Born American is an action movie about three Americans vacationing in Finland who cross the border into the Soviet Union. It was originally supposed to star Chuck Norris but he backed out when filming was delayed by funding problems and his son, Mike Norris, landed the lead instead.

A Finnish production, this was at that time the most expensive film ever to have been made in Finland. The Finnish Board of Film Classification first banned the movie, because of excessive violence and anti-Soviet elements. Because of that the movie had to be shortened 3.5 minutes before it was finally accepted for distribution October 29th 1986 with the Supreme Court decision.