User reviews

Originally, "Warhead" was a television movie called "Prisoner in the Middle" (1974). It was somehow released in some theaters in 1977 as "Warhead".

When the movie began, I could quickly tell it was a movie made on the cheap. For example, a CIA operative (David Janssen) is about to parachute into the desert...and they cut away and suddenly he's on the ground gathering up his parachute. Moments later, a school bus is attacked in the desert...and they show they about to attack and then it cuts to the bus suddenly lying on its side...having been blasted. But you see no blast....it's as if the warning "Scene missing here" should be emblazoned across the screen!

The plot involves Palestinians, Israeli soldiers and a lone CIA operative (Janssen) all scrambling to retrieve a lost US Air Force nuke accidentally dropped in the Jordanian desert(???). Why the USA would only send one guy is confusing, that's for sure! The nuke ends up changing hands repeatedly.

So is it any good? Not really. The acting is passable but the film itself lacks energy and interesting characters...and a decent budget. Overall, it just really looks cheap...incredibly cheap! And, it is also not especially entertaining...which is odd considering the subject matter.

This is a film about the nearest, knowledgeable nuclear warhead expert (Janssen), on vacation in the Middle East, where such a bomb is accidentally parachuted. It doesn't detonate when it lands in the Syrian desert, slightly north of the border with Israel. Janssen is procured to deactivate it. A radical Arab group interrupts Janssen's mission and claims the weapon as theirs. But a force in pursuit of the Arabs adds further intrigue to the mix. Has Janssen been rescued or simply captured by another faction? Initially he's regarded suspiciously by the Arab-hunters. But, eventually, the contingent's leader - dying from wounds - declares that Janssen shall be his successor. With nothing great - but nothing really bad, either - the vote of 5 seemed appropriate for this.

Workhorse David Janssen and talented veteran Karin Dor couldn't save this poorly directed and over-scripted B- movie. This was John O'Connor's first and last directorial effort, and was made after a 24 year hiatus from a largely uncredited acting career in B movies of the '40s and '50s. The film introduces cheese in the very first shot - a long pan across some portion of Jerusalem, with teleprompter type running across the bottom of the screen. The teleprompter tells us that an experimental nuclear missile prototype has been lost somewhere in the Jordanian desert. Next, we learn that a despicable terrorist has the missile and has used it to destroy a school bus full of children accompanied by an Israeli army officer (Dor). Following the destruction of the school bus, there is a lengthy, gratuitous shot of dead kids disbursed around the burning bus, mixed with flashbacks of the kids singing on the bus a few moments ago.

6/24/07: Fell asleep less than ten minutes into the film.

Dor is then attached to a military attempt to ferret out the terrorist and the CIA reaches out to munitions expert Janssen, on vacation in Israel, to locate, disarm the missile, and destroy the detonator. The Dodge Valiant-driving CIA agent who brings Janssen into the story has a monotone delivery straight out of B noir and the dialog between him and Jannsen is totally absurd.

6/25/07: Fell asleep.

There is very little to spoil, but I won't bother with the rest of the plot. Suffice to say that Janssen gets played like a ping-pong-ball bouncing from one Middle Eastern Stereotype to another while he tries to accomplish his mission. I finally got through Warhead by starting a little earlier, and still managed to doze off 2 or 3 times during the gun fights and other action scenes. Incidentally, the sound effects also deserve special mention for their profound mediocrity.

The film does not even succeed as a propaganda piece. All of the characters are stereotypes of one kind or another, and only Dor's character really warrants any sympathy. Janssen, an intense and very sensitive actor, really did not give this his best effort, and the pervasive misdirection offered him little help.

6/26/07: Stayed awake (for the most part), but slept like a baby afterward.

Not recommended.

While testing a new nuclear device, the Americans lose it accidentally in the Syrian desert, just across the Israeli border. No idea why the test didn't take place in let's say the Mojave dessert or in New Mexico... But hey, let's not be too critical before the third minute of this movie has begun. At the same time, an Arab terrorist group led by a Frank Zappa lookalike attacks an Israeli school bus transporting sweet, happily singing Jewish kids. Only a female armed guard will survive the vicious attack. Later, she will identify the leader of this treacherous act. The angry Israelis decide to send -once again- a vengeance team across the border with Syria, to deal with Zappa and his hot rats.

Meanwhile in the Pentagon ! Every reasonable person would think the US would be rather upset by having lost their latest lovely little nuke, in a Syrian desert of all places ! So, the logical thing to do would be to send an Airborne Division backed up by the Navy Seals stacked in some heavily armed transport helicopters, to secure the safe return of the lost nuke, right ? Well, actually no… The Americans just happen to have a nuclear weapons specialist on holiday in Israel, in the "dynamic" shape of David Janssen taratata...

Now, I see David clearly has many fans here on IMDb, maybe because of his more entertaining "Fugitive" legacy. So I already know I won't make myself popular by making fun of him. But frankly, in this movie his dynamism is comparable to that of a koala with a tommy ache. And when it comes to charisma, think in terms of let's say a rusty water tap. Believe it or not, in Warhead, he's even worse than in the extremely boring 'Swiss Conspiracy' of 1978. Anyway, Washington sends Dynamic David ('DD') by parachute and equipped with a do-it-yourself instruction booklet on how to defuse N-weapon into Syrian territory. Sleep tight, little children !

Now, you don't have to be a BBC World Service reporter to know that the Syrians keep a rather VERY close eye on their border with Israel since the Yom Kippur war. So, maybe DD's aircraft already had some stealthy characteristics, as Koala Man lands without causing alarm bells to go off in Damascus. Other possibilities are the stupid Syrians were all asleep during his landing, or he was dropped in Israel and strong desert winds blew him over the border ? Anyway...Fortunately enough for the Syrians, child killer Zappa and his bunch of rats aren't sleeping... Imagine their surprise when they discovers super-DD in his bomber jacket in the middle of the desert, leaning over a cigar shaped thing with a funky flashing red taillight... No wonder they're getting "slightly curious" about what he's up to. Wouldn't you be ? Now, DD isn't happy at all with this undisciplined bunch of Arabds standing around him. How can he be concentrating on his difficult disarmament task, if they're noisier than young teenagers in a museum of Roman art ??? He's even showing some degree of irritation, when they want to take away the metal cigar, paid for by US taxpayers. But well, since there are 20 of 'them' and only one DD, he's soon convinced that giving up this US property might be a wise thing to do. Especially since he definitely intended to play in "Swiss Conspiracy" the next year, just to irritate this reviewer...

After this extremely thrilling and clever humhum action, the filmmakers decided some funny interlude would counterbalance the serious first part of this movie. So, prepare yourself for a very didactic humhum portrait of Arabs. They are more or less portrayed in the same way as Jews were in Goebbels' sponsored films: very stupid, extremely ugly, in a word, as quite an insult to humanity. Enjoy the scenes in which these nasty child killers are trying to push the handsome little US nuke on the back of their truck. Even super-zen DD starts to get slightly uneasy about so much clumsiness, as the nuke isn't completely shock-free. Fortunately enough, marauding Israeli Defense Forces in search of autographs of Zappa all of a sudden appear. And just like in Entebbe, they efficiently make mashed potatoes out of that bunch of clumsy Arabs in a matter of minutes.

After the last ones have fled away with their tail between the legs, the smoke on the battlefield starts to clear. High time to have a closer look at that IDF elite unit. OK, I'll concede that one could hardly expect the Israeli team to look like a well disciplined SS unit. For a start, that would be politically slightly incorrect. But really, was it absolutely necessary to come up with a mixture of "Up with people 1977" and "Barnum's Greatest Show on Earth" ? Because, believe it or not: you're in for a sniff of wigs, a slice of the most stupid looking spectacles, and a pinch of extremely "clever" hum-hum jokes about Arabs. Furthermore, in the next chapters, this "elite" team will perform a catalog of "don't"s in the art of war. Just to name one thing, what military unit would take a 'tea break' on the bottom of some sort of small version of the Grand Canyon, becoming a very nice target practice for snipers hidden on surrounding rocks ? Except maybe the army of San Marino... Well, if you have half an hour to spend one day, have some fun by watching this movie and try to find these flaws yourself. Honestly, I've identified at least 12 ridiculous situations. In the end, sending the Swiss Guards dressed in their carnival outfits seemed a better idea than to send this Funny Dozen.

I gave this movie a 1/10, only because the zero wasn't available. You'll have to introduce the D category of movies to be able to label it correctly.

With the world at odds with itself, our newest danger arrives when some new country acquires the Atomic Bomb. Isreal and the Arabs are enemies making the world less stable than before. In this movie called " Warhead " the United States loses one of it's Neclear weapons in the deserts of Syria. Frantic to retrieve it, or at the very least, locate it, the U.S. sends in a Neclear expert to locate and disarm the weapon. It's bad enough, that our hero Tony Stevens (David Janssen) must find the weapon with the help of the Isreali military, but his plans are compromised when he is captured by the Arabs first. The story, originally written by Patrick Foulk, becomes a high tense drama when audience members are along for what may be an atomic accident triggered by waring nations. The movie has a good plot, but the acting leaves much to be desired. Director John O'Connor allows the action to guide the movie, but the actors seem stiff and cardboard like. Were it not for the excellence of David Jannsen, the whole thing might be relegated to 'B' pictures. As it is, the film becomes a dramatic statement which asks what would happen if two belligerent nation both possess the nuclear deterrent. ***

I don't understand the deal with David Janssen.He's supposed to be some kind of action star but he's just a boring old man.The funny thing is that according to Wikipedia he was forty five when he made this and he doesn't look a day under sixty.This story starts with the ridiculous premise that the United States accidentally drops a nuclear warhead on Jordan.Not only does it not explode but they decide to send the most boring old guy they can find to disarm it.There is so little action in this movie that we don't even seem him parachute into the desert.He easily finds the warhead and then the movie quickly turns into Israeli propaganda.There are no Jordanians and all the dialogue is about how the jews have such a tough life but Israel is still the greatest place on Earth.They make all the arabs bumbling fools from a slapstick comedy movie while all the jews are amazing heroes.Weak.Looking at Wikipedia here I see that Janssen's real name is Harold Meyer and his father was a banker.That explains it all.The DVD I watched said this was called Prisoner In The Middle which made a little more sense.I guess Israel Is Awesome! was already taken.I see one of the other reviewers said he fell asleep multiple times trying to watch this.I only fell asleep once so that's why I gave it two stars.It's not a bad movie just boring and unrealistic.If you do somehow start watching this, make sure you watch the whole thing.The end makes it worth wasting an hour and a half of your life.

Though this movie was made nearly 30 years ago, its main theme is still very relevant with the current Arab-Israeli conflict in the Middle East. With the current threat of nuclear warfare in that region, the scenario in this movie could become a reality though we hope that will not happen. What made this movie especially delightful to me was the background music cues. For those of us who are "Rat Patrol" TV series fans, you will quickly recognize that the music used in this movie were taken from the recorded music cues from "The Rat Patrol", music composed by the outstanding TV composer Dominic Frontiere, even though his name is not credited in the end credits. Overall a good movie with plenty of action.

After becoming a David Janssen fan through "The Swiss Conspiracy," I bought a DVD that contains two of David's other movies, "Moon of the Wolf" (I also review it and "The Swiss Conspiracy" on this page) and the subject of this review, "Prisoner in the Middle." Also known as "Warhead," "Prisoner in the Middle" was filmed in 1973 but not released until four years later. Apparently it received only minimal theatrical distribution and now is in public domain. The movie appears to be low budget but overcomes that with clever writing, excellent pacing and exciting actions scenes, plus another strong performance by Janssen.

"Prisoner in the Middle" stars Janssen as U.S. Air Force Col. Anthony Stevens, who, while vacationing in Jerusalem, is summoned to deactivate an American nuclear missile that has accidentally been dropped via parachute into the Jordanian desert.

Stevens finds the missile but before de-activating it, he is captured by a militant Arab group that calls itself the Palestinian Liberation Army. At first, the group's leader, Malouf (played by David Semadar), expresses interest in using the missile to destroy Israel. But upon seeing a red light flashing on the missile, he allows Stevens to de-activate it.

But before Stevens finishes, a group of Israeli soldiers arrive at the scene and begin firing at the Arabs, who retreat. Stevens takes cover during the shoot out and is captured by the Israelis, who don't treat him much better than the Arabs and won't let him de-activate the missile. Meanwhile, the Arabs make plans to attempt to re-gain the missile.

The movie doesn't contain a lot of character development but doesn't need to. It's more about a theme than about characters. And the theme is just as relevant now as it was then. And the movie still does a good job at portraying the lives of Israeli soldiers. In one particularly powerful scene, they are shown praying in a synagogue and from there immediately prepare for battle.

And the point of view of the Arabs isn't ignored. When Stevens tries to convince Malouf to let Stevens de-activate the missile, Stevens tells Malouf to think about Malouf's family. Malouf replies that because of the Jews, he doesn't have a family.

But while "Prisoner in the Middle" is exciting and compelling, it becomes progressively more depressing throughout, all the way until the end. And I'm surprised that it got a PG rating, especially at a time that the PG-13 rating didn't exist. To me, the movie is a pretty obvious R for its intense violence and the implied rape of a captured female Israeli soldier.

For those who can endure, "Prisoner in the Middle" is a very entertaining action drama and a must see for Janssen fans. I give the movie 8/10, the same rating as "Moon of the Wolf." Getting the two movies on one DVD for just $1 is an outstanding value!

So, how does one describe this movie? Well, basically, it's one of those movies where there's this thing that does stuff and the guy needs to get the thing, but there is other stuff and things, so there's, like, a whole bunch of stuff, but it really doesn't amount to much of anything all that interesting. Too vague? How about this: remember the days when they showed old movies in the early hours of the morning for insomniacs instead of infomercials? Well, it's 2:00 AM and this movie comes on and you're sound asleep before 2:30 AM. How many times did I find myself sitting through movies like this at 3:00 AM when I was a kid? Countless, and that is why I kind of like garbage like this--it's like a sort of therapy. But, seriously, you have a nuclear weapon you need disarmed and the best you can do is dump a middle-aged guy in the middle of the desert in civilian gear with no food or water to disarm it? If that sounds dumb, it just keeps going downhill from there. It's a crap movie, but watchable for nostalgia's sake.

Every one would agree with the idea that this film, good or not, is no more than a modern western scheme, where Arabs are Apaches and Israelis the blue coats. Every part of this feature, if you remove the vehicles and replace it with horses, is a pure western. I found this movie exciting, but that doesn't mean that's a pure masterpiece, and I also understand that many people consider it as a pro Israeli topic. I was not bored and that's the most important to me. Even the climax in the desert fort evokes western more than ever. Good feature.

David Janssen was an excellent actor in "The Fugitive" (TV Series). He also starred in another very good film called "Birds of Prey" (1973). His other films are not that good. This "Warhead" (1977) is one of his worst. Karin Dor was a beautiful and convincing actress. But, she too, is lost in this uninspired production, of unlimited boredom.