Terror Squad

My review was written in April 1988 after waching the film on Forum video cassette.

"Terror Squad" is an exciting B-actioner, despie its absurd premise of Libyan terrorists invading Kokomo, Indiana. Unluckily, pic failed to get a theatrical tryout, going directly to home video shelves.

Chuck Connors, back in his trademark Brooklyn Dodgers jacket, is tghe loal police chief when a commando squad from Khaddafy-land attacks a nuclear power plant. There ensues a spectacular car chase, the lengthiest and one of the best since the classic Barry Newman fpi "Vanishing Point" of 1971. Terrorists, led by Kavi Raz and hothead Joseph Nasser, kidnap a high school class and hold them hostage while Connors comically uses "Dog Day Afternoon" expicitly as his guidebook to negotiations.

Topnotch action directed by Peter Maris lifts this one out of the lookalike boredom of made-for-vid titlesl, and indicates he is ready for a theatrical assignment. Young cast, essaying stet roles in a "Breakfast Club" detention setting, is okay and tech credits are impressive.

An odd concept for a movie: in Kokomo, Indiana, a group of Libyan terrorists raise hell in the town. What follows is a lengthy car chase (clocking in at almost 30 minutes) involving the entire sheriff's department (led by Chuck Connors of all people). A slew of police cars are demolished, splashed, blown up, etc. Unfortunately, the movie then transitions to a low-rent version of The Breakfast Club (which sets up the rest of the plot) where we follow a group of misfit students who are under the watchful eye of a hateful teacher and they must band together when the terrorists hold them hostage. To be honest, the oddball plot doesn't really work and even with the great Ken Foree in a supporting role as Connors' loyal deputy, the movie still can't get up off the ground.

Four Arab terrorists, probably Libyans, sneak into the US through the Canadian border. They badly botch an attempt to blow up a nuclear power plant in Indiana. The four that survive are badly pursued by the police, who mostly crash their cars. The terrorists shoot up a town's main street and run down an old man with their car. The pursuing police chief then runs over the old man (a bad dummy).

Meanwhile, a bunch of actors apparently in their twenties are portraying high school students. One of them plays guitar with the janitor, except that on the soundtrack is bad synthesizer music, the same kind of bad synthesizer music that is on the soundtrack. Later, a bunch of the students are in detention. The guitarist plays some more synthesizer music in detention, even though he doesn't have an amp. A jock makes farting sounds with his armpit, except that it sounds more like a synthesizer playing fart sounds.

The now two surviving terrorists, apparently having evaded the police, burst into the detention room. Thus the stereotypical Arabs meet the stereotypical high school students. The police and SWAT surround the school, and miss dozens of opportunities to get into the school and/or shoot the terrorists. The students and their teacher frequently do things to make the terrorists nervous and angry (and one of them is quick to anger anyway), which only results in getting themselves injured or killed.

As others have noted, when the terrorists leave the school in a bus, they are very clearly in a full-length bus. At some point while the police are following them to the airport, it clearly turns into a short half-length bus. I'm at a loss to explain how the filmmakers thought they could get away with that, especially since there are lengthy shots of the bus both when it is long and when it is short.

I bought this movie because I wanted to see Ken Foree in another movie other than "Dawn of the Dead". What I discovered was pure hilarity! There are so many flaws in this film that it's impossible to recall them all. The movie opens in what's supposed to be Libya with a small, concentrated crowd of 20 arab stereotypes gathered in front of a podium holding up signs that read "DEATH TO THE GREAT SATAN" and "DOWN WITH AMERICA" as if that's what Libyans do all day is walk around with signs like that. You get the gist that they're sending over some terrorists to mess up the USA because that's what Libyans do according to this film. Then we're greeted to the teenage stereotypes that were a child's rendering of the "Breakfast Club" crowd in anytown,USA. The jock walks the halls in a letterman jacket holding a football, the geek is obsessed with sex and walks around with electronic implements, the cheerleadrer is aloof and too-good, but best of all is the rebel that hangs out with Sam, the old black janitor in the boiler room where they jam on their electric guitars (the rebel walks the hall with his guitar, of course). Then the terrorists begin their killing spree, packing themselves into a car and cruising around shooting people. They attack a nuclear power plant and liberally use a rocket launcher in doing so, blasting the chain off the lock of the gate and then blasting the gaurd tower without having to reload it. The gaurds at the plant are spraying the car with bullets at close range but somehow seem to miss. And it gets more fake as the plot goes on. I wont go into it. The part my roommate and I had to keep rewinding over and over was when ol' Sam the janitor haplessly wanders into the detention hall playing his harmonica and is immediatly shot by the spooked terrorists. It was just so silly. The whole movie was silly. And well worth watching if you're in for a good laugh. And don't forget to keep your eyes peeled for the magic bus scene!!!

This is a tremendously bad thriller from the late 80s, and the dating shows. The bad guys are cartoon caricatures of Libyans. They cross the US-Canadian border into Indiana (think about it) and immediately fail to blow up a nuclear reactor in Kokomo. What follows is the longest sustained car chase I know of (35 minutes), with old cars, abandoned factories, and other unwanted props getting blown to hell with rocket launchers. Finally, they take over a high school during detention hours (described by one terrorist as a "steenky place!"). It's "Breakfast Club" meets "Die Hard" then, as jocks and nerds band together to defeat the baddies. Meanwhile, the police and SWAT teams led by Chuck Conners surround the school and proceed to do nothing, even when the terrorists' numbers are reduced to two and clear headshots present themselves repeatedly. Finally, it's a mad dash for freedom as the terrorists and their pretty-girl hostage board a Ford Bluebird school bus and head for the airport. But is it a big Bluebird after all? The final set of exciting stunts wouldn't work with a full-size bus, so it miraculously (and VERY clearly) transforms into a Hoekstra minibus halfway through the chase.

I've said enough -- this is an overlooked classic.