American Ninja Film

American Ninja is a 1985 ninja action film produced by Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus’s Cannon Films. Directed by Sam Firstenberg, who specialized in this genre in the 1980s, the film stars Michael Dudikoff in the title role, with Steve James as his side-kick. Domestic box office grosses for the picture totaled $10,499,694

Pvt. Joe Armstrong (Michael Dudikoff), an orphaned 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 and try to kidnap Patricia (Judie Aronson), the base colonel’s daughter, who happens to be along for the ride. Joe rescues Patricia and defeats all the rebels, but the ninjas suddenly arrive and kill everyone in the platoon. Joe escapes with Patricia and gets her safely back to the base, but everyone else in the platoon is killed. When he arrives back on base, Joe is yelled at by the Col. William Hickock (Guich Koock) and Master Sergeant Rinaldo (John LaMotta) for disobeying a direct order. This leads his superiors to conclude that Joe is guilty of cowardice, collaboration or simple incompetence. Even his fellow army soldiers want nothing to do with him, asking if the price of one girl was worth the lives of four fellow soldiers. At the same time, the rebel leader of the Black Star Ninja army (Tadashi Yamashita) vows revenge against the serviceman who disrupted his plans, and is ordered by a businessman named Victor Ortega (Don Stewart) to eliminate the “American Ninja” Joe Armstrong. While performing his daily chores, Cpl. Curtis Jackson (Steve James) antagonizes Joe and challenges him to a match. Joe easily wins, showing off his ninjutsu skills and impresses Jackson, earning the respect of the others as well.