In the years of memes , Chuck Norrisis far more famous for satirical fact about his life than his vocation as an actor or a martial artist . It ’s risible that these internet jokes have overshadowed the fact that Norris was a contemporary ofBruce Leeand also one of the top natural action stars in the 1980s . Forty year ago this month , Norris ’ wage hike as a lead adult male was solidified by the sacking ofMissing in Action .

Joseph Zito channelize the film from a screenplay by James Bruner , with a story by John M. Crowther and Lance Hool . The movie revolves around an unauthorized rescue of POWs who were trap in Vietnam after the war . If that sounds like the plot fromRambo : First Blood Part II , Hollywood traditional knowledge has it thatMissing in Actionwas inspired byJames Cameron‘s intervention of the former , as well as the eventual script that he co - wrote withSylvester Stallone . Missing in Actionand its first sequel were rushed to theaters beforeRambo 2 , but the similarities between the films were not lost on motion-picture show fan .

To strike off the movie ’s 40th anniversary , we ’re taking a look back atMissing in Action , from the highlights to the refutable look that make it meet very differently in the present .

Is Chuck Norris the poor man’s Sylvester Stallone?

RewatchingMissing in Actionserves as a admonisher that playacting is n’t necessarily Chuck Norris ’ strong causa . Norris was a credible military action star topology and a legitimate soldierlike creative person , but his performance as Colonel James Braddock is very wooden and stiff . He does n’t show off many personality traits , and the line with Stallone ’s Rambo is very clear . Stallone may now and then be prone to hamming , but he is very talented at emoting and making the interview feel sympathy for his characters . Norris does n’t have the same acting chops on video display in this movie .

Surprisingly , Missing in Actiononly give Norris a few chances where he sustain to show off his martial arts art . Those are the scenes where Braddock has to fight off would - be Vietnamese bravo . When he ’s in the jungles of Vietnam , Braddock sticks to schematic weapons , and that take a shit him more of a generic action paladin . It does n’t aid that Norris is blown away by his atomic number 27 - star , M. Emmet Walsh , who give a much better performance as Braddock ’s reluctant friend , Jack “ Tuck ” Tucker .

It’s a very ’80s film in the best and worst ways

Action films have follow a prospicient way sinceMissing in Action , but it ’s interesting to see how the genre has changed in four tenner . There ’s a touch of ’ 80s high mallow that ’s inconceivable to brush off , as Braddock sneaks aside from a U.S. diplomatical missionary post to cause an outside incident . That ’s before Braddock pass on Vietnam and project an off - the - book rescue effort of the prisoners of warfare who were entrust behind . The moving picture never bothers to reveal where Braddock get the immediate payment to bankroll this mission by himself . He just seems to have whatever he needs to pay off some confutative friend .

The technical restriction of the ’ 80 are also readily apparent , peculiarly tardily in the film when the destiny of one of Braddock ’s allies is so poorly shot and delete that it feels like the moving picture is missing critical scene . There are plenty of practical explosion that expect sound on - silver screen , but the existent torpedo battles between Braddock and the Vietnamese army are almost laughable .

There ’s an brow - bring up minute near the remainder of the first act , when Braddock habituate Ann Fitzgerald ( Lenore Kasdorf ) — an adjutant to   Senator Maxwell Porter ( David Tress ) — as his exculpation after sneaking out of their hotel to get intel on the miss POWs . Braddock returns with the Vietnamese police red-hot on his heels before he forcibly rips off Ann ’s nightgown and throw away her in bottom so they can be regain partially bare with each other .

The interesting thing about the aspect in retrospect is that Ann never acknowledges what Braddock did to her . In the moment , it meet as nonconsensual , but the next sidereal day , she laments the fact that Braddock has to leave behind the country . Anne does choose to help Braddock fly the coop spotting sooner in the movie , but she was mostly roped into his scheme against her will and she seemingly has little to say about it afterwards .

Victory in Vietnam … but only in fiction

At the metre thatMissing in Actionwas released , there was a real issuing about whether there were POW / MIA American soldiers who were still in Vietnam . This movie was liberate only nine year after the Vietnam War came to an end , which meant it was still very much at the head for families who lost loved ones in the conflict . Norris himself lost his brother , Wieland Norris , during the state of war , and afterward dedicatedMissing in Actionto his memory .

The moving picture does n’t attempt to show much nuance in its delineation of Vietnam after the warfare . Although it ’s ironic that one of the most contemptible Vietnamese characters , General Tran , was play by Chinese role player James Hong ( Big Trouble in Little China ) . Contemporary critics take note that there were no “ sound ” Vietnamese characters , but there is really one . When Braddock is accuse of warfare crimes by Tran , one of the accuser bows his head in ignominy and apologizes to Braddock , who forgive the man in his aboriginal language . That ’s about the extent of sympathy that the film has for the people living under a cruel regime .

Vietnam is wide jazz as the war that America did n’t come through , andMissing in Actiontries to reform that by having Braddock face impossible odds to deliver at least some of the POWs who were leave behind . That give America a win it never had in reality , andRambo 2essentially did the same thing a yr later .

The sequel is the prequel

The first two miss in legal action motion picture were shoot back - to - back , which is how they were both able-bodied to beatRambo : First ancestry Part IIto theaters . But it ’s almost been leave that the 2nd celluloid , neglect in Action 2 : The Beginning , was ab initio think of to be the first moving picture . The Cannon Group — the studio behind the franchise — aright realise that the second flick , which becameMissing in Action , was more compelling than the story of Braddock ’s old age of captivity as a POW . That ’s why the release decree was switched .

Norris bring back for a third celluloid in 1988,Braddock : Missing in Action III , which let on that his character wed an Asiatic woman , Lin Tan Cang ( Miki Kim ) , whom he assumed to be dead after the state of war . Braddock returned to Vietnam for a last time when he learned that Lin had survived , alongside their son , Van Tan Cang ( Roland Harrah III ) . All three of the Missing in Action films are on Max , if you want to revisit the franchise .

WatchMissing in ActiononMax .