Bullet Points: The Demolitionist

The 1980’s is heralded as the “Golden Age of Action Movies” for a number of reasons… one of which is the influence that the action blockbusters of that day had on the movies that followed it.

We’ve talked countless times on Bulletproof Action about Die Hard inspired movies. The Terminator spawned many a movie with an unstoppable cyborg killer. Lethal Weapon made the buddy cop actioner en vogue. So it only makes sense that a truly groundbreaking film like 1987’s RoboCop has a few imitators of its own… like 1995’s The Demolitionist.

• Burne Baby Burne: The movie begins inside the death row cell of Mad Dog Burne (Richard Grieco, Marker) and Little Henry Burne (Randy Vasquez, Acapulco H.E.A.T.)… the brothers are both set to be executed via electric chair shortly and they are choosing to spend what little time they have left on Earth watching a monster movie… something that bothers the priest that was brought in to administer the last rites, who believes they should be using this time to repent and ask for forgiveness. But it is as if the Brothers Burne have no remorse at all for what they’ve done OR they know something the priest doesn’t know… in this case it is actually both. Roland (Tom Savini, From Dusk Till Dawn) a member of Mad Dog’s gang has managed to get inside the prison disguised as a prison guard. Which throws a monkey wrench in the proceedings… the priest and the warden end up in the side by side electric chairs when the switch is flipped and the news media that was there to cover the execution are all gunned down… but it isn’t a total victory for the bad guys as an overzealous Little Henry manages to die in a freak accident.

• Mayoral Revenge: Mad Dog blames Mayor Eleanor Grimbaum (Susan Tyrell, Avenging Angel) for the death or her brother since it was the Mayor’s ban on firearms that landed the Burne brothers in prison… well that and the fact that they used the guns to kill 9 people… but since the Mayor was granted the ability to pardon Mad Dog and Henry and she chose not to, Mad Dog blames her for Henry’s death in his twisted mind… so he sends some of his gang over to city hall to kill Mayor Grimbaum…. but the assassination attempt is thwarted thanks to a call that came in from an undercover cop inside Mad Dog’s organization and the quick thinking of Professor Jack Crowley (Bruce Abbott, Black Scorpion)… well that and the fact that the two assassins chose to pose as window washers in the middle of the night, which was a tad bit suspicious.

• Undercover Girl: Alyssa Lloyd (Nicole Eggert, Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects) was the undercover cop who tipped off the Mayor and it isn’t long before she and her partner/fiance Daniel Dupre (Andras Jones, A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master) thanks to a call Mad Dog receives from his inside man in the mayor’s office, crooked police chief Higgins (Peter Jason, They Live). Mad Dog and his crew force Daniel to play Russian Roulette while a beaten and bloodied Alyssa is forced to watch with a knife against her throat. The result… Daniel shoots himself in the head and Alyssa gets another beating and is left strapped to a fence with a personal note to Mayor Grimbaum attached to her body.
• The Lazarus Project: After saving Mayor Grimbaum from being assassinated, Professor Jack Crowley suddenly finds his ambitious project to create a super soldier to fight crime green lit, after being told there was no money in the budget previously. So Crowley has the funding he needs, but now he needs a subject to transform into his super soldier… and that’s about the time that Alyssa and Daniel are brought to the hospital clinging to life… that’s when Crowley chooses Alyssa based on the fact that she has no relatives and Daniel, her husband to be, will be a vegetable if he survives surgery. So Crowley has the attending physician pronounce Alyssa dead and then Crowley and his team wheel Alyssa out and the Lazarus Project is a go!

• Lady RoboCop: At this point the movie goes into full on “Lady RoboCop” mode, although in this case Alyssa does not have robot parts, the Lazarus Project replaced her blood with a super serum that consists of a synthetic solution of nano cells that can immediately heal her, making her virtually indestructible (as long as she gets regular injections). Alyssa does get a cool suit, a badass motorcycle and an impressive arsenal… plus the moniker “The Demolitionist” by the newsmedia. And The Demolitionist is getting plenty of press as the crime rate in the city drops to an all-time low. But isn’t long before Mad Dog and Higgins hatch a scheme to use Alyssa’s personal animosity towards Mad Dog to take The Demolitionist down and discredit Mayor Grimbaum (in an all important election year no less).
• This Time It’s Personal: When security camera footage “leaks” (thanks Higgins) to the news media of The Demolitionist chasing after Mad Dog instead of assisting a young girl with two bombs in her hands… The Demolitionist and the Lazarus Project are dead in water. But Professor Crowley gives Alyssa one last injection of the super serum… giving Alyssa one last chance to hunt down Mad Dog and get some sweet revenge!

As a Nicole Eggert fan from way back, I was blown away that I had not previously heard of The Demolitionist… but that could be in part to the amount of action content that was flooding the market at the time. I am also not sure how much “word of mouth” buzz the movie was getting either (remember this was well before social media).

But for what it was, I enjoyed The Demolitionist… it was comic book style fun with an appealing protagonist in Eggert and Richard Grieco doing his best to be a nasty slime ball.

I will now do my best to give you some interesting Bonus Bullet Points…

• If You Ever: …wanted to see a Nicole Eggert training montage, then The Demolitionist is the movie for you.
• Familiar Faces: Sarah Douglas (of Superman and Spitfire fame) played the surgeon who has the unfortunate task of trying to save the lives of Alyssa and Daniel following their encounter with Mad Dog and his gang… Heather Langenkamp (of A Nightmare on Elm Street fame) played TV news reporter Christy Carruthers.
• Alpha Male: When Mad Dog returns to his evil lair after getting out of prison, he takes a page directly out of the Manny Fraker playbook from Death Wish 3 as Mad Dog kills the guy he left in charge of the gang while he was away.
• Not My President: There is a reference to President Bono in the movie… which I have to believe was in reference to Sonny Bono, who was a recently elected Congressman for California’s 44th District when the movie was released.