Final Justice is a 1985 Italian-American action film directed, produced, and written by Greydon Clark. It stars Joe Don Baker as a Texas sheriff who overturns a Maltese city to find the mobster who killed his partner. The film was lampooned in a 1999 episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Now infamous for its poor quality, it is among the lowest rated movies on the Internet Movie Database.
Plot
Mafiosi Joseph Palermo and his brother Tony are fleeing across the border after assassinating a building contractor. They get into a car accident and, after killing the driver of the other car, they decide to hijack a car from a local police station. In the ensuing firefight, Palermo shoots and kills the sheriff. The gangsters are pursued across the border by the sheriff's deputy, a no-nonsense Apache named Thomas Jefferson Jeronimo. He shoots Tony dead and captures Joseph, who swears he will take revenge for his brother's death. As a publicity stunt, a US State Department official named Wilson orders Jeronimo to escort Palermo to Italy. However, the plane is sabotaged and forced to land in Malta. Soon after arriving in Valletta, Jeronimo is ambushed by gangsters and Palermo escapes his custody. The Maltese police, under the command of Superintendent Mifsud, assure Jeronimo that they will recapture Palermo themselves. Chief Wilson telephones and orders Jeronimo to return to Texas. But Jeronimo is determined to capture Palermo himself. With the help of a local policewoman, Maria Cassar, he eventually tracks Palermo to the estate of Don Lamanna, a local bigwig. Jeronimo is repeatedly arrested by the Maltese authorities, but always manages to escape and continue his pursuit of the gangster. Eventually, it turns out that Palermo was in cahoots with Wilson, who had never intended for Jeronimo to deliver Palermo to Italy. In the end, Cassar kills Wilson and Jeronimo kills Palermo.
Commentaries
The film was featured in the eighth episode of MST3K's tenth season. It is the second Joe Don Baker film to be riffed on MST3K, following Mitchell, to which a few references were made in this episode. The version of the film used in the MST3K episode contains a very prominent editing mistake. Early in the film when the sheriff dies, there is a shot of the partner getting killed and collapsing to the ground. Moments later, the exact shot is repeated. This error only appears in a television print, and the original Vestron Video release does not contain this mistake. In 2017 RiffTrax released a downloadable version of Final Justice with a new comedic commentary, distinct from the MST3K version. It is the fourth Greydon Clark film to receive the RiffTrax treatment, following Angels Revenge, Stargames, and Uninvited. In contrast to the MST3K version, the RiffTrax VOD uses the complete, uncensored version of the film.
