Sky Riders (also known as Assault on the Forbidden Fortress) is a 1976 American action film directed by Douglas Hickox and starring James Coburn, Susannah York and Robert Culp. A woman and her children are kidnapped in Athens and held in a mountain-top monastery as hostages by a revolutionary terrorist movement. A rescue operation is mounted using hang gliders. The rescue sequences were filmed in Meteora in Greece where the finale of the later James Bond film For Your Eyes Only was set.
On January 17, 2012 the film was released on DVD through Shout! Factory as part of a double feature with The Last Hard Men.
Plot summary
The wife, Ellen (Susannah York), of an international industrialist (Robert Culp) and her two children are kidnapped from their Athens home by a terrorist group and taken to an abandoned monastery on an imposing, needle-shaped island. Jim McCabe (James Coburn), Ellen's ex-husband hires a crew of professional hang gliders to help him rescue her and the kids from the terrorist's mountain top lair.
Cast
- James Coburn - Jim McCabe
- Susannah York - Ellen Bracken
- Robert Culp - Jonas Bracken
- Charles Aznavour - Insp. Nikolidis
- Harry Andrews - Auerbach
- John Beck - Ben
- Zouzou - Female terrorist
- Kenneth Griffith - Wasserman
- Werner Pochath - Terrorist #1
- Anthony Antypas - Dimitri
- Telis Zotos - Bracken's secretary
- Nikos Tsachiridis - Gatekeeper
- Ernie F. Orsatti - Joe
- Barbara Trentham - Della
- Henry Brown - Martin
Notes
Film's producer Sandy Howard and Terry Morse Jr. were imprisoned in Greece for an explosion on the set of Sky Riders, when a Greek electrician died. They had to bribe Greek officials so the crew member responsible would not be imprisoned by the military regime.
It was also the first English language film ever seen by Bollywood superstar, Shahrukh Khan in his youth.
References
- ^ Solomon, Aubrey. Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History (The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series). Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1989. ISBN 978-0-8108-4244-1. p233. Please note figures are rentals accruing to distributors and not total gross.
- ^ http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/51043
- ^ a b Sky Riders at AllMovie
- ^ Producer Sandy Howard dies at 81 Variety May 16, 2008
External links
- Sky Riders at the Internet Movie Database
- Sky Riders at AllMovie
- Sky Riders at the TCM Movie Database
- Sky Riders at Rotten Tomatoes
