 The film was released in the United States on May 19, 1988.Ken Tani (Shō Kosugi), a martial artist and special operative for the American government codenamed "Black Eagle", is summoned by his superiors after an F-111 carrying an experimental black ops laser tracking device was shot down over Malta by Russian forces.A group of elite KGB agents led by Colonel Vladimir Klimenko and his brutal and enigmatic right-hand man Andrei (Jean-Claude van Damme) have been dispatched to Malta to retrieve the device for their own ends.