Expert: Mel - 6/20/2007

Question
Hi, i hope you can help me with this one.  I saw this movie when i was a kid a long time ago and i don't remember the title.  Here is the plot:  I think it's 2 backpackers travelling in Finland, they end up crossing the border to Russia, and get arrested by the police, or military police.  They get tortured.  I remember a part, one of the backpackers comments on the russian police drinking a Coke or Pepsi, he say's "They drink Coke(it was probably Pepsi) here, i hope he chokes on it". The police hears him and sticks a pen in a bullet hole in the backpackers leg.  They eventually end up in this underground prison where the inmates play a chess game where the pieces are human beings that get killed if the piece they are representing gets eaten.  Finally the backpackers try to find a way to escape and i think that eventually do. Maybe one gets killed in the process. Does this ring a bell?  I hope so! :) Thank-you.

Answer
Hello Leo,

This was the 1986 film "Born American", directed and co-written by Renny Harlin. There were actually three U.S. students who, after crossing the Finnish-Russian border for the fun of it, are captured and tortured by the Russian authorities.

Here are a few links.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/born_american/

http://tinyurl.com/yuk6sl

http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=6729


Glad to be of help. Cheers.......Mel.