Original Italian title New York chiama Superdrago (New York Calls Superdragon)
Super Dragon is a low-rent James Bond who, despite being retired, is called back into action when a colleague is killed. The case the colleague was working centers around a mysterious new drug which has been turning the student body of a small college town into a mindless mob; and the investigation leads Super Dragon on a trail of intrigue to Holland, several nice apartments, a charity art auction, a Ming vase smuggling ring, and tainted chewing gum (seriously) with which the bad guys plan to Take Over the World (seriously!). Along the way, Super Dragon will need the help of ever-loyal Agent Fulton, ex-con and Gadgeteer Genius Babyface, smokin' Agent Rembrandt 13, an "attractive for her age" hotel proprietor, and all his wits.
For the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version, please go to the episode recap page.
This film provides examples of:
- 10-Minute Retirement: Super Dragon, aka Brian Cooper, has retired happily at the beginning of the movie. It doesn't last.
- Always Murder: The agent working the case prior to Super Dragon had an automobile accident. Super Dragon is suspicious from the outset.
- Bigger Is Better in Bed: Averted strongly by Super Dragon.
- Bulletproof Vest: Provided by Babyface; incorporates (somehow) a pistol. The vest saves Super Dragon from a knife to the back at one point.
- Bumbling Sidekick: Babyface.
- The Charmer: It's what they were going for with Super Dragon, but...
- Chekhov's Gun: Befitting his status as a "White Trash Q", Babyface creates a few gadgets for the mission in Holland: communicator watches, a Bulletproof Vest, and a suit button. We learn what that last one does only at the end of the film.
- Chekhov's Skill: Super Dragon's meditation stance, seen in the first scene of the film, is how he escapes a Death Trap toward the end.
- Comm Links: Babyface builds a couple of Dick Tracy-esque wristwatches for himself and Super Dragon. It's unknown if they contain actual radios or just an SOS beacon; but Super Dragon uses it twice — once to warn Babyface off from stealing a priceless coin display, and again to warn him off from drinking drugged wine.
- Cyanide Pill: The Big Bad takes one at the end just so Super Dragon can't get the secret of Anti-Synchron out of him; Super Dragon just lets him know that he'd photographed the formula already.
- Death Trap:
- One mook garrottes Super Dragon and ties him to a machine rail, so that said machine's grinding wheel will crush his skull if he can't escape.
- Later Super Dragon is sealed in a coffin and dumped in the sea. His Chekhov's Skill saves him, and some balloons in his pockets allows the coffin to float so that Babyface can break him out.
- Dye Hard: In-Universe. Agent Fulton cattily makes this accusation about Rembrandt 13's vivid red hair. Even Super Dragon comments on it.
- Electric Torture: "Have you ever taken a bath in... electricity?" The bad guys try torturing Agent Fulton this way (after stripping her down to a teddy) before Super Dragon saves her. The two proceed to torture the surviving evil lab technician the same way to find out where the Big Bad fled.
- Exalted Torturer: See Electric Torture.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Babyface.
- Heel–Face Turn: Rembrandt 13 isn't much of a heel to begin with, since she's only working for the villains by force. She ultimately betrays her masters to save Super Dragon at a critical moment. Unfortunately for her Redemption Equals Death...
- Informed Ability: Babyface doesn't look especially young, making this an Ironic Nickname.
- It's Personal: Implied; Super Dragon takes the case only after the previous agent dies under 'questionable' circumstances.
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Involving drugged chewing gum, making the scene a little bit goofy.Super Dragon: (Shows Ross, the bowling alley owner, part of his "special" gum stash.) "Now, uh, what's this?"
Ross: "Nothing! It's just a... different brand, that's all!" (Super Dragon backhands him) - Jerkass: Super Dragon.note
- Left the Background Music On: The seductive jazz number playing when Super Dragon and Rembrandt 13 are about to kiss comes to a sudden, distorted halt as the power goes off in their hotel room.
- MacGuffin: The drug "Synchron-2". More accurately, its antidote, aptly called "Anti-Synchron".
- Missing Steps Plan: Synchron-2 will make people go batshit crazy — and from there, the villains will rule the world, somehow. One might surmise that, since Synchron-2 is untraceable and its antidote known only to a select few, the villains might attempt to drug the world's populace and barter for the antidote, but it's never made clear what exactly their overall strategy is.
- The Mole: Charity Farrell, aka Rembrandt 13.
- The Omniscient Council of Vagueness: the "Society Of Guys Who Can Make A W"Big Bad: Whenever we choose to use [Synchron-2], then victory will be ours!
- Our Doors Are Different: The gauntlet of security at the "Plastifa(ce)" office, which triggers flashbacks to both Get Smart and airport security...
- Out-Gambitted: After all his other plans have been foiled, the villain bargains with Super Dragon: the formula for Anti-Synchron (and a sample), in exchange for a chance to escape. Unfortunately for Super Dragon, the sample becomes chemically neutral (and thus useless) when in direct sunlight, and the formula is written in disappearing ink; oh, and he's locked in the building with the Self-Destruct Mechanism activated. Super Dragon (who was clearly anticipating a double-cross) escapes, catches up with the villain and informs him he used his last Chekhov's Gun (the suit button) to photograph the formula before it vanished.
- Poison and Cure Gambit: This is how the Big Bad controls Rembrandt 13: By poisoning them with Synchron-2, and holding the antidote over their head.
- Redemption Equals Death: Rembrandt 13, who is already an unwilling pawn thanks to a Poison and Cure Gambit, turns on her master's at the end of the film and saves Super Dragon from another Mook. However in the ensuing fight to rescue Agent Fulton she's accidentally shot while Super Dragon and the resident Torture Technician are fighting over a gun.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: A xylophone (!!) announces the start of a fight scene.
- Television Geography: With regards to Fremont, Michigan; while they avoid exterior shots when Cooper is in town, the real Fremont isn't a college town as the film describes (it's actually the hometown of Gerber Products Company
, best known for baby food and life insurance). Plus, the previous agent is described as having driven off a canyon road; there are no canyons anywhere near Fremont.
