The Soldier

Plot synopsis:
Ken Wahl plays a CIA agent who's given a broad charter to complete the missions to which he's assigned. He's known only by his codename - The Soldier. A small group of renegade KGB agents hijack a shipment of nuclear fuel in the US. Transporting the shipment through Canada, they take it overseas to create a dirty bomb. The bomb is placed in an ordinary-looking oil barrel in a location only the renegade agents know about - somewhere in the Saudi oil fields. They threaten to detonate the bomb unless Israel removes its settlements from the West Bank.Israel is reluctant to do so ... convinced that they could survive the incident by becoming more agricultural. Still, they know the incident would contaminate the oil fields for many years and collapse Western economies.The US, however, is determined to "force" the Israelis off the West Bank unless the CIA can provide them with an alternative. The CIA director, later killed by one of the renegade KGB agents, assigns that job to The Soldier and his elite team of CIA operatives.Heading to West Germany, The Soldier attempts to find out whether this is a bonafide KGB operation or just the work of KGB renegades. And, he discovers the latter is true with the help of Israeli agents - in particular, a female agent with whom he has a romantic interest. Meanwhile, The Soldier's elite team takes over a missile silo complex in Smith Center, Kansas. Their purpose is to give The Soldier a bargaining chip to use with the renegade KGB agents - that if they detonate the dirty bomb, he'll order his operatives to launch missiles from the silo complex and "take out" Moscow.The Soldier and the lady Israeli agent then car-jump the Berlin Wall to confront the leader of the renegade KGB agents in East Berlin - making him aware of the potential consequences if they don't defuse the dirty bomb. Knowing that The Soldier isn't bluffing, the renegade leader orders the bomb defused before the US is forced to mount their attack on the West Bank. Afterward, The Soldier's operatives relinquish control of the silo complex.

Tags: suspenseful, murder, violence

Review:
Perhaps like today's Bin Laden with a few thousand nukes pointed at us.Yes, the acting tended to be stiff, and there were some things that happened in the movie that didn't make too much sense.
Tangerine Dream did an excellent job with the score, the opening scene was great, good action sequences that were of course pro-American, and it had a patriotic ending.
It was a good movie for it's time.
Back in 1982, it was considered very cool to be very patriotic, and this movie fit the time..
Probably the best Glickenhaus film, great action sequences, over the top yes, but a lot of fun.
The only downsides are the film drags slightly in the middle and Klaus Kinski has a minuscule role.
No great acting performances but action speaks louder than words in these sort of films and there is plenty.
A ninja sequence with Steve James is a bit wasted as this angle could have been used more throughout the film i think, maybe in the assault on the missile base?
Apart from those minor points it is overall a very good and underrated film.
What is it about Cold War-era Films?.
I saw THE SOLDIER in the theater, on HBO or Movie Channel (I can't remember which), and in college.
Everybody cheered during the title sequence, when words like "DEMOCRACY" and pictures of B-52s were shown, and booed for "COMMUNIST" and pictures of Soviet leaders.
Yes, it was the height of the Cold War, and we were training to fight the Soviet Menace, the Evil Empire, the Reds.
And we all loved the opening scene in Philadelphia, when the limo, targeted by the terrorists, turns out to be bait to draw the bad guys into the open, so Ken Wahl and his team can hose them with their weapons.
But, let's face it, the dialogue was bad, and Ken Wahl has two acting modes--steely resolve and steely anger.
But it was a fun little movie in which the good guys will, the bad guys lose, and a Porche gets destroyed jumping the Berlin Wall!
But THE SOLDIER, like RED DAWN and THE FINAL OPTION, are definitely products of the Cold War.
Just enjoy films like these for what they are, movies from an earlier era.
Of course the film's premise is implausible, many of the scenes are improbable to the point of being ridiculous, and some of James Glickenhuas' political views may be offensive to some, but as far as I'm concerned, The Soldier is more entertaining than all the 007 movies combined.
This is a very offbeat, unusual film that requires a complete suspension of disbelief in order to watch from start to finish, but it's definitely worth watching.Ken Wahl was an interesting choice for The Soldier.
I'm surprised that Robert Ginty wasn't offered the role considering that Glickenhaus and Ginty enjoyed great success with The Exterminator less than two years prior.
Still, Wahl turns in a good job, although the brief appearance of Klaus Kinski as Dracha is one of the highlights of the film.James Glickenhaus had a good run in the 1980s (The Exterminator, The Soldier, The Protector, Shakedown) and offered an interesting alternative to all the lousy mainstream movies of that decade.
This is one cynical, jaded New Yorker who wishes Glickenhaus would return to film-making and give us another interesting film like The Soldier..
Rent it, hard to find on DVD.Ken Wahl and his team are outstanding in the fight sequences.
Joaquim Almeida has gained popularity lately with "Clear and Present Danger" villain Hector and "Behind Enemy Lines" Admiral Pique, NATO.Looks like some stuff out of the Anarchists cookbook with the light bulb.
The Soldier is absolutely one of this worst movies I have ever seen in my life.
Just name an aspect of a movie; acting, writing, directing and it is bad.
Probably the worst parts are the action; a man is hit in the chest with a half-dozen bullets from a machine gun by the hero (who is flying through the air on skis at the time, don't ask) and croaks out the complete plans of the bad guys to the hero for no particular reason.
Considering the cast includes personal favorites like Jeffrey Jones, Ken Wahl, and Zeljko Ivanek, this says a lot.
The plot is kind of like a bad acid trip, maybe a mescaline letdown - hard to tell.
The ski sequence was the best of the scenes, which frankly isn't saying a heck of a lot.
Bet that ABC Movie-of-the-Week that they turned down to do this is looking like Bergman about now..
The projectionist came down and saw that I was sitting there and while walking back up to his booth muttered `I do have to show this again'  Needless to say it was not one of the better films I've ever seen.
I've never seen this film on a cable channel or even in a video store so I don't know if it even can be viewed today.
Badly made movie with a few good scenes..
Not a great movie, but better than other films.
The Soldier is about the cold war between the Soviets and Ameriacans.
This movie is similar to James Bond but is more violent than the Bond films.
Ken Wahl is the C I A's version of James Bond.
I hate seeing a few good scenes wasted in a film which has choppy directing, an unbelievable script, and bad acting.
I wish the makers had more time and money to make this movie the way it should have been made.
Although this is a cold war thriller,its topical today because the plot was to make it look like terrorists were behind this theft of nuclear material used to plant a bomb in Saudi oil fields and thus make the wests oil supply worthless.The acting was poor save for the fine turn by Alberta Watson as a Mossad agent.Also notable was a very brief bar room scene showing a young George Strait playing in the background.Believe me,that scene was better then the whole retched"Pure Country"movie.Klaus Kinski is also very cold in his brief apperance.
When I first saw the film, I enjoyed it thoroughly.
And, those who speak of it today as a 'relic' of Cold War times should take a good look at Russia today.
I saw the film recently and like it better than when I first saw it..
It was of course dubbed to french with no subtitles but I really enjoyed the film scenes from St Anton and the stone-faced Mr Kinski.
*/ There is a scene in the film when the hero is doing a 360 over a ski jump and shooting bad guys at the same time.
"The Soldier" is a politically loaded, extravagant action-thriller that is very much a product of the Cold War era.
Ken Wahl of 'Wiseguy' fame (whatever happened to him?) stars as the title character, a coldly efficient anti-terrorism expert with a squad of four (played by Joaquim de Almeida ("Clear and Present Danger"), Peter Hooten ("The Inglorious Bastards"), cooler than cool Steve James (the "American Ninja" series), and Alexander Spencer).
They're an "outside the grid" team that report straight to the director of the C.I.A., and they're called into action when KGB agents, posing as terrorists, steal a nuclear bomb and plant it in a Saudi Arabian oil field, threatening to detonate it.
They want Israel to withdraw from the West Bank of Jordan, but didn't count on the Wiseguy factor.You have to turn your brain off a bit watching this gleefully over the top escapism, while it goes and pushes your buttons with zeal.
The plot (by director James Glickenhaus, who was following his memorable revenge saga "The Exterminator" at the time) is muddled, but it allows for some extremely impressive set pieces, which of course is what we're really watching this for.
One highlight is Wahl escaping down a mountain on skis and turning around in the air to mow down his pursuer.Glickenhaus wastes absolutely no time in amusing the viewer, with Wahl and his comrades baiting a terrorist group into the open so the cretins can get annihilated.
Pacing is excellent and those electronic score geniuses Tangerine Dream do wonders with the music.Wahl doesn't have to really DO much with his hero; all we need to know and see is that the guy defines the word "badass".
However, the legendary Klaus Kinski ("Aguirre, the Wrath of God") is utterly wasted in a VERY brief cameo.Provided you don't think about it too much, "The Soldier" shows undemanding action fans a pretty good time.Seven out of 10..
Far and above the Most Chilling Cold War film....
The Soldier was more of a "what if" type of movie than an action thriller.
The whole plot around nuclear terrorism during the Cold War is even more chilling today as looking back to those early 80's when on more than one instance we were minutes away from war..
Although the actors did a professional, best-that-they-could job with "The Soldier", we are asked to believe that, given the circumstances, the United States would launch a nuclear attack against Israel.
Given the anti - American sentiment of the film, it's amazing that they're not pointing the ICBM at the Rose Garden.In fact, the producers again and again seem to see the US as either brain - dead or totally amoral, though the  former attempt a visual disclaimer by having the hero and heroine wind up at the Statue of Liberty.
I seriously have to stop making up my own story lines before seeing the actual movies!
Like in the case of "(Code Name: )The Soldier" With a title like that, and the dark silhouette of a man with a massive gun on the VHS cover, I quickly became convinced that this film was about a secretly developed military weapon – presumably an indestructible cyborg of some sort – that would singlehandedly exterminate an entire army of bad guys.
This is a typical US movie released during the peak of the Cold War era, so basically it means that evil and stereotypically hideous Russian bastards are developing fiendish plans to undermine the prosperity of the poor and peaceful American citizens.
Russian terrorists with bazookas manage to steal a significant amount of plutonium and threaten to destroy 50% of the world's oil supply, unless the Israelis retire from the West Bank.
Yes that does sound like a lot of political gibberish, but don't let this scare you off!
"The Soldier" stands for half-decent and brainless entertainment, even though James Glickenhaus' screenplay sometimes tries to be a little bit too ambitious and intelligent.
The film is actually very incoherent and too often jumps from scene to scene without making sense.
Glickenhaus puts a lot of effort in the action sequences (like the skiing chase) and detailed accuracy in some cool gimmick sequences (like the construction of a light bulb bomb), but the overall storyline is pretty dumb.
Glickenhaus' previous film "The Exterminator", about an embittered Vietnam veteran going on a vigilante rampage is much more shocking and socially confronting.
I saw this movie late one night on HBO about 20 years ago.
At that time, I found it riveting, because that was when the Cold War was still going on, and the premise seemed reasonable enough.Nowadays, it comes off as a really silly piece of right-wing propaganda, along the lines of "Rambo" and "Red Dawn." Oh well, it was a reflection of the times, i.e. Reagan's defense build-up, "Evil Empire" speech, etc.However, I still have fond memories of this movie, because it's still highly enjoyable, in its own silly way.
That ski chase scene was way cool, especially when the Soldier spun around in mid air and sprayed the bad guys.
This is a bit hammed up - lots of improbable action, dramatic lines, almost a caricature of a shoot-em-up spy movie.
Yet, for what it is, it is great - You'd probably appreciate it a lot more as a twelve year old boy than any other age viewer, but it is fun and well done for its genre.
The Godfather, it's not, but a great movie for what it is..
-----This is surely in my top 5 GREAT movies to watch!
It was every bit as shocking as Glickenhaus's other genre movies..
I'm also sure its release has been hurt by how accurate it must have been.------The folks that give this movie a bad or low rating..
On both sides of the wall.At the time this movie came out..
yes the ski Chase is just to good i have been in st anton where it is shot and been to the nice pub crazy kangaroo where they ski through i would love to have this movie in my collection.
but there is several good scenes in this movie other than the ski chase , i think to remember a good car chase to, and lots off other stuff cold be a bond movie.- its kind off build the same way it just doesn't have all the cull stuff as a bond movie has.
He's a highly-trained agent who controls a super-secretive and elite unit, and he's working with the Israelis to save the world.This movie has a killer opening sequence that really pulls you in.
The Soldier, for all it's 80's-style anti-commie plot threads (not that those are a bad thing in any way), was ahead of its time.
The ski chase sequence is a movie highlight, and director Glickenhaus must have loved it so much, he also included it in his movie Shakedown.
He's only directed eight movies, and out of those, The Soldier stands out.
The Soldier could have been improved if Kinski was the main bad guy and Wahl had to face off against him.
Chalk that up to a missed opportunity.Loaded with three of the best things you can ask for in a movie like this: top-quality stunts, over-the-top action violence and 80's atmosphere, these elements overcome some plot weaknesses.
Additionally, the soundtrack by Tangerine Dream rules.You should definitely enlist The Soldier into your collection.For more action insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com.
I was in high school when I saw this movie.
The acting wasn't super, and the plot was OK, but the underlying story was great.
Some of the effects were hokey but not really any worse than the James Bond movies or similar of the same era.
Ken Wahl and his partners did a great job with what they had.
Although somewhat early in his career, it showed that Ken Wahl could carry a movie on his own and that he had a good future in acting, TV and movies..
Not being a big fan of Ken Wahls wooden style of acting (if you want to call it that), there was one reason I went and watched The Soldier": next to Wahls name on the promo-poster, stood the name Klaus Kinski and a Kinski-performance was always something special, no matter how mediocre the film itself.Well, Kinski does appear as the informant 'Dracha' – for an estimated minute and a half.
Kinski, notoriously short on cash, looks like he just walked in on the set, while being on vacation in Switzerland, wearing his own ski-suit – let me correct me there: he actually was on vacation and it was his own suit.
Though Harrison Fords mentioned guest-appearance in "Bruno" was shorter, the acting was infinitely better, leaving this one of Kinski's weakest performance ever.So, what else do we get in "The Soldier"?
You'd also notice that director James Glickenhaus has stolen more stunts and action-sequences from more films then I care to remember – or you might not notice it at all, if you're the type of action-fan who'd reply to the question, whether you like James Bond films, with a puzzled, "James who?" At times it's good and wholesome to turn the thinking-apparatus off for a little while and wallow in cheap acting, cheaper special effects and lots of gunfire and explosions.
"The Soldier" is perfect for moments like those – just don't expect a good movie.
In other words, you'll get what you wanted, when you rent "The Soldier" – unless you expected "On the Waterfront", and that kid in the video-store gave you the wrong film.7 out of 10 points..
It's not the graphic slam-bang actioner of James Glickenhaus' "The Exterminator" but I recall it never being dull.
It's more a thinking-man's action piece like "The Package" or "The Peacemaker."  I remember it being a slick movie with bright photography, as opposed to "The Exterminator"'s grimy urban look.
I believe Glickenhaus was a man ahead of his time, like Tom Clancy, in the conclusions he drew about terrorists and world events.
I also love the fact that both Glickenhaus' movies, this and "Exterminator" end with the heroes standing at the feet of The Statue Of Liberty.
This is the best movie I ever saw in my life.
I first saw it when I was 14 year old, and I've watched it over 100 times since then.
I think that movie was shown out of sequence, in the wrong order.
What I will do is, I will re-edit the movie, and see if I can discover the correct time sequence that points to that conclusion, and then when it get's there, I will merge it will the phone call scene in Miracle Mile, where Dr. Greene gets his little phone call, and Tasha Yar starts planning her failed trip to Antarctica.Do you have your plane tickets from ChristChurch, NZ to Lake Vostok, Russian Federation, handy.
It was not quite in the James Bond domain, but it was entertaining.Unfortunately, this was one of the most irresponsible films I've ever seen.
The writer, producer and director should be ashamed.As part of the film, it is shown in complete and accurate detail how to make a napalm bomb using an ordinary light bulb.
Perhaps I am naive, but I thought that movies were not meant to be how-to documentaries for would-be terrorists.