MovieChat Forums > Best of the Best II (1993) Discussion > Was Travis really worth avenging?

Was Travis really worth avenging?

posted 8 years ago by speccy1
4 replies | jump to latest

I trained with arrogant, macho twats like Travis and didn't give them the time of day after training sessions let alone pretend they were my best buddy. He gave Martial Arts a bad name, Virgil or Sonny from the first film were far more respectable, likeable characters that the audience could root for.
I thought there was virtually no scenes at the beginning of the film showing any compassion and true friendship between Alex, Tommy with Travis just Travis pissing off to the Collosium to fight.
A great Action film, and guilty pleasure, but a pointless revenge. Alex and Tommy were too nice.

[–] tenantennae 8 years ago

Hell no. I respect that the guy was their friend and all, but nobody forced him to get mixed up with the wrong people and gamble his life away in a death match.

[–] creatorof2002 8 years ago

A friend of mine pointed out that Travis was not even that great a fighter, I think he was rated below Eric Roberts and Tommy Lee, he might have been the lowest rated of the top five fighters in the first film and he was fat and out of shape. At first they did not like him he was kind of a creep.

He also said that in order to seem REALLY SCARY Brakus should have killed De Han. Some plot device like financial desperation could be used to get De Han in the ring with him. Killing De Han would REALLY have made him seem scary.

I wonder how Brakus would have done against DeHan? My money would be on Brakus just because Tommy Lee had evolved beyond De Han (I would totally put my money on him over DeHan even if at first he could not beat the guy, kind of like how Rocky Balboa evolved beyond Apollo Creed). Anyway, beating Brakus took EVERYTHING Tommy Had, he managed to do it but only by the metaphorical "width of a silk thread". In fact he got lucky, Brakus had him in a lethal and unescapable head lock and was about one tenth of a second from killing him, right as he said "get ready to join your dead friends" Eric Roberts distracted him by breaking into the arena buying Tommy the half a second or so he needed to break free from the death grip and win the fight.

Being inferior to that version of Tommy Riley even if only a little bit means my money is on Brakus.

[–] Whovian_DW 7 years ago

Well travis managed a draw in his fight where the other 2 fighters lost easily. If the fight had gone longer travis would've knocked the guy out. Travis wasn't as good as tommy but tommy was meant to be the best. As for Alex we can't know because there was never a fight scene between them. Tommy sparred with travis in the gym and beat him easily and sonny beat him in the points match at the beggining of the first movie but I reckon him and Alex would be fairly even

[–] averagejoeman2013 8 years ago

Hard to say...I think by the end of the first film he had come around. Even when he lost his fight you could tell he was trying to hold back tears. Some time would have passed...a couple of years at the very least. If they went into business together, they had to have had some good type of friendship. Alex even trusted him to watch his son and you saw he was like a fun older cousin type who wold be fiercely loyal and protective if he had to be; that's the impression I got.

They knew he was no saint and no Travis "didn't dance"...but they also saw a better side to him and he likely was there for them as well. If they could form a close bond with De Han, they could have formed one with a teammate. I do not know how far they could have gone for revenge had Brakus and his men sought them out. Once their lives were in danger, there was no reason to not go all out.

Stay tuned for the documentary: "From Wheaties to Fruit Loops...the Bruce Jenner story"