Best of the Best is a 1989 American martial arts film directed by Bob Radler, and produced by Phillip Rhee, who also co-stars in the film. The film also starring Eric Roberts, James Earl Jones and Christopher Penn.
The plot revolves around a team of American taekwondoin facing a team of Koreans in a taekwondo tournament. Several subplots pop up in the story - moral conflicts, the power of the human spirit triumphing over adversity are some themes (Wikipedia).
According to the folks at the TurboTransAm forum, the 1989 martial arts film, Best of the Best filmed the opening credits at the GM Van Nuys Plant which makes sense considering that Van Nuys is so close to Hollywood that a filming crew could easily be dispatched and setup shop versus traveling all the way to Michigan or some other plant in the Midwest. Another clue that links to the Van Nuys plant is that the film showed Firebird Trans AM being assembled which is what the Van Nuys plant built in addition to Camaros. Unfortunately, this plant and its many blue collar jobs were let go in 1992 shortly after the filming for this movie. This site was completely demolished in 1998 to make way for a retail and industrial complex known as The Plant. I miss seeing the Camaro on the spinning platfrom when driving down Van Nuys Blvd.
This is probably the only film to feature the GM Van Nuys plant unless there are home videos floating out there or official GM videos.
This is probably the only film to feature the GM Van Nuys plant unless there are home videos floating out there or official GM videos.
Below are screenshots of the opening credits of the film which unfortunately does not have any exterior shots. You can also view a Youtube video of those opening credits below.
You can view more SFV Filming Locations here.
Opening credits filmed at GM Van Nuys Assembly Plant 8000 Van Nuys Blvd Panorama City 91402 (or Van Nuys).
The opening credits video below:
And the trailer:
