In the many many years I’ve written about stuff for the blog, one of my biggest fascinations is the journey where TV and Video Games collide. Not just through the typical award show fare, but also sitcoms and police procedurals that feature a video game, either real or fictional into their plots. Stuff like the infamous “Urban Hellraisers” episode of CSI: Miami.
Yes, I know TV shows like these aren’t going to be perfectly accurate about video games. I want to say there was at least one instance of a writer for these TV shows spilling the beans and saying “yeah, we don’t write those to be accurate,” but I’m not having any luck in finding the source of that. (If you know of a source where someone said this, please feel free to leave a comment.)
Either way, I miss writing about them, and I figured now is a good time as any to come back to it, and sure enough, this one is a doozy.
I talked about Soldier of Fortune Inc. back in 2021 when I covered the level packs for Quake and Quake II. These were made to tie into the aforementioned TV series, and were made by Neil Manke, future designer of the critical darling Half-Life mod They Hunger, another thing I wrote about way back when. So I’ll give a quick summary of the show here:
Soldier of Fortune, Inc. is an action TV series produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. Aired for two seasons from 1997-1999, had a name change in season two (from Soldier of Fortune, Inc. to Special Ops Force), added athlete/actor Dennis Rodman to the cast, and then was mostly forgotten. Rag-tag group of mercenaries stop bad guys from doing bad things, akin to a Mission: Impossible or The A-Team kind of show but more your typical 90s action show. Definitely a show that would’ve aired at in the late night hours on your local independent or Fox station that didn’t have a local newscast and late night talk show.
We’re covering the fifth episode of season one, “Alpha Dogs.” Aired in most markets on October 25, 1997, this episode is significant as we feature a major video game as part of the plot. One that considering the future game tie-in I mentioned earlier, makes sense.
Apologies in advance for the low quality images. These came from an old VHS recording uploaded to YouTube in the early 2010s. This show never received a home video release outside of a TV movie that compiles the first two episodes together, which is common in many European markets. Also, this is not available on streaming services as of this writing. Not even Tubi, which tends to be the go-to place for deep cut movies and TV shows, has this. Here’s hoping that changes someday.
We start with soldiers in jungle environments being randomly shot by someone in first person, before cutting randomly away to badly played footage of Quake spliced in with the jungle footage. A super nerd named Jacob Fillmore (David Kaufman) is working for the Department of Defense on the hottest new game, “Alpha Dogs Quake,” before wrapping up the day, starting a “DOD Regional Combat Scenario” that would be the start of his major concerns.
Strangely, it does seem the producers went to some length in terms of getting proper Quake footage for this show. While the show does add in digital menus and scoreboards that aren’t in Quake proper, it does seem to use actual footage from Quake, at least in modded form. The models look different than vanilla Quake, the gun is modeled as if the player is left-handed, which is similar to what mods like Navy Seals Quake did. I wonder if Minh “Gooseman” Le had anything to do with this project, or the producers merely took the mod just to have B-roll footage for their dumb game plot.)
After grabbing his laptop, he heads out to his decked out Lamborghini – because of course our DOD game programmer would have enough cash to afford a Lambo – before luck would have him escaping a bomb trap activated by unlocking the door. We then cut to our mission briefing with Xavier Trout (David Selby) giving leader Matt Shepherd (Brad Johnson) a hard time while he’s fixing a car. It’s up to the SOF gang to protect Fillmore from this rival faction that wants to kill him. Cut to opening title sequence.
I didn’t talk much about it in the article for the game back in the day, but the title sequence for Soldier of Fortune Inc. is so cheesy. Shots of soldiers, the sun, American flags, sided with shots of the cast doing cool action-y things while their name appears in the title sequence. It’s kind of a lost art now that title sequences are required to be like a jaunty jingle that lasts 15 seconds. Fuck that, gimme those 1-2 minute title sequences, I wanna get pumped watching a show, damn it!
We then cut to the rest of the SOF Inc gang as Benny Ray Riddle (Tim Abell) and Margo Vincent (Melinda Clarke) watch C.J. Yates (Mark Sheppard) and Jason Walker (Réal Andrews) are having some hardcore Quake deathmatching. At least, that’s what the fake video game sound effects want to convey, otherwise we see characters fumbling around E1M1: The Slipgate Complex, where at one point a character shoots a switch with a shotgun. Walker wins the match, of which Yates recalls how realistic it is, reminding him of a past mission in Belize. (Keep this in mind for now.)
We eventually cut to the Bad Guys of this episode at the Club Gin-Ro in Silverlake, California, where we meet a rival mercenary faction codenamed Badger Group, featuring a crazed gunwoman named Gabrielle (Cyia Batten). We then see the rest of the group, with leader Griffin (John Wesley Shipp) gives a bit of a pep talk to Gabrielle while she puts together and casually aims a Desert Eagle, showing off her wild and crazy behavior. There’s likely a love interest between these two but it’s not really covered here. We then cut to Cutty (Doug Spinuzza) also playing a bit of this “Alpha Dogs Quake”, with Hersh (Tod Thawley) cheering him on. They realize some of the “Alpha Dogs” characters in the game are part of their own squad that had been previously eliminated, which gives them an idea: Kidnap Fillmore.
The cast isn’t much to write home about, no one special or surprising here. Just your general run-of-the-mill looking guys and dudes. Hell, Tod Thawley as Hersh could’ve been the lanky-looking henchman every enemy gang had a TV show or movie in the 2000s. Just guys with bit parts doing the job, which we respect around these here parts.
Fillmore works at “Conflict Resolution Technologies” – arguably an ironic name for a technology company – as Shepherd and Margo meet with Fillmore to offer protection while the rest of the crew do reconnaissance outside the building for potential threats. There’s a bit of banter between Yates and Walker, which I assume is fairly common in this series.
With enough convincing from Shepherd, Fillmore opts to agree for protection and stores Alpha Dogs Quake on a remote laptop, which ends up being our McGuffin of the episode. Hersh disguises himself as a security guard while Margo, Shepherd, and Fillmore walk out, which leads to a firefight between the SOF crew and the rival Badger Group, causing a hasty escape for Fillmore and co, complete with corny 90s action music in the background.
Before I continue with the summary, I do want to say that Jacob Fillmore as a character is fascinating. He’s got the typical “I’m the nerd, I’m better than you strong guys with your guns” smugness, which also acting like a John Carmack-esque know it all. David Kaufman plays this character pretty damn well. I don’t think he got cast in nerd roles often, but he definitely does a good job here.
Back at SOF HQ, the gang’s intel identifies the attackers as Badger Group, of which Fillmore just casually shows off them being featured in his Alpha Dogs Quake game. While doing this, we find out that Fillmore had dug into classified military information to give accurate representations of Badger Group as depicted in this game. This definitely gets the ire of the SOF gang. They opt to relocate Fillmore to a secure safehouse, while Badger Group plans out their next move.
Eventually we’re at an airfield in Santa Paula, California while Walker prepares the plane for transporting Fillmore. Fillmore drops some info about Walker’s tours of duty, which causes Walker to give Fillmore a bit of guff for just leaking out classified information in casual conversation, whereas Fillmore gives the excuse of “the closest I’ll ever get to an Apache A10 or an F18 is an air show.” They definitely got something right with Fillmore’s character: He’s an autistic nerd who loves to infodump!
Yates then stops Fillmore from intervening with Walker further, escorting him away for a bit of chit-chat as we summarize the opening act. We also get to see Fillmore’s beverage of choice: Jolt Cola! Because of course the nerd would go for the high caffeine real sugar drink, they need the energy. (If this were made today, it would probably be something like an Alani Nu energy drink instead. Most of the nerdy folks I know these days don’t even drink soda.)
While Fillmore once again shares classified information brazenly with Yates, they suddenly get ambushed by Badger Group, showing up in motorcycles with guns. A strange tactic for an ambush, but whatever. Walker and Fillmore hurriedly get in the plane to take off, while Yates provides covering fire from a nearby car.
While Badger Group try to stop the plane from taking off by driving on the opposite end of the runway, Yates does a drive-by shooting and successfully hits one of the Badger Group soldiers, to fall off the bike and roll across the runway, suffering massive injuries. After that goofy stunt, the plane successfully flies off with Fillmore intact.
I’ll admit that Badger Group’s plan is very silly. Then again, this is a 1990s action show that aired in late night/evening hours. Hell, they probably wrote anything just to get people’s attention from the TV if they somehow dozed off.
Back at the bar, Hersh is seen lying on a couch, slowly dying from his injuries. While Cutty tries to sway Griffin to take Hersh to a hospital, Gabrielle decides to “give [him] a little something for the pain,” by executing him with a pistol. This causes Cutty to lose his mind as they’re now down to only three members.
At the safehouse, the SOF gang realize that the laptop Fillmore has with his fancy Alpha Dogs Quake game may have a tracking device on it, hence the ambush on the airfield. They put out a decoy laptop with a different tracker that Griffin and Cutty find while Benny Ray and Walker do recon. Side note: What the heck kind of name is “Benny Ray”, anyway?
While they’re tracking the laptop, we find Fillmore once again leaking the various classified operations the SOF gang have done, eventually leading to the discovery that our cast of heroes have also been put into Alpha Dogs Quake. That Fillmore somehow was able to implement them in so quickly, complete with images and info, is impressive even though that’s not how game design works. Where did he get his game design training from, that guy who published Doom on the 3DO?
While Margo and Yates are shocked at their appearance in a video game, complete with Yates going “This is bollocks, my Aggressive factor is heaps higher than that!” in your typical token British tough guy accent, Fillmore needs his Jolt Cola fix and they’re out of soda. So he does some MacGyver tactics and quietly escapes the safehouse to grab a soda at a nearby restaurant… of which he gets quickly captured by Gabrielle. Great job, dweeb.
Griffin looks more into this Alpha Dogs Quake while Fillmore is captured, where we find out that Badger Group’s operations were being used to test this Alpha Dogs Quake idea, of which Fillmore says “Every programmer needs beta testers.”
So if I’m understanding this correctly, Fillmore is using real life combat scenarios to help test his military-themed video game. Honestly that seems more evil than the mercenaries just doing real life combat, especially with the countless stories of real life war events being referenced in video games today. It’s almost prescient.
Eventually the SOF gang discover the location of Fillmore, at the aforementioned club where Badger Group was hiding. Margo, Benny Ray, and Shepherd infiltrate the club in the evening while it’s popping off, where Benny Ray is eventually spotted by Cutty, causing a massive gunfight between the SOF crew and Badger Group, complete with a knife fight between Shepherd and Griffin.
Gabrielle returns to check on Fillmore, leading to a standoff with Yates and Walker. Fillmore, who had grabbed a micro-Uzi earlier, and in typical “guy has never fired a gun before” fashion, aims it at Gabrielle while the other two talk her down. He accidentally pulls the trigger and kills Gabrielle. Good job, nerd.
Back to the earlier knife fight, Griffin in a futile attempt opts to bring a gun to a knife fight, of which Benny Ray and Margo stop by returning fire, saving Shepherd just in the nick of time. All of Badger Group has been eliminated.
Upon Griffin’s elimination, the “DOD Regional Conquest Scenario” bar fills to 100%, completing the Alpha Dogs Quake mission. Fillmore immediately ends up deleting all the allocated data, with Shepherd making the typical “it’s not a game anymore” quip to Fillmore as he does so. It’s cliched, but I guess it works here.
Back at the beach, Shepherd and Trout do a debrief, where they mention Fillmore opting to leave the tech sector. Presumably the gunfight shook a bit in him and decided to take up something less heinous, like model airplanes instead. Cut to credits, while the motorcycle guy rolling on the airfield plays in the background.
I gotta say, for a show like this, it’s kinda funny how they wrapped a commercially licensed video game into their dumb TV show plot. Naturally, they did get some of the game stuff wrong. There isn’t a “DOD Regional Combat Scenario” program, nor is there an Alpha Dogs Quake (as far as I know). It was funny to see Yates and Margo compare the stats they have in the game, like they’re comparing their own stats in a Madden game or something. But the game stuff never really came into play all that much, and the rest of it is bog standard 90s late night action show fare.
While they do give Fillmore the right amount of nerdy sleaze, he comes off more as the villain in this episode than the actual villain faction featured here. Using real life likenesses of real people to put into your silly little DOD-funded video game without proper permission is a pretty crass thing to do, and likely could be considered a military crime if it got into the wrong hands. It’s more evil than Gabrielle popping random pills and drinking booze straight out of the bottle while threatening people with a submachine gun.
Despite that sort of… questionable plot device, this episode of Soldier of Fortune, Inc. was a fairly run-of-the-mill episode. A decent little action romp, but nothing to set the world on fire. Finding out id Software even gave them the okay to feature Quake as part of the plot is surprising to me. But honestly you’d have more fun playing the mod than watching this episode, unless you’re like me and you have a soft spot for 90s military action schlock.
Here’s hoping that this show is available in higher quality soon. Hell, I’m surprised Shout Factory or whoever hasn’t scooped up the rights for a cheap Blu-Ray release, I’d definitely love to see it. Especially if it’s the Season 2 Dennis Rodman era.
You know, it felt good to write about this stuff again. I know there’s a myriad of shows that have done fake video game plots between now and the last time I wrote about this in 2013, so maybe I’ll come back to this one in the near future. Maybe I’ll look into that stupid Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode inspired by the Gamergate controversy, complete with Logan Paul as a guest star.
…I can’t believe I wrote those words just now.
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