The Belize File - Film Synopsis
A newly wed couple is accompanied to Belize by the bride's father. The newlyweds set sail on a chartered sailboat as the father stays in Belize to conduct an investigation. The newlyweds are pirated by Milagro in his fishing trawler, the husband is murdered, and the bride is taken captive. The father is murdered while in the office of a Belizean log shipping operation.
Penn Gwinn and his partner PZ investigate the murder of the father, their associate. When told the body was found in a taxi riddled with holes in the Belizean jungle, and the body of the new husband was found floating in the waters off Sand Cay, with no trace of the sailboat or the daughter, they combine their investigation of their friend's murder with the search for the girl.
They begin in their associate's office in San Francisco, where two mysterious thugs confront them. They visit a porno theater in San Francisco to interview the dead man's girlfriend. This leads to a house in the Russian River area where porno films are made, and where they discover their old nemesis, Mikel Bear, with an unexpected quantity of grenades, guns and ammunition. They barely escape after a shoot out with several Uzi armed gunmen, and the house is destroyed after Penn uses one of the grenades in their defense.
The investigation takes them to Belize where they discover the ringleaders of a smuggling operation which relays cocaine from a trawler off the Colombian coast into Belize and then into the U.S. through hollowed out logs shipped to the states. The cocaine is taken out of the logs near the California coast, and the Russian River porno house serves as the distribution point.
They confront Morgan Baletta, a corrupt female D.E.A. agent, who dies in a shoot out with Penn; Milagro Barquez who operates the fishing trawler moving the cocaine from Colombia, who pirated the newlywed's boat; and Morri Bund, another corrupt D.E.A. agent working for Mikel Bear. All are associated with the Central Intelligence Agency's smuggling of contraband to finance their 'Guns for Contras' operation, headed by 'Ollie'. Certain U.S. Coast Guard boats in the Caribbean protect the operation.
To protect the operation from Penn's investigation, he and PZ are taken into to the Caribbean on a boat by the thugs who they first met in their associate's San Francisco office. PZ's death is faked, and Penn is left to drown when the boat is scuttled while the thugs make their getaway in an outboard. Penn's escape from this predicament is an interesting surprise.
The climax builds through Penn's rescue of the daughter from Milagro's boat after it has been sunk on a reef by a water borne, machine gun shooting, grenade tossing shoot out near Sand Cay; the death of Hauke and Mikel Bear; the discovery of the relationship of the people involved in the operation, which leads Penn back to Morgan Baletta's iconoclastic relationship with Mikel Bear's wife; followed by a confrontation with the operation's leader in San Francisco.
The surprise twist ending develops as Penn discovers the murderer of their associate is actually his partner, PZ, who was dragging his heels on the investigation from the beginning. Penn finds PZ back in Belize, and PZ 's retribution comes through the final chase scene with a trick of fate that provides a satisfying resolution.
The story involves exciting boat chases, underwater scenes, exhilarating boat shoot-out chases, and shoot-outs in one-to-one situations. Extensive Caribbean scenery, beautiful beaches, and location shots add excitement and authenticity.
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