The Challenge Is The Forgotten ’80s Action Thrill Ride You Need to See Now
Long buried in VHS dust, John Frankenheimer’s 1982 bruiser The Challenge unleashes Scott Glenn and Toshiro Mifune in a sweat-and-steel showdown across Japan — the leanest, meanest ’80s action gem you never saw.
Every so often you dig up an action movie so buried it feels like you dreamed it. This one is real: a 1982 thriller where Scott Glenn trains up under Toshiro Mifune, hunts down a stolen sword, and throws hands under John Frankenheimer’s watch. It tanked so hard it got chopped up and rebadged for TV. Now it finally looks and plays like it always should have.
The setup: a boxer, a blade, and a family feud
Scott Glenn plays Rick, a worn-out American boxer hired to hand-carry a priceless katana to Japan. The sword gets snatched almost immediately, which would be a disaster if the whole thing weren’t a setup: Rick was a decoy, and the sword was a fake. The real prize is a matched pair of swords called The Equals, sacred heirlooms of the Yoshida family.
Toshiro Mifune is Toru Yoshida, the rightful keeper of the blades and the head of a martial arts school. His brother Hideo, now tied in with the Yakuza, wants the swords for himself. Hideo leans on Rick to infiltrate Toru’s dojo and steal the real deal. Rick signs on, then starts buying into the discipline and honor Toru teaches. He also falls for Toru’s daughter, Akiko, which complicates his betrayal plans. Eventually he flips sides, starts real training, and that pays off when Hideo’s crew shows up looking to settle things with bullets and blades.
Odd timing for Scott Glenn and John Frankenheimer
The movie landed at a weird moment. Glenn had just popped from Urban Cowboy and was being floated as a new leading man. A Japan-set martial arts thriller seemed like a smart next step, except the big Western martial arts wave hadn’t hit yet. Frankenheimer, meanwhile, was a legend from the 1960s (Birdman of Alcatraz, Seconds, Seven Days in May, The Manchurian Candidate, The Train) who’d stumbled in the 1970s. Black Sunday got dinged by politics; Prophecy didn’t connect. To a lot of people, The Challenge looked like another miss.
The faceplant and the bizarre TV second life
It bombed, pulling in just $3.6 million. Then, right after it died in theaters, the ninja craze exploded. The studio tried to surf that wave by retitling the movie Sword of the Ninja, trimming about ten minutes, and selling it to TV. TBS ran that version constantly. Irony alert: the original film does not have ninjas in it. For years, the uncut version was basically a VHS scavenger hunt. Most people met it through fuzzy tapes.
What the restoration fixes
Kino Lorber has put out a sharp new restoration that finally lets the movie breathe. Frankenheimer shoots it like a bruised noir, leaning on Glenn’s tired fighter vibe, and he makes Japan feel lived-in instead of postcard-decor. Rick’s shift from grifter to believer in Toru’s code actually tracks.
Smart choice that quietly saves the movie: Toru never speaks English. Mifune had been dubbed in some American projects, and dodging that here keeps everything grounded. Akiko translates (and becomes Rick’s love interest), which works for the story and for Mifune’s presence. Add a muscular Jerry Goldsmith score and a standout heavy from Calvin Jung (you’ll spot him later in The Day After and RoboCop) and the movie suddenly feels a lot sharper than its reputation.
The finale absolutely cooks
The last act is where it levels up. A young Steven Seagal helped put the fights together with Ryu Kuze, a longtime collaborator of Mifune’s, and the action just moves differently than most early-80s fare. After Hideo kidnaps Akiko, Glenn and Mifune storm his fortress: Toru brings archery and a blade; Rick arrives with fists and firearms. For the stat heads, Glenn tallies sixteen bodies; Mifune clocks seventeen.
The final duel is the money scene. Glenn’s not a graceful swordsman, so he fights dirty, scavenging anything in reach — office supplies, random junk — and turning it into weapons. It plays like a dry run for the prop-heavy fights Jackie Chan would popularize a few years later.
- Year: 1982
- Director: John Frankenheimer
- Stars: Scott Glenn, Toshiro Mifune, Donna Kei Benz (as Akiko), Calvin Jung
- MacGuffin: a paired set of swords known as The Equals
- Box office: $3.6 million
- TV rebrand: retitled 'Sword of the Ninja', about ten minutes cut, played on TBS
- Notable crew: Jerry Goldsmith (score); Steven Seagal and Ryu Kuze (fight choreography)
- New life: restored and reissued by Kino Lorber
So, is it worth your time?
Yeah. The Challenge is a stylish, offbeat action piece from the early 80s that finally looks the way it should. The restoration lets the craft and the performances shine, and that finale still slaps. If you’re into 80s action, martial-arts-flavored thrillers, or you’re curious about Scott Glenn’s deep cuts, this one’s an easy recommendation.