American Ninja
1985 filmWikipedia
139
MENTIONS
26
EPISODES
24
PODCASTS
Search complete. 139 mentions across 26 episodes found for "American Ninja".
Sep 25, 2026
Adam O'BrienHOST
It's just some of the, the other ones he's done.
Adam O'BrienHOST
Red Sun Rising, Ninja Turf, uh, he did some of the American Ninja films, Robo Warriors, Hidden Tiger, uh, Mission of Justice, Martial Law, um, Night Hunter, Best of the Best.
Adam O'BrienHOST
One of the better ones, uh, The Perfect Weapon as well.
Adam O'BrienHOST
You'll, uh, will see him fighting, uh, Jeff Speakman in that one too.
SeanHOST
And like, yes, smaller, even in some ways, like more poorly acted than so much of the actual canon trash that Tyler and I watch.
TylerHOST
This ain't American Ninja,
SeanHOST
baby.
Chris MillerGUEST
That's a likable character.
20 MINS LATER
Chris MillerGUEST
That was like the cool, that seemed like the coolest gun.
Chris MillerGUEST
As
SeanHOST
Tyler pointed out when we were watching American Ninja recently, though, the Uzi as offered forth in the, especially in the Golden Globus orbit.
TylerHOST
Delta Force.
Jason WoodHOST
Like all of those were way too good.
Jason WoodHOST
So it had to – it was more like American Ninja, Gymkata.
Jason WoodHOST
Gymkata is good.
Jason WoodHOST
Let me ask you
Simon BrewHOST
[laughs]
Adam RandallGUEST
You know, with American Ninja and-
Simon BrewHOST
Yeah
Adam RandallGUEST
...
Jeff CurranGUEST
I was big into like army movies.
Jeff CurranGUEST
I was big into like, you know, remember American Ninja?
Matt SerraHOST
Yes.
Matt SerraHOST
Oh, dude.
Sam PanicoHOST
I was all excited.
Sam PanicoHOST
I'm like, that's American Ninja.
Sam PanicoHOST
He was Cannon's hope, too.
Sam PanicoHOST
He was going to be the guy for Cannon.
JohnHOST
And on a thankfully more cheerful note, Michael Dudikoff is in this movie as Beverly's boyfriend, Willard.
JohnHOST
Dudikoff was just starting his acting career at the time, transitioning from the modeling work he did in the '70s, but in 1985 he'd break big, or at least be movie big, with the movie American Ninja, which spawned multiple sequels and made him an instant action star.
JohnHOST
He wound up in Platoon Leader, The Human Shield, Chain of Command, Bounty Hunters, Freedom Strike, Black Thunder, The Silencer, and Gale Force, presumably opposite Gale, the spunky teenager from the D&D Beyond ad segments on Critical Role.
JohnHOST
And when the action movies eventually dried up, he went into real estate, although he's since come back around thanks to '80s nostalgia, and he's gotten roles in modern action films like Navy Seals vs. Zombies.
Peter ShamshiriHOST
There's something weird about being an adult and believing that that was real, you know what I mean?
Michael LiroffHOST
There was a string of movies in the '80s and the early '90s called American Ninja about, uh, a troop who's also a ninja, and there's a different ninja syndicate cartel, like-
Peter ShamshiriHOST
Right
Michael LiroffHOST
... evil organization in every one.
SeanHOST
[laughs] Some of them hit and some of them don't.
SeanHOST
We're here exploring, uh, childhood, uh, wonder and fear through cinema, and, uh, we just had a screening [laughs] in the studio, so to speak- Yeah ... of 1985's American Ninja.
SeanHOST
And I guess I would start by saying, kind of talking about how, like, ubiquitous, like, ninja culture was around this time.
SeanHOST
Oh, yeah, I mean, in the mid-'80s there wa- if you were a young boy, there was almost nothing in the world cooler than a ninja.
SeanHOST
Yeah.
SeanHOST
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SeanHOST
So I mean, so th- th- this definitely was well in full swing by the time we got to American Ninja- Yes ...
SeanHOST
in '85.
Shai KormanHOST
So when I'm, when we're making a movie, I tend to watch things that are like very off the beaten path of what we're doing.
Shai KormanHOST
But for this particular time, I was quite fascinated overall, just with watching movies from Canon films, which is of course the Golan and Globus, like indie renegade, like everything from Anyways, the American Ninja movie is breaking.
Shai KormanHOST
And so I did watch a bunch of Chuck Norris movies this summer, and I'd never really seen the Chuck Norris oeuvre.
Shai KormanHOST
And so on the plane, so I watched this one movie called Avenging Force that Chuck Norris is not in.
Shai KormanHOST
I think he was offered a role in, but he decided not to do.
Shai KormanHOST
So they got Michael Dudikoff, who's the American Ninja, And that was A, super dark, and B, is clearly set up for a sequel right at the end.
Shai KormanHOST
And then there's a freeze frame and it just ends in true Canon Films fashion.
Shai KormanHOST
And that was okay.
16 more episodes mention American Ninja.
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