The established screen persona of Robert Urich, as a tough but still nice guy, is utilized to advantage in this action film that offers some components uncommon for the genre: the lead character is paraplegic and the setting is Barcelona. Nick Sastre (Urich), an FBI operative of partly Catalan descent, has retired due to an incident of which he was a participant wherein a young boy was shot to death in New York City, but is lured back to handle an assignment requiring that he go to Barcelona, his cover being as a criminal broker in an attempt to prevent a Spanish drugs and arms dealer named Aldo Testi from expanding his business into the United States. While a guest of Testi at a Los Angeles night club, Sastre is suddenly shot and, as the round has lodged in his spine, he suffers lower body paralysis, but insists upon retaining his assignment in his resolution to bring the crime lord to heel and returns to Spain to do so where, during his search for his unknown assailant, he uncovers a pending sale by Testi of stolen nuclear war heads to a political group. Sastre's efforts to adapt to his disability are presented well and include an interesting scene of real life wheelchair bound self-defense expert Ron Scanlon instructing Sastre in uncustomary use of his chair; and although public access difficulties are ignored as are vehicle adaptation devices for motorist Sastre, his conflict with depression is insightfully treated through Urich's characterization in a work stuffed with incident. Urich performs ably as do the supporting players, in particular Dakin Matthews as Nick's FBI overseer, and the accomplished Catalonian actress Assumpta Serna, cast as mistress of Testi, but acting laurels go to the splendid Ariadna Gil for her sterling performance as a new lover for the stricken Sastre. The script has weaknesses a-plenty but production values are high enough so that a viewer tends to minify them, and the primarily director-for-television Gary Nelson briskly moves the action, handling his extras very nicely; dialogue contains above average interest for the most part, while cinematographer Neil Roach and composer Phil Marshall each shares with us in his own manner the beauties of Barcelona, where the entire film is shot but for stock footage.
