Universal Soldier: Regeneration

Action & Adventure

Written by Jean-Claude Van Damme

Saturday, 30 January 2010 10:47

Universal Soldier: Regeneration (also known in some countries as Universal Soldier: A New Beginning) is the third film in the Universal Soldier feature film series. It is directed by John Hyams, with the screenplay written by Victor Ostrovsky. It stars Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren, who both reprise their roles from the first film. Also MMA fighter and former UFC champion Andrei Arlovski stars as 'NGU' (Next Generation UniSol), a Universal Soldier of the latest type. The film is unrelated to the two Universal Soldier television sequels that were produced in 1998 and ignores the events from the 1999 sequel Universal Soldier: The Return. The film is released directly to video in the United States and theatrically overseas.

Plot

A group of terrorists led by General Boris (Aki Avni) kidnap the Russian prime minister's son and daughter and hold them hostage, demanding the release of their comrades within 72 hours. In addition, they have taken over the crippled Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and threaten to detonate it if their demands are not met. It is revealed that among the ranks of the terrorists is a Next-Generation UniSol (NGU) (Andrei Arlovski), who was smuggled in by rogue scientist Dr. Colin (Kerry Shale). U.S. forces bring in troops at the plant, but quickly retreat when the four UniSols revived for this mission are systematically eliminated by the NGU.

Meanwhile, former UniSol Luc Deveraux (Jean-Claude Van Damme), who is being rehabilitated in Switzerland by Dr. Sandra Fleming (Emily Joyce) to rejoin society, is taken back by the military to participate in the mission. As the deadline nears its expiration, the prime minister announces the release of 110 prisoners. The terrorists rejoice and shut off their bomb. Dr. Colin, however, is not pleased with the outcome, as he feels his side of the business is not done. As the NGU is programmed not to harm the terrorists, Dr. Colin unleashes his second UniSol: a cloned and upgraded version of Andrew Scott (Dolph Lundgren) - Deveraux's former nemesis, who quickly kills General Boris. Unfortunately, Dr. Colin never considered the mental instability of Scott, and he is immediately killed by his own creation. Scott then reactivates the bomb before heading out to hunt the children.

In the midst of the chaos, Capt. Kevin Burke (Mile Pyle) is sent in to infiltrate the plant and rescue the prime minister's children. On their way out, they encounter NGU. The children flee for safety as Burke fends off NGU in vain, finally being stabbed to death after a long fight.

With 30 minutes remaining, Deveraux is geared up and sent to the plant, where he kills every terrorist in sight. He then sees the children cornered by Scott. Before Scott gets a chance to kill the children, Deveraux attacks him, and a grueling fight ensues. In the end, Deveraux impales Scott on the forehead with a lead pipe and fires a shotgun through it, blowing his brains out.

As Deveraux escorts the children to safety, they are attacked by NGU. Deveraux and NGU take the fight to the site of the bomb, with less than two minutes remaining. During the melee, Deveraux removes the detonator and jams it in the back of NGU's uniform as they both jump out the reactor chamber. NGU pulls the detonator off his back, but it is too late, as it explodes, taking him with it. U.S. soldiers quickly arrive on the scene and tend to the children as Deveraux runs away. Meanwhile, Capt. Burke's body is placed in a black bag and taken away.

Back in Langley, Virginia, Burke's body is stored in a cryogenic chamber, along with multiple clones made of him.

[edit] Cast

Jean-Claude Van Damme as Luc Deveraux
Dolph Lundgren as Andrew Scott
Andrei Arlovski as NGU
Mike Pyle as Capt. Kevin Burke
Garry Cooper as Dr. Porter
Corey Johnson as Coby
Kerry Shale as Dr. Colin
Aki Avni as General Boris
Emily Joyce as Dr. Sandra Fleming
Violeta Markovska as Ivana
John Laskowski as Captain
Zahari Baharov as Commander Topov
Kristopher Van Varenberg as Miles

[edit] Production

In a phone interview between director John Hyams and the Van Damme fanbase, the director commented:

I am hoping that we are taking a film that was made a long time ago and we are now trying to present these characters in a contemporary context, and that means stylistically contemporary and to use my own taste, something that feels like it belongs in this era of film making. I also think that that film is a bit of a nostalgia piece, not only to late 80’s but also early 80’s.

The music in the film was a synth score and to me was something that was reminiscent of the John carpenter movies that I loved growing up, like The Thing, Carpenter would always his they great synth scores. Another piece we used was the group Tangerine Dream did a great score for the movie Sorcerer and taking a note from films like Blade Runner, movies influenced me and my idea of science fiction and action film making and take all the work I did in documentaries and the work I did within MMA and taking all those elements and putting them together to create a style of the film that I think is very different to the first two films, but I think fans of the first two will appreciate and maybe people who haven’t seen them will appreciate it.

I hope that we have breathed some life into the franchise. Some of the powers that be have certainly talked about doing another one already, whether that happens or not involves a lot of elements to come together. With what’s happening with the storylines, we could certainly go in a number of directions.^[1]

[edit] Release

On October 1, 2009, a surprise screening of the film took place at the Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, U.S.A..^[2]

The film's international debut was on January 7, 2010 in Israel, followed by the Philippines on January 8. It premieres in Malaysia and Singapore on January 28, 2010.

The film will be released directly on DVD and Blu-ray on February 2, 2010 in the United States and on February 9 in Brazil.

[edit] Reception

Film critic Brian Orndorf gave the film a B, calling it "moody, pleasingly quick-draw, and knows when to quit, making the Universal Soldier brand name bizarrely vital once again."^[3] Dread Central gave it 3 out of 5 knives, saying "there is almost nothing but solid b-level action until the credits roll."