The Dirty Dozen: The Fatal Mission

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The Dirty Dozen: The Fatal Mission
Official DVD cover
Genre	Action Adventure War
Written by	Mark Rodgers
Directed by	Lee H. Katzin
Starring	Telly Savalas Ernest Borgnine Hunt Block Matthew Burton Alex Cord Heather Thomas Erik Estrada Ernie Hudson
Music by	John Cacavas
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
Production
Producer	Mel Swope
Production location	Zagreb, Croatia
Cinematography	Tomislav Pinter
Editors	Leon Carrere Richard E. Rabjohn
Running time	94 min.
Production companies	MGM/UA Television RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana Jadran Film
Original release
Network	NBC
Release	February 14, 1988 (1988-02-14)

The Dirty Dozen: The Fatal Mission is a 1988 made-for-TV film^[1] directed by Lee H. Katzin, and is the third sequel to the 1967 Robert Aldrich film The Dirty Dozen. It features an all-new "dirty dozen", with the exception of the returning Joe Stern, under the leadership of Major Wright (played by Telly Savalas). The plot concerns Major Wright and his convict commando squad attempting to stop 12 top Nazis, who are trying to organize a Fourth Reich.

Major Wright leads a group of commandos in Nazi-occupied Denmark to meet up with a informant, Carl Ludwig. As Ludwig appears, he is actually being followed by a German patrol. Ludwig is shot, and before he succumbs to his wounds, Ludwig utters the phrase, "vierundzwanzig, zwanzig" (2420), which Major Wright does not understand.

Back in England, Major Wright, Major General Worden, Lieutenant Carol Campbell and a British Lieutenant Colonel meet at the U.S. Army Headquarters in London discussing the Germans' plans for developing a Fourth Reich in the Middle East under SS General Kurt Richter who has selected loyal and influential Nazis to be transported to Istanbul and build the new Reich. They will be boarding a train in Munich and will travel along the old Orient Express route in neutral Turkey.

Major Wright is ordered to recruit 12 men from Forbes Road Military Prison for a suicide mission aimed at preventing the train from reaching its destination and killing Richter's loyalists.

Before making his selections, Major Wright is joined by Major General Worden, who reveals that SS Gruppenführer Richter's men will be riding in Orient Express train car #2420, which explains Captain Ludwig's words. Major Wright is joined by Sergeant Holt, who assists in keeping the 'dirty dozen' in line.

The 'dirty dozen' are to take their first and last training jumps at night due to time constraints. Hoffman's chute never opens, and was killed in the accident. Major Wright brings the Colonel and Lieutenant Campbell out to reveal that upon recovering Hoffman's body, he found that Hoffman's chute had been sabotaged. Campbell volunteers her services to Wright, as she had extensive knowledge of various European languages and customs, including Yugoslavia.

On their final day of training, General Worden and the Colonel arrive, and Wright reveals that he believes there is a traitor in the 'dirty dozen' who is feeding information to the Germans. Both General Worden and the Colonel want to abort the mission, but Major Wright convinces them he'll find the traitor. Figuring the Germans will be waiting at the drop zone, Wrights orders the pilots to drop the 'dirty dozen' away from the drop zone in Skopje.

In Skopje, Major Wright and Demchuk meets the resistance leader Yelena Voskovic. The dozen and the resistance group successfully destroying a checkpoint to the railroad, but Munoz was killed

Later on, in Sofia, Major Wright, Demchuk, Yelena and the rest of the dozen get ready for the forthcoming train. As the train reaches the bridge, the 'dirty dozen' infiltrates the train. While heading through the train cars to get to Richter's loyalists, Hamilton and Echevarria are wounded; Demchuk makes his way to the locomotive to seize control of the train, and Wilson and Porter are killed. With the targets locked in car #2420, Major Wright decides to hold them as hostages instead of killing them.

The Germans attempt to block the train, move a tanker car in its path, causing Demchuk to halt the train. Major Wright finds D'Agostino placing a grenade on the tanker, revealing him to be the traitor and kills him. He then decides to attach the tanker to the front of the train

As the train approaches Dranos, the Germans set up a road block. Major Wright orders everyone but the Richter's men to evacuate as the Germans attack the train. In the ensuing battle, Ricketts is mortally wounded and Mitchell and Demchuk are killed just as the train plows through the German road block that destroys the German unit stationed there, killing Richter, and his men in car #2420.

Major Wright and the survivors move out to rendezvous with a British submarine in the Aegean Sea back to England; however, Yelena opts to go back to Yugoslavia and join up with Tito's partisans. Besides Major Wright and Sergeant Holt, the survivors of the 'dirty dozen' are: Joseph Stern, Lieutenant Campbell, Joseph Hamilton, Fred Collins and Roberto Echevarria.

• The Dirty Dozen: The Fatal Mission at IMDb 
• The Dirty Dozen: The Fatal Mission at AllMovie