Death Machines (1976)

Three separate duo's of karate kick-boxers fight it out under the watchful eye of glamorously sinister Madame Lee, (Mari Honjo) an ersatz Asian "Dragon Lady. " Her handsome and dapper Asian assistant, Mr. Lu, also stands observing nearby. They watch two Asian kickboxers fight, two African kickboxers fight, and two Caucasian kickboxers fight.

One Asian kickboxer (Michael Chong) defeats the other by slashing him bloodlessly with a machete, and then one African kickboxer (Joshua Johnson) defeats his opponent by piercing him with a pole. One of the white kickboxers pulls out a knife to stab his opponent, but the opponent (Ron Marchini) quickly pulls a pistol out of an ankle holster and shoots the other kickboxer dead. The Dragon Lady observes stoicly, but is apparently impressed with the fighting talents of the three survivors, and admits to her assistant that "They will do nicely. "Soon Madame Lee enters a darkened room and has a conversation with a mysterious man in the shadows who apparently funds Madame Lee's operations. She tells him that the drug worked exactly as he had said it would, and now "they're completely under our control. " This man gives her an eight by ten photograph of a mustached man know as Mr. Gioretti (Chuck Katzakian). The man in the shadows says that Mr. Gioretti runs an out-of-date crime syndicate, and he tells Madame Lee that they need to run another test of their "death machines, " and Mr. Gioretti "and his people" should be used for that end. She quickly agrees. The scene shifts to Mr. Gioretti relaxing poolside with two women when he picks up the nearby phone. He gives firm instructions to the person on the other end that he wants hits on two business men. The first one is Hong Lo (Eric Lee), the proprietor or a local karate school, the other being Nathan Adams, a bank vice president. A sedan pulls up to the curb outside a high rise building, and a man carrying a satchel gets out of the car and goes inside the building and up to the roof. He pulls a rifle out of the bag and starts to take aim at Hong Lo, who is walking below nearby on his way into the karate school. The gunman tries to zero in on his target, but before he can get a shot off, he's waylaid by the Black Death Machine (BDM) who grabs his gun. The hitman pulls out a pistol and shoots the BDM, but the bullets have no effect, and the BDM continues his assault. Soon the Asian Death Machine (ADM) and the White Death Machine (WDM) all converge on the gunman hoisting him onto the ledge and then tossing him off the roof and down onto the hood of his illegally-parked car. An aging meter maid in the process of ticketing the car recoils in horror as blood spout from the gunman's mouth. (Note: From here on, the three "Death Machines" will be referred to as the DM's. Individually they will be referred to as WDM (White Death Machine), ADM (Asian Death Machine) and BDM (Black Death Machine. ). )The phone rings and Mr. Gioretti is awakened as he lays in bed with a woman. He is incredulous at the news of his gunman falling from the building. Later that day, another hit man takes aim at the bank vice president Nathan Adams as he jogs in a park-like setting. As he's preparing to take a shot, a vehicle pulls up about fifty yards behind him. Madame Lee's assistant and her three DM's get out of the car, retrieve a bazooka from the trunk, and soon annihilate the assassin with one well-directed smoky blast. Now at his office, Mr. Gioretti takes a phone call from an associate, George. Mr. Gioretti learns that another one of his hitmen is dead this one "blown up. " He engages in a heated conversation with George, who speaks to him from a phone booth. Mr. Gioretti demands to know who's killing his assassins, but George insists he doesn't know. As George loudly protests his ignorance, a bulldozer appears in the background and starts for the phone booth. After a few moments, George notices the bulldozer and starts to holler for it to stop. The driver of the renegade bulldozer is revealed as the WDM, who steers the vehicle straight for the phone booth and ultimately crushes it. A confused and angry Mr. Gioretti hears George's anguished screams over the phone line. Next, Mr. Gioretti finally receives a phone call from Madame Lee who informs him that she is the one killing his men. She tells him that in this town, if anyone wants someone killed they must deal with her. Although he's originally reluctant, Mr. Gioretti agrees to meet with Madame Lee, and he soon arrives in a small propeller-driven airplane at a small dirt airstrip where his driver, Mike, awaits him. They then drive to Madame Lee's mansion, and Mr. Gioretti and Mike have a nasty exchange pertaining to whether Mike should accompany Mr. Gioretti into the house. Mike is disappointed and annoyed when his boss orders him to go to "Tony's" to eat dinner. The reprimanded driver Mike peels out in the driveway leaving clouds of dust as Mr. Gioretti watches angrily. Mr. Lu lets Mr. Gioretti into Madame Lee's mansion and tells him to wait. Madame Lee immediately comes down the staircase, and engages Mr. Lee in some acrimonious conversation. They agree that she will supply him with a "demonstration" of her professionalism. Meanwhile, the driver Mike goes for dinner at "Tony's, " a quaint Italian eatery. As Mike sits alone in front of a large picture window eating his salad, Tony the owner brings him a plate of spaghetti, and goes into a long monologue about the quality of his food. Seconds later, when Mike tries to dig into his meal, he discovers a red Buddha buried beneath the spaghetti, and calls Tony back. Right after Tony apologizes and takes the plate away, the headlights of a huge truck appear through the picture window. It immediately heads for the restaurant, causing diners to scatter. The renegade truck drives right through large picture window and into the restaurant. All the diners rush outside, but Mike gets corralled by the three DM's. Mike fires six shots at the DM's, but to no avail since they seem impervious to bullets. The ADM soon closes in on Mike with a machete as the BDM lurks behind, carrying one large wicker basket. Meanwhile at Madame Lee's, it's now after dinner and a waiter pours more wine for her and Mr. Gioletti. She soon tells Mr. Lu that it's time to bring in her demonstration, and Mr. Lu brings in a large wicker basket and places it on the table. The waiter again freshens Mr. Gioletti's wine as the basket is opened by the confused crime boss. He's shocked to see that Inside is the severed head of his driver, Mike. Mr. Gioletti quickly pulls a revolver out of his pocket and shoots the waiter right through the bottle he's holding. Mr. Lu quickly enters the room and points a revolver at Gioletti, but Madame Lee peevishly waves him off. Mr. Gioretti and Madame Lee then agree that now they're even, and can do business. So Mr. Gioretti now gives her eight by ten photos of the two men he had previously tried to have be killed the Karate school owner Hong Lo and the bank vice-president Nathan Adams. Madame Lee comments that she knows that the Karate school guy is using his establishment to front drug money. She also wonders aloud why he would want the bank V. P. killed when they'll immediately be another bureaucrat to replace him. Madame Lee gives the photo of Hong Lo to her assistant who takes it upstairs and gives it to the three DM's. Mr. Lu tells them to leave no witnesses. The scene shifts to Hong Lo's Karate school where a class with about twenty students practice. Young blonde and very serious student Frank Thomas practices along with the others. Soon Hong Lo enters the class holding a small red Buddha and asks if it belongs to anyone. After no response from the class, he says that he'll just keep it. Moments later the class is suddenly disrupted by the three DM's crashing feet-first through the front windows and wreaking mayhem on the class. All the students are beaten and butchered by the relentless DM's who use their fists, feet and knives and swords that they pull off the walls. Hong Lo gets electrocuted by being shoved into a live breaker panel. Frank Thomas has his right hand brutally severed, but survives. Soon two Police detectives, the veteran Lt. Clay Forrester (Ron Ackerman) and his less-experienced partner Jerry Farnham (Edward Blair) arrive on the scene. The younger Farnham becomes nearly overwhelmed by the carnage and is visibly shaken. Other officers stroll around the corpses, checking for signs of life. The detectives rush back to the station, only to be met by the mocking attitude of detective Doyle criticizing Forrester for missing "human relations" classes. But then the detectives rush off to the hospital to interview the only living witness, Frank Thomas. At the hospital, the two detectives have a few words with Joe, the uniformed officer who is guarding the door to Frank's room. When they enter, they encounter a young nurse in the room. Under questioning, Frank remembers the red Buddha sent to Hong Lo, and he threatens a hoped revenge against the DM's who killed his entire class and took his hand. On their way out of the hospital, the detectives are stopped by the head nurse, who shows them that a red Buddha has been delivered for Frank. Meanwhile, at Madame Lee's mansion, her assistant Mr. Lu informs the three DM's that they left a witness alive at the Karate School massacre. He tells them that he already sent the survivor a red Buddha, and they should finish the job. At the hospital, the nurse and Frank have a discussion as to whether he should have a hook or a cosmetic hand as a prosthesis. Frank is peevish, and doesn't like either choice. After the nurse leaves, Joe sees an orderly pushing a gurney with a corpse on it down the dimly-lit hallway. The orderly is accompanied by a lab technician. As the gurney passes closely to the guard, the WDM jumps out from beneath the sheet atop the gurney and karate-chops the surprised Joe. The orderly and the lab tech are revealed to be the two other DM's, and they karate-kick Joe. The WDM enters Frank's room, shrieks, and seemingly stabs Frank in the stomach with a large knife. As the three DM's are escaping, Joe shoots the WDM in the back. The WDM gets up and Joe shoots him again, and he rises again. The third shot Joe fires is aimed for the head, and the WDM howls in pain as the bullet grazes his forehead over his right eye. Madame Lee sits and sips red wine in her mansion when Mr. Lu enters and informs her that one of her men has been injured and captured. She is incredulous and becomes angry and slaps Mr. Lu harshly across the face. She approaches the BDM, and goes to slap him too, but he intercepts her arm before she can do so. They exchange nasty glares. At the hospital, Detective Forrester and partner Farnham go in Frank's room, and congratulate themselves on their ingenuity in substituting pillows under the bedsheets instead of Frank, who had been moved to another floor. Madame Lee turns out the lights in her mansion, and ascends the staircase to her private quarters. She is surprised to find the BDM sitting in the room. She angrily informs him that he is not allowed in there, but he just sits and glares at her. He angry expression softens into a sinister smile, and she snuffs out the candle lighting the room. Forrester visits Frank at the hospital, and tells him that they're transferring him to a different facility. Forrester tells Frank that he's spoken with Frank's old boss at the bar, and he wants him back on the job. Frank agrees to go back to bartending. At the police station, Forrester is first hassled by rival detective Doyle, who tells him that the suspect from the attempted homicide at the hospital (WDM) is coming in to be interviewed by him, not Forrester. Captain Green enters and dresses-down Forrester for his slack attention to paperwork and missing his Human Relation classes. Two uniformed officers bring in the WDM, who now has a small white bandage taped on his forehead, and they escort him into an interrogation room. Doyle and his partner Rossi go in to interview him, but their suspect appears to become ill as he slowly lowers his head down onto the table. Doyle gives Rossi the okay to uncuff the suspect, and the WDM immediately goes on a rampage. He karate-kicks Doyle and Rossi, and then goes out into the office area and begins to take down all the officers there, including Forrester, Farnham and Green. One detective tries to shoot the WDM, but the suspect manages to grab his arm and deflect the shots onto another detective. Then Doyle tries to shoot the WDM, but instead hits an office worker who the WDM uses as a shield. The entire place is in mayhem, as the WDM escapes out a window and hijacks a police car that he slams into the wall of the station. He reverses his way out, and makes a three-point-turn, but crashes into another vehicle. Forrester and Farnham run out of the station hoping to recapture the suspect, but he has fled the scene. Next the WDM strolls into a sleazy roadhouse diner, and uses the payphone. He soon sits at a table and the elderly proprietor brings him a cheeseburger and a glass of water for no charge. The old man tells the WDM that he needs to find God and gives him some pamphlets. Next about a dozen bikers converge on the diner and begin to mock the WDM, calling him "Tarzan" and asking if he can hear. The ringleader of the gang approaches the WDM, and notices the handcuffs dangling of his wrist. The WDM starts karate-kicking the bikers, but one of them slams him onto a table which crashes onto the floor. But in through the door walk the other two DM's, who proceed to make short work of the bikers by karate-kicking them unconscious. They pick up the WDM off the floor and he recovers and walks out. The old proprietor hands the WDM the religious pamphlets as he leaves, but the WDM throws them atop a fallen biker after he kicks him in the head. Shortly thereafter, Madame Lee plays chess by herself and sips from a wine goblet. He assistant leads in all three of her reunited DM's. She suggests that they continue on with there work since Giordetti has asked her to get Nathan Adams to resign his position at the bank. She says that Giordetti wants it done without violence, and since Adams has a daughter, they should use her as "leverage. "Nathan Adams's daughter speaks with him over the telephone. Soon Madame Lee's assistant and the three DM's enter her apartment. She screams as the DM's throw her to the floor, and the ADM removes his jacket. Mr. Lu takes out a camera and begins to photograph her. At Nathan Adams's office at the back, his secretary, Kate, buzzes him to let him know that Mr. Lu carrying a wicker basket is there to see him. The secretary sends Mr. Lu in, and Adams inquires as to what he wants to meet with him about. Mr Lu pulls out some photographs from his basket and tells Adams that "the others in the photos are not important, but he will recognize his daughter. " Adams becomes angry and refuses to succumb to this "cheap shakedown. " Adams suspects the Giodetti is behind this plot, and he will not resign his position. Mr Lu pulls a gun on Adams, and smacks him with it telling him to go to the filing cabinet. Mr. Lu handcuffs Adams to the filing cabinet, and goes to the basket he left on the desk. He takes out a big red Buddha with some sticks of dynamite and a timer taped to it. Mr. Lu locks the office door and bids Adams goodbye before exiting through a different door. Adams sees the bomb and begins to yell for Kate to come in and help him, but since the doors are locked, she cannot get it. He yells for her to find the key, and she rummages through her desk drawers to no avail. Kate yells to him that the keys must be in his desk, and he yells for her to go get help, and she frantically exits. Adams watches the ticker on the bomb get closer to the detonation time, and he's relieved when the bomb doesn't explode. A second later, the bomb detonates, showering the street and sidewalk in front of the bank with broken glass and debris. Back at Madame Lee's, Mr. Lu approaches her and gives her a photograph of Nathan Adams. She tosses it into the fireplace, and the two exchange knowing smiles. Frank Thomas walks through the debris at the Karate School crime scene, and he experiences some flashbacks of the three DM's breaking in. Soon Florence Nightingale enters, and they have a discussion, and decide to go back to the bar where Frank works for coffee. At the bar, an exotic dancer shakes her stuff on a small stage. An irate pool-player complains to owner Ned about the price of a one-dollar bottle of beer. Frank and Florence sit and talk at a table, when the dancer Sharon asks Frank for change. Ned sends Frank to get more beer and then he sits down with Florence to discuss Frank. He tells Florence not to give up on Frank. The irate pool-player becomes angrier when he cannot get the jukebox to work, and he starts pounding on it. Ned and Frank tell him to leave the jukebox alone, and the man slams his beer down on the bar and starts a bar fight by cracking a bottle over Ned's head. Soon another pool-player joins in and hits Frank with a pool cue. Florence stares in disbelief as the place is wrecked. The second pool-player punches Frank in the face and throws him atop the bar, where he remains unconscious. The two pool-players leave after throwing a chair through the front window. Florence hovers over Frank, shaking her head sadly. Soon thereafter, Florence and Frank kiss in his apartment. Later he tries to button his shirt with one hand as Florence lays in bed. They seem depressed, discussing changing the past, and how badly Frank wants revenge against the three DM's. Then Frank suggests that they go to a nice motel for a few days. Soon they leave the apartment with Frank carrying a small suitcase. Madame Lee next informs Mr. Lu that Giordetti will soon be arriving at the airstrip. Lu asks Lee if whether Giordetti will need the standard receipt. She says yes, and they had better give him the receipt, before he gives one to them. The three DM's descend the stairs behind her, all zipping up their matching black windbreakers. They all get into a car driven by Mr. Lu. As Frank and Florence are driving, Frank see the three DM's go by in a car driven by Mr. Lu. Frank tells Florence to get the license plate number, and then kicks her out of the car to call Forrester. She runs to a pay phone at a roadside vegetable stand, and speaks with Forrester, who tells her to stay put. Forrester tells his partner Farnham to put a trace on the license plate number, and meet him at the car. As he's rushing out, Forrester is stopped by Captain Green who angrily wants some paperwork from Forrester, who tells him about the three DM's being spotted and adds "Screw you!"Mr. Lo drives the three DM's to the airfield where Mike had previously picked up Mr. Gioretti, with Frank trailing him. Lo parks the car and gets out to watch a plane coming in. Frank parks nearby and runs to hide behind some tall grass and watch. The plane lands and taxis back to Mr. Lu's vehicle. Either Mr. Gioretti or a man closely resembling him, alights from the plane and hands Mr. Lu a suitcase, and then gets back into the plane. As the plane taxis away, the three DM's get out of the car and retrieve from the trunk the parts to a bazooka. They assemble it on the shoulder of the WDM, and as the plane taxis toward them, he fires off a shot that explodes the plane. Frank watches from behind the grass as the plane's wreckage burns. Mr. Lu and the three DM's all get back into the car and drive off. Frank runs back to his car and follows. Soon Mr. Lu and the DM's are parking on the street in front of Madame Lee's mansion. Frank has followed them and stealthily watches from behind his car as they enter the house. He runs through a wooded area to get a better viewpoint. Inside the mansion Madame Lee is descending the stairs as the men enter. Mr. Lu tells her that Gioretti has been taken care of. The three DM's begin to climb the stairs, rudely pushing Madame Lee in the process. She gets angry and begins to sneer before telling Mr. Lu that she thinks "it's time to take care of those three. " Mr. Lu pulls out a pistol and starts up the stairs, just as Frank is making his way through the trees to the mansion. Mr. Lu enters the DM's room, closing the door behind him. From outside, Frank watches and he hears three gunshots. Frank then slowly creeps up to Madame Lee's door, pushes it open and enters, allowing the door to close behind him. Frank slowly walks up the stairs till he's outside the DM's room. He goes to push open that door, when suddenly it flies open and Madame Lee pounces out wielding a machete. She swings it at Frank, who backtracks and stumbles down the stairs with Madame Lee in hot pursuit. She appears to land some hits on Frank as he grunts and yells. At the bottom of the stairs, he falls out through the front door onto the step with Madame Lee right behind him swinging her machete. Just then Forrest, Farnham and Florence pull up in a car and all jump out. As Madame Lee raises the machete high in the air to strike at Frank, Farnham pulls out a gun and shoots Madame Lee in the stomach. She screams and grabs her waist just before blood starts to leak from her mouth. Florence runs up to Frank and he tells her that he's okay. Forrester walks by them into the mansion. Lt. Forrester climbs the stairs in the mansion and arrives at the top landing by the door to the DM's room. He pushes the door open and there dead on the floor with blood dripping from his mouth is Mr. Lu. Three men in stylish suits enter an airport and go up to a ticket agent who hands them their boarding passes, and tells them to enjoy their flight. The three men turn away from the counter to reveal that they are the three Death Machines. The screen freezes with their image.