https://movieweb.com/chuck-norris-2024-comeback-underrated-movie-agent-recon/

For a long time, fans assumed Chuck Norris had retired from acting. The action star had been missing in action ever since he joined his fellow ‘80s and ‘90s legends in The Expendables 2. Norris only had a brief role in the 2012 ensemble movie, but impressed audiences with his hilarious “Cobra died after biting me” line. He briefly resurfaced on television via cameos in The Goldbergs in 2012 and Hawaii Five-0 in 2020, only to disappear again.

For over a decade, there was no word about Chuck’s big-screen status. He simply kept quiet, neither confirming nor denying whether he had quit knocking the teeth out of the mouths of miscreants. Then, in 2024, the direct-to-streaming sci-fi movie Agent Recon was released, starring the iconic action star. It is a solid, flavorful entry for Chuck-as-a-master-punisher fans, boasting a 'slam bang' finish. Unfortunately, there was little to no buzz surrounding the movie, which is a shame, considering that it has a better script than most of his past work.

Chuck Norris Is an AI-powered Android in 'Agent Recon'

Addressing the never-ending fictional collision between aliens and humans, as well as the differences in strategy for those tasked with handling the conflict, Agent Recon is a buoyant, multifaceted work that's as thoughtful, weighty, action-packed, and visually appealing as Chuck Norris’ past hits. Directed by Derek Ting, it is the third film in the Agent trilogy, which began in 2017 with Agent Intelligence, followed by Agent Revelation in 2021. There’s no need to watch the previous two movies since there is a quick voiceover that summarizes what happened.

The film series revolves around nefarious aliens called Kinians, a super-secret organization that is dedicated to fighting them, and a mystery red dust that can either cause the aliens to control you or give you special abilities. The latest installment thus opens with a botched raid, resulting in a helicopter crash that kills Alastair. The filthy rich character (portrayed by Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Michael Dorn in the previous installment) had been experimenting with numerous forms of advanced tech. His people were thus able to take a copy of his brain's consciousness, upload it onto a cloud, and then download it into an android body labeled Colonel Alastair, which looks like none other than Chuck Norris.

Colonel Alastair now leads a covert military task force on a high-stakes mission to investigate an energy disturbance at a secret base in New Mexico. Authorities suspect that experiments with alien technology are being conducted at the facility, so Alastair joins forces with Colonel Green (Marc Singer) and recruits the super-powered rookie Jim Yung (Derek Ting) to ensure the mission is a success.

The team’s fears are confirmed when they arrive at the isolated base. Someone is indeed messing with alien biology, and the camera angles that we get here are particularly effective at conveying a sense of lurking menace. But before they can do anything about it, the gun-totting heroes are attacked by a mysterious entity with extraordinary speed and strength. The figure also controls an army of faceless, drone-like warriors in dark jumpsuits. Movie aliens have never looked cooler, even if their plans are quite bonkers and destined for failure, they remain menacing. These enemy forces quickly overwhelm the commando unit, leaving them in a fight for their lives.

'Agent Recon' Feels Like an Amalgam of 'Predator,' 'Terminator,' and 'Universal Soldier'

Chuck Norris' decision to go the sci-fi route so late in his career is interesting, considering that he wasn’t as experimental as his fellow legendary action stars during his glory days. Silent Rage was the only sci-fi film he had made before Agent Recon, and there’s only about three minutes of science theory in it. The rest is action. Norris also dove into the supernatural and fantasy arenas via Hellbound and Forest Warrior, but that was just about it.

During this period, his peers were busy trying out everything. Arnold Schwarzenegger had Terminator, Running Man, Predator, Conan…. The list goes on. Stallone had Judge Dredd and Demolition Man. Jean-Claude Van Damme had Cyborg and Universal Soldier. Among the era's leading men, Steven Seagal is perhaps the only one who shares in Chuck Norris' lack of versatility.

Did Chuck Norris experience some form of awakening while hanging out with some of his fellow stars on the set of The Expendables 2? Since then, he has jumped from a sitcom to a sci-fi movie. He is also set to appear in the Australian zombie movie, Zombie Plane, later in 2025.

Chuck also appears to have drawn inspiration from the work of some of his peers with his new movie. The movie’s alien-themed plot places it in the same vein as Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Predator. The only difference is the presence of more attackers instead of one. Additionally, Norris’ film is notable for the aliens' point-of-view angles, which provide some of the most frightening moments (and are way more emotionally effective than the overly-long shots of the extraterrestrial). Beyond that, having the actor play an android instead of a human also brings back memories of the Terminator. Let's not forget the presence of super-abled soldiers, which feels like a nod to Jean-Claude Van Damme’s Universal Soldier.

Agent Recon thus comes off as a cocktail of many great action films that we’ve seen before. It feels low-budget, but it delivers similar thrills. Even better, it achieves its objective while still subverting the one-man-army trope.

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