TERMINATION MAN is a 1997 Russian/American co-production filmed entirely on Russian soil, standing in for the Serbia location. This is an ultra low-budget affair masterminded by Roger Corman, and directed by genre specialist Fred Gallo, the man responsible for such films as DRACULA RISING, STARQUEST 2, and DEAD SPACE. TERMINATION MAN features B-movie maverick, Steve Railsback (whose career highlights include LIFEFORCE and THE STUNTMAN), but I have to wonder how an aging Railsback landed the title role of this picture. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall when Railsback’s agent pitched this one to him:

Steve Railsback's Agent:   

 "Hey Steve-O, have I got a role for you in this upcoming Roger Corman production! It’s an action film with an international scope and sci-fi themes! It’s sure to be the next TERMINATOR! In fact, even the name of the film is similar! Not only do you get to play a spy with super powers, you get a free trip to Russia, free catering, and you get to fondle starlet Athena Massey’s breasts!"

Steve Railsback:    

 "I’ll take it! I’ll take it!!!"

A Serbian dictator named Yurdovich (Alexander Ilyin) harvests a new nerve gas, which can penetrate even the most protective anti-chemical warfare suits. He tests out his deadly gas on a battalion of U.S. soldiers. After they all die (protective suits and all), Yurdovich threatens the U.N. Security Council, and promises to release the nerve gas if his demands are not met. The Security Chief (James Farentino of DEAD AND BURIED fame) enlists the aid of top secret government operative, Dylan Pope, who is much more than a mere government flunky. Dylan Pope (Steve Railsback) has been genetically enhanced by the U.S. government for emergency situations. Dylan possesses superior strength and uncanny agility which he puts into the service of his country. The Security Chief assigns Pope a partner in special agent Ted Marks (Eb Lottimer). The two are to go undercover in Serbia and meet up with field operative Delia Shane (Athena Massey). But before they leave for the mission, the Security Chief arms them with the latest micro weaponry (including lasers and smoke bombs) to use when they are under attack.

Dylan and Ted take a boat and meet up with Delia Shane in the Adriatic Sea. When they are ambushed by assassins, it becomes clear that Yurdovich’s men are aware of their mission. After Dylan and his compatriots make short work of the gun-toting attackers, they realize that the top secret nature of the mission has been compromised. Dylan concludes that there is a mole within the organization, and that now no one can be trusted. The trio goes undercover with Dylan and Delia pretending to be a vacationing couple, and Ted (the third wheel) poses as Dylan’s brother. Once they show up in a nearby village looking for clues, they are attacked by more machine-gun toting goons. The trio appear surrounded, but just then a vehicle comes speeding by, and picks the U.S. agents up. The car is driven by a friend of Delia named Natasha (Irina Malysheva), who is fighting for a similar cause. Dylan gets a tip-off on where they can find Yurdovich’s headquarters, and then they go to a remote house to meet an informant. It turns out to be an ambush, and in the ensuing gun fight, Ted disappears and is presumed dead by his comrades (who must move on to complete the mission).

In their haste to escape the forces of Yurdovitch, they are captured by the dictator’s men, and brought before him. Yurdovitch knows of Dylan’s mission and enhanced abilities, and orders his twisted physician, Dr. Chu (Yam Dane) to dissect Dylan. When Yurdovitch is called away to attend a United Nations summit, Dylan escapes Dr. Chu’s needle (and jabs it into his eye to boot), locates Delia, and together they break out of the compound. Dylan and Delia turn their attention back to the mission of locating Yurdovitch’s supply of nerve gas. They head to a well-guarded abandoned church atop a mountain where the chemicals are being stored. As they map out a plan of strategy, Ted surprises them—and informs them that he was only injured in the previous attack, and he is here to assist Dylan and Delia in completing the assignment. Ted offers to scout the church and determine a method of entry. A suspicious Dylan follows him and watches as Ted squeals to Yurdovich’s second-in-command. Ted then returns to Dylan and Delia (not knowing they know the truth about him), and offers them bogus information. Dylan plays along like he trusts Ted and they approach the old church. A small-scale war erupts, with Ted holding his intentions firm by helping Dylan and Delia overpower Yurdovitch’s men. After they locate the room containing the nerve gas, Ted turns on his partner—at gunpoint he forces Dylan inside this cavernous room, and releases the lethal chemicals inside! How will Dylan survive the escaping fumes, and will the secret mission ever be accomplished?

Despite the impressive location shooting and rich cinematography, TERMINATION MAN has some serious flaws in the areas of plotting, characterizations, and editing. Basically, the main inspiration for TERMINATION MAN are the James Bond films. Fred Gallo would have you believe that his film is a topical tale of international intrigue—with a dash of sci-fi thrown in. But in fact, neither Gallo’s script nor the limited budget production ever go anywhere with these ideas. Case in point, are the enhanced abilities exhibited by the lead character, Dylan Pope (I hesitate to call these abilities super powers, since we all know superhero films require a budget). The script never explains the origins of his powers, nor explores their limitations. The script merely implies that he was genetically altered by the government, but this is never validated by the narrative. What really gets me is that Dylan Pope hardly uses his powers at all in the entire movie! He mostly employs the cheesy superspy weapons rather than his own abilities (by the end, we’ve glimpsed maybe 3 sequences where he uses his powers). I know B movie characters rarely exhibit any depth, but the characterizations here are truly absurd. We don’t know anything about Dylan Pope and never learn extent of his abilities. The only thing we know for sure is (like all leading action characters) that Pope is divorced. The lead female character is even more undefined; we never learn anything about Delia Shane, other than she’s got great hooters. Ted Marks, he’s the two-faced traitor that is in every spy film, that’s all we need to know. Surprisingly, the only real character definition at all goes to the villain, Yurdovich (perfectly essayed by Russian actor Alexander Ilyin). We find out about Yurdovitch though his evil behavior, his negotiation skills, and his gaudy choice of clothes and home decor. Though Fred Gallo’s direction is competent at times (by B-film standards, of course), his efforts are undone by the woefully poor editing.

TERMINATION MAN is an action thriller that is plagued by a shoestring budget. As is typical in Corman productions of recent times, the action scenes don’t have any bite, the special effects are ridiculously cheap, and the acting leaves a lot to be desired. For example, a vehicle chase sequence culminates with an army vehicle going off the road and behind a grove of trees, in which we see a cloud of flames burst into the sky. To save money, the filmmakers’ never actually show the vehicle(s) exploding. In another laughable chase scene, the heroes are pursued by two army jeeps driven by Yurdovitch’s soldiers. When one of the jeeps gets hit in the front tire with a bullet, and instead of falling off the cliffside road the chase occurs on, the jeep comes grinding to a halt at the side of the road. Even more pathetic is that the second jeep (that didn’t get hit at all) stops at the side of the road too! These are the worst and cheapest vehicle chases I’ve ever seen (Yurdovitch really knows how to draft winners)! As bad as the boring action scenes, the special effects are even worse. There are about 5 effects scenes in the whole film, so you figure they might at least get that right. Most of the effects involve cartoonish lasers beams, smoke bombs, or weak pyrotechnic effects. A good example of the poor effects execution involves the world smallest bomb, which Dylan holds in his hand like an imaginary spec of dusk. Which brings us to the acting. The star, Steve Railsback, is painfully bad (boy, has his career regressed since THE STUNT MAN). He tries to give his character some boyish charm, but the delivery is coming from the mouth of a 50 something-year-old man. Which renders his entire performance rather useless. Athena Massey is at least a passable B-movie heroine, especially considering the zero characterization she has to work with. The best thing about Massey (in case you haven’t guessed) is her superb breasts, literally the biggest highlight of TERMINATION MAN. The second biggest acting highlight is the performance of James Farentino as Dylan Pope’s stoic superior, the Security Chief.

- Victor Bryant