Bullet Points: Rolling Thunder (1996)

Earlier this month when I reviewed Attack on the Queen, I talked about how Tubi had become a great resource for made for TV movies, especially ones I had never heard of (rumor has it this one didn’t even air on all NBC affiliates) like 1996’s Rolling Thunder…

• Performance Review: Rolling Thunder starts off with a meeting of government and military officials and the topic of discussion is the smart weapons program pitched by Colonel Emerson (Charles Hallahan, The Thing), a program that up to this point has done more harm than good… but Emerson is not going down without a fight. Emerson points out his idea is not at fault, it is the execution of the idea that is. Emerson wants another chance and this time he wants to be the one to recruit the members of the team… the team will be mobile, adaptable, flexible and use non-lethal weapons to deal with a variety of scenarios. When Emerson’s most vocal detractor balks at the concept of non-lethal weapons, specifically the “bean bag gun” that was brought by weapons engineer, Alex Keegan (Yvette Nipar, RoboCop) to the meeting, and then foolishly demands a demonstration, he finds out first hand what kind of power a “bean bag gun” can pack.

• Follow the Leader: Alex Keegan is already on board as the weapons expert/engineer and Emerson has one man in mind to lead the team, former military/current bar owner Jack Rollins (Stephen Shellen, Damned River)… Emerson makes one helluva pitch and wins over the reluctant Jack. One of the most appealing aspects for Jack was he got to pick his strategy and tactics guy specialist the system and communications specialist that he would be commanding. This leads Jack to men he had previously served with… Gray Toussaint (Cress Williams, Black Lightning) and much to Emerson’s chagrin, the eccentric Lewis (Scott Coffey)… Jack is even able to convince Emerson to house their operation above his bar instead of the abandoned missile silo Emerson wanted the team to use in Roswell, New Mexico.
• Here We Go: With the team in place it is time to start training and that means getting accustomed to their modified civilian vehicles, which will allow them to slip into situations undetected… doing some rock climbing… selecting their team name (Rolling Thunder won)… and prepping for their next demonstration! Hold up! Government bullshit incoming.. when the team get to the demonstration they find out that the program has been canceled before they could even prove themselves… well Jack and company aren’t going to take that L, so they find out where their vehicles have been impounded, steal them back and then as luck would have it, a group of bank robbers decided to do what bank robbers do and rob a bank AND blow it up on their way out giving Rolling Thunder some bad guys to catch! Imagine if it was a crime free night… the program and the movie would be over.

• Cell Six: Their unorthodox (and totally illegal) demonstration worked and Rolling Thunder is officially put into action. Their first official mission is going to be a doozy, because Rolling Thunder is tasked with taking down a militia group known as Cell Six run by a former presidential advisor Dr. Ian Galvin (David Proval, The Phantom) and they only have 48 hours to do it. There is an inside man at Cell Six, but the only one who can identify him is his girlfriend and she is in prison, so a convicted felon “joins the team”, there’s a trip to a bar which results in the obligatory bar fight and that’s when things really start falling apart with Jack and Gray being captured by Galvin’s men which has the rest of the team scrambling to find them and complete their mission.

Rolling Thunder was clearly a TV movie that was looking to become a TV series and I think I know why it did not get picked up. There was definitely too much to get to, to simply film a one hour pilot, so the movie route was definitely the way to go… however some things felt rushed, while others seemed dragged out. The movie simply did not effectively use the time allotted to them and the result was a mix of good and bad… there was potential, the whole non-lethal weapons thing was perfect for television since networks didn’t necessarily want a huge body count in prime time, but potential doesn’t always get you the greenlight something Rolling Thunder found out the hard way.

I have allotted some space at the end of this review for some Bonus Bullet Points…

• Familiar Face: Krista Allen played Michelle, a patron at Jack’s bar who was being harassed by some big brute. Jack stepped in to eliminate the problem and Michelle just sort of hung around for the rest of the movie, which got no complaint from me since Krista A;;em is an extremely attractive woman. And I knew I had seen Krista in something before, so I checked her filmography… it could have easily been one of her guest spots on Silk Stalkings, Weird Science or Smallville. But if I am being honest it was probably her work on the Skinemax series, Emmanuelle in Space.
• Rejected Team Names: Rolling Thunder was not the only team name pitched… Future Force, Legion of Dread and the Passive Aggressors were all pitched and rejected.
• Montage Alert: During the team training portion of the movie, a montage is used to get the most bang for the buck. A montage that included black and white still photos.
• The Name Game: Not to be confused with the 1977 movie, Rolling Thunder starring William Devane.