The fallout over the case also collapsed Jackson's marriage and put the Harvard Law School educated, star athlete and hometown hero at odds with the public.

He discovers Dellaplane is secretly maneuvering into a "behind-the-throne" seat of power, and has been using a group of assassins, The Invisible Men, to murder uncooperative union officials.

He is eventually framed in the murder of Dellaplane's wife Patrice (who was actually killed by her husband, after her discovery of his plot, and her seeking help from Jackson).

[2]Robert Reneau, a friend of Predator actor and perennial Silver collaborator Shane Black, was hired to write the screenplay and submitted his original draft one month and a half later.

[3] In addition to Weathers and Silver, supporting actors Bill Duke and Sonny Landham also returned from Predator, as did stunt coordinator Craig R. Baxley, who made his directorial debut with Action Jackson.

[7] Neither Weathers nor the production wanted the story to be set in Los Angeles, but the majority was shot there for financial reasons, and most of the Detroit footage was captured by the second unit.

[9] In 1988, Vanity, who played the role of a drug addicted singer, discussed her actual cocaine use during filming: I was a real closet user when we were shooting the movie.

[8] It is the first feature produced and released by the embattled Lorimar following a regime change including the arrival of industry veteran Bernie Brillstein as president.

[11]: 5 (Part IV) Action Jackson's U.S. opening was scheduled on President's Day weekend in 1988, concurrently with two other black-led films, the action-oriented Shoot to Kill and Spike Lee's School Daze.

[12] The latter nearly had its limited release pushed back by Columbia to avoid perceived competition from Weathers for the attention of the African-American public, although Lee scoffed at the notion that the black audience had such uniform tastes, and won.

[19] It actually marked the first time Lorimar had cracked the weekly box office top 10 in the U.S.[11]: 1, 4 (Part IV)  The picture went on to gross $20.3 million in domestic theaters.

[20] The Los Angeles Times called it a "reasonable" performance for the studio, which did not have a track record of theatrical success, deriving most of its revenue from TV series.

Ebert described Weathers as a good actor in supporting roles, but also believed he "doesn't have the necessary charisma" to be a leading man and was often out-shined by co-stars in Action Jackson.

Although he acknowledged the film's commercial potential, he lambasted its "almost pornographic fascination with guns and weaponry" and summed it up as "[b]ad in that dispiritingly well-mounted, press-all-the-buttons way that occasionally pulls in big audiences.

"[25] Among more positive opinions, Eleanor Ringel of Cox News Services called the film a "minor-league action movie" but praised the level of care that went into it, embodied by the casting of distinguished actor Craig T. Nelson as the main antagonist.