''Dragon Fighter'' is a Sci Fi Pictures original film that premiered on January 4, 2003 and was directed by Phillip J. Roth. It stars Dean Cain and Kristine Byers.

Plot

In England in the Middle Ages, a dragon decimates a town, and six knights vow to kill the creature in its lair. In the ensuing fight, the dragon shoots a fireball at the knights' barrels of

gunpowder Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, charcoal (which is mostly carbon), and potassium nitrate, potassium ni ...

. This causes an explosion and a cave-in which traps the dragon and five of the six knights. One thousand years later, in the nearby desert of California, Captain David Carver transports Dr. Ian Drakovitch to an ultra-secret underground research facility where scientists specialize in cloning endangered or

extinct animals This page features lists of species and organisms that have become extinct. The reasons for extinction range from natural occurrences, such as shifts in the Earth's ecosystem or natural disasters, to human influences on nature by the overuse of n ...

. There, David becomes the new

security officer A security guard (also known as a security inspector, security officer, factory guard, or protective agent) is a person employed by a government or private party to protect the employing party's assets (property, people, equipment, money, etc.) ...

. Russian security officer Captain Sergei Petrov introduces him to Dr. Meredith Winter, Dr. Greg Travis, Kevin Korisch, and Bailey Kent. He also meets Cookie, the facility's cook. Ian eventually reveals that he uncovered the remains of a "winged creature". Ian orders the fossil samples to be put inside a cloning chamber and says that the whole animal should reform within 24 hours. To everyone's surprise, the cloning process is completed within three hours. Ian sends two scientists into the cloning chamber to retrieve the specimen, but an explosion blows the room apart. The cloned creature, the dragon, blew a hole in the back of the room leading into an underground basement. David and Greg head into the cellar, and find the consumed bodies of the two scientists. Greg is eventually killed by the dragon. David fires at it, but the bullets barely affect its skin. Later, both David and Sergei head into the hallways to reach the elevator so they can all escape. However, the back hallway explodes, killing Sergei. Having blasted the entire system, the dragon causes an automatic lockdown which traps it with the humans. The creature is

warm-blooded Warm-blooded is a term referring to animal species whose bodies maintain a temperature higher than that of their environment. In particular, homeothermic species (including birds and mammals) maintain a stable body temperature by regulating ...

(much like the dinosaurs) and needs to keep itself cool, so the scientists have to revert the cooling system to lure the dragon away from the elevator. To do this, they need a laptop in Kevin's room, so David orders Kevin to accompany him because he is the only one who can open it. They make it into his room, but Kevin insists that he wants to stay. David leaves him, grabs the laptop and heads out. The dragon eventually eats Kevin. David returns to the lab with the battered laptop. They download the information needed access the elevator into the main computer. Ian goes mad and starts shooting the mainframe, screwing it up even more. The damaged mainframe activates a

self-destruct A self-destruct is a mechanism that can cause an object to destroy itself or render itself inoperable after a predefined set of circumstances has occurred. Self-destruct mechanisms are typically found on devices and systems where malfunction coul ...

system, which will cause the entire facility to explode in minutes. Evading the dragon, David returns to the vent, reaches a storage box and reboots the elevator's system manually. He then returns to the lab and gets the remaining people to run for the elevator before the base explodes. They head into the elevator, the wires of which the dragon fries, preventing it from moving. Most of the survivors climb out of the elevator, into which the dragon breathes fire, killing both Bailey and Cookie. Ian, David, Dr. Winter and her pet cloned dog head outside and start up the helicopter before the facility explodes. However, the dragon escapes by squeezing through the elevator vent, and flies after the helicopter. David calls for backup at a nearby

military base A military base is a facility directly owned and operated by or for the military or one of its branches that shelters military equipment and personnel, and facilitates training and operations. A military base always provides accommodations for ...

. Ian opens a side door to take pictures of the dragon, which knocks him out of the helicopter, causing him to fall to his death. Jets eventually appear, but cannot lock on the dragon, which is too cold for their heat-seeking missiles. The dragon gets mad, blows two jetplanes apart and keeps following the helicopter, which is about to malfunction. David has an idea and tells Dr. Winter to take control of the helicopter. He then opens up the fuel hatch, dumps half the fuel on the dragon, and fires a

flare gun A flare gun, also known as a Very pistol or signal pistol, is a large-bore handgun that discharges flares, blanks and smoke. The flare gun is typically used to produce a distress signal. Types The most common type of flare gun is a Very (s ...

at it, causing it to burst into flames. With a target hot enough to fire upon, the jets kill the dragon with a missile. At the destroyed facility, two soldiers head in to retrieve anything from the explosion. They discover a second lab under the first one and a cloning chamber housing a dragon embryo that grows in size, breaks out of the chamber, and kills them.

Cast

Bio Dragon

While there is no official name some fans refer to the monster as Bio Dragon; another name occasionally used to refer the creature is the "Genetic Dragon". The monster is roughly 30 feet (about half that is its counterbalancing tail) long, 6 feet tall when moving at speed, and nearly double that when fully erect as if to breathe fire or otherwise. It moves in a traditional theropod stance with its long, dexterous arms folded and held near, but not to, its chest; the wings stay tight to its back when not in use. The dragon has the typical horns and spines of dragonkind, but are not too elaborate in design or size. The dragon is a stony grey-black color. It is carnivorous and

. Its endothermic nature combined with breathing out fire is its only serious fault because it needs to stay in cooler areas to keep from suffering from heat stroke or exhaustion, so it keeps near the air conditioning vents in the facility. This would explain why the reptile was living in England in the Middle Ages, a relatively cold place. The dragon can also breathe a napalm-like stream of fire, fly/glide and condense the flames into explosive fireballs with the added addition of having tightly interlocked armored scales that is sturdy enough to withstand many bullet shots, even a shotgun cannot breach the scaly skin of the flying reptile. It can, however, be destroyed by ordinary missiles from

fighter jets Fighter aircraft (early on also ''pursuit aircraft'') are military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the air ...

Cast

Dean Cain Dean George Cain ( né Tanaka; born July 31, 1966) is an American actor. From 1993 to 1997, he played Clark Kent / Superman in the TV series '' Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman''. Cain was the host of '' Ripley's Believe It or Not! ...

as Capt. David Carver * Kristine Byers as Dr. Meredith Winter * Robert Zachar as Dr. Ian Drackovitch * Marcus Aurelius as Dr. Greg Travis * Robert DiTillio as Kevin Korisch * Vassela Dimitrova as Bailey Kent *

Hristo Shopov Hristo Naumov Shopov (, ; born 4 January 1964) is a Bulgarian actor. Shopov's father, Naum Shopov, was a famous Bulgarian actor as well. He is most noted for his 2004 portrayal of Pontius Pilate in Mel Gibson's ''The Passion of the Christ''. S ...

as Capt. Sergei Petrov * Chuck Eckert as 'Cookie'

External links

* http://www.scifi.com/onair/scifipictures/dragonfighter/ * http://imdb.com/title/tt0312640/ * https://web.archive.org/web/20060905232920/http://www.beyondhollywood.com/reviews/dragonfighter.htm {{DEFAULTSORT:Dragon Fighter 2003 television films 2003 films Films about dragons Bulgarian speculative fiction films Syfy original films Films directed by Phillip J. Roth 2000s American films