Megaforce

For the record label, see Megaforce Records.

Megaforce
Megaforce movie poster
Directed by	Hal Needham
Produced by	Andre Morgan Albert S. Ruddy
Written by	Phil Feldman André Morgan Hal Needham Albert S. Ruddy James Whittaker
Starring	Barry Bostwick Michael Beck Persis Khambatta Edward Mulhare
Music by	Jerrold Immel
Cinematography	Michael C. Butler
Editing by	Patrick Roark Skip Schoolnik
Studio	Golden Harvest
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	June 25, 1982
Running time	99 min.
Country	United States Hong Kong
Language	English
Budget	$20 million (est.)
Box office	$5,675,599

Megaforce is an action film made in 1982 directed by former stuntman Hal Needham. The film starred Barry Bostwick, Persis Khambatta, Michael Beck, Edward Mulhare, Evan C. Kim, Ralph Wilcox, and Henry Silva.

The film featured a "phantom Army of super elite fighting men whose weapons are the most powerful science can devise", including realistic 3-D holograms and combat vehicles such as a motorcycle called the "Delta MK 4 Megafighter" equipped with missile launchers. The movie included extremely unrealistic scenarios such as motorcycles (and dune buggies) launching missiles which proved lethal for main battle tanks. The dune buggies, "megadestroyers" or "megacruisers", also had lasers that could destroy a tank in a single shot. In the film finale, the main character's motorcycle activates small (~2 ft or 0.6 m) fold-out wings and flies.

It was also made into a computer game most notably for the Atari 2600. It was planned on being re-released on the Xbox 360 via its Xbox Live Arcade download services sometime in 2009.

The film was a critical and commercial failure in its release and was nominated for three Razzie Awards, Worst Picture, Worst Director and Worst Supporting Actor (Michael Beck).

A sequel titled Deeds not Words was considered, but it was scrapped due to poor performance of the original film. Delta Force, the 1986 Chuck Norris blockbuster, had a plot very similar to Megaforce, and in the movie, Chuck rides a motorbike which fires missiles.

In popular culture

In the DVD introduction to the season two South Park episode, "The Mexican Staring Frog of Southern Sri Lanka", Trey Parker graphically describes Megaforce as if it were the plot for what the viewer is about to see. Matt Stone stops Parker mid-sentence and reminds him that he is describing the movie Megaforce and not their episode. A disappointed Parker remembers and says, "We should have done Megaforce, that was a sweet movie, we should have done that." Their film Team America: World Police includes a number of apparent references to the film, including similar scenes of a flying motorcycle and an underground base where the hero meets various specialists.

Mattel also produced a Vertibird and Hot Wheels play sets based on the Megaforce theme.

A video game based on the film was released in 1982 on the Atari 2600.

An album was released on Boardwalk Records, with the theme song done by the group 707, was released as a single reaching the mid level of the charts in the U.S.A. and Canada. The soundtrack was released on Compact Disc in 2011 by BSX Records.

External links

• Megaforce at the Internet Movie Database
• Megaforce at AllRovi
• Film review at Surfin' Dead
• Fan Site - Megaforce HQ