UNIVERSAL SOLDIER
US, 1992, 102 minutes, Colour.
Jean- Claude van Damme, Dolph Lundgren, Ally Walker, Ed O’ Ross, Jerry Orbach, Leon Rippy.
Directed by Roland Emmerich.
During the 1980s, Jean- Claude van Damme became a cinema superstar with his action films, martial arts and athletic prowess. In fact, his popularity continued for several decades, always in his niche films (except for an autobiographical film and its plot paralleling his action shows). At this time, Dolph Lundgren appeared as an action star, confronting Sylvester Stallone in the Rocky film, hero of some films, but, with his size, often a villain.
This film opens in 1969, action in Vietnam, van Damme the sympathetic soldier, Luc, Lundgren, Scott, obsessed with the rules, with American supremacy, and madness going into violent action against the Vietnamese. In a shootout, both of them die.
This is a well-used plot, authorities reviving the dead soldiers (as with Vin Diesel in the 2020 Blood shot). In the 1990s, there is a sequence secret squad of such universal soldiers, seen used in a hostage situation at a dam. However, something happens which activates Luc’s memories, his wanting to go home, the hostility towards Scott, and some of Scott’s obsessive memories being revived. The film also shows the background of the military chief in charge of operations as well as the scientists with their technology to keep the universal soldiers active.
Ally Walker appears as an intrusive and irritating television reporter who pursues her curiosity about the soldiers, finds herself with Luc, Scott in pursuit, dangerous situations, a series of fights, explosions, and the more humanising of Luc.
There was another sequel seven years later, the third film in 2009, a fourth sequel, 20 years after the original, 2012.
The director of the original film was Roland Emmerich who had come from Germany to the United States and who for the next 30 years directed a number of very popular blockbusters including Independence Day, The Day after Tomorrow, The Patriot (and, surprisingly, the very enjoyable speculation about the true authorship of Shakespeare’s plays, Anonymous).
1. The popularity of the film? The stars? Action show? The later sequels?
2. The plausibility of the plot? Reviving dead soldiers? Special squads and special missions? The science? The technology? The continued work of the technicians, revival?
3. The opening in Vietnam, 1969, audience memories of war and atrocities, American madness, the conflict between Luc and Scott? The people in the village? Scott and his obsession about rules? Luc and his wanting to get home? Guns, deaths?
4. The transition to the 90s? The hostage situation at the dam? The squad coming in? Colonel Perry in command, the technicians, Woodward and his associates? Luc and Scott as part of the squad? In readiness, physical condition? The eyepiece? Communication with them? Going to action, down the dam walls, confronting the criminals, shooting them, the rescue?
5. Veronica, always late, self-confident, on-screen, her cameraman? The media, the interviews, wanting to get news? Veronica, her assertion, at the base, with the planes, her being pursued?
6. The universal soldiers going back to base, restored? The effect on Luc, coming to more human consciousness? Scott and his remembering? The hostility?
7. The action of the film, Luc and his becoming more human, wanting to go home, encountering Veronica, the pursuit, the hotel, his physical condition, his being shot, the need for ice, his recovery? The continued travel, the donor, is beginning to beat, insatiable, the rednecks and their attack and the fights? (Veronica meantime on the phone to the media?)
8. Veronica taking Luc to the hospital, the explanations? Taking him home, the reuniting with his parents?
9. Scott, his relentlessness, pursuit? The interactions with the team, Perry and his command? Perry killed? Scott and the confrontation with the technicians, killing them?
10. The buildup to the final confrontation and fight? Luc and his humanity? Scott, impaled, destroyed? The explanation of his being fixed in his world of rules and regulations, American dominance, the visualising of the enemy? Veronica seen as the enemy? The grenade?
11. The popularity of the stars of the film in the 1990s – and further sequels?
