The Courier of Death (1984)
Directed by Tom Shaw, Courier of Death follows expert deliverman J.D. Blackman (played by Joey Johnson), who alongside his partner Frank (Bill Hupfer) are given the task of delivering $7 million sealed in a breifcase. The briefcase is handcuffed to Frank’s wrist and they go about their job. Obviously such a job come with its risks and the pair soon find themselves being chased by a gang of sweat suit wearing criminals.
Pinned down in the woods a fire fight ensues between the gang and J.D. and Frank. Unfortunately for Frank his hand gets shot off and he is killed leaving J.D. to fend for himself, which he does quite well, gunning down a few of the criminals with a huge machine gun and retrieving the briefcase.
J.D.’s actions anger the criminal behing the whole scheme, Bigelow (John H. Schmeer) who send his goon Carver (Mel Fletcher) to kidnap the courier service secretary Nancy (Diana Bauer) in order to find out more about J.D. Carver. Then then kidnap his wife Julie (Joan Beckerich) and use her as a hostage to get J.D. to hand over the briefcase. Carver gets the briefcase and kills Julie anyway.
Following the cat and mouse thriller chasing, the film shifts its genre to good old 80’s one man army revenge action, when later at home, J.D. gets a call from Colonel Johnson, his old army boss from ‘Nam, with instructions to meet him in an hour. It is revealed that the briefcase actually contained $76 million in bonds that Bigelow wants to use to fund their fascist army. Johnson wants J.D. to track down the leaders and eliminate them, with full protection from the governor’s office…