History Film / AmericanNinja

* InformedWrongness: Jackson himself says he was wrong for tearing Joe a new one over getting a bunch of people killed when the latter decided to fight back against the hijackers in the opening... except it's really hard to argue with any of what he said. In Jackson's mind the entire thig seems to boil down to [[MightMakesRight "He kicked my ass so I must be wrong,"]] apparently.

The '''''American Ninja''''' series was five films, three of which starred Michael Dudikoff, which saw the title character White Ninja (aka Pvt. Joe T. Armstrong) raised up by a ninja clan, then somehow join the U.S. Army, then run into all sorts of situations requiring him to ninja the shit out of people. Every {{ninja}} trope ever invented is played out multiple times.

Funny story, the last one (featuring Pat Morita) was not even going to be an "American Ninja" movie, but the producers decided to slap the title on it post production, even though it had one of the American Ninja series actors playing an entirely different character.

* WhipItGood: Happens in the fourth film.

* Joe Armstrong himself does this in the second film.
* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: The Black Star Master ninja from the first film is the toughest of the bunch. Although as he's specifically a contractor hired to give ninja-style combat training to the villain's new private army rather than the master of an actual ninja clan, it's no surprise he's a lot better. (Whether his trainees are more loyal to him than their recruiter/employer is never quite addressed.)

** Taken UpToEleven in the second, where TheDragon slays nearly twenty of his own ninjas in a training scene without batting an eye.

** The Black Star ninja in the first movue catches an arrow Joe fired at him in the first movie, prior to the final confrontation, and retaliates by snapping the arrow over his knee. Joe reaponds by snapping his bow, revealing his intent to fight fair and square.

* RailingKill: Enforced ''hillariously''. In the first movie there's a scene where Curtis Jackson guns down a couple of mooks on a balcony, and the second mook actually ''climbed'' over the balcony to fall across!

* ArrowCatch: Michael Dudikoff's character does this in the second film.

--> "How do you like that huh, little nuts?" - '''Jackson''' (im the first film, when squeezing a GiantMook in the nads)

* GoodColorsEvilColors: Ninja Joe is decked out in a black ninja outfit for the final battle. The enemy ninja army are also decked out in exactly the same black ninja outfit. The only way to identify Joe is by his red belt, which from many angles can't even be seen. It may just be a cunning plan on Joe's part.