Deltaforce 2
April 1989,
Chuck Norris is shooting one movie after the other, after his Missing
in Action series of witch I joined #1 and 3, he returned to Manila to go for
more action. As before Maria Metcalfe was taking care of the casting
and it was crowded at Filmore Ave when I arrived. There were a lot of
Filipino people I worked with before and about a dozen western
looking guys who passed the pre selections already. We were about to
be casted by Chuck Norris and his brother Aaron who was doing the
production of this new film with the working title Operation
Stranglehold later:
Deltaforce 2, The Columbian Connection.
They both entered the room and it was pleasant to notice that Aaron
recognized me at first glimpse (it had been exactly two years since I
fixed the shoulder of his 1st
cameraman Joao Fernandes on the MIA 3 set, when we shook hands last
time.) I was lined up somewhere in the middle but he came to me first
to shake hands, with a big smile while he said: “You got a job...!”
Several other guys were selected as well and paperwork/contracts
were to be signed in Maria's office. She had asked me before if I was
willing to play an aggressive Skinhead. Rather naive I asked her if I
had to shave my scull, she smiled at me and said: “That would be
more convincing, Berto...!” I didn't feel much for it, but hé it
didn't want to miss the fun.. It was about my turn to sign the
contract when Joao Fernandes himself walked in and we hugged
each other. He was obviously glad to see me and asked me what part I
was going to play. He smiled when I told him Maria wanted me bald and
he noticed my grin.. “I got something better for you”, he said
and he entered the Metcalfe's office. Within minutes he showed up
again and said: “You are a Delta soldier..”. Well, that made a
difference, instead of 3 or 4 shooting days I was going to do so for
a couple of weeks...
We, the Delta soldiers arrived in this plane.
There was a lot
of work to do, no shootings yet but rehearsals. We had to practice
fighting routines without hitting each other, we had to learn to
always remember the camera angle that films the illusion each hit has
an impact. Fighting sounds would be added later. Believe me, this way
of fighting is as intense as a real fight, you have to swing your
head backwards like you were hit on the chin or get the full load in
the stomach. It needs a lot of reactions and fast moves. The location
for this training was Luneta park, a favorite place to Tai chi
practitioners and other martial artists. I think we counted some 2
dozen guys all together. Chuck and Rick Prieto were our instructors
while we practiced for hours sweating it out at 35C. Fighting and
jumping and tumbling, all of it. Oh, I loved it..!
But these moves we
made were not really the normal daily routines for most of us.
I still did my workouts those days but believe me I felt all muscles
for the next couple of days.. so imagine the untrained guys.
I had some T-shirts printed with my own design.
Cota's (Billy) private jet in which he arrives in San Carlos.
I
was excited. The production had some problems though to get their
hands on the 3 choppers, due to an earlier helicopter accident in '87 on the
Missing in Action set, the government wasn't eager to get them
available. It had consequences for our group, half of the guys were
dismissed, about a dozen were left over, I was still one of them. I felt
lucky.....It took about a week when it became clear there wouldn't be
any chopper available at all.. another 4 or 5 guys were fired. The
rest of us continued to do the fighting routines and several shots
were taken while we were doing our 'thing' camouflaged in war
colors, ready for the big event. Some of the action was taped on
video so it could be watched instandly. I was pleasantly surprised
when Chuck invited some of us to his hotel room to watch the edited results, he
wanted our comments and opinions. It was my 3rd movie with
Chuck and I had the chance to get to know him a little better. He
really was a nice guy, no big star attitude and always willing to
answer a question. And how many can say they sat next to Chuck Norris
on his bed...:-) He pointed us the things that could be done better
or differently. We couldn't do the chopper scenes yet but we continued
shooting the story beyond that action. (that's why some of the boys
who were killed in the accident still show up later). It turned out
to be impossible to get any Sikorsky so an alternative was found in a
small French Dauphine, not big enough to board all of us.... I was
disappointed to the bones when I learned I couldn't join the chopper
scenes, so I was on leave for a couple of days.
SA 360 Dauphin
May 16, I'm home,
news on the radio tells about a helicopter accident on the Chuck
Norris' movie set, killing 5 of the 8 inside. Imagine how I felt that
moment when I realize I just lost 5 colleagues, 4 of them close friends and how close my escape
comes in to it. It could have been me involved in that terrible
accident near Tagaytay, Laguna. The pilot, not used to flying this
kind of heli's, also experienced an unwilling plane that didn't had a full
check up and had been grounded for several years... he couldn't
control the chopper and wasn't able to avoid the tail rotor to hit
a mountain...
This incident
meant more to me than I thought, I freaked out and wanted to quit
that dangerous life. Not much later I got a letter from my dad,
telling me he suffered a major surgery and was in poor health. I went
home....
Thanks | |||
| Geoff Brewer | .... | dedicatee: in memory of | |
| Gadi Danzig | .... | dedicatee: in memory of | |
| Mike Graham | .... | dedicatee: in memory of | |
| Jojo Imperiale | .... | dedicatee: in memory of | |
| Don Marshall | .... | dedicatee: in memory of | |
The full Movie
