Eastern Condors is a 1987 Hong Kong action film directed by Sammo Hung, who also starred in the lead role. The film co-stars Yuen Biao, Joyce Godenzi, Yuen Wah, Lam Ching-ying, Yuen Woo-Ping, Max Mok, Corey Yuen and Billy Chow.
Lieutenant Colonel Lam is an American army officer given a top-secret mission by the US military. The mission entails entering Vietnam to destroy an old American bunker filled with missiles before the Viet Cong can get to them. Due to the dangerous nature of the mission, a group of Chinese American soldier convicts are selected to accompany him, led by Tung Ming-sun. Survivors are promised a pardon, U.S. citizenship and $200,000 each. After a brief training session they are dropped into Vietnam. During the jump, Lam learns too late that the mission has been aborted.
Once in enemy territory, they are met by some Cambodian guerrillas led by Godenzi and take refuge in a small town. There they meet Weasel (aka Chieh Man-yeh), and his mentally ill "Uncle", Yeung. Later, the squad is captured and incarcerated in a POW camp, where the prisoners are forced to play Russian roulette in a similar manner to the film The Deer Hunter. After escaping, they discover that one of the Cambodian guerrillas is a traitor. With the Vietnamese military in pursuit, they are able to reach the bunker, where a final showdown with the (giggling) Vietnamese general occurs.
Tropes in Eastern Condors:
- Artistic License – History: The film is set in 1987, yet the protagonists are fighting the Viet Cong, which ceased to be an effective fighting force by the end of the Tet Offensive in 1968 and was dissolved when North and South Vietnam reunified.
- Boxed Crook: The members of the squad are all recruited from an Army prison and promised a pardon, U.S. citizenship, and $200,000.
- Couldn't Find a Lighter: Before making his Last Stand, Ciggy lights his final cigarette by pressing it against the hot barrel of a .50 cal machine gun.
- Decoy Convoy: Two planes are sent on the mission. One contains a squad of Boxed Crooks who are supposed to parachute in and be a diversion, causing the Vietnamese army to run around chasing them. The second plane contains an elite special ops unit who will parachute in and destroy the bunker. However, the second plane is shot down, leaving the Ragtag Bunch of Misfits to attempt to achieve the original mission.
- Hey, Catch!: Yuen Biao faces off against an Elite Mook in a jungle, where he distracts said mook by kicking a coconut at him, and when the mook catches the coconut, Yuen Biao lands a flying kick that knocks out the mook.
- La Résistance: Tung Ming-sum and The Squad join up with a band of Cambodian guerillas who are fighting the Vietnamese army. The two groups combine forces to complete the mission of locating and destroying the bunker.
- Machete Mayhem: Tung Ming-sun wields a machete as one of his weapons and does so with brutal efficiency. When they attack the arms depot, he leaps out of the truck and decapitates a Vietnamese soldier with a single blow.
- Men of Sherwood: The commando squad accompanying Tung, who can kick ass on their own and take down large numbers of enemies while fighting alongside their leader.
- The Mole: One of the Cambodian guerillas aiding the squad is secretly working for the Viet Cong and betrays the team to the Vietmanese army.
- More Dakka: The bridge assault oozes with this trope. You have Yuen Biao and Joyce Godenzi picking up mounted heavy machine-guns against enemy troops, then you have Sammo Hung using a 50 cal Browning to effortlessly mow down dozens of enemies in seconds.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: Yuen Wah's character at first seems like a comic relief villain (mostly due to his weird laugh) but turns out to be an incredibly intense martial artist at the end of the movie.
- Off with His Head!: At least one one Vietnamese soldier has his head cut off (and several others lose limbs) when Sammo Hung unleashes his Machete Mayhem.
- One Last Smoke: As the mortally wounded Ciggy stages his You Shall Not Pass! Last Stand at the bridge, he lights his last cigarette from the overheated barrel of the machine gun as he waits for the enemy's final charge.
- Pin-Pulling Teeth: Tung Ming-sun does this: dropping into the back of an army truck with two grenades in his hands, then pulling both pins out with his teeth and using them to hold the soldiers in the back of the truck hostage.
- POW Camp: The squad is captured by the Vietnamese and incarcerated in a POW camp where they are forced to play Russian Roulette.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The squad commanded by Tung Ming-sun is a group of criminals, losers, misfits, and psychos recruited from a military prison. They wind up behind enemy lines with no back-up and an impossible mission to complete.
- Recycled In Space: It's The Dirty Dozen in The Vietnam War! With added martial arts!
- Redshirt Army: the squad of Boxed Crooks commanded by Sammo Hung were supposed to act as a distraction while an elite special ops unit went into to destroy the weapons stockpile. However, the plane carrying the special ops troops is shot down before it reaches the drop zone, leaving Sammo and his team to attempt the main mission.
- Russian Roulette: While imprisoned in the POW Camp, the squad are forced to play Russian roulette by their captors.
- Sissy Villain: The Vietnamese Giggling General comes across as quite effeminate, due primarily to his peculiar laugh, but is an incredibly ferocious martial artist.
- The Squad: Over the course of the film, the Boxed Crooks gradually transform from being a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits into The Squad.
- Surprisingly Elite Cannon Fodder: What The Squad of Boxed Crooks, and especially their commander Tung Ming-sun, turn out to be. Originally sent in as a disposable distraction to cover a special ops raid, the squad are Trapped Behind Enemy Lines with little in the way of equipment when the special ops team is destroyed. With no other means of extraction, the team takes on the mission the special ops team was supposed to undertake and succeeds, although not without casualties.
- Trapped Behind Enemy Lines: A squad of Boxed Crooks is dropped behind enemy lines in Vietnam to provide a distraction while an elite special ops team infiltrates and destroys a weapons cache. However, the plane carrying the special ops team is shot down: a fact the Condors don't learn until after they jumped. Now their only hope for extraction is to complete the original mission.
- Underside Ride: Two of the team cling to the underside of the army truck, dropping off as it reaches the bridge to take out the machine gun nest.
- World of Action Girls: Joyce Godenzi plays the leader of the Cambodian guerrillas who escorts the squad to their target, and racks a up a body count equal to any of the men. There are several other women in the guerillas and they are not far behind her.
- You Shall Not Pass!: After the squad has managed to cross the heavily defended bridge into the compound, the mortally-wounded Ciggy takes over the enemy machine gun nest and uses it to hold off the approaching soldiers for as long as he can.
- Your Head A-Splode: During one of the fight scenes, a Vietnamese soldier has a live grenade shoved into his mouth and the pin pulled: with predictable results.
