Eye of the Tiger is a 1986 American action film directed by Richard C. Sarafian, and stars Gary Busey, Yaphet Kotto, Denise Galik, Seymour Cassel, William Smith, and Judith Barsi.

Just released from prison, Vietnam War veteran Buck Matthews returns to his small town to start his life over with his wife Christie and their five-year-old daughter Jennifer, but soon learns that it has fallen into the clutches of a motorcycle gang.

[2] For Busey, the film marked the beginning of what he called the third stage of his career, following his fast rise to fame and a period of drug and alcohol addiction that saw his weight balloon to 240 pounds.

Now back to a fitter 180 pounds thanks to swimming, weightlifting and a low carb diet supervised by bodybuilder Franco Columbu, the actor professed to have improved his behavior, and decided to tackle harder edged roles, with Eye of the Tiger being his first action vehicle.

The Reporter ran it, but Variety refused, purportedly because the article contained partially unverifiable allegations by Montgomery about the settlement of an unrelated lawsuit against the makers of Smokey and the Bandit.

Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times praised the performances of stars Busey, Cassel, Remsen, Smith, and Kotto, but characterized Eye of the Tiger as "just another routine vengeance exploitation picture".

[13] Writing for Newhouse News Service-affiliated papers, Richard Freedman called it a "cruelly-made action picture" that is "a mishmash derived from every socko movie of the last ten years".

[1] TV Guide expressed similar disappointment, writing that "[c]onsidering the quality of the personnel involved, Eye of the Tiger should have been a solid action film boasting some good acting.

[14] Ballantine Books' Video Movie Guide was more amicable, finding that "Busey and Yaphet Kotto give quality performances that save this formula vengeance film".

[17] In addition to the titular "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor, the film's soundtrack also features "Gravity", a song performed by James Brown and taken from his recently released Scotti Bros. album of the same name.