Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection

Plot

Narcoterrorist and cartel boss Ramón Cota (Billy Drago) controls the cocaine industry with an iron fist. His drugs pour steadily into the United States, corrupting the country's youth and causing a feud between the DEA and San Carlos, Cota's country of origin.

During a carnival in Rio de Janeiro, an undercover task force led by several DEA agents conducts surveillance on a private party that Cota is attending. The surveillance team is ambushed and massacred by Cota's hitmen, who are masquerading as carnival performers. Following the Rio operation, the DEA enlists the support of the U.S. Army's Delta Force to infiltrate San Carlos. They are aided by an undercover agent within Cota's drug cartel.

General Taylor orders Colonel Scott McCoy (Chuck Norris) and his deputy, Major Bobby Chavez (Paul Perri), to bring Cota to justice. They pose as airline passengers while Cota is en route to Geneva to deposit his drug money in a Swiss bank account and capture him during a short interval in which the plane enters U.S. airspace. Their efforts are unsuccessful, however, as Cota is able to post bail and escape. Chavez confronts Cota in court, prompting Cota to retaliate by ordering the murder of Chavez's pregnant wife.

Seeking personal revenge, Chavez attempts to pursue Cota but is captured by Cota's forces and tortured and killed. When three DEA agents attempt to capture Cota, they are taken hostage and scheduled for execution. During a press conference, a DEA spokesman explains that San Carlos's president, Alcazar, fears a coup and is therefore reluctant to crack down on the cartels, while corrupt generals benefit from the drug trade and protect Cota from extradition.

McCoy is parachuted into San Carlos and sent to rescue the hostages in a stealth operation while Taylor and the rest of the Delta Force provide surveillance. Their mission is supervised by Ernesto Flores (Mateo Gómez), a delegate from the government of San Carlos, which has entered into an agreement with the U.S. government that severely limits the scope of the operation. McCoy proceeds to scale a tall cliff and infiltrates Cota's mansion.

The government of San Carlos subsequently attempts to cancel the U.S. intervention by staging a large drug raid intended to make the American mission unnecessary. Upon learning of the deception, Taylor breaks protocol and triggers Operation Stranglehold, heading south of his perimeter in a heavily armed gunship, prompting the San Carlos army to send its own helicopters in pursuit. The gunship lands at Cota's mansion and deploys troops to destroy cocaine storehouses and laboratories. McCoy releases the hostages but is captured by Cota and placed in a chamber filled with toxic gas, isolated from him by a glass pane. Before the gas can kill McCoy, a rocket from Taylor's gunship shatters the glass, allowing him to escape.

Pre-production

Writing

Screenwriter James Bruner was tasked with developing a sequel to The Delta Force. He was sent to London to meet with filmmaker Michael Winner and develop a story, with the intention of having Chuck Norris and Lee Marvin reprise their roles as Scott McCoy and Nick Alexander, respectively. Some early promotional and concept posters for a potential sequel included references to Marvin's name and likeness. For example, a revised second-draft screenplay titled Delta Force II - dated May 15, 1986 - was offered at auction as part of material from Marvin's estate.

According to Bruner, Winner subsequently took control of the writing process, and the script became substantially different from Bruner's original work. Bruner recalled that "the script just got goofier and goofier" and said that although the final screenplay was submitted under his name, it was not the script he had written. The story department at Cannon Films was reportedly dissatisfied with the result.

The project later developed under the working title Delta Force 2: Spitfire, with Michael Dudikoff attached to star and Albert Pyun set to direct. Steve James was also expected to reprise his role as Bobby. The proposed story would have followed Dudikoff and James as they attempted to prevent terrorists from destroying a nuclear reactor in Florida. The project was ultimately abandoned.

Bruner was also involved with a proposed Delta Force television series while Missing in Action III was in production. According to Trunick, Menahem Golan was dissatisfied with the terms offered by CBS, and the project did not proceed.

The screenplay that became Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection originated as a standalone project titled Stranglehold. Film historian Austin Trunick's account describes the screenplay as being adapted into a sequel to The Delta Force, with the characters, setting and premise being substantially changed during development.

The final film was also referred to as Delta Force 2: Operation Stranglehold in contemporary promotional material, including the U.S. theatrical release poster and home-video market.

The development of Stranglehold took place during a period of financial difficulty for Cannon Films. Contemporary reports described the company's growing debt and financial restructuring, including an agreement with Warner Communications in 1986 and subsequent efforts to reduce costs. Trunick places the development of The Colombian Connection within this period of increasingly constrained production budgets.

Casting

Lee Marvin had reportedly maintained a good relationship with Golan during the production of The Delta Force and was interested in further projects with Cannon Films. Marvin, however, was in poor health during production of the first film and died in 1987, making his return to the sequel impossible.

Jean-Claude Van Damme was offered a role in the film but declined it in order to star in Cyborg.

Van Damme later recalled training with Norris three times a week and being employed by Norris during his early years in the United States.

Billy Drago was cast as the film's villain. It was his third collaboration with Norris, following Invasion U.S.A. (1985) and Hero and the Terror (1988).

Drago said that he viewed the character as a conventional villain and drew loosely on his knowledge of Pablo Escobar when approaching the role. Furthermore:

"It is, in a sense, a straight-ahead action picture and you're talking about Good vs. Evil", said Drago, "and it is pretty black and white. . . . It's not a matter of becoming someone else as it is really more a matter of finding that dark part of myself that everybody has someplace. I also approach it from an amoral point of view rather than immoral. He was not some cokehead going nuts. And in a sense, that made him scarier...."

Rick Prieto, who portrayed Carlos, Ramón Cota's bodyguard and enforcer, was a longtime associate of Chuck Norris. Prieto trained under Norris and became a ninth-degree black belt in the Chuck Norris System. He worked with Norris on several film productions, beginning with A Force of One (1979), which served as Prieto's acting debut.

Berto Spoor was initially cast for three to four days' work as a skinhead. He was not keen on shaving his head and was subsequently recast as a Delta Force soldier, extending his work on the production to several weeks. He had previously worked with Chuck Norris on Missing in Action (1984) and Missing in Action III (1988).

Production

Filming

Much of the film was shot in Tagaytay, Philippines, where production was seriously affected by a helicopter crash near an unfinished hilltop mansion. Four people were killed in the crash and ten others were injured. The fatalities included electricians Don Marshall and Mike Graham, cameraman Gaddi Dansig, and pilot Jojo Imperial; actor Geoff Brewer later died from injuries sustained in the accident, bringing the death toll to five.

Chuck Norris said he had left the set approximately 30 minutes before the accident and had worked closely with those who died for several years. He emphasised that the helicopter sequence was not a stunt, saying that the shot simply required the helicopter to lift off. The accident subsequently resulted in lawsuits against Cannon Films and Aaron Norris. Aaron Norris rejected claims that safety had been a low priority, describing the crash as a tragic accident and maintaining that no one was at fault.

The unfinished hilltop mansion in the mountain resort of Tagaytay was called the People's Park in the Sky. Imelda Marcos had started building it in 1983 as a guest house for a visit by then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan that never took place.

"It had never been used", Chuck Norris said in 1990. "When Marcos was booted out, it was just left, an empty shell. We bought it, made $1 million worth of refurbishments, since it wasn't in good shape, and even built a swimming pool. And then we blew it up."

On May 16, 1989, the unit had been filming for two months and was due to finish on May 27. An SA 360 Dauphin helicopter took off to film a scene, then veered to the left and plunged into a 40-foot ravine. Four people on board were killed in the crash: electricians Don Marshall and Mike Graham, cameraman Gaddi Danzig, and pilot Jojo Imperial. Actor Geoff Brewer subsequently died from injuries sustained in the accident, bringing the total number of fatalities to five.

Norris stated that production shut down for six weeks so that the cast and crew could recuperate. He said that the casualties were his close friends. He also stated that production in the Philippines could have continued, but the cast and crew were "so devastated" that they had to return to the United States to "get our minds functioning again."

Filming after the crash

Following the helicopter accident, the production considered alternative locations, including Puerto Rico. It ultimately transferred to Tennessee to complete filming.

Release

In 1989, the film was screened at the Senate Theater in Washington, D.C., for an audience of approximately 800 people, including members of Congress and their families. Chuck Norris and his brother Aaron were seated in the front row alongside Senators Pete Wilson and Bob Dole.

Theatrical

The film was released in theaters in the United States on August 24, 1990.

Marketing

MGM spent $5 million on television advertising.

Home video

The film was released on VHS in the United States by Media Home Entertainment in 1990. In the United Kingdom, a rental VHS was released in 1991 by Cannon Video and MGM/UA Home Video, with distribution through Warner Home Video.

Initial VHS copies distributed in the United States referred to the film using the Operation Stranglehold subheading. The film was released on DVD in the United States by MGM on September 19, 2000. The DVD presents the film in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio and includes French and Spanish subtitles. A UK MGM DVD was released on November 13, 2000, presented in anamorphic widescreen with English audio and subtitles, and included theatrical trailers as bonus material.

Reception

Box office

The film opened with $1.85 million in 909 U.S. theaters. It ranked 11th for its opening weekend, and ultimately grossed about $6.7 million domestically against a reported $16 million budget.

Critical reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 11% based on nine critics.

Early reviews were predominantly negative.

Chris Hicks of Deseret News criticised the film's inconsistent title. He noted that the film's press material used Delta Force 2: Operation Stranglehold, while the opening credits used Delta Force 2 and the end credits used Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection. Hicks characterised the screenplay as a collection of stereotypes and clichés and wrote that although the film contained some elaborate stunts, they were insufficient to compensate for its weaknesses.

Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times compared the film unfavourably with its predecessor. He wrote that if the first Delta Force "played like a formula TV movie", its sequel was "not even that". He criticised the film's "cardboard and stereotypical" characterisations and "trite" plotting, arguing that these weaknesses prevented its elaborate parachuting and helicopter sequences from having much dramatic impact. Thomas also described the film as notable for its "nonstop violence" while singling out Billy Drago's performance as Ramón Cota as "the strongest presence in the picture".

Sid Smith of the Chicago Tribune was similarly critical, although his review focused more on the film's appeal as an exaggerated Chuck Norris action vehicle. Smith described the production as "serious stuff" while discussing Norris's established screen persona and the film's cartoon-like approach to violence. He criticised the simplistic nature of the story and characters but recognised that the film was aimed at audiences seeking a Norris-style action spectacle.

Stephen Holden of The New York Times also gave the film an unfavourable assessment. Published the day after its United States theatrical release, Holden's review treated the film as a conventional Norris action vehicle and criticised its formulaic qualities and reliance on the star's established persona.

The contemporary reviews therefore focused primarily on the film's clichéd screenplay, stereotypical characterisation, excessive violence and formulaic approach. Critics nevertheless acknowledged the scale of its action sequences, while Thomas singled out Drago's performance as a particular strength.

Soundtrack

The film's musical score was composed by French composer Frédéric Talgorn and performed by the Orchestre Symphonique d'Europe. In addition, the soundtrack features the song Winds of Change, written by Talgorn and Harriet Schock and performed by Lee Greenwood.

A soundtrack album was released by the German label Alhambra Records in 1993. The album was later included as the second disc of a two-CD expanded soundtrack released by Intrada Records, which presented 76 minutes of previously unreleased material.