''The Ninja Mission'' is a 1984 Swedish

action film The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as D ...

directed by

Mats Helge Mats Helge, stage name of Mats-Helge Olsson (born 10 May 1953) is a Swedish independent filmmaker, best known for movies such as '' The Ninja Mission'' (1984), and he is one of the most productive independent Swedish directors ever, with almost 1 ...

, starring the Polish actors

Krzysztof Kolberger Krzysztof Marek Kolberger (13 August 1950 – 7 January 2011) a Polish actor and theatre director. His father's surname was changed from Kohlberger in the 1950s. He had daughter, actress Julia Kolberger, with Anna Romantowska. Life and care ...

and Hanna Bieniuszewicz. All other roles are played by largely unknown Swedish and British actors.

Plot summary

The story revolves around a Swedish scientist named Karl Markov working in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and his latest invention, an advanced

nuclear fission Nuclear fission is a reaction in which the nucleus of an atom splits into two or more smaller nuclei. The fission process often produces gamma photons, and releases a very large amount of energy even by the energetic standards of radioactiv ...

control system which he wants to gift to the entire world. When the Russians intend to monopolize his invention, Markov decides to defect back to the West, but is held prisoner by the

KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...

. In order to force his cooperation, the KGB plots to kidnap his estranged daughter Nadia. However, the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

has foreseen this eventuality and assigned Mason, one of their agents, and his team of

ninja A , or was a spy and infiltrator in pre-modern Japan. The functions of a ninja included siege and infiltration, ambush, reconnaissance, espionage, deception, and later bodyguarding.Kawakami, pp. 21–22 Antecedents may have existed as ear ...

s to protect her and reunite her with her father upon his covert extraction. After foiling a KGB attempt to kidnap Nadia, Mason explains his mission and her importance in it to her, but Nadia remains skeptical. The KGB agents track her down and succeed in their second attempt in spite of Mason's intervention. At the same time, the CIA tries to liberate Markov, but the agents are killed by Markov's assistant Natassia, who really works for the KGB, and under the pretense that he is taken to Sweden, Markov is instead transported to a castle near

Kotlas Kotlas () is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town in Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Northern Dvina and Vychegda Rivers. Population: Kotlas is the third-largest town of Arkhangelsk Oblast in terms of p ...

, Russia, where he is placed under the supervision of an American traitor named Ableman. Markov has hidden the formula for his invention within the text of a romance novel, with only him knowing the method of how to decode it. Nadia is taken to the fortress and is reunited with her father, and with her presence Markov starts completing his formula, unaware that he is marked for liquidation once he is finished. Mason's boss Daniels sends him and his ninjas to Russia to extract the Markovs, accompanied by sleeper agent Mikail Butkovsky and equipped with high-tech commando weaponry. After the team infiltrates the castle, Mason approaches Markov and reveals the Soviets' deception before he is detected and captured. Markov refuses to complete his work, but is forced to relent when Ableman orders Nadia to be tortured. Mason is freed by his team, but before they can reach Markov, the professor is killed during a rash attempt to wrest a gun from Natassia. Taking Nadia and the completed printouts with them, they set explosive charges and fight their way out of the compound. Ableman takes up the chase, which ends in a massive firefight at a roadblock near the Swedish border, in which course all but Mason and Nadia are killed. Surprisingly, Daniels shows up, and it is revealed that Ableman has cut a deal with him: Markov's formula for his return to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Angered at the duplicity, Mason pretends to tear up the formula, whereupon Daniels fires him and leaves in disgust. Once he is gone, Mason gives the real papers to Nadia, who burns them.

Cast

(credited as Christofer Kohlberg) as Mason * Hanna Bieniuszewicz (Hanna Pola) as Nadia * Bo Munthe (Bo F. Munthe) as Hansen * Curt Broberg (Curt Brober) as Professor Markov * Hans Rosteen as Ableman * John Quantz (John Quantz von Ills) as Johnny * Sirka Sander as Natassia Kayensky * Mark Davies as Mikhail "Mike" Butkovsky * Wolff Lindner (Wolf Linder) as Daniels * Mats Helge Olsson (Mats Helge) as Ivan * Leo Adolfsson as Brett * Brett Barber as Tom

Production

Bo F. Munthe claimed that Charles Aperia got the idea for the film after he saw a brief draft for a novel Munthe he was working on, entitled ''Ninja-mördare i svart'' (''Ninja Assassin in Black''). Filming took place in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

(Havregatan),

Lidköping Lidköping () is a locality and the seat of Lidköping Municipality in Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had about 40,000 inhabitants in 2021. It is situated on the southern shore of Lake Vänern and sometimes refers to itself as "Lidkö ...

s city hospital and harbour (with the former acting as the Leningrad institute), as well as the

Halden Halden (), between 1665 and 1928 known as Fredrikshald, is both a List of cities in Norway, town and a Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Østfold Counties of Norway, county, Norway. The municipality borders Sarpsborg to the northwest, R ...

fortress in Norway (acting as the fake UN building used by the

Reception

Although the film had a very modest release in its native Sweden, ''The Ninja Mission'' did well on the foreign market. It was released in 54 countries and achieved cult status in many Asian countries.Gustaffson and Kääpä, pg. 11.

Releases

As of February 2013, there has not been any legitimate

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

release of the movie, due to objections by Mats Helge. An underground DVD edition has however been made available on Swedish markets by the distributor Horsecreek Entertainment, whose CEO Charles Aperia also served as the film's producer. The DVD edition is uncut and features dubbed English audio with optional Swedish subtitles.

Sources

* ''Regissören som försvann - Historien om The Ninja Mission'', SVT, 13 September 2013.
''Youtube'' video link
* Tommy Gustaffson and Pietari Kääpä (eds.). ''Nordic Genre Film: Small Nation Film Cultures in the Global Marketplace''. Edinburgh University Press, 2015. . * Mrozewicz, Anna Estera. ''Beyond Eastern Noir: Reimagining Russia and Eastern Europe in Nordic Cinemas''. Edinburgh University Press, 2018. .

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ninja Mission, The 1984 action films 1984 films English-language Swedish films Ninja films Japan in non-Japanese culture Swedish action films 1980s English-language films 1980s Swedish films English-language action films