Universal Soldier: The Return (1999)

The "universal soldiers" must fight the whole army. When the military's supercomputer S.E.T.H gets out of control

Director:

Mic Rodgers

Writers:

Richard Rothstein (characters), Christopher Leitch (characters)

Stars:

Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bill Goldberg, Heidi Schanz

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jean-Claude Van Damme	...	Luc
Michael Jai White	...	SETH
Heidi Schanz	...	Erin
Xander Berkeley	...	Dylan Cotner
Justin Lazard	...	Capt. Blackburn
Kiana Tom	...	Maggie
Daniel von Bargen	...	General Radford
James Black	...	Sergeant Morrow
Karis Paige Bryant	...	Hillary
Bill Goldberg	...	Romeo
Brent Anderson	...	2nd Technician
Brent Hinkley	...	Squid
Woody Watson	...	RL Gate Guard
Jacqueline Klein	...	Betty Wilson
Maria Arita	...	Kitty Anderson

Storyline

Luc Devereaux, the only surviving member of the original Universal Soldier Team. He now works with Dylan Cotner, on a project to create and improve a new Universal Soldier. Their plan is for the Universal soldier or UNISOLS to be controlled by a computer they call SETH. When the government decides to terminate the project, which includes shutting down SETH. SETH, not wanting this to happen, takes steps to prevent this. He first kills Dylan. He then has himself transfered into a body. He then seeks out Luc Devereaux, who is the only person who knows the code that will stop his program from being deleted. So he sends out all the UNISOLS to get him. Luc must try and stay away until SETH program is deleted. But SETH has targeted his daughter as possible leverage.

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Plot Keywords:

time bomb | computer | combat | general | reporter | 

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Taglines:

Prepare to become obsolete

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Genres:

Action | Sci-Fi

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for nonstop strong violence, and for language and nudity

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 August 1999 (USA)

Also Known As:

Universal Soldier IV

Filming Locations:

3458 Old Buena Vista Rd, Waxahachie, Texas, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$45,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$4,605,167, 22 August 1999, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$10,431,220, 26 September 1999

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$19,912,120, 10 November 2000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Baumgarten-Prophet Entertainment, IndieProd Company Productions, Long Road Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

83 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

(At around one hour and six minutes) When Bill Goldberg's character Romeo tears his shirt off, and starts to fight with the security guards, he uses one of his signature wrestling moves, the spear.

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Goofs

(at around 1h 11 mins) During the "control room" battle, the regeneration chamber computer flashes "HEALING COMPLETE" during the shot showing the code has been broken - but later, the healing is not yet complete.

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Quotes

[during a training exercise in the swamp, Luc and Maggie look back and see a UniSol waterskiing off the back of their boat]
Maggie: [clearly impressed] He's good.
Luc Deveraux: [clearly unimpressed] He's stupid.
[Luc cuts the line and the UniSol falls into the river]

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Alternate Versions

The German version was cut for violence to secure a 'Not under 16' rating. This version was released on video, the video sleeve carries the note "Original Cinema version". The uncut version has been released to video shops and DVD and is rated 'Not under 18'.

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Connections

Followed by Universal Soldier: Regeneration (2009)

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Soundtracks

Never Felt So Much
Written by Diana Williamson (as Diana M. Williamson) and Allan Soberman
Performed by Diana Williamson
Courtesy of Heavy Hitters

User Reviews

Lots of kickboxing

Jean-Claude Van Damme has been in about a film a year for 15 years now, and has been the star performer in those films since 1985's No Retreat, No Surrender.

That's no mean achievement and shows that this action movie star has a market for his skills, as limited as they might be. The formula isn't Van Damme's alone but he's certainly the most prolific of the action movie stars.

Silvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzennegger, Steven Segal, Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan are the best known of the action stars but with the exception of Chan, Van Damme is the one who seems to be still most actively in the business. And these sorts of films are much less popular than they used to be.

Jean-Claude is a terrible actor and his film world is simplistic. One can only assume that his fans wish that the real world was like his.

The scenario almost invariably includes lots of hand to hand fighting, silly women and often children who need defending. The plots are stupid and concocted only to allow Jean-Claude to fight a lot and to show his sensitive side as he protects the women and/or children.

The mushy bits, accompanied by appropriate music, aren't ever romantic, Jean Claude could never manage that, but they serve to depict this action man as being a reluctant hero. He only beats people up, firstly because he can, but secondly because he has to.

His best film so far, of the ones I've seen, was the John Woo directed Hard Target (1993) which had many stylish touches, often in slow motion, which accentuated the admirable Van Damme gracefulness.

I think the worst was Double Impact which unfortunately doubled the torture - there were two characters in the film played by the Muscles From Brussels.

And the famous, universal, Van Damme bum shot, the scene where we get to see Jean-Claude's tastefully lit posterior, happens early on in Universal Soldier 2. So if you like you can leave early.

Universal Soldier follows the formula. Actually I think that his fans will like this one. There's plenty of kick boxing.