General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20264 min read

The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission

The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission is a 1985 American made-for-television war film and the first sequel to The Dirty Dozen (1967), directed by Andrew V. McLaglen and first broadcast on February 4, 1985.¹ Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, and Richard Jaeckel return in their original roles, leading an all-new squad of convicted soldiers on a mission to assassinate a Nazi general.²

Key fact	Detail
Format	Made-for-TV film, sequel to The Dirty Dozen (1967)³
First broadcast	February 4, 1985¹
Runtime	95 minutes⁴
Director	Andrew V. McLaglen⁵
Returning cast	Lee Marvin as Maj. John Reisman, Ernest Borgnine as Gen. Worden, Richard Jaeckel as MP Sgt. Clyde Bowren²
Production company	MGM/UA Television⁴
Writers	Michael Kane, with Lukas Heller and Nunnally Johnson (characters), based on the novel by E.M. Nathanson⁵

Spoilers

Plot

During World War II, Major General Worden orders Major John Reisman to pick twelve soldiers from military prison for a dangerous mission: killing a Nazi general.⁶ The target is Waffen-SS General Sepp Dietrich (Wolf Kahler), who is plotting to assassinate Hitler. The Allies, judging that Hitler's failing leadership is weakening Germany, want to keep him in power, so the squad must go behind enemy lines and eliminate Dietrich before the plot can proceed.⁷ Reisman, facing a court martial of his own, is easily persuaded to take the job and trains a new dozen of convicted soldiers sentenced to death or long prison terms.⁶

The mission includes a training montage, the takeover of a train carrying the general (with talk of gold aboard, used to motivate the mutinous squad), a high-speed bus chase, and a race to an airplane.⁸

Cast

Lee Marvin stars as Maj. John Reisman, with Ernest Borgnine as Gen. Worden and Richard Jaeckel as MP Sgt. Clyde Bowren, all reprising their roles from the 1967 film.² The new dozen includes Ken Wahl as Louis Valentine, Larry Wilcox as Tommy Wells, Sonny Landham as Sam Sixkiller, and Gavan O'Herlihy as Conrad E. Perkins, with Ricco Ross as Arlen Dregors.⁹ Wolf Kahler plays Gen. Sepp Dietrich, and Michael Sheard appears as Adolf Hitler.⁹

Production

McLaglen, whose credits include The Wild Geese and John Wayne's Hellfighters, directed from a screenplay by Michael Kane, with characters credited to Lukas Heller and Nunnally Johnson and the underlying novel credited to E.M. Nathanson.⁵^•⁸ Harry R. Sherman produced, Richard Harvey composed the score (performed by the London Symphony Orchestra), John Stanier was the cinematographer, and Alan Strachan edited.⁵ According to Turner Classic Movies, some shots and sequences from the original 1967 film were edited into the sequel.²

Release and reception

The film aired on February 4, 1985, with a listed runtime of about 95 minutes to 1 hour 36 minutes depending on the source.¹^•⁴ Film historian Stuart Galbraith IV, writing for DVD Talk, notes that it received mostly bad reviews but good ratings, and seems to have done very well overseas, possibly even receiving a theatrical release in some markets.¹⁰ Critics have generally treated it as a cheaper replica of its predecessor, with limited production values and a recycled plot, while crediting Marvin's return as the film's most consistently enjoyable element.¹ On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 22% Tomatometer from one critic review.¹

Next Mission was later included, in high definition, as an extra feature on the HD DVD and Blu-ray releases of The Dirty Dozen.¹⁰

Place in the series

The original film inspired three loosely connected television movie sequels. Next Mission (1985) was followed by The Dirty Dozen: The Deadly Mission (1987), in which Telly Savalas took the lead as an Army major leading a misfit band to destroy a nerve gas plant, and The Dirty Dozen: The Fatal Mission (1988), in which Borgnine and Savalas reprised their roles one last time.² Borgnine played General Worden in all four films.¹⁰

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026