As if the U.S.A. wasn't enough, Norris saves Christmas too.
"The movie 'Invasion U.S.A.' is, in fact, a documentary."
Invasion U.S.A. is an action film directed by Joseph Zito, starring Chuck Norris, and released by The Cannon Group in 1985.
A multinational assortment of commie terrorists led by one Mikhail Rostov (Richard Lynch) enter American soil, and start causing havoc everywhere. Only one man can stop them: the former CIA agent Matt Hunter (Norris).
The film was followed by Avenging Force in 1986, with Norris replaced by Michael Dudikoff as Hunter.
No relation to the 1952 film of the same title.
This film contains examples of:
- All There in the Manual: The novelization
closes a lot of the plot holes and fills in the characterization which was cut from the movie. - Arch-Enemy: Rostov sees Hunter as one, as he is obsessed with taking him out. Hunter himself doesn't care much about Rostov, until he is attacked.
- An Ass-Kicking Christmas: The terrorists land in the US during Christmas season. And just to show what bastards they are, they start blowing up suburbs celebrating it.
- Auto Erotica: Two teenagers are sitting in a car (although it's unclear whether they intend to go past the heavy kissing stage) in the suburbs scene. In an inversion of Sex Signals Death, staying in the car helps keep them alive when Rostov starts blowing up the nearby houses.
- Badass Boast:
- Hunter gives one to a pimp who interferes with his interrogation of a would-be informant.
Hunter: If you come back in here, I'm gonna hit you with so many rights you'll beg for a left.- Later, he gives one to Rostov via television:
Hunter: Nikko was easy. Now it's your turn. One night you're gonna close your eyes, and when they open, I'll be there. It'll be time to die. - Batman Gambit: Hunter arranges himself to be caught by the police so that he'll be placed in the emergency command center. He does this because he knows that Rostov will launch an all-out attack to the place to get him while destabilizing the American government for good.
- Big Bad: Rostov is the leader of the terrorist mercenary invasion, with his bosses in the Kremlin as the Greater-Scope Villain.
- Break Out the Museum Piece: As per the invasion analogy, the terrorists use war-surplus landing barges when landing on a Miami beach. When the authorities discuss whether they can trace them, it's pointed out that they are forty years old.
- Bullying a Dragon: The terrorists find themselves surrounded by heavily armed National Guard troops who have tanks and helicopter gunships. Rather than surrender, they open fire. While killing some National Guardsmen, they are all killed in short order.
- Car Chase: One starts after the mall shootout.
- Car Fu: Hunter kills a mook with his jeep during the mall shootout.
- Catapult Nightmare: Rostov thrashes around and bolts up when he wakes from his nightmare.
- Catchphrase: "Time to die" for Hunter.
- Censored Child Death: While Hunter manages to stop a terrorist attack against a school bus in time, he's later seen surveying a destroyed carnival ride that was the target of a different attack, with it all but being stated that children were killed off-screen.
- *Click* Hello: In his nightmare, Rostov tries to pull a major job, only to be interrupted by Hunter putting a gun on his temple. Happens again in the finale, but with a grenade launcher.
- Covers Always Lie: The White House isn't involved in the action.
- Dead Man's Trigger Finger: Happens to a machine-gun toting Marine, who is gunned down while he's stupidly standing still in the middle of the huge climactic battle and firing from the hip on full-auto.
- Death by Irony: Rostov oh so loves killing people and destroying property with explosives. Guess how Hunter finishes him off?
- Death of a Child: The terrorists successfully attack an amusement park, and although it's not stated outright it's clearly implied children were among the victims. Rostov's rocket launcher attack on the suburbs also implies a hefty child casualty, considering that the scene showcases one of many families of the houses about to be blown up celebrating.
- Destination Defenestration: Rostov throws Mickey's lady through a window after killing him.
- Dirty Communists: The terrorists are made of these.
- The Dragon: Nikko. He serves as Rostov's right hand, and keeps him focused on the invasion.
- Equal-Opportunity Evil: The terrorists are a motley crew of mercenaries from East Germany, Russia, Asia, Africa and Latin America.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Some of the terrorists wear wedding rings.
- Forced Friendly Fire: Hunter kills Nikko by sneaking from behind, yanking the latter's gun hand right to his temple and pulling the trigger.
- For the Evulz: The terrorists seem to have no motivation whatsoever other than causing as much havoc as possible. Then again, since they are communist mercenaries, they might have been in it for the money, or to destabilize Evil Capitalist America. Also, since Nikko refers to them as "petty criminals", some or most of them may be convicts who've agreed to partake on the invasion to (hopefully) get a reduced sentence.
- Friend or Foe?: After the bad guys have pulled off a number of false flag attacks, a group of gun-toting civilians can be seen standing guard and wearing armbands, while a group of kids are put on a bus to be evacuated to elsewhere.
- Groin Attack: Rostov kills Mickey by shooting him in the groin multiple times. He does the same to one of his subordinates who pointed out (rightfully so, as it turned out) that Rostov's obsession with getting Hunter would hurt the mission.
- Guns Akimbo: Hunter with his Micro Uzis.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Hunter has a habit of killing terrorists with their own bombs.
- Hope Spot:
- Rostov (posing as a coast guard with his men) informs a bunch of illegal immigrants that they are free to enter the US before shooting them all.
- Hunter successfully manages to locate and stop multiple attacks in time, including preventing a bus full of kids from being blown up on the highway. Then he watches the news and he sees that the terrorists successfully blew up an amusement park. He laments being unable to be everywhere at once as a result.
- Impaled Palm: Hunter puts a knife through an informant's hand to make him talk.
- Impersonating an Officer: The terrorists cause havoc by killing civilians while being dressed as members of various authoritative occupations to turn people against them.
- Improbable Infant Survival: One of the terrorist attacks outright targeting children — the bomb placed on the school bus — is successfully stopped by Hunter.
- Intrepid Reporter: McGuire.
- Invaded States of America: A much smaller scale and, interestingly enough, realistic variant. The "invasion" in this film takes the form of infiltration. The terrorists land on an empty (except for one unfortunate young couple) beach late at night and then spread out across the country disguised as ordinary citizens or even police and military personnel. Then once they are in place they unleash a wave of terror across the country. Essentially, it's America being invaded by a guerrilla army.
- Invincible Hero: This is Chuck Norris at his most invincible. Hunter never gets hurt, save for a small cut in his face, knows where all the bad guys are at any time, never loses a battle, and only "fails" to stop terrorists because he's too busy taking out simultaneous other attacks to get to them in time. He's so invincible that even Rostov, with all the resources he has, is afraid of him and dedicates a good chunk of his men to killing him.
- I Warned You: A Mook example. After Rostov realizes he and his terrorist army have been Lured into a Trap, he shouts it out loud, and one of his Mooks grumbles "I told you so!"
- I Work Alone: Said word by word by Hunter when he officially accepts the assignment of finding Rostov.
- Last Stand: A villainous example. Once surrounded by the National Guard, the terrorists fight to the last man rather than surrendering to them.
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: During his more peaceful moments, Matt and his buddy John Eagle capture alligators.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Hunter has no interest in recapturing Rostov when he is informed that he has entered American soil. Then Rostov organizes an attack on Hunter's home, killing his friend John Eagle. Hunter's first step after this is to go after Rostov, which ultimately leads to failure of his invasion.
- Night Swim Equals Death: A couple taking a night swim right where the terrorists are about to come ashore get shot a minute or two after getting out of the water.
- Nightmare Sequence: Hunter is such a fearsome adversary to Rostov, that he has nightmares about him kicking his ass.
- Novelization: By Jason Frost, a pseudonym used by writers Raymond Obstfeld and Rich Rainey. It is unclear which one wrote it.
- Offscreen Teleportation:
- Hunter disappears from McGuire's sight when she momentarily looks away from him.
- He pulls this off again during his final confrontation with Rostov.
- Oh, Crap!: Rostov has a grand total of four of these, all courtesy of Hunter:
- When Hunter places the barrel of his gun against Rostov's temple during the latter's nightmare.
- When he realizes his mistake of leading all his men into a single spot.
- When he tries to flee back to his helicopter during the same assault, only for Hunter to greet him and his minions with his Micro Uzis.
- When Hunter opens an M72 LAW behind him.
- Spare a Messenger: When two terrorists shoot up a Cuban block party while disguised as cops, one of them has to remind his Trigger-Happy partner that they need to spare witnesses to falsely incriminate the cops.
- Spiteful Spit: Realizing Rostov will kill him anyway, Tomas, one of Rostov's underlings, spits him in the face.
- Stuff Blowing Up: Rostov's attack on the ideal suburban neighborhood.
- Super Window Jump: Hunter gets the hell out of Dodge when his house comes under fire from Rostov's men.
- Tank Goodness: During the Final Battle, the National Guard surrounds the villains, complete with M-48 Patton tanks.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: After Hunter beats the absolute hell out of Rostov in hand to hand combat, he could easily have finished him then and there. Instead he disappears so he can go and get a LAW rocket launcher, which he then uses to blast Rostov at close range after sneaking up on him. Rostov himself apparently had something similar planned, as after Hunter disappeared, he too acquired a rocket launcher and was searching for Hunter with it.
- Too Dumb to Live: Prior to the Final Battle, Rostov's terrorist army finds itself looking at a huge contingent of National Guard backed by numerous tanks, APCs and helicopter gunships. Despite having no anti-tank weapons whatsoever and no anti-air weaponry aside from their automatic weapons... the terrorists open fire anyway.
- Vigilante Man: The public is led to believe that Hunter is one, as his actions to thwart the terrorists are not officially supported by the CIA.
- Vigilante Militia: An army of terrorists led by a KGB agent infiltrates American society and then unleashes a wave of blood and destruction. Since the terrorists have shown an ability to successfully disguise themselves as police and soldiers, the public is understandably frightened that the officer or soldier guarding the corner might be an enemy undercover. As such, many citizens form armed militias to help guard their communities. A group of them can be seen protecting a convoy of school buses as children are loaded onto them by their parents, who are sending them to the rural areas for safety (similar to what the British did with children from London in World War II). Of course, these militias may not have to worry about too much with Chuck Norris hunting the bad guys!
- Villain Opening Scene: The first scene involves Rostov and his men pose as coast guards and greeting immigrants before killing them all.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: After Hunter saves McGuire from Nikko, she disappears from the movie.
- Would Hurt a Child: One trio of terrorists attempt to blow up a school bus full of children. The terrorists are utter bastards with no qualms whatsoever about killing children, and they actively make an effort to do so at least once, which thankfully is stopped by Hunter. They also attacked an amusement park ride. This is tragically Truth in Television, because there are terrorist groups that not only don't care about kids getting hurt, but have intentionally attacked schools. Al-Qaeda and it's various affiliates in particular are notorious for saying that "no one is innocent" and that everyone is fair game.
