Defense Play

Like most 1980s action/suspense movies, "Defense Play" is standard issue in nature: the bad guys are Russians, the good guys are average Americans (living in a California style backdrop) who love racing their cars and playing rock & roll. In good 80s fashion, the plot revolves around a secret weapon which cannot fall into enemy hands.

In the Reagan-esque "Defense Play" storyline, we see the United States Air Force attempting to launch a top secret satellite into orbit (on a Saturn V rocket of all things). To foil the US satellite launch, the KGB plans to steal a top-secret, remotely piloted stealth helicopter (codenamed 'DART') being produced at a local university. Because DART is so small, it cannot be easily detected, and therefore would be optimal for use in attacking the well defended USAF Saturn V at Vandenburg AFB.

The hero and heroine of "Defense Play" are your classic all-American teenagers who get 'tangled' in the nefarious plot and decide to take down the bad guys.

All in all, "Defense Play" is a good, half-decent low budget film which might appeal particularly to the teens, and follows in the fashion and style of such 80s films as Iron Eagle, My Science Project, Real Genius, The Rescue, and many others. It serves as a good flashback to the days when low budget producers didn't have an F-117 (and tons of F-117 stock footage) to make as the centerpiece of all the action (the official 'blow up plane' of the 80s was desert camoflauged F-16s).

"Defense Play" is an obscure film, but well worth watching if you just want to kick back and have a few laughs.