3 Ninjas

Infobox Film
name = 3 Ninjas


caption = The Theatrical Poster
director = Jon Turteltaub
producer = Martha Chang
Shunji Hirano
James Kang
Yuriko Matsubara
writer = Kenny Kim (story)
Edward Emanuel (screenplay)
starring = Victor Wong
Michael Treanor
Max Elliott Slade
Chad Power
music = Richard Marvin
cinematography = Richard Michalak
editing = David Rennie
distributor = Touchstone Pictures
released = August 7, 1992
runtime = 85 min
rating =
country = USA
awards =
language = English
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by = "3 Ninjas Kick Back"
amg_id = 1:212
imdb_id = 0103596

"3 Ninjas" is a 1992 martial arts comedy film directed by Jon Turteltaub, starring Victor Wong, Michael Treanor, Max Elliott Slade and Chad Power. It was the only "3 Ninjas" film produced and released by Touchstone Pictures. The film is about three young brothers who learn martial arts from their grandfather.

Plot

Each year, Samuel Jr.(Michael Treanor), Jeffrey (Max Elliott Slade) and Michael Douglas (Chad Power) visit their Japanese grandfather, Mori Tanaka (whom the boys affectionately refer to as Grandpa), for the summer. Mori is highly skilled in the fields of Martial arts and Ninjutsu, and for years he has trained the boys in his techniques. He is played in all movies by Victor Wong.

This year, Mori presents the boys with new "ninja names":
*Samuel Jr. becomes "Rocky", because he is "strong, solid and cool as granite rock", a reference to not only his physical strength and toughness, but his ability to remain strong and cool under pressure (green).
*Jeffrey becomes "Colt", because he is "fast and free, a spirit of a young wild horse". This name becomes one he lives up to, as he is more challenging and rebellious than his older brother (blue).
*Michael becomes "Tum Tum" because his "energy begins and ends with his tummy". Like his brothers, he lives up to his name, eating during most of the film, and finds himself torn between his brothers opposing views (gold).

An FBI task force, lead by the boys' own father, Samuel Douglas Sr. (Alan McRae), is encroaching on an arms smuggling ring run by an old business associate and former student of Mori's, Hugo Snyder (Steven Segal's lookalike, Rand Kingsley). They try to arrest him, but he gets away. Back at his office, he tells his associate, Mr. Brown (Joel Swetow), and his big Asian bodyguard, Rushmore (Professor Toru Tanaka), that the FBI almost got him and he knew Sam from when he trained with Mori and he decides to pay him a little visit. On the boy's last day with their grandfather, they are being taught about a ninja's mind, body, spirit and heart, until Snyder and Rushmore come to the house with an army of bad ninjas, whom the boys take out with their ninja skills. Threatening Mori's life, Snyder attempts to coerce him into training his henchmen to become ninja, and leading the boys' father off his trail. After that, Mori teaches them a special technique -- with a dummy. He tells them to practice for hour, then they'll go home. The boys wonder about Snyder and they think he's an old friend of Grandpa's, but didn't look very friendly to Tum-Tum.

On the way home, they see Rocky's girlfriend, Emily (Kate Sargeant), ride up on her bike and Colt and Tum-Tum tease Rocky about it. As soon as they get home, they spot Sam and tell him about their new names, but he has to go back to work. Then Emily comes along and asks Rocky about his new name. She says she likes it. Their mother, Jessica (Margarita Franco), thinks Colt will make a great ninja warrior and states, "if being a ninja is hard work, try being a mom."

To further his aims, Snyder arranges a kidnapping of the boys and tells Brown to snatch them and hold them as insurance until the deal with Colonel Farook is done, but Brown says that Snyder should have grabbed them when he was up at the cabin, but Snyder tells him to snatch them without getting caught, or he'll squeeze his head until a slimy ooze comes out of his eyeballs, and Brown immediately decides to go over there, but the FBI have them under surveillance and are watching every move they make, so Brown hires three dimwitted and incompetent surfers, Fester (Patrick Labyorteaux), Marcus (Race Nelson) and Hammer (D.J. Harder). Fester happens to be Brown's nephew, so he tells him to go to the house and capture the boys. Their first attempt is thwarted, when they see the FBI at the house.

The next day, Rocky, Colt and Tum-Tum ride to school with Emily and are spotted by Fester, Hammer and Marcus. They follow them until they run into a fender bender, which happens to be a police car. A cop gets out and Colt yells, "Ooh, someone got a ticket!" and Fester yells, "Shut up!" at him. The cop glares at Fester and Fester says, "Not you. The kids." Then some bullies steal Emily's bike, Rocky hears her scream and comes to her rescue too late and she calls him a showoff, but then he promises to get her bike back. Meanwhile, Fester tells his uncle that they couldn't do it, because there were FBI guys there, but Snyder tells them to get the kids before midnight.

At school, Colt is playing basketball, until the bullies steal the ball and challenge him to play them, then Rocky says he and Colt will play them: two-on-two. The bullies challenge them to play for Emily's bike. So they start playing for 10 points. On the last point, Rocky makes the winning basket and feels appreciated. Meanwhile, Mori trails Snyder, Brown, Rushmore and their henchmen to their ship, with the smuggling in progress.

Jessica calls a babysitter and goes out to pick up Sam, because he's working late and she finds Colt in Sam's study area and tells him he should get ready for bed. He asks who this bad guy is and she tells him that there's a picture of him on top of that file. As soon as she leaves, he opens the file and sees it's a picture of Mori and his wife with Snyder! Colt runs into the room to tell the other boys that Mori is friends with a bad guy and they think that he's a criminal as well and Sam won't let them see him again.

Then Fester, Hammer and Marcus come back to the house and see a pizza delivery man and they break in, throwing a pizza in the babysitter's face and locking her in the closet. After that, Colt sees they have guns and tells the other boys, and Rocky decides to call the police, but there's no phone in the room, so he decides to call Emily, so she can call the police. But then, Colt gets an idea to get Sam to let them see Mori again: the boys treat the would-be kidnappers to an evening of Ninja moves (as well as gags, ala Home Alone), like Tum-Tum pouring oil on the floor, Colt flicking CDs at Marcus and Hammer, Rocky getting Sam's neckties and tying them together to make a Punjab lasso, strangling Fester, tying the other end over the bannister, all the boys throwing pepper bombs at Hammer and Marcus, and a little surprise for them -- Colt pours some laxative liquid in the soda cup on the table and asks Tum-Tum if he remembers when he was sick and couldn't take a dump for three days and says this is the stuff that makes you have to go: instant diarrhea! After Hammer and Marcus drink it, they hear Fester gagging, and they get him out of the lasso. They go into the boys' room and Fester finds the little telephone that Rocky and Emily use for communication. When Fester hear Emily, he uses a kid's voice to get her to come over right away. When she arrives, Fester, Hammer and Marcus take her hostage. Suddenly, Hammer and Marcus have to take a major dump big time after drinking from the laxative cup, leaving Fester pointing three guns at Rocky and Colt asking where Tum-Tum is, and he is sitting on a mounted boar, hitting him overhead with a tennis racket and Emily finishes him off. Then, Colt goes into the boys' bathroom and find Hammer sitting on the toilet, then Hammer walks toward Colt wielding a plunger, until Rocky kicks it out of his hands and Colt grabs it and plunges Hammer's face. He says, "Not the stomach! Not the stomach!" and Rocky and Colt elbow him in the face, knocking him out. Then Marcus is about to leave Sam and Jessica's bathroom, until Tum-Tum drives him against the wall with the boar and hits him again, knocking him out. Emily is about to drink the laxative cup, but Tum-Tum stops her. They hear knocking at the closet in the hall, and they open the door to find the babysitter, covered in pizza slices. They tell her that they have the situation under control, though the boys are eventually captured by Brown, Rushmore and an army of ninjas. When Sam and Jessica get home, they find the boys missing and call the police, then Emily gives them a note saying that Snyder kidnapped the boys. Mori comes into the scene to check on the family, but he reads the note and promises to get the boys back in one hour's time.

Mori trails the boys to Snyder's ship, where the boys are being kept hostage and they soon become doubtful of their grandfather. They remember what he taught them: be friendly to your environment, and find a way to escape on their own, by doing a phone check and giving the phone to the guard outside, but as soon as he comes in, Rocky knocks him out. But as soon as they escape, both they and Mori run into Snyder's henchmen before they can get off the boat. Mori knocks out the Ninja henchmen, while Brown knocks himself out by walking into a water valve. After knocking out the ninjas, the boys come face to face with Rushmore, while the ninjas recover. Mori comes to the rescue, telling them to "light up the eyes". Using the dummy technique, the boys defeat Snyder's powerful bodyguard, as Mori faces Snyder before a host of Snyder's villainous Ninjas. Snyder compliments Mori teaching the boys well, and asks him to train his men as well, but he refuses and wants his grandchildren free, then Snyder has no choice, but to kill him. Mori challenges him to fight and Snyder agrees to let them go if Mori wins. Before they fight, Mori tells the boys to stay back and try not to help him, because he once taught them never to fight unless you're sure you can win. Tum-Tum gives him some jellybeans for luck and Snyder pulls him aside and they begin fighting. Within moments, Snyder knocks Mori out (with assistance from a pepper bomb) and snickers, "So much for never fighting battles you can't win!" But Mori puts Tum-Tum's jellybeans in Snyder's mouth, making him choke, then he eventually defeats his former student. Refusing to lose, Snyder grabs an assault rifle to shoot Mori but the FBI shoot him in the shoulder as they surround the ship. The film ends with Sam letting the boys see Grandpa again and accepting their new ninja names and the whole family driving off for pizza, with Mori muttering, "I hate pizza."

In an alternate version of the movie, Rocky and Colt lose the basketball challenge with the bullies, and get their bikes stolen. In the end of the movie the bullies ambush Rocky, Colt, Tum Tum, and Emily on the way to school, and threaten to "teach them a lesson." After receiving Emily's permission to "show off," Rocky uses his Ninjutsu training to beat up one of the lead bullies and get the bikes back. The scene ends with Colt knocking the bully on his head with his backpack as they ride away.

Characters

List of characters from the 3 Ninjas movies

equels

*"3 Ninjas Kick Back" (1994)
*"3 Ninjas Knuckle Up" (1995)
*"" (1998)

References

External links

*
* [http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/nostalgia-critic/34-nostalgia-critic/766-3-ninjas Nostalgia Critic's review of 3 Ninjas]