3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain

3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Sean McNamara
Written by	Sean McNamara Jeff Phillips
Produced by	Arthur Leeds Sang-ok Shin
Starring	Hulk Hogan Loni Anderson Victor Wong Mathew Botuchis Michael J. O'Laskey II James Paul Roeske ll Jim Varney
Cinematography	Blake T. Evans
Edited by	Annamaria Szanto
Music by	John Coda
Production companies	Sheen Productions, inc. Leeds Ben-Ami Productions, inc. TriStar Pictures
Distributed by	Sony Pictures Releasing
Release date	April 10, 1998 (1998-04-10)
Running time	93 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$ 375,805 (U.S.)[1]

3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain is a 1998 American martial arts film. It is the fourth and final installment in the 3 Ninjas franchise.

Directed by Sean McNamara, the film stars only three of the original actors. None of the child actors from the previous films returned for this installment. Victor Wong is the only cast member to appear in all four films. It is also his final film before his death in 2001. It was filmed in Denver, Colorado at Elitch Gardens.

Plot[]

During their summer vacation with their grandfather Mori, Rocky, Colt and Tum-Tum take a test on an obstacle course in pitch blackness. They manage to complete the course, yet fail to learn how to use their other senses, in place of sight. Later that night, Mori overhears Rocky and Colt planning on not returning the next year due to them growing older, leaving Tum-Tum for himself. Mori becomes depressed at this.

Returning home, Tum-Tum also becomes depressed after learning that his favorite TV show called Dave Dragon & the Star Force 5 is going off the air soon from cancellation. During the next day, they meet a new neighbor, Amanda, who accidentally crashes her remote controlled helicopter into their house's window. To recompense, the boys' mom, Jessica, invites her for breakfast and to attend Tum-Tum's birthday party at Mega Mountain, an amusement park modeled after Six Flags. While the kids are enjoying themselves, a criminal named Mary Ann "Medusa" Rogers and her henchmen sneak in and commandeers the park, disabling many rides and shutting the place down to hold the patrons hostage. Medusa and her henchmen infiltrate the park's command center operations and she threatens the park's owner, Harry Jacobsons to pay the $10 Million dollar ransom in exchange for the park's guests safety. Meanwhile, Tum-Tum and Colt want to get an autograph from Dave until they witness and save him from being captured by Medusa's henchmen. Rocky rejoins his brothers and Amanda fending off the men after spotting them on the security monitors. The boys and Amanda realize that the park has been compromised and reports Dave who went into actions. The boys and Amanda use a radio to make contact with emergency services, and the police and firefighters units are sent to investigate the park. However, Medusa and her henchmen spot the police and ambush them, which causes the FBI to come to the park for backup. In retaliation, Medusa orders her Jamaican sidekick C.J., to increase the Avalanche ride's speed level. The boys and Amanda rescues the riders by fighting some of the terrorists with Amanda's special arsenals while she override the ride control with her laptop.

Knowing that they will interfere with her plans, Medusa sends her 3 dimwitted nephews Carl, Buelow and Zed to capture them, but they are taken down by the boys, who uses the park's carnival game and a ride with their ninja skills. Meanwhile, Dave sneaks into the command center, but is quickly discovered and captured by Medusa and her henchmen. The SWAT team arrives and attempts to enter the park, but are stopped by the terrorists with electric fences. In the meantime, Amanda utilizes the park’s main control systems with her laptop to lock the ride access down with C.J. trying to wrestle the controls from her, but not before Medusa quickly accesses the Zinger roller coaster's emergency brake that stops the ride on the inversion. Dave tries to attack Medusa, but she stops him and has her men to imprison Dave in the middle of the roller coaster loop with several guests.

Medusa’s nephews capture Jennifer and tie her to the bottom of the Zinger roller coaster loop tracks, at which point Medusa threatens to crush her if they don’t cooperate. Rocky goes off to rescue Jennifer. Medusa sends her second-in-command, Lothar Zogg out to the capture boys so they don't interfere. Afterwards, Dave, regaining his confidence, fight the terrorists and frees the hostages from the middle loop. Rocky arrives to rescue Jennifer, but he gets attacked by Lothar. After a fight that leads to both Rocky and Lothar ending up at the top of the roller coaster loop, Rocky knocks Lothar off with a yo-yo around his ankle to make him literally bounce out of the park and into the hands of the FBI that are stationed outside of the park. Rocky then manages to free Jennifer before Medusa releases the roller coaster that can crush both of them. Jacobson arrives via helicopter with the several bags of money to pay ransom for Medusa, but Amanda manages to destroy the last bag with her remote-controlled helicopter, causing the money to rain down onto the park and the park guests snatches it all.

Amanda is quickly captured by Medusa, who escapes underground with the remainder of the money. When Dave fends off Medusa's ninjas, she knocks him out. The boys successfully manage to defeat some of Medusa's ninjas until she shoots all of the lights out on sight. After she darkens the halls, Medusa's ninjas fight the boys with their night vision goggles. Despite the disadvantage, the boys overcome their weakness in the dark with Mori's advice about using their senses. The boys defeat Medusa's ninjas, in order to rescue Amanda, who is handcuffed next to a bomb that Medusa activates to destroy the park. They manage to free her, but they are unable to disarm the bomb due to the short circuited power supply. They attach the bomb to a few oxygen tanks with Dave's help to knock off the tank's valves and send it off like a torpedo down to Medusa's escape ship where she and her remaining men. Medusa's ship explodes on impact. Alerted to the explosion, the FBI arrives to arrest Medusa at the beach shore, who resigns herself to defeat.

Now hailed and commemorated as heroes, the boys give the credit to Dave Dragon, hailing him as the real hero, to the press. After reuniting with their parents and grandfather, Rocky and Colt assure Mori that they will not be leaving their training. They also extend the offer to Amanda to come train with them on the following year and she gladly accepts. The film and series end with them all celebrating Tum-Tum's birthday.

Cast[]

• Mathew Botuchis as Samuel "Rocky" Douglas Jr.
• Michael O'Laskey II as Jeffrey "Colt" Douglas
• James Paul Roeske ll as Michael "Tum-Tum" Douglas
• Hulk Hogan as Dave Dragon
• Emily Roeske as Little Girl
• Lindsay Felton as Jennifer
• Chelsey Earlywine as Amanda
• Alan McRae as FBI Agent Sam Douglas
• Margarita Franco as Jessica Douglas
• Victor Wong as Grandpa Mori Tanaka
• Loni Anderson as Mary Ann "Medusa" Rogers
• Jim Varney as Lothar Zogg
• Kirk Baily as Carl
• Brendan O'Brien as Zed
• Travis McKenna as Buelow
• Dwayne Carrington as C.J.
• Pat Mahoney as Harry Jacobson

Development[]

Filming began in 1996. Hulk Hogan, wrestling in World Championship Wrestling at the time, wore a wig for the film which resulted in him having a different hairstyle than his traditional bald look. As a result, he is seen in Halloween Havoc 1996 with a similar hairstyle as he had in the film. Elitch Gardens, the park at which it was filmed, underwent a complete remodel, with all the signs for the park and rides being changed and renamed for the film. However, there are a few times when the real ones are seen in the background.

Reception[]

The film had universally negative reviews and is generally considered to be the worst of the four in the series.^[2] On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 0%, based on 6 reviews.^[3]

Joe Leydon of Variety wrote: Only small children with limited attention spans will be impressed by the lackluster kung-foolishness.^[4] Anita Gates of The New York Times says things are sad when Hulk Hogan gives the most touching performance in the film. Gates calls the film "interminably boring" but concedes it is possible young children might enjoy it.^[5][6]

The Film was later released as a trilogy set along with the 2nd and 3rd films in the franchise, and has since seen a nostalgic revival. Simon of "The Mighty 90s" called it the most 90s movie you can watch ^[7] also stating it had the most complex and impressive fight scenes of the franchise.

References[]

External links[]

• 3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain at IMDb