The Commander (1988): cast, story & where to watch

Released in 1988, The Commander is an action and war film directed by Antonio Margheriti, running about 105 minutes.

What it’s about. Lewis Collins is back to leading mercenaries on the move in Southeast Asia. This time the cast is unusually good including Lee Van Cleef, Brett Halsey (Cop Game), Romano Puppo (Robowar), Mike Monty (Raiders of Atlantis), Bobby Rhodes (The Great Alligator), etc. Anyway, Van Cleef has Collins go on some random mission to locate a disc with all sorts of valuable crazy intelligence data on it. It just happens that Donald Pleasence, a random government official, hires another mercenary-for-hire Manfred Lehman to tag along and make sure the data ends up in the right hands. Van Cleef isn't taking any chances, and since he is crooked and murders Collins's other bosses quickly, he places Romano Puppo in the group as well to make sure the operation runs smoothly. Collins may not be too expressive but at least he seems to figure out quickly who's out to get him, so the mission continues with lots of double-crosses, twists and turns, and of course lots of explosions!

Who’s in it. The Commander stars Lewis Collins as Major Colby, Lee Van Cleef as Col. Mazzarini, Donald Pleasence as Henry Carlson and Brett Halsey as McPherson, among others.

How it landed. With an audience score of 5.5/10, The Commander has drawn a solid, mixed-to-positive response.

Where to watch. Streaming options change often. See the full, country-by-country breakdown on our where to watch The Commander page.

If you liked it. Fans of The Commander tend to enjoy The Dark Knight, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Inception and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.