Gymkata
Encyclopedia
Gymkata is a 1985 martial arts film starring Olympic gymnast Kurt Thomas
as Jonathan Cabot, an Olympic gymnast
who combines his gymnastic ability with ninjutsu
to enter a deadly competition in a fictional country, Parmistan. The film is based on the novel
The Terrible Game (1957) by Dan Tyler Moore, and was filmed in Yugoslavia
.
It has developed a minor cult
following as an unintentional comedy
for its dubious premise, poor production quality and strange setting. Maxim
lists the film as the 17th "Worst Movie of All Time". Due to the sensitive nature of the film it was banned in Finland in 1986 so as to not offend the
USSR.
. Parmistan forces all foreigners to play the Game, which is basically an endurance race with obstacles, all the while being chased by local Parmistan warriors. If a person wins, then they are granted their life and a wish. The SIA wants Cabot to win the game so that he can use his wish to install a US satellite monitoring station, which could monitor all satellite
s in space and act as an early warning system in case of nuclear attack. Cabot is told that the system could save millions of lives. As an extra incentive, Cabot is also told that his father (who went missing) was actually a SIA operative who was sent to play the game but was never heard from again.
After a training period with martial arts teacher, Japanese guru
, and a beautiful Parmistan princess named Princess Rubali (Tetchie Agbayani
) he is deemed ready and sent to the town of Karabal, on the Caspian Sea
for infiltration into Parmistan.
While in Karabal, he is attacked by terrorist agents Bolo Yeung who kidnap Princess Rubali. Jonathan Cabot quickly raids the terrorist training center and, using his "gymkata" fighting style that combined gymnastics
with karate
, disables dozens of terrorists before rescuing the Princess and returning to the salt mine where he is staying. However, when he returns he finds out that his handler has betrayed him to the enemy. Luckily, the "special intelligence agency" arrives in the nick of time to save him.
Finally, Cabot and Rubali use a raft to float down the river into Parmistan where they are promptly seized by Parmistan warriors and, after a fight, Cabot is knocked out. When Cabot wakes up, he is in the King's palace and is greeted by other players of the Game who also have arrived to play it. While waiting for the Game to start, Cabot learns from the Princess that the King's right hand man and manager of the Game, Commander Zamir, is actually planning a coup against the King and will attempt to sell the satellite rights to the enemy. Zamir also intends to marry Princess Rubali.
With all this in mind, Cabot starts the Game but soon learns that Zamir won't play fair, and constantly breaks the strict rules of the Game in order to kill Cabot. Meanwhile the King's forces have been overpowered by Zamir's private army in the coup attempt which the King is tricked into believing is a set of security measures for his protection.
Fighting many obstacles, Cabot is the only player left in the game and is about to be killed by crazed villagers when he is saved by a Parmistan warrior who turns out to be Cabot's father. His father explains that while playing the game he fell and disabled his arm, but was allowed by Parmistan warriors to live. As the two are catching up, Zamir fires an arrow into Cabot's father, who in a hushed voice tells Cabot to go on and win the race. Cabot races off, chased by Zamir's army. He is able to make his horse jump a gorge and gets away while only Zamir is brave enough to follow. Seeing that Zamir won't let him escape, Cabot decides to take him on and after a prolonged fight Cabot's gymkata skills allow him to defeat Zamir.
Meanwhile, Princess Rubali finally convinces the King that Zamir is plotting to overthrow the monarchy. Using their combined fighting skills, the Princess and the King attack Zamir's men before encouraging the citizens of Parmistan to rise up and seize the rest. As the crowd takes down Zamir's army someone cries out that a contestant is approaching the finish line. As everyone runs to see who made it, Princess Rubali is thrilled to see that Cabot is riding in on a horse, leading his arrow-punctured but still alive father on another horse. The crowd seizes on the champion and as the movie ends, the audience is informed that in 1985 the first satellite monitoring station was installed.
and Amazon.com
during June 2006, the film was released to DVD
on January 30, 2007.
Kurt Thomas (gymnast)
Kurt Bilteaux Thomas is an American Olympic gymnast.While at Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Indiana, Thomas became a member of the US Olympic team at the 1976 Summer Olympics. In 1978, Thomas was the first American male gymnast to win a gold medal in floor exercise in a world championship...
as Jonathan Cabot, an Olympic gymnast
Gymnastics
Gymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and balance. Internationally, all of the gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique with each country having its own national governing body...
who combines his gymnastic ability with ninjutsu
Ninjutsu
or may be:*the arts associated with espionage and assassination in feudal Japan, see Ninja*modern schools of martial arts claiming to be based in these traditions, see Modern Schools of Ninjutsu*fictional depictions, see Ninja in popular culture...
to enter a deadly competition in a fictional country, Parmistan. The film is based on the novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
The Terrible Game (1957) by Dan Tyler Moore, and was filmed in Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
.
It has developed a minor cult
Cult
The word cult in current popular usage usually refers to a group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre. The word originally denoted a system of ritual practices...
following as an unintentional comedy
Unintentional humor
Unintentional humor is the act of making other people laugh without actually meaning to. There are several different kinds of unintentional humor that arise out of various situations.-Unintended contradiction:...
for its dubious premise, poor production quality and strange setting. Maxim
Maxim (magazine)
Maxim is an international men's magazine based in the United Kingdom and known for its pictorials featuring popular actresses, singers, and female models, sometimes pictured dressed, often pictured scantily dressed but not fully nude....
lists the film as the 17th "Worst Movie of All Time". Due to the sensitive nature of the film it was banned in Finland in 1986 so as to not offend the
USSR.
Plot
Jonathan Cabot (Thomas) is approached by the Special Intelligence Agency (SIA) to play "the Game". The Game is an athletic competition in the fictional country of Parmistan, a tiny mountain nation which is supposedly located in the Hindu Kush mountain rangeHindu Kush
The Hindu Kush is an mountain range that stretches between central Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. The highest point in the Hindu Kush is Tirich Mir in the Chitral region of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.It is the westernmost extension of the Pamir Mountains, the Karakoram Range, and is a...
. Parmistan forces all foreigners to play the Game, which is basically an endurance race with obstacles, all the while being chased by local Parmistan warriors. If a person wins, then they are granted their life and a wish. The SIA wants Cabot to win the game so that he can use his wish to install a US satellite monitoring station, which could monitor all satellite
Satellite
In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
s in space and act as an early warning system in case of nuclear attack. Cabot is told that the system could save millions of lives. As an extra incentive, Cabot is also told that his father (who went missing) was actually a SIA operative who was sent to play the game but was never heard from again.
After a training period with martial arts teacher, Japanese guru
Guru
A guru is one who is regarded as having great knowledge, wisdom, and authority in a certain area, and who uses it to guide others . Other forms of manifestation of this principle can include parents, school teachers, non-human objects and even one's own intellectual discipline, if the...
, and a beautiful Parmistan princess named Princess Rubali (Tetchie Agbayani
Tetchie Agbayani
Visitacion Parado, who is better known by her screen name Tetchie Agbayani, is a Filipina movie and television actress, Mutya ng Pilipinas, psychology instructor and Playboy model. She appeared in a regular issue of German Playboy and a special American edition entitled "Women of the World"...
) he is deemed ready and sent to the town of Karabal, on the Caspian Sea
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. The sea has a surface area of and a volume of...
for infiltration into Parmistan.
While in Karabal, he is attacked by terrorist agents Bolo Yeung who kidnap Princess Rubali. Jonathan Cabot quickly raids the terrorist training center and, using his "gymkata" fighting style that combined gymnastics
Gymnastics
Gymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and balance. Internationally, all of the gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique with each country having its own national governing body...
with karate
Karate
is a martial art developed in the Ryukyu Islands in what is now Okinawa, Japan. It was developed from indigenous fighting methods called and Chinese kenpō. Karate is a striking art using punching, kicking, knee and elbow strikes, and open-handed techniques such as knife-hands. Grappling, locks,...
, disables dozens of terrorists before rescuing the Princess and returning to the salt mine where he is staying. However, when he returns he finds out that his handler has betrayed him to the enemy. Luckily, the "special intelligence agency" arrives in the nick of time to save him.
Finally, Cabot and Rubali use a raft to float down the river into Parmistan where they are promptly seized by Parmistan warriors and, after a fight, Cabot is knocked out. When Cabot wakes up, he is in the King's palace and is greeted by other players of the Game who also have arrived to play it. While waiting for the Game to start, Cabot learns from the Princess that the King's right hand man and manager of the Game, Commander Zamir, is actually planning a coup against the King and will attempt to sell the satellite rights to the enemy. Zamir also intends to marry Princess Rubali.
With all this in mind, Cabot starts the Game but soon learns that Zamir won't play fair, and constantly breaks the strict rules of the Game in order to kill Cabot. Meanwhile the King's forces have been overpowered by Zamir's private army in the coup attempt which the King is tricked into believing is a set of security measures for his protection.
Fighting many obstacles, Cabot is the only player left in the game and is about to be killed by crazed villagers when he is saved by a Parmistan warrior who turns out to be Cabot's father. His father explains that while playing the game he fell and disabled his arm, but was allowed by Parmistan warriors to live. As the two are catching up, Zamir fires an arrow into Cabot's father, who in a hushed voice tells Cabot to go on and win the race. Cabot races off, chased by Zamir's army. He is able to make his horse jump a gorge and gets away while only Zamir is brave enough to follow. Seeing that Zamir won't let him escape, Cabot decides to take him on and after a prolonged fight Cabot's gymkata skills allow him to defeat Zamir.
Meanwhile, Princess Rubali finally convinces the King that Zamir is plotting to overthrow the monarchy. Using their combined fighting skills, the Princess and the King attack Zamir's men before encouraging the citizens of Parmistan to rise up and seize the rest. As the crowd takes down Zamir's army someone cries out that a contestant is approaching the finish line. As everyone runs to see who made it, Princess Rubali is thrilled to see that Cabot is riding in on a horse, leading his arrow-punctured but still alive father on another horse. The crowd seizes on the champion and as the movie ends, the audience is informed that in 1985 the first satellite monitoring station was installed.
Cast
- Jonathan Cabot - Kurt ThomasKurt Thomas (gymnast)Kurt Bilteaux Thomas is an American Olympic gymnast.While at Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Indiana, Thomas became a member of the US Olympic team at the 1976 Summer Olympics. In 1978, Thomas was the first American male gymnast to win a gold medal in floor exercise in a world championship...
- Princess Rubali - Tetchie AgbayaniTetchie AgbayaniVisitacion Parado, who is better known by her screen name Tetchie Agbayani, is a Filipina movie and television actress, Mutya ng Pilipinas, psychology instructor and Playboy model. She appeared in a regular issue of German Playboy and a special American edition entitled "Women of the World"...
- Zamir - Richard Norton
- Paley - Edward Bell
- Gomez - John Berrett
- Hao - Conan LeeConan LeeConan Lee Yuen-Ba 李元霸 born Lloyd Hutchinson, is an Asian-American film actor and martial artist.-Biography:Born in Hong Kong but growing up in Queens, New York as Lloyd Hutchinson he was trained in his fathers self defense, he is best known for his roles in cult kung fu/ninja hybrid favorite "Ninja...
- Thorg - Bob Schott
- The Kahn - Buck Kartalian
- Colonel Cabot - Eric Lawson
DVD release
After winning an Internet poll conducted by Warner Bros.Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
and Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
during June 2006, the film was released to DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
on January 30, 2007.
External links
- Review of Gymkata with animated screenshots at I-MockeryI-MockeryI-Mockery is a pop culture humor site owned and operated by Roger Barr that has existed online in various forms since 1996. Before then, it was a printed periodical called Visionary Darkness. Free copies of Visionary Darkness were distributed in local high schools and record shops...
- Review of Gymkata at BadMoviePlanet.com