The year is 1865. Joseph Charlegrand (
Olivier Gruner) is a former French soldier whose best friend and comrade was murdered by an
officer Ziegfield Von Trotta (
Marc Singer) of the
French Foreign Legion in
Mexico. Looking for the murderer, Charlegrand is heading for a
martial arts tournament in the United States because the murderer takes his pride in being a skilled fighter. On his way from Mexico to
Texas some American rogues take him for a
Yankee and ambush him. He can fight them off but loses his horse. On foot he runs out of water and eventually breaks down. Two young
farmers Mary and Cain Parker (
Ashley Laurence and
Ian Ziering) save his life. When the farmers go to town for purchases they are
molested and eventually seriously attacked by the roustabouts of a local
business man Benedict (
R. Lee Ermey) who wants their land very badly. The film's
protagonist returns the farmer's favour by applying his
savate. Yet, it is obvious they need further support. Consequently, he stays with them and even instructs Cain how to fight, so that he might win the martial arts tournament and hereby earn the money they need to pay the new
taxes. But during one night masked riders burn their
barn and one of them loses a
precision dice Mitchum (
Michael Palance). Cain recognises this object, follows the
culprit into town and confronts him. After Cain has been shot dead, all farmers are ready to sell out. The
hero decides he must not let that happen, hence he takes the dead farmer's place in the tournament and tells the farmers to bet all their money on him. In order to prevent him from being successful, his friend's murderer, the
German-speaking
von Trotta (
Marc Singer) is hired. But the bad guys leave nothing to chance and also take Mary Parker as
hostage. Charlegrand manages to cause enough confusion to disappear between two fights, so that he can free Mary and force Colonel Jones (
James Brolin) to spill the beans. The alleged new
taxes turn out to be a
hoax but the farmer's savings are on Charlegrand and so they still need him to win the tournament. Therefore, his final battle with
von Trotta mustn't be
postponed, even though Charlegrand has been shot in the course of action. ==Cast==