Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985) on Netflix
PG-1319852h 1mActionAdventureComedy
A Brooklyn street cop, Sam Makin, is ambushed and his death is faked. A secret organization gives him a new face, the name Remo Williams, and a Korean master to train him.
- Netflix3.6/5
- IMDb6.4/1015,421 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes41%
Trailer
Plot summary
Sam Makin is a street cop in Brooklyn and a Marine Corps veteran. He answers a call and is ambushed; the next day he is buried. In fact he is in a hospital, his appearance altered. A man named McCleary tells him he now belongs to "them", CURE, an organization that battles corruption, and CURE gives him the new name Remo Williams. The head of CURE, Harold Smith, sits at a computer reading reports on individuals who have to be dealt with. Remo is given to Chiun, a master of Sinanju.
Cast
- Cosie Costaas Pvt. Damico
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The white actor Joel Grey went through four and a half hours of make-up every day to look like an elderly Korean, and producer Larry Spiegel said "We assumed, of course, that we would be using an oriental actor. We couldn't find one and then I thought of Grey." The casting was highly controversial.
- Screenwriter Christopher Wood blamed the film's box office failure partly on casting: he thought Fred Ward a good actor but not leading man material, and said Ed Harris, who was up for the role, might have had more appeal. Wood had also written a slam bang action finale that was cut for budgetary reasons.
- Orion Pictures, a studio run by former United Artists executives, was open about seeing the film as the first in a series that would create "a red, white and blue-collar Bond", and signed Ward to star in three movies in that envisioned series.
- For the Statue of Liberty scenes, a replica of the Statue's torso, head and arm was built in Mexico, and the shots of the replica were intercut with footage shot at the real Statue of Liberty.
- Ward performed most of the stunts himself, including the scene on the giant ferris wheel, which was shot on the Wonder Wheel at Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park in Coney Island, Brooklyn.
- The title song, "Remo's Theme (What If)", was written and sung by Styx member Tommy Shaw but is not included on the film's soundtrack album; Shaw released the song as a solo artist on his 1985 album What If.
- The film opened on October 11, 1985 and earned $3,376,971 in its opening weekend, ranking #4 at the United States box office, but by the end of its run it had grossed $14,393,902 domestically, which dashed hopes for a series.
