Rapid Fire 1989

A former US special agent-turned-mercenary named Eddy Williams, Michael Wayne, slips aboard a battleship disguised as a U.S. Navy officer, where an international terrorist named Mustapha Amed, Del Zamora, is being held. Armed with a rapid-firing, multi-purpose machine gun, Williams releases Amed, guns down many crewmen and soldiers on the ship, and makes off with the terrorist, leaving behind chaos and a trail of destruction.

Mike Thompson, Tim Abell, a former government agent, is pulled out of retirement by his former superior Hansen, Joe Spinell, to help the authorities track down Williams and Amed before they can stage a major attack using the weapon. To assist, Thompson enlists his mercenary friend Pappy, Douglas Harter, while a seductive female agent, Corey Parker, Dawn Tanner, is assigned to keep a close eye on Thompson and monitor his movements.

Thompson and Williams share a long-standing, bitter grudge from the Vietnam era: Williams had attempted to kill Thompson during a firefight and left him for dead, a vendetta that fuels every tense exchange between them. When Williams learns Thompson is still alive, he tries to turn the tables by using Corey as a hostage to force Thompson into approaching him for a showdown.

Corey is kidnapped by Williams’s men, and the stakes rise as Thompson and Pappy rescue her before she is killed. One of the enemy’s henchmen is compelled to reveal the location of Williams’s hideout, enabling Thompson, Pappy, and Corey to mount a climactic assault on the Williams compound.

In the ensuing firefight, Williams’s men fall one by one, and Corey personally takes on and kills Amed as he attempts to escape. Williams, armed again with his deadly machine gun, exchanges fire with Thompson in a brutal clash that ends in a hand-to-hand fight inside a warehouse, where Thompson gains the upper hand. He spares Williams, but Williams makes one last bid to finish the showdown, only to discover that the weapon’s fail-safe has been altered. Thompson’s change to the code causes the weapon to self-destruct rather than fire, and the explosion takes Williams with it.

As the dust settles, Thompson, Pappy, and Corey walk away from the ruined operation, with the immediate threat neutralized and a hard-won sense of closure mapping out the next steps for security and justice.