Apparently designed at the high point of Scott Glenn’s bid for action-movie immortality (yes… Scott Glenn), this perfunctorily illustrated one-sheet for a forgotten John Frankenheimer film from the Reagan era is clearly meant to pay tribute to the Right Stuff actor’s seal-smooth biceps and politely hairless armpits, but all I can see is that mushroom cap of dutch-boy shag perched upon the erstwhile samurai swordsman’s head. It’s distracting me greatly from the poster’s other elements, which include:
a) The title. What is the challenge, exactly? Scooter has apparently trained every thought, muscle, and nerve so that he can compete in what appears to be a futuristic garage that emits more shafts of light than the raptor cage in the opening scene of Jurassic Park and is located on a floating cement barge. Is a deathly game show, à la The Running Man, involved, or must he grapple with small-time, dockside crooks?
b) John Sayles cowrote the script—probably in downtime between writing Alligator and The Howling and tossing back juice glasses full of Maker’s Mark.
c) The supporting cast, upon squint-assisted inspection, includes Toshiro Mifune, who I’m guessing is situated in some sort of proto-Pat Morita, wise trainer role, rather than. say, the kindly museum curator or the tough-as-nails Broadway agent. For all we know, it might not be a more embarrassing appearance than his submarine commander cameo in Spielberg’s 1941 just a few years earlier, but it couldn’t possibly make up for not being part of the soon-to-be-a-reality Ran.
d) The tagline, “One American against all odds.” Well, take a look at me now! Stealing Phil Collins’s thunder just a few years before the fact, this shirtless Scott Glenn pin-up suddenly becomes a poor substitute for what we all really want: Jeff Bridges beefcake.
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