The Order (2001)

Van Damme plays Rudy whose father, Oscar is an archaeologist. His father goes to Israel. When his father disappears, he goes to Israel to find him. The chief of police claims that his ... See full summary »

Director:

Sheldon Lettich

Writers:

Les Weldon, Jean-Claude Van Damme

Stars:

Jean-Claude Van Damme, Charlton Heston, Sofia Milos

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jean-Claude Van Damme	...	Rudy Cafmeyer / Charles Le Vaillant
Charlton Heston	...	Prof. Walter Finley
Sofia Milos	...	Lt. Dalia Barr
Brian Thompson	...	Cyrus Jacob
Ben Cross	...	Maj. Ben Ner
Vernon Dobtcheff	...	Prof. Oscar Cafmeyer
Sasson Gabai	...	Yuri
Alon Aboutboul	...	Avram
Joseph J. Tomaska	...	Goldman (as Joey Tomaska)
Peter Malota	...	Amnon
Sharon Reginiano	...	Bassam
Sami Huri	...	Lieutenant Itsik
Jack Widerker	...	Executive
David Leitch	...	Det. Mike Moran
Abdel Qissi	...	Big Arab

Storyline

Van Damme plays Rudy whose father, Oscar is an archaeologist. His father goes to Israel. When his father disappears, he goes to Israel to find him. The chief of police claims that his father never entered the country, but an old friend of his father's was expecting him and before he could tell him more, some people start shooting at them. He manages to get away, and when he goes back to the police chief, he still refuses to believe that a crime has been committed. He then has Rudy deported, but Rudy convinces the police woman assigned to bring him to the airport not to and help him find his father.

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Plot Keywords:

airport | sword and fantasy | religious fanaticism | camouflage | ancient text | 

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Taglines:

Unleash The Power.

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Comedy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence

Details

Country:

Aruba USA

Language:

English Syriac Assyrian Neo-Aramaic Arabic Aramaic French Hebrew Ukrainian

Release Date:

27 December 2001 (Russia)

Also Known As:

A Irmandade

Filming Locations:

Jerusalem, Israel

Box Office

Budget:

$12,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

777 Films Corporation, Millennium Films, Nu Image Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

89 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Steven Seagal was first slated to star, but later dropped out.

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Goofs

When Rudy drives to the museum to meet his father at the beginning of the film, you can see signs with Cyrillic alphabet in the background, plus Ladas driving down the street, even though the scenes are suppose to take place in New York, USA.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Title Card: 1099 A.D. / It was an age of religious Crusades and Holy Wars. After a grueling four-year campaign, the Knights of Christendom finally arrived at the gates of Jerusalem. During the furious battle for the Holy City, a Flemish Knight, Charles Le Vaillant, had a life-changing epiphany.

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Connections

Edited into Today You Die (2005)

User Reviews

not Vam Damme's best, but still good

I've always been a fan of Jean-Claude van Damme, so I've been mad that his recent movies haven't got theatrical releases, while the latest Adam Sandler and the current breed of gross-out teen movies have. I'd much rather see van Damme on the big screen than another teen movie. Although THE ORDER is far from his best or my favorite of his films (those would be HARD TARGET, SUDDEN DEATH, MAXIMUM RISK, and LEGIONNAIRE), it's still pretty good, even if it does drag in some places and has some hard-to-understand accents. But you can understand enough to know the basic idea of the movie, so it doesn't really matter. Written by van Damme, the story moves had a decent pacer, but the direction could have been a little tighter in some scenes. Van Damme is particularly good, and though it's not his best acting (that would be MAXIMUM RISK), it's better than some of his earlier ones.

The film makes good use of its Israeli locations, sexy newcomer Sofia Milos makes a feisty heroine, and co-stars Ben Cross and Brian Thompson offer good support in roles that are smaller than they should be. Unfortunately, however, Charlton Heston is wasted. I kept saying to myself, "Why go to all the trouble to get a famous big-name veteran screen star to play such a teeny, tiny little role?" His part would have been better suited for the unknown who played van Damme's father, with Heston playing the father. That would have been much better. As I said, some parts tend to drag a little bit, but the action scenes are well-done, my favorite being the entire climactic sequence in the underground tunnel system. There's even some funny bloopers that run before the end credits, though only a few; some more would have been nice.

All-in-all, one of van Damme's better movies storywise, and though I'm not sure if I would actually buy the DVD, I would probably make it an occasional rental. Then again, I'm a big van Damme fan, so I'll probably buy it next time I see it just to have it.