Line #43 Film/MissingInAction


1	[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/missing_in_action_1984.jpeg]]
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3	From the decade of action films – that is, TheEighties – the ''Missing in Action'' series is a trilogy of action films (one a prequel and the other a sequel [[CanonDiscontinuity of sorts]]), each starring Creator/ChuckNorris in the role of Colonel James Braddock, a [[TheVietnamVet Vietnam veteran]].
4
5	Not to be confused with NeverFoundTheBody, the actual missing-in-action trope.
6
7	----
8	!!Films in the series:
9	* ''Missing in Action'' (1984)
10	* ''Missing in Action 2: The Beginning'' (1985)
11	* ''Braddock: Missing in Action III'' (1988)
12
13	----
14	!!These films provide examples of:
15	[[foldercontrol]]
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17	[[folder:Shared tropes]]
18	* ArtisticLicenseHistory: The series, along with ''Film/RamboFirstBloodPartII'', popularized the myth that American prisoners of war were [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War_POW/MIA_issue deliberately left behind in Vietnam ]], but covered up by both the American and Vietnamese government.
19	* BeardOfEvil: General Trau's aide, the NVA officer who tortures Braddock in MIA 1 and General Quoc in MIA 3.
20	* BigBad: General Trau in MIA 1, Colonel Yin in MIA 2, and General Quoc in MIA 3.
21	* ColonelBadass: Braddock holds this rank, and is indeed a certifiable badass.
22	* DirtyCommunists: The Vietnamese.
23	* DynamicEntry: Braddock does a magnificent case in one of the films, as he flies down from a tree.
24	* EveryHelicopterIsAHuey: So much that even the PAVN and French drug dealers use them. Averted in the third film.
25	* MoreDakka: Especially in the first film, courtesy of Braddock's [=M60=]
26	* RatedMForManly: As any movie with Creator/ChuckNorris in it.
27	* RecycledInSpace: ''Franchise/{{Rambo}}: First Blood Part II'' [-WITH Creator/{{CHUCK NORRIS}}!-]
28	* ShellShockedVeteran: Braddock.
29	%%* StuffBlowingUp
30	* TitleDrop: Several times in MIA 1 and 2.
31	[[/folder]]
32
33	[[folder:''Missing in Action'']]
34	* ActionPrologue: The film begins with a DreamSequence where Braddock relives his experiences in Vietnam.
35	* AffablyEvil: Trau is spiteful towards Braddock and is intentionally covering up the existence of America [=POWs=], but he is unfailingly courteous to the other diplomats that come with Braddock to Vietnam.
36	* BlatantLies: General Trau declaring there were no American [=POWs=] left in Vietnam. If he were telling the truth, there would be no film.
37	* DiscOneFinalBoss: [[spoiler:General Trau was killed 35 minutes into the film. From then on he is replaced by an unnamed general]].
38	* FanserviceWithASmile: Braddock hooks up with an old army buddy in Thailand, leading to plenty of gratuituous fanservice involving totally naked bar girls. One notable scene has Braddock talking to a bartender; as he walks offscreen a beautiful naked Thai girl is placed on the bar for no apparent reason (security for a bar tab?).
39	* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: "The answer you give me will decide whether you live... or die".
40	* JumpingOnAGrenade: Braddock is so badass he jumps ''holding'' a couple of grenades, surviving the subsequent explosion without loss of limbs.
41	** Note: It was just a nightmare Braddock had, not an actual event.
42	* RippedFromTheHeadlines: The premise of the film, as with the film it ripped off (''Film/RamboFirstBloodPartII''), was inspired by a conspiracy theory - widely believed in the 1980s - that there were many American soldiers from the Vietnam War who were still being kept prisoner and tortured by the Vietnamese. After several Congressional investigations into the matter in the decades since, it's now generally believed to be a myth.
43	* NeverFoundTheBody: The [=POWs=] who were declared [[TitleDrop MIA]].
44	* NonActionBigBad: General Trau is the only villain in the series who doesn't fight Braddock.
45	* ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: [[spoiler: Gen. Trau]] dies when Braddock lands his knife into his stomach.
46	* YouShallNotPass: [[spoiler:Tuck]] takes over the gunboat when its previous owner was killed by a patrol boat. [[spoiler:The outcome is exactly as one might expect]].
47	[[/folder]]
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49	[[folder:''Missing in Action 2: The Beginning'']]
50	* AndThisIsFor: Happens at the end in which Braddock puts the beatdown on Colonel Yin for killing Nester (with a slight [[NeckSnap neck snap]]) and Franklin (belly punch and grabbing his stomach). And finally finishes him off by detonating a bomb in the cabin, blowing him up. "And this is for me."
51	* AllAsiansKnowMartialArts: Colonel Yin.
52	* BavarianFireDrill: An Australian spy sent to take photographic proof of the presence of [=POWs=] in Vietnam bluffs about being a pointman of a major rescue operation. [[spoiler:Subverted, as it ultimately fails]].
53	* BlackDudeDiesFirst: [[spoiler:Of Braddock's squad, only Franklin and Nester die. Both are black.]]
54	* BodyguardBetrayal: [[spoiler:Happens to Francois in MIA 2. He is killed by Yin so the latter could take over the former's cartel]].
55	-->'''[[spoiler:Yin]]''': [[spoiler:They needed a new leader after they heard that you had died]].
56	* TheDragon: Dou Chou, the skinny moustache wearing guard.
57	* FauxAffablyEvil: Col. Yin always refers to Braddock by his rank and speaks to him in a courteous manner, but it's clear he enjoys tormenting Braddock and his fellow [=POWs=].
58	* FrenchJerk: François.
59	* GiantMook: One of the guards is played by Prof. Toru Tanaka, so obviously he's huge.
60	* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: [[spoiler:Dou Chou meets his end when Mazilli sticks a makeshift bamboo spear through his guts.]]
61	* KickTheDog: Col. Yin and his men spend the whole movie doing this, until TheDogBitesBack hard at the end.
62	* LoopholeAbuse: Braddock's first lines of dialogue to Yin is telling him the Geneva Convention forbids having [=POWs=] after a war has ended. Yin's response? They're not [=POWs=], but war criminals. He spends a good portion of the movie trying to coerce Braddock to sign a false confession in order to give his abuses a veneer of legality.
63	* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: Said almost verbatim by one of Braddock's men after Yin's cabin is decimated by a pair of grenades. Soon after they leave, Yin emerges unscathed from a trapdoor in the floor. Subverted however, both because they see a body part they believe to be Yin's... and because Braddock stays behind to make sure he's dead.
64	* {{Prequel}}: This film is about Braddock's time as a POW before the events of the first Missing In Action movie.
65	* TheQuisling: Nester. [[spoiler:He pulls a HeelFaceTurn at the end.]]
66	* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler:When Mazilli is recaptured, Nester, who had been kissing [[BigBad Col. Yin]]'s butt the whole movie, looks like he's about to execute him. He instead shoots the guards holding Mazilli, and gets killed in response]].
67	* WeAreStrugglingTogether: Despite working together, it's clear that both Colonel Yin and François doesn't get along well. [[spoiler:This ultimately ends with the latter getting killed by the former]].
68	* YouNoTakeCandle: Dou Chou.
69	[[/folder]]
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71	[[folder:''Braddock: Missing in Action III'']]
72	* ArtifactTitle: Despite this film being called Missing In Action, there are no [=POWs=]. In fact, this film pretty much [[CanonDiscontinuity seems to ignore the previous two MIA films]], since Braddock couldn't possibly have witnessed the Fall of Saigon if he was being held prisoner by the NVA.
73	* AttemptedRape: A Viet Cong soldier tries to rape one of the orphan girls held hostage. Since RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil, Braddock dispatches him [[https://youtu.be/BeCYDTzpGjw in the most awesome way possible]].
74	* BadassBoast:
75	-->'''Braddock''': I don't step on toes, Littlejohn. I step on ''necks''.
76	* {{BFG}}: When assaulting the base where the orphaned children ([[AndYourLittleDogToo and his son]]) are being held hostage, Braddock carries with him a H&K [=G3A4=] assault rifle with a ''rotary six-shot underslung grenade launcher''. It even has a retractable bayonet!
77	* BigNo: Braddock and Van [[spoiler: when General Quoc guns down Lin]] and during their ColdBloodedTorture.
78	* ColdBloodedTorture: Gen. Quoc inflicts this on Braddock and his son.
79	* CrapsackWorld: As seen in the film's prologue, Saigon during the Fall wasn't the happiest of places.
80	* DamselInDistress: Braddock's wife, Lin.
81	* DisappearedDad: Braddock was this to his son until his return to Vietnam.
82	* EstablishingCharacterMoment: When General Quoc first appears, he [[spoiler: guns down Lin in cold blood]] and later [[ColdBloodedTorture tortures Braddock and his son]]. [[FromBadToWorse He gets worse from there]].
83	* EvilLaugh: General Quoc, during his ColdBloodedTorture of Braddock and his son.
84	* GeneralRipper: General Quoc.
85	* HellishCopter: You know [[spoiler:Gen. Quoc]] is doomed when he decides to give Braddock and the orphans chase in an attack chopper.
86	* KickTheDog: General Quoc, [[RuleOfThree again]]. He takes Reverend Polaski's mission hostage in an attempt to trap Braddock.
87	* JustPlaneWrong: The Hind gunship used by Quoc is actually a Sikorsky S-62 that was never used by the PAVN. The American gunship in the movie is also a Sikorsky S-76A instead of an Apache or a Cobra.
88	* TheLostLenore: [[ZigZaggedTrope Zig Zagged]]. Braddock had a wife in Vietnam, whom he thought died during the Fall. She turns out to be alive, prompting Braddock to return to Vietnam to see her again. [[spoiler:Then Gen. Quoc murders her in cold blood, fulfilling this trope.]]
89	* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Littlejohn, who tried to persuade Braddock from travelling to Vietnam, leading to the BadassBoast above.
90	* RecycledSoundtrack: While Jay Chattaway did write an original score for this one, the movie also reused music composed for previous Cannon productions[[note]]a regular occurrence at the company[[/note]] (including Chattaway's scores for the first movie and ''Film/InvasionUSA1985'').
91	* SeriesContinuityError: Braddock managed to witness the fall of Saigon while being imprisoned.
92	** Also, he has a Vietnamese wife he thought dead during the Fall. In MIA 2, it's mentioned Braddock has a wife, but she's not only NOT presumed dead, it's implied she lives in America and Colonel Yin, in one of his numerous KickTheDog moments, told Braddock she was about to remarry.
93	* SoundtrackDissonance: Averted. Ron Bloom's song, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xev6tAxc7w Freedom Again]]," is used appropriately.
94	* VocalDissonance: During the final battle, Van's voice changes from a little boy to that of a teenager when he yells "DADDY!" when running to Braddock.
95	[[/folder]]
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Context Film / MissingInAction