Falcon Rising is a 2014 American direct-to-DVD action film directed by Ernie Barbarash (Cube Zero). The film stars Michael Jai White, Neal McDonough, Jimmy Navarro, Lateef Crowder and Laila Ali.
John "Falcon" Chapman (White) is a former Marine driven by guilt and suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, who will destroy himself unless given something else to destroy - a useful weapon-of-last-resort for the U.S. State Department. When Chapman's sister (Ali) is brutally attacked while on assignment in Brazil, Chapman flies into Sao Paulo to track down her assailants, quickly entering the city's seedy underbelly and discovering a world of drugs, the sex trade, corrupt cops, and organized crime syndicates battling for control.
This movie contains examples of:
- And the Adventure Continues: The film ends with Chapman being hired as a black ops government operative with Ridley as his handler.
- Big Bad: Hiromoto, the Yakuza mobster.
- Combat by Champion: Detective Santo offers this to the gun traffickers between his partner (Detective Bororo) and their best fighter for a chance to avoid jail and further police raids. Which leads to....
- Curbstomp Battle: Bororo pulls this on one of the gun traffickers.
- Death Seeker: At the start of the film John is suicidal, both considering using a gun on himself and interrupting a liquor store robbery by taunting one of the robbers to shoot him.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Thiago Santo claims that he didn't attack Cindy despite being a dirty cop.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: Santo is the only person in the final fight who utilizes no martial arts whatsoever. And for the most part, he doesn't need them.
- Improvised Weapon: In the end fight with the katana-wielding Hirimoto, Chapman utilizes a pair of pipes as tonfas against him.
- I Never Said It Was Poison: After being asked to surrender a briefcase that was liberated from a smuggler, Chapman discovers that Santo is dirty when he realizes a few moments later that the smuggler's name was spoken, although he never revealed where the briefcase came from.
- Katanas Are Just Better: As befitting of an action-movie Yakuza, Hirimoto uses one in his fight with Chapman.
- Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: Cindy's brutal beating → An underage prostitution racket run by the Yakuza.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Chapman goes on one against the Yakuza for attacking and almost killing his sister.
- Tattooed Crook: The Yakuza hitmen are these.
- Yakuza: These guys comprise the main bad guys Chapman takes on in the film, who kidnap young girls from the favelas and sell them into prostitution.
- You Have Failed Me: Hirimoto pulls this on the smuggler Chapman beats up and steals the fake shipping manifests from.
