Physicist David Lowell (Stephen Collins) has built a makeshift laboratory deep in Choke Canyon to prove that sound waves can be converted into usable energy. When nuclear power exec John Pilgrim's (Nicholas Pryor) corporation decides to hide a black ball full of atomic waste in Choke Caynyon, they try to buy Lowell's land. When he refuses, Pilgrim's right hand man Alastair (Lance Henriksen) goes to extreme lengths to get rid of Lowell but finds that Lowell is not so easy to kill. When Alastair brings in mercenary Oliver Parkside (Bo Svenson), Lowell kidnaps Pilgrim's daughter Vanessa (Janet Julian) who sides with him when he tells her about the atomic waste in the black ball. With a ravenous Parkside on their heels, Lowell and Vanessa decide to steal the black ball and expose the Pilgrim corporation's illegal activities.

While it might have seemed like a run-of-the-mill low budget action pic when first released (more so with the onscreen British release title ON DANGEROUS GROUND), CHOKE CANYON proves to be quite a riveting film with ambitious stunt and special effects work (only the model work sometimes seems ropey) and a refreshing sense of humor. Collins makes for a likable and resourceful "cowboy physicist" and his retaliations against the various thugs who come after him are entertaining and gratifying. Svenson (who was also in the Assonitis-produced AMOK TRAIN) makes for a great relentless bad guy (though his primary antagonistic presence gives co-star Lance Henriksen little to do than look sinister; Henriksen was also in the Assonitis-produced THE VISITOR forthcoming from Code Red). Sylvester Levay's (better known for his arrangements for other Hollywood composers of the time like Giorgio Moroder) score is well-suited but sounds now very much like eighties action flick music. Cinematographer Dante Spinoetti (Michael Mann's MANHUNTER) is among the largely Italian technical crew (normal for Ovidio G. Assonitis productions no matter where they are shot) gives the film a visual slickness that defies the budget. While the film is a strange choice for Code Red, it is certainly more interesting than some of their other eighties non-horror resurrections and quite entertaining.