Red Scorpion

"First he was their weapon. Now he is their punishment."

An action film from the year 1988, directed by Joseph Zito and starring Dolph Lundgren.

Nikolai Rachenko is a Spetnaz who is given a mission to help Cuban communists stationed in Africa to get rid of the resistance leader Sundata who's opposing them. But he soon learns that the man is doing the right thing, and eventually joins him in his fight.

The film was followed by a loose sequel in 1995, where a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits special operatives are enlisted to take down an aspiring Nazi ideologists within American soil.

Tropes used in Red Scorpion include:

• Alliterative Name: Kallunda Kintash.
• An Arm and a Leg: When Zayas threatens Nikolai with a grenade, Nikolai shoots his arm off and Zayas ends blown up himself.
• Bar Brawl: Nikolai starts trouble in a bar as a ploy to get caught by the MP's and befriend Kallunda.
• Chase Scene: The escape from Cuamo.
• Child Soldiers: Seen among Sundata's rebel camp.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Cuban's subject Nikolai to some to get information about his purpose in Cuamo.
• Cool Gun: Zayas's FN FAL.
• Defector From Decadence: Nikolai by the end of the movie.
• Dirty Communists: Classic Soviet kind and the rarely used Cuban kind are present.
• Dramatic Necklace Removal
• Eagle Land: Dewey is a mixed case. He's a loudmouth who swears a lot and isn't really an ideal role model, but he is also reporter working to get local atrocities known and to bring peace to the land.
• Hot-Blooded: Dewey. Quoth Nikolai with a grin:

"He's very emotional man."

• Kubrick Stare: One rebel gives Nikolai one when he arrives to Sundata's camp.
• My Country, Right or Wrong: Nikolai relies on this when he has doubts about carrying out his mission. Later on he decides to rely on the Right Thing after his country betrays him.
• La Résistance
• Shirtless Scene
• Sir Swearsalot: Dewey. For it is the right of an American!
• Tank Goodness: A tank tries to hinder the escape of Nikolai and company from Cuamo.
• Use Your Head: Nikolai attacks his first opponent in the bar brawl with a headbutt.
• What Measure Is a Mook?: Nikolai had no problem gunning down his own even before he switched sides.

The sequel contains the examples of:

• Continuity Nod: Nikolai is briefly mentioned by his former mentor. Which is the only link between the two movies aside from the name.
• Numbered Sequels
• Public Domain Artifact: The Spear of Longinus, though it is not shown to have the mystic properties like usually in fiction.
• Right-Wing Militia Fanatic
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Initially.
• Those Wacky Nazis