ran under tight security because Communist and Islamic guerrilla groups were fighting Ferdinand Marcos' army, which guarded the crew; vehicles and itineraries to the locations changed regularly to foil attacks, and David Carradine seldom left the Manila Hotel.
- After the film was assembled, Cannon boss Menahem Golan felt David Carradine's character was too ambivalent about the war and had some of his dialogue cut to emphasise his heroism; Cannon scribe James Bruner wrote new exposition and a day of pickups was shot in Los Angeles.
- Illness ran through the cast and crew: actor Phil Brock worked through hepatitis and stunt double Greg Walker was sent home early after catching dysentery; Carradine then brought South African stuntman Allan Oberholzer, who had fallen out with his country's authorities, in as his new double.
- The film's main theme is credited to David Storrs, but Cannon regular Michael Linn also contributed original material to the score, and other cues were re-used from the in-house productions Revenge of the Ninja and The Delta Force.
- Filming on P.O.W. The Escape was deliberately scheduled to coincide with the monsoon season so the film would look more intense, though it did not suffer any major delay as a result.
