The Delta Force

At the 1985 Cannes Film Festival, Cannon announced they would make Delta Force with their two most popular stars, Chuck Norris and Charles Bronson.[5] The budget was to be $12 million.[6]

"We look at Chuck as having the potential of a Clint Eastwood," said Menahem Golan. "His acting talent is getting better. He's in the right style, and he's very popular."[7]

In response to the TWA hijacking, Norris said the United States is becoming a "paper tiger" in the Middle East. "What we're facing here is the fact that our passive approach to terrorism is going to instigate much more terrorism throughout the world," he said, adding, "I would have sent the Delta Force immediately." [8]

"I've been all over the world, and seeing the devastation that terrorism has done in Europe and the Middle East, I know eventually it's going to come here," added Norris. "It's just a matter of time. They're doing all this devastation in Europe now, and the next stepping stone is America and Canada. Being a free country, with the freedom of movement that we have, it's an open door policy for terrorism. It's like Khadafy said a few weeks ago. 'If Reagan doesn't back off, I'm going to release my killer squads in America.' And there's no doubt in my mind that he has them."[7]

Bronson ended up deciding not to appear in the film though he did make Death Wish IV for Cannon. He was replaced by Lee Marvin.[9] Marvin said the film "shows the American audience a larger view of terrorism than they're used to seeing on the small screen and the news. There you see a plane at the end of the runway. But what's it like to be on a plane as the facilities deterioriate? It's bad enough on a seven-hour flight - imagine what the bathrooms are like after three or four days."[10]

Norris' fee was a reported $2 million.[11]

"It is the first time that Chuck works with an ensemble of first-class actors," said Golan.[12]

Before the film came out Cannon signed a seven-picture contract with Norris.[13]

Filming started in October 1985. The Delta Force was entirely shot in Israel.[14] Pentagon scenes were shot at the GG Israel Studios facility near Jerusalem, owned by Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus. The Athens, Beirut, Algiers, and Tel Aviv airport scenes were filmed at Ben Gurion International Airport and its military portion, Lod Air Force Base, although one Athens airport scene where an accomplice of the hijackers exits a taxi, was filmed at the eastern terminal of Ellinikon International Airport while the Athens airport concourse (interior) scenes were filmed in Ben Gurion's present-day Terminal (then the main terminal). Jaffa was used for scenes of the siege and hostage rescue in the Beirut countryside including midnight oceanic scenes. The film's budget was $9 million.[15]

The Lockheed C-130H Hercules in the film actually belonged to the Israeli Air Force, registered as 89–9106. It was lent to the Golan-Globus company for filming after it was given a false registration, 14X-FBB and U.S. Air Force designs. Its lease arrangement was similar to Iron Eagle, wherein the United States Air Force refused to participate due to a long-standing policy about not cooperating on any film involving the theft of an aircraft, causing the filmmakers to turn to the Israeli Air Force for the necessary aerial sequences. The army vehicles for the military and terrorists came from the U.S. Army and Israel Defense Forces.

The Boeing 707-139(B) with the registration N778PA, was operated by several airlines including Olympic Airways, Aer Lingus, Saudia, Turkish Airlines, Pan American World Airways, which operated it as Clipper Skylark from 1962 to 1976. Prior to filming in 1985, the aircraft had been operated by Israeli charter-operator MAOF Air and was retired from commercial service in December 1984. The aircraft was then leased to Golan-Globus Productions in late 1985 while in storage at Tel Aviv (just after the TWA-847 hijacking) and repainted with the fake airline name "American Transworld Airlines" while retaining the MAOF livery, but later changed to "American Travelways Airlines" to avoid confusion and legal action. Upon completion of the film, it was sold to Jet Avionic Systems Incorporated on May 28, 1985. Aerocar Aviation acquired it in January 1986 and sold it to Boeing Military Aircraft Company on March 20, 1986 to be used as a source of spares for the Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker program. The U.S. Air Force acquired it later on and parted its vertical stabilizer and engines for the Boeing KC-135E Stratotanker. N778PA was destroyed by fire in a welding accident while in storage at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in 1992. Portions of the airframe may still exist.

The 1985 Suzuki SP600 motorcycle used by Chuck Norris was designed by Suzuki specifically for the film. After modifying it and adding the weaponry, Suzuki America gave the bike to Golan-Globus production in Israel prior to filming.

The Delta Force opened in 1,720 theaters and debuted as #3 in the box office losing to The Color Purple and Down and Out in Beverly Hills; it beat A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge and Youngblood.[17] The Delta Force earned $5,959,505 on its opening weekend and had a total gross of $17,768,900 in the United States.[15][18] The film was released on DVD on September 28, 2000.[19] The Delta Force has been released on Blu-ray in the US, and more recently in the UK by video label Arrow Films.[20]

Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports as of December 2020 that 17% of 12 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 4.3/10.[21] On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 37 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[22] In a positive review for the Chicago Sun Times, Roger Ebert gave it three out of four stars and called it "a well-made action film that tantalizes us with its parallels to real life."[3] Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote that it "will be the 1986 film all others will have to beat for sheer, unashamed, hilariously vulgar vaingloriousness."[23] Variety described it as "an exercise in wish fulfillment for those who favor using force instead of diplomacy."[24] Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times wrote in his review: " ...of so big a project, The Delta Force is drawn out and complicated."[25] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film one star out of four and called it "a prime example" of "second-rate action pictures" and added, "The action in Beirut is more appropriate for a bad James Bond film than for a subject that has been all too real lately. Norris gets off shooting rocket launchers from his specially built motorcycle, and we sit there stunned at the movie industry's ability to make money off any tragedy."[26] Paul Attanasio of The Washington Post called the film "one of those disaster movies that Hollywood was churning out 10 years ago," which "doesn't even deliver on its own sordid level. There isn't any action till 70 minutes into the film—and that's a pallid car chase, immediately deflated by composer Alan Silvestri's idiotic disco fanfare. After the car chase, it's another 30 minutes till you can watch Chuck do any karate."[27]

"I felt better after that film was made," said Norris. "I did, I swear to God. I think it's a way for other people to release their tensions. I think it's good therapy.[28]

Jack Shaheen listed The Delta Force in his "Worst List" of films with anti-Arab stereotypes.

• The hijacked TWA 847 took off from Athens on 14 June 1985; the film's ATW likewise departed Athens, on 19 July 1985.
• The abbreviation of airline in the film, American Travelways Airlines, is ATW and is an anagram of Trans World Airlines. The film portrays the plane as a Boeing 707 while TWA used a Boeing 727 for flight 847.
• The airline's route is Cairo-Athens-Rome. While TWA 847 has stopovers in Boston and Los Angeles and ending in San Diego, the film's flight terminates in New York City.
• Two terrorists hijack the flight; the third is arrested in Athens in both real-life and film.
• The flight is managed by a German American flight purser, who is forced by the hijackers to segregate Jewish passengers from the non-Jews by identifying them through collected passports. The film's purser is partially based on Uli Derickson.
• A member of the U.S. Navy is shot and dumped off the plane into the tarmac. The film depicts the setting as Algiers at night as opposed to Beirut during daytime hours in real-life.
• Additional henchmen board the plane along with the released hijacker.

• The hostage rescue scene when the commandos raid the terrorist quarters
• A pregnant woman is on the flight.