None of it really makes sense, but it doesn’t have to—he’s Chuck Norris. That’s all the logic the movie needs.
1986’s The Delta Force was directed by Menahem Golan, one of the co-owners of the Cannon Group, a company that built its reputation by making some of the cheesiest (and most entertaining) action movies of the 1980s. It was co-written by Golan and James Bruner, a frequent collaborator on Chuck Norris vehicles. The movie stars Chuck Norris as Scott McCoy, alongside Lee Marvin (in his final film), Steve James, and Robert Forster as the villain Abdul.
The film is loosely based on the real-life hijacking of TWA Flight 847 in 1985, although I seriously doubt the events in this movie resemble what actually happened in any meaningful way. And this is one of those action movies where you really have to shut your brain off completely if you want to enjoy it, because if you don’t, you’ll probably end up laughing your way through the second half.
What’s interesting, though, is that for the first 70 minutes, it actually plays things pretty straight. It’s almost a tense terrorist thriller. Golan’s direction might be a bit heavy-handed, but he takes the time to differentiate the good guys from the bad guys, and surprisingly, he even develops the hostages. You get little glimpses into their lives and their personalities. You actually start to care about them, which is not something you usually expect from an ‘80s Cannon action flick.
The villains, led by Robert Forster’s Abdul, hijack a plane en route from Cairo to New York and force it to Beirut. Along the way, they separate the passengers, most notably isolating Jewish men from the rest, and the tension builds as the situation escalates. Meanwhile, the Delta Force — an elite counter-terrorism unit — is called in to handle things.
Chuck Norris’s Scott McCoy, who has supposedly resigned from the unit five years prior to the events in the movie, is brought back in (because of course he is), immediately treated like the ultimate badass, and even promoted without much explanation. None of it really makes sense, but it doesn’t have to—he’s Chuck Norris. That’s all the logic the movie needs.
Then, right around the 70-minute mark, things completely shift gears.
What started as a relatively grounded thriller suddenly turns into a full-blown action cheese fest. The terrorists seem to lose all their intelligence, the Delta Force swoops in, and every action movie cliché you can think of gets thrown onto the screen. It’s pure Cannon Films insanity.
And honestly? That’s exactly what people come to a Chuck Norris movie for.
So, as a “serious” film, it’s hard to defend. It’s ridiculous, tonally inconsistent, and completely over-the-top by the end. But as a Chuck Norris action movie? It delivers exactly what it promises: Norris kicking butt, barely speaking, and saving the day in the most overblown way possible.
2.5 out of 5.0 stars
