Shortly before he became the master of apocalyptic disaster with films like INDEPENDENCE DAY, THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW and 2012, Roland Emmerich co-wrote and directed this modest, yet well-crafted sci-fi actioner pitting martial arts star Jean-Claude Van Damme against ROCKY IV star Dolph Lundgren. He was apparently brought in by Carolco Pictures, the same production company behind RAMBO III and TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY to replace Andrew Davis who instead directed Steven Seagal’s biggest hit, UNDER SIEGE.
UNIVERSAL SOLDIER has since become a popular B-movie franchise with two unofficial TV movie sequels minus either star and two official sequels including UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: THE RETURN (1999) with Van Damme and Michael Jai White and UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: REGENERATION with Van Damme and Lundgren squaring off a second time while newcomer MMA star Andrei Alovski takes on all comers.
The film begins in Vietnam in 1969, during the Vietnam War. Platoon leader Andrew Scott (Lundgren) has gone “Brando” on his own unit, killing most of them and using their sliced off ears for a necklace. While attempting to save the lives of two captured locals from Andrew’s rampage, French-American soldier Luc Deveraux (Van Damme) attacks Andrew and both men kill each other off. Nice way to open movie by killing off your stars but this is just the beginning.
It isn’t explained or shown in any great detail but the bodies of Luc and Andrew are declared MIA and become part of a secret, “off the shelf” research project in reanimating the dead and turning them into compliant and fearless super soldiers. It reads like the premise for a great Roger Corman film where Borg or zombie-like creatures shuffle around the battlefield with flame throwers and M-60 machine guns affixed to their rotting bodies but Emmerich ends up using the concept in a more conventional manner by making these super soldiers more human. They’re basically genetically modified, brainwashed superheroes, or villains, like the Weapon X program of Marvel Comics’ X-Men origin. These Universal Soldiers, or Unisols for short, have had their memories wiped, their pain receptors deactivated and all notions of independent thought removed. Their bodies can heal themselves and when injected with what is basically a form of adrenaline or super steroid, they instantly become faster, stronger and more agile than an ordinary man.
Flash forward 25 years and the secret agency behind the Universal Soldier program has begun field testing their subjects in civil criminal crisis that require unconventional tactical solutions. While initially a success, problems arise when Andrew and Luc begin to remember their past. When a TV reporter named Veronica (Ally Walker) is caught snooping around the Unisols following a hostage rescue mission in the American Southwest, Andrew overreacts by killing her driver and Luc responds by going on the run with her. Unit commander Colonel Perry (Ed O’Ross) orders the remaining Unisols to track down Luc and the reporter. But as Andrew’s memories and taste for collecting ears slowly return, his drive to find and kill Luc gradually supersedes the will of Colonel Perry to carry on with a mission that’s gotten out of control.
This sets up the main premise of the movie which is a manhunt similar to TERMINATOR and T2. I would go so far to say that UNIVERSAL SOLDIER is a lesser B-movie copycat of the TERMINATOR franchise since the first two TERMINATOR movies came out before this one and the production company is the same. No doubt, there was a desire to repeat the success of T2 although there was also likely no illusion about Van Damme’s inability to draw in the same audience numbers that Arnold Schwarzenegger could at the time. It could also be argued that Paul Anderson’s SOLDIER is something of a rip off of both franchises but that’s a topic for another review.
The Unisols are rather uninteresting as characters. Van Damme goes through the whole movie acting like a six-year-old who just woke up from a two-year coma. Lundgren at least has his crazy mode which allows for him to ham it up in the beginning and end. Yet this emotionless super soldier premise is useful because it allows action stars with mediocre acting ability to intentionally portray monotone characters while focusing on the action. It worked great for Schwarzenegger too. The downside is that it falls to supporting cast members to give the film a human touch and a bit of humor. Fulfilling that role is once obscure TV actress Ally Walker, who later went on to co-star in NBC’s PROFILER series alongside Robert Davi. She basically fills the role of Lois Lane in the Superman movies starring Christopher Reeves by playing a sassy, somewhat foolhardy news reporter who relies of the strength of Luc to save her when her reporter instincts get her in trouble.
Luc’s need to keep his supercharged body cool, coupled with his complete lack of humility produces some mildly humorous scenarios involving Walker that some viewers, mostly of the feminine persuasion should enjoy since the muscle-bound Van Damme disrobes on multiple occasions to reveal his sculpted derriere.
Emmerich drops other bits of campy humor through lesser supporting characters like a grandma who gets her jollies from seeing Van Damme naked and a geriatric gas station owner who opts to hide in a car trunk as the Unisols destroy his property. There is also a fight sequence in a diner that’s played entirely for laughs when Luc has what appears to be his first meal in 25 years and begins ordering everything on the menu with no thought to paying the bill. This, plus Walker’s routine grousing about her situation that continues until the film’s climatic third act signals that the film isn’t meant to be taken seriously and this helps to accept many of the absurdities presented in the film.
Looking at the plot, it boggles my mind how a private organization would devote 25 or more years to a program of reanimating dead American soldiers without any consent or knowledge from the U.S. government. Then, they expect to begin using these soldiers in very high-profile hostage-taking situations while keeping their operation secret? It would, however, make a lot of sense if someone like former Vice President Dick Cheney, who was Secretary of Defense under George Bush Sr. at the time, had been secretly overseeing such a program. For all we know, he actually did try to reanimate the dead. It’s a fundamental flaw in the premise that can be overlooked, again because Emmerich doesn’t take the movie too seriously.
Action in UNIVERSAL SOLDIER is very good by B-movie standards. There is an excellent mix of motor stunts, live pyrotechnics, gunplay, martial arts, and good old fashion fisticuffs. The Unisols’ superhuman abilities are adequately portrayed in these scenes, particularly during the film’s first major action sequence where they storm criminals who are holding hostages on the Hoover Dam. There is an impressive display of repelling down the side of the dam.
The hardware used by the Unisols is worth noting. Their signature eye camera provides their operators with a live video feed and also doubles as a communication device. It’s never explained or shown what purpose the attachment over their right eye provides. Presumably it’s to give the Unisols some sort of tactical HUD feature but this type of display is only shown on a camera mounted inside a toolbox carried by one of the soldiers. For weapons, the Unisols’ are equipped with what appears to be a .357 Desert Eagle pistol fitted with a laser sight and/or silencer, a Heckler & Koch MP5K light submachine gun fitted with a scope and an M60 machine gun. What doesn’t make a whole lot of sense is that the Unisols are authorized to use their M60s when going after Luc in a motel room with civilians about. Talk about overkill. This, coupled with their vehicle, which amounts to an armored black semi truck, makes their whole plan to cover up their operation and retrieve Luc rather conspicuous. What makes more sense is to see a psychopathic Dolph Lundgren with an ear necklace chasing Van Damme in a prison van through the desert while firing his M60 and tossing grenades. At least you expect him to not care whether he’s busted by police. Sure enough, he proves it at one point when they try to take him down in a supermarket.
No Vam Damme movie is complete without some martial arts action and he doesn’t disappoint, although there is far less hand-to-hand fighting here than in most of his other films. The highlight is, of course, his battle with Lundgren at the end. He unleashes his signature kicks. This and the diner sequence are choreographed, filmed and edited smoothly with clean cutting that flows very nicely. You almost have to go back and watch a movie like this from this era to be reminded of what good Hollywood-style fight choreography used to look like without all the jerky camera movements, wires, CG enhancement, and quick, intentionally bewildering cuts that dominate non-fantasy screen fights in action films today.
Overall, UNIVERSAL SOLDIER looks above average for a B-movie. It had a sizable $24 million budget which was pretty good for the time. There’s nothing particularly remarkable about the movie, especially in the wake of a classic like T2. It’s also a bit hokey in the script department. Yet for anyone who just enjoys a solid, well-paced action movie with a variety of entertaining sequences, it’s hard to not like this film. Van Damme and Lundgren turn in adequate performances and make good adversaries. I’d have to say Emmerich achieved what he set out to do and frankly, I’d rather see him making more lean action movies like this than overrated big-budget flicks like GODZILLA and INDEPENDENCE DAY.
Note: The original cut of UNIVERSAL SOLDIER ended differently than the version released to theaters and subsequently on home video. Read on for a description but be advised that spoilers are included. Everything is the same right up until the point where Andrew shows up to assault the home of Luc’s parents. In the alternate cut, Luc’s mother is shot and killed by Andrew. During Luc’s fight with Andrew, he does not use the remainder of Andrew’s muscle enhancer. After Andrew is killed off, Luc is shot by his father. Dr. Christopher Gregor (Jerry Orbach), the man responsible for turning Luc into a Unisol, shows up with his men. They attempt to finish off Luc but are interrupted by arriving police. A fire extinguisher is used on Luc to cool him down before he dies while Gregor and his men are arrested. Luc is reunited with his real parents and Veronica explains in narration that he later died a natural death by refusing life-prolonging medication.
UNIVERSAL SOLDIER is available on Blu-ray, DVD and VOD from Lionsgate.
by Mark PollardRelated Topics:
Dolph Lundgren • Jean-Claude Van Damme • Roland Emmerich • Universal Soldier (1991)
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