The Fourth War (1990) on Netflix
Colonel Jack Knowles commands a US outpost on the West German border with Czechoslovakia. The shooting of a defector there begins a private war with his Soviet counterpart, Colonel Valachev.
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- Netflix3.0/5
- IMDb5.5/102,293 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes64%
Trailer
Plot summary
Colonel Jack Knowles was decorated for gallantry in Vietnam, and the appetite for action that made him a hero there makes him a loose cannon in peacetime at his outpost on the West German border with Czechoslovakia. Across the line sits Colonel Valachev, his Soviet opposite, a man shaped by combat much as Knowles is and just as impatient with how his own superiors do things. When a Czech asylum seeker is shot at the border and Knowles can only stand by, he begins crossing at night on solo missions to sabotage Valachev's installations. Lieutenant Colonel Clark, his by-the-book second-in-command, objects, and General Hackworth orders Knowles to stop, to no avail.
Cast
- Neil Grahnas Needle-Nose Soldier
- Ron Campbellas Young US Soldier
- John Doddsas Defector
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Fourth War (1990)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- During a fight scene in The Fourth War, Roy Scheider cracked a rib and Jürgen Prochnow dislocated his knee.
- The Fourth War takes its title from an Albert Einstein quote about World War IV being fought with sticks and stones; John Frankenheimer and Roy Scheider disliked it and discussed other titles such as Game of Honor and Face Off.
- The Fourth War's Alberta shoot began after unusually warm weather in 1988, leaving the crew worried the snow would not hold and preparing to make artificial snow instead; by February, temperatures in southern Alberta fell to 40 below zero, causing difficulties.
