Plot: Wellman Santee (Dolph Lundgren) a former race car driver, whose livelihood is transporting exotic stolen super cars, is involved, with his partner Eddie, in shoot out, resulting in the deaths of his friend and a highway cop. Santee is framed for the cop’s murder and jailed in a maximum security prison. A few months later, Santee breaks out after narrowly escaping an attempt on his life. He reaches a local diner where he steals a car, abducts the owner, Rita and flees, completely unaware that is hostage is a deputy sheriff. A massive manhunt ensues, spearheaded by Lt. Severance a tough, obessive cop. Santee leads the detective and his men on a dramatic high speed chase, from the desert wilderness to the streets of downtown Los Angeles. Santee’s out to clear his name and when it comes to getting even, he’s taking revenge into overdrive…
Also known as Army of One, Joshua Tree remains one of Dolph Lundgren’s best movies and it has some exceptional action scenes but that should come as no surprise as it’s directed by legendary stuntman Vic Armstrong.
It really delivers anything you could want with fast cars, a huge bodycount, the ridiculously hot Kristian Alfonso, hilarious one-liners, an entertaining villain and Dolph Lundgren at his action hero best.
It wastes no time getting going as Santee (Dolph Lundgren) and his partner Eddie (Ken Foree) are driving a truck across the desert but are pulled over by a cop. Another car pulls up and suddenly Eddie ends up dead along with the cop; Santee comes to investigate and ends up getting shot (but not fatally otherwise it would be a really short movie). He is convicted of killing the cop and ends up in jail; a few months later he breaks out and wants to take down those responsible for setting him up.
While escaping he takes Rita (Kristian Alfonso) hostage not knowing that she is in fact a cop herself but the more time they spend together the more she finds out that Santee isn’t your average escaped convict and that he might have been set up all along.
Alfonso is not only stunning in this movie, but I’ve always loved the character of Rita as she is so much more than just a damsel in distress; she’s quite the badass and can take care of herself in a fight proving a useful ally to Santee.
You’ve got to love action movie logic; Santee is wrongly convicted of killing a cop and goes on the run as he tries to prove his innocence and take down those responsible but by the end of the movie he has killed 51 people… with no consequences whatsoever. Phew! Good thing that all worked out. FYI Ted Bundy killed around 30 women…
Anyway, the late great Joel Goldsmith (Son of Jerry) composed the score and fits the film perfectly with twanging guitars and harmonicas really capturing the desert vibe.
The action highlight of the entire movie is the squib-tastic shoot-out in the warehouse which is where the majority of the film’s huge bodycount comes from. Santee uses multiple weapons and we see some action movie favourites like Michael Paul Chan, Al Leong and George Cheung before they all get blown away.
The car stunts in this are some of the best you’ll see as they race through the desert at high speed… even if at one point we do see the reflection of the camera crew. Whoops!
George Segal chews the scenery (and his endless cigars) as the corrupt cop and villain of the piece Lt. Franklin L. Severence; he has some great lines and his banter with his partner in crime is some of the movie’s best.
There is an impressive supporting cast too including Double Impact’s Geoffrey Lewis as Sheriff Cepeda, and Nick Chinlund (Con Air) as a cop; I always thought it was a shame that Foree got killed off in the opening scene as I love watching him in anything.
Overall, Army of One/Joshua Tree is an action classic and remains one of Dolph Lundgren’s finest hours; it has some fantastic action scenes and choice one-liners making this a must-see.
