Line #34 Film/TheDeltaForce


1	[[quoteright:299:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/854d13d4915113ceef4d66b75a44e457.jpg]]
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3	''The Delta Force'' is an action film produced by Creator/TheCannonGroup in 1986 and directed by Menahem Golan.
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5	After a plane is hijacked by terrorists, the Delta Force lead by Col. Alexander (Creator/LeeMarvin [[SwanSong in his final film role]]) and Maj. [=McCoy=] (Creator/ChuckNorris) are deployed to solve the crisis.
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7	The film got two sequels; ''Film/DeltaForce2TheColombianConnection'' in 1990 and ''Delta Force 3: The Killing Game'' in 1991.
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9	----
10	!!This film has the examples of:
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12	* ActionPrologue: The Delta Force retreating after the EpicFail that was [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Eagle_Claw Operation Eagle Claw ]]. Also a DownerBeginning.
13	* AffablyEvil: Captain Abdul Rafai and TheDragon, while both are ruthless and anti-Semitic terrorists who brutalizes the hostages if they rebel or their demands are not met, but only out of fanatical devotion to their cause as freedom fighters (despite moments of hypocrisy) and it's so that they prove a point about how serious they are and not because they really find pleasure in it, both show some EvenEvilHasStandards moments including kindness towards a child hostage, care towards a PregnantHostage, being each a NobleBigot despite their anti-Semitism, releasing the women and children once they land and finally Abdul's VillainRespect towards the purser for being brave. As lowdown dirty they are shown at times, also are shown to perceive their cause as righteous and good as much as America, have loved ones and comrades they are fighting for, are capable of being just as brave as the Delta Force soldiers and that they are not merely just one note villains who do evil things for the sake of evil.
14	* AttackAttackRetreatRetreat: Hundred terrorists charge a schoolhouse thinking their opposition consists only of two Delta Force operators, only to turn tail and run when one operator sets off the explosives that they had planted in the building before the terrorists arrived.
15	* AuthorAppeal: The film was directed and co-written by the Israeli-American Menahem Golan, so the subject of Muslim terrorists targeting Israelis and Jewish Americans obviously had personal significance to him.
16	* BadassCrew: The Delta Force themselves.
17	* BadassInANiceSuit: The terrorists during the first half of the film.
18	* BlandNameProduct: The flight whose hijacking inspired the movie was [=TWA=] Flight 847, the movie's version is ''[=ATW=]'' (for '''A'''merican '''T'''ravel'''w'''ays) Flight 282.
19	* BerserkButton: To the terrorists, Jewish people. TheDragon in particular loses his shit when he learns there are Jew folks in the plane. However, that doesn't stop them from being {{Noble Bigot}}s however in several PetTheDog moments. They don't like Christians, either--which becomes pretty tragic when the Delta Force's contact within Beirut, a Mossad deep-cover agent posing as a priest, gets exposed because his church was searched by the terrorists while he was communicating with his superiors (and thus was caught) for no good reason other than the terrorists' leader getting paranoid about having a Christian so close to his base. One of the hijackers even roughed up Father O'Malley, however, when the IrishPriest got up from his seat to join the Jewish American hostages, TheDragon couldn't pull the trigger despite having him at gunpoint to get him back to his seat as O'Malley ignored his threats, while the leader respects his decision to give himself up to be grouped amongst the Jewish hostages.
20	* BigBad: Captain Abdul Rafai of the New World Revolutionary Organization.
21	* BittersweetEnding: The movie ends in an Israeli airport, with the hostages celebrating their liberation with their families while the Delta Force solemnly carry [[spoiler:Pete's]] body (their only casualty) to the transport plane back home.
22	* BondOneLiner: After shooting a terrorist hiding under a bed, Scott tells him to "sleep tight."
23	* {{Brownface}}: Caucasian American Creator/RobertForster as Lebanese Abdul Rafai.
24	* CatchPhrase: Pete has a fondness is saying "see ya when I see ya" instead of "goodbye" or "over and out". [[spoiler:He says it as his dying words.]]
25	* ColonelBadass: Colonel Nicholas Alexander, the man who gives Major Scott [=McCoy=] his orders.
26	* CoolBike: Scott gets to ride on a dirt bike with dual rocket launchers, machineguns, and rear-facing grenade launchers. Twice.
27	* CurbStompBattle: [=McCoy=]'s [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown final fight with Rafai]] is ''completely'' one-sided.
28	* DeadpanSnarker: Whenever Abdul speaks with an indoor voice, he's this, showing some sarcastic sense of wit when taunting his hostages, in particular the diver hostages whom he addresses them as "heroes."
29	* EnsembleCast: Creator/ChuckNorris, Creator/LeeMarvin, Creator/GeorgeKennedy, Creator/RobertVaughn, Joey Bishop, Creator/MartinBalsam, and Creator/BoSvenson, to name a few.
30	* EvenEvilHasStandards: TheDragon has a PetTheDog moment with a girl who reminds him of [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes his own daughter]] [[NobleBigot even after finding out she and her father are Jewish Americans]], and the terrorists allow the children and female passengers to leave once the plane lands. [[NobleBigot While this happens they find the woman whose ring started them looking for Jews, but allow her to leave with the others]]. Also, not to mention Abdul's VillainRespect for the German stewardess for being brave as he releases her too.
31	* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: The film could be used as an instructional video at said academy.
32	* IrishPriest: Father O'Malley. When terrorists are grouping their captives, he says that he should be grouped with the Jewish hostages, because he considers himself both a Jew and a Christian.
33	* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: Pete uses it on a terrorist commander to find out where they took some of the hostages. It was apparently effective.
34	* JustPlaneWrong: Toward the end of the rescue, a Boeing 707 is shown practically bulletproof in that it takes fire from Kalashnikov rifles as it is taking off only to have the bullets [[BulletSparks apparently glance off its metal skin]]. In real life, such a plane's relatively thin aluminum skin would be perforated and the plane rendered unsafe or unable to fly. There's also the issue of supposedly USAF C-130s having Israeli Air Force numbers (since the C-130s were leased from the Israeli military for the film), but that issue is quite minor and easily overlooked compared to the [[ImmuneToBullets Bulletproof Boeing]].
35	* MajorlyAwesome: Scott [=McCoy=]. No surprise, being played by Creator/ChuckNorris.
36	* MandatoryUnretirement: Scott resigns his commission after Operation Eagle Claw fails, but is reinstated with a promotion for this crisis.
37	* MiddleEasternTerrorists: The New World Revolutionary Organization.
38	* NeverBringAKnifeToAFistFight: Captain Rafai tries to defend himself from [=McCoy=] with pistol, knife and AK-47. [[CurbStompBattle None of them save him.]]
39	* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: [=McCoy=] delivers one to Captain Rafai at the end of the movie.
40	* NobleBigot: The Arab hijackers absolutely hates Jews and even one exclaims the Nazis did not kill enough Jews, but they are at least humane enough to either show some kindness towards a little girl of Jewish American descent who reminds TheDragon of his daughter, releasing one woman whose Hebrew ring that began their Jew hunt from their captivity and TheDragon [[CondescendingCompassion seemingly reassuring a couple of Jewish hostages that despite their anti-semitism, they don't hate them, but their American government which was before]] [[EvilGloating jingoistically gloating]] to drive a truck filled with explosives into the White House.
41	* NobleDemon: The hijackers, they are maybe ruthless terrorists, but not without EvenEvilHasStandards scruples and genuine loyalty to one another and belief in their cause.
42	* OhCrap: Colonel Alexander is debriefing the hostages who have been released, and finds out that the terrorists have received reinforcements during a previous landing. This is just when Delta Force is about to attempt a hostage rescue, and they've just cut off radio communications. Alexander has to drive onto the airfield to stop them, alerting the terrorists to their presence.
43	* PocketRocketLauncher: The Deltas’ motorcycles are heavily armed and include a pair of missiles about the size of a dry marker on their handles. They see use blowing up enemy vehicles in the climactic raid.
44	* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: The Arab hijackers absolutely hates Jews. One of them even pooh-poohs the Holocaust, because it didn't killed ''enough'' Jewish people.
45	* PregnantHostage: An Arab hijacker who swears the Germans didn't kill enough Jews in World War II, pummels a sailor nearly to death with a chair's armrest, swears that he (or one of his allies) will drive a truck full of explosives straight to the White House one day, and flies off the handle when he sees an abandoned ring with Hebrew script on it, [[EvenEvilHasStandards yet orders some hostages to vacate their seats so a pregnant hostage can recline]]. He even has the other hostages give up their pillows for her.
46	* RatedMForManly: The theme music alone and the fact that it stars Chuck Norris and Creator/LeeMarvin is what sells it.
47	* RippedFromTheHeadlines: The plane hijacking is very similar to the TWA Flight 847 incident, which had happened in the previous year. The story's ActionPrologue also happens during the botched Delta operation to save hostages from Iran.
48	* SoundtrackDissonance:
49	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GdxOXSrQH4 "Ya Natir"]] plays on a TV in the background as [=McCoy=] [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown beats the crap out of Abdul]].
50	** The return of the hostages in Israel, where they receive a heroes' welcome from their families, who seem utterly oblivious to the Delta Force operators who ferry Pete's body, their sole fatality in the operation aboard the plane back home.
51	* StormingTheCastle: The Delta Force assault the school the terrorists are using to keep the hostages, freeing them. Shortly after, the terrorists attempt to retake it... [[AttackAttackRetreatRetreat less successfully]].
52	* StuffBlowingUp: Creator/ChuckNorris rides a bike with mounted rocket and grenade launchers in this film... 'Nuff said.
53	* TheSomethingForce: The team in the title.
54	* ThemeMusicPowerUp: Count on Music/AlanSilvestri's theme music to appear whenever the Delta Force are on screen.
55	* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: After the aforementioned NoHoldsBarredBeatdown [=McCoy=] could easily have finished Rafai then and there with his bare hands, or with the assault rifle laying nearby. Instead he goes and gets on his motorcycle, and uses it's dual grenade launchers to blow up not only the terrorist but the car he was sitting in.
56	* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: See "RippedFromTheHeadlines" above. [[http://www.cracked.com/article_20627_6-movies-you-wont-believe-are-based-insane-true-stories.html Some scenes (like the terrorists asking a stewardess to check the passengers' passports to see which ones were Jewish) actually happened]] on the RealLife event. What is pure fiction is the titular Delta Force charging in to kick ass and take names (the hostages were eventually released, after a great many days).
57	* VillainRespect: Abdul commends the German stewardess for being a brave woman as he releases her from his captivity along with the women and children.
58	* WishFulfillment: It's said ''The Delta Force'' is actually two movies, the first part [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory showing what happened when the plane was hijacked]] and the second showing what Americans wish had happened in response.
59	* WouldntHurtAChild: TheDragon is more kind to the little girl on board, [[NobleBigot even if she was of Jewish descent in spite of his fervent anti-Semitism]].
60	* YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters: Captain Abdul Rafai of the New World Revolutionary Organization states his group are freedom fighters rather then terrorists.

Context Film / TheDeltaForce