Sub Zero

The world is threatened when terrorists steal a mysterious cube-like device which controls a powerful, laser beam firing, satellite.

However, when making their escape with the gizmo the terrorists have the misfortune to crash on one of the world’s highest mountains, K2.

Keen to regain their cutting-edge weapons-tech, world powers assemble a team of elite climbers and scientists (with incredibly dodgy Russian accents) are assembled to recover the cube.

For some reason - I’ll confess this low quality film didn’t have my full attention - the mountains neighbouring K2 are fortified with artillery guns.

As our team of heroes climb the mountain a saboteur intent on stopping them fires the artillery guns to start an avalanche. Along with creating snowy chaos the artillery also takes out a helicopter that happens to be hovering nearby with a direct hit.

Verdict

Perfunctory. The helicopter explodes in ‘blink and you’ll miss it fashion’. Completely consumed in a brief orange glow, there’s no outward explosion of wreckage.

Rather than get the hell out of Dodge, the helicopter pilot who is hovering in front of the guns as they start firing - decides to slowly manoeuvre round in front of one of them to conveniently enable its conflagration.

Number of helicopters

1

Relevance to plot

Entirely pointless. In classic exploding helicopter fashion there’s absolutely no reason why a helicopter had be destroyed in this scene.

Whilst there’s no doubt helicopters would be used by any military force operating in these mountains, there has to be a question mark as to whether they would be able to fly at this sort of altitude.

Artistic merit

Dismal. The director - schlock master Jim Wynorski - disappears the chopper in a moment of z-grade CGI. It’s far more rewarding to spend some time browsing Wynorski’s eclectic CV, which takes in exploitation titles like The Witches of Breastwicke, The Bare Wench Project and The Hills Have Thighs to schlock like Ghoulies IV, The Return of Swamp Thing and Chopping Mall.

Exploding helicopter innovation

The highest recorded altitude for a helicopter explosion.

Positives

Pointless and unnecessary, the exploding helicopter does at least tick a box in this otherwise poor film.

Negatives

Brief and unsatisfying.

Review by: Jafo