American Ninja is a 1985 film produced by Menahem Golan and Yorum Globus 's Cannon Films. Like most other films produced by that studio, American Ninja was a low-budget action film. It stars Michael Dudikoff in the title role and was directed by Sam Firstenberg , who specialized in this genre in the 80s. The film grossed an impressive $35,067,880 at the domestic box office, spawning a competently-made but unsuccessful sequel, in 1987. Three more commercially and critically unsuccessful sequels would follow with another lead actor, David Bradley. Dudikoff returned for a short cameo role in the fourth film in this franchise. The fifth and final film in the American Ninja franchise disregarded the series continuity and was a direct-to-video release.
Plot
Joe Armstrong, an orphaned amnesiac drifter with little respect for much other than martial arts, finds himself on an American Army base in the Philippines after a judge gives him a choice of enlistment or prison. On one of his first missions driving a convoy, his platoon is attacked by a group of rebels who try to steal the weapons the platoon is transporting. Patricia, the base colonel's daughter, is in the convoy as well, prompting Joe to disregard the sergeant's orders to cooperate with the rebels when Patricia is attacked, and fight back against the bad guys using his Ninja abilities (which he doesn't remember how he acquired). Joe rescues Patricia and gets her safely back to the base, but everyone else in the platoon is killed by the enemy Ninja (who all work for the powerful arms dealer Victor Ortega), leading Joe's superiors to conclude that Joe is guilty of cowardice, collaboration or simple incompetence.
Ortega sees Joe as a threat to his business and sends out his private Ninja army to kill him on several occasions. While developing a romantic relationship with Patricia, Joe soon discovers that the base colonel and his sargeant are in cahoots with Ortega when he is set up and abushed during one of the Ninja attacks. Along the way, Patricia is kidnapped, and Joe decides to take on Ortega's operation and rescue her, aided by his Army buddy, Jackson.
At the last moment, Joe is stopped by his old sensei, Shinyuki, who now works as a landscape artist for Ortega. Shinyuki makes Joe remember his childhood in the jungle and being taught Ninjitsu, and gives him his final lesson, turning him into a real Ninja. The next morning, they attack Ortega's men side by side.
During the fight, the colonel shows up with the Army, demanding his weapons back. A battle ensues, and Ortega sends out the Black Star Ninja, his main thug, to kill Joe so they can escape by helicopter with Patricia as their hostage. Joe defeats Black Star Ninja and jumps on the helicopter, pulling Patricia to safety while Jackson destroys the chopper with Ortega in it.
Trivia
In the movie trailer it was originally titled "American Warrior" but was changed to "American Ninja" by the time of the films release.
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