Defcon 4

• Genre: PostApoc
• Release Year: 1985
• Director: Paul Donovan
• Writer: Paul Donovan
• Running Time: 88min
• Rating: R (for cheesy 80s moviedom)
• Reviewed by: harbinger on Mon 17 Sep 07

Offical Blurb:
While the astronauts of the Nemesis Missile Station are in orbit, World War III erupts on Earth in a convulsive holocaust of nuclear fury. Months later, the spaceship crash-lands back on Earth, where the crew finds a wasteland ravaged by radiation and overrun by desperation, disease and cannibalism. When they're captured by a group of sadistic survivalists, the astronauts must fight to save themselves and the world from total annihilation.

The Story: (contains spoilers...)

Three people manning an orbital defense platform watch as World War 3 unleashes below. Months later, while deciding where to land and find their friends and family that might have survived, a remote override makes their decision for them and begins the landing procedure. The nuclear payload, which they didn't launch in the war because they pussed out, they set to jettison and detonate in 60 hours. They successfully eject the majority of the payload into space, but foreshadowing requires one gets stuck in the tube and fails to jettison.

The capsule lands near some sea-side locale that is relatively radiation free.. good for them, unfortunately they land a little rough and the only woman on board, Dr. Eva Jordan (Kate Lynch), ends up not participating in the next 40 minutes of the movie because of it. The first guy to escape the capsule gets pulled out by someone (you later find out they are flesh eating 'mutants').
After night fall, the remaining man, and our main character, "Lieutenant Commander Cecil Howe" (played the late Tim Choate) escapes from the capsule looking for help.. dodges some natives and find a log cabin in a clearing. The log cabin isn't empty.. in fact it has a overweight survivalist named Vinnie MacKinnon (played by Maury Chaykin) and a girl in the basement named J. J. (played by Lenore Zann).
J.J. it turns out is from a former local private school.. the same one where the leader of the local gang came from.. in fact.. they used to be an item!
After some jabber-jawing, Vinnie convinces Cecil that he should have all the food in the capsule.. so Vinnie busts out his Armored-Better-Then-The-ATeam-Could-Ever-Do Bulldozer and they set off to retrieve the space capsule and the Doctor safely tucked inside of it.

Did I mention the local gang? Oh goodie.
Yes.. the local gang runs a small 'town' with various thugs that inhabit it, as well as local populace that are seeking protection. The Leader is Gideon Hayes (Kevin King).. remember I said he went to a local private school? Good. Yes.. he is a teenager.. running a small town.. that has a lot of elements from a local military base named Fort Lizwell.. and there are supposedly USMC Corporals there too.. what they are doing being told what to do by a spoiled brat we never really find out..

Anyhow..

So the gang captures Vinnie, JJ, Cecil, and Dr. Jordan (remember her? good..) and the capsule with the food that Cecil has been using try and barter with.
Turns out that Gideon wants the capsule for it's computer so they can find a spot that will be safer from radiation for some time.. noble cause I suppose.. even though he's constantly trying to hook up with JJ still, and he keeps a well tortured electronics tech named Boomer (Alan MacGillivray) in a shed.. Boomer, who is unimportant till now, and will be pretty much unimportant after now, turns out to be the tech that sent the capsule the landing sequence.

So after some meetings, bickering, and negotiations, our spoiled little warlord decides a public hanging is a good way to rally moral of the people.. so they setup a gallows and prepare to execute our 'heroes' Vinnie, J.J., Cecil, and Eva. Gideon gives one last offer that he will let live whomever pulls the lever to execute thier friends.. Cecil steps up to accept the offer.. but wait.. IT WAS A TRICK! Oh Noes!

This is where the cheesy 80's action kicks in.

Cecil steals a gun and shoots Gideon (non-fatally.. bummer..) and -action- issues.. needless to say out heroes escape on the last boat at night from the Fort just before their 60 hours runs out, and the last missile in the capsule detonates, obliterating the remaining populace of Fort Lizwell..

Review:
For the record, there are only 4 cool things about this whole movie:
One is the very first scenes on board the capsule while it is in space.. It feels very much like 70s/early 80s space should feel. Not saying it's realistic space.. just that it's solid 'space' kinda feel to it.
The Second is Vinnie's Bulldozer. It actually looks like a solid mad-max kinda piece of kit. It has a pretty minor role however, and gets captured the same way you would take down an AT-AT if you had a snow speeder.. grappling hooks.
Third.. the shanty town and refugees that are setup in Fort Lizwell has a pretty good aire about it.
And Last but not least.. the movie poster / cover. I actually fell in love this movie poster when I first saw it as a wee lad. The Cover has what looks like this giant space station over a large desert wasteland with a cool dead guy in a environmental/space suit. Right.. well that has nothing to do with it. The space capsule doesn't really even look as good as the movie poster portrays it as.

Ratings:

• Genre Feel: 1
• Acting: 2
• Effects: 3
  
• Production Quality:: 3

Final Scoring:

Personal Recommendation: It's ok background noise, but you can wait until you catch it on late night television.

Availablity:
  Netflix     Amazon  

Powered by Flesh eating zombies.. oh and Simple Review