How do the Universal Soldier movies rank, from worst to best? The Universal Soldier series has had its highs and lows, and that's taken it down a path not explored by Jean-Claude Van Damme's other franchises and seldom by most action movie series in general. The first Universal Soldier debuted in 1992, with Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren as Pvt. Luc Deveraux and Sgt. Andrew Scott, deceased American soldiers revived as enhanced, superhuman warriors codenamed "UniSols".
After a pair of made-for-TV sequels, Universal Soldier's story continued—and for many years seemingly ended—with the 1999 theatrical release of Universal Soldier: The Return, which was sadly a major failure. Years later, Universal Soldier suddenly sprung back to life with the straight-to-video sequel Universal Soldier: Regeneration, followed by Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning in 2012. These proved to be where the Universal Soldier franchise finally struck a chord and cemented its action movie legacy.
In addition to Van Damme and Lundgren, the Universal Soldier series also brought aboard Michael Jai White as a super-powered villain and Scott Adkins during his action hero rise, with both of them adding immeasurably to their respective entries in the franchise. There's been talk of a Universal Soldier reboot going back to 2018, but the mainline series—if that term even fits with its bizarrely wonky continuity—is well worth revisiting for both action and sci-fi fans.
6. Universal Soldier II: Brothers In Arms (1998)
Universal Soldier II: Brothers In Arms, released in September of 1998, is a stark rarity - a sequel that's at once an exercise in total apathy and one that's also fascinating in the number of bad decisions made to bring it to life. In Brothers In Arms, Luc Deveraux (Matt Baggalia) is still trying to evade the UniSol program while his brother Eric (Jeff Wincott) also enters the story. It's hard to imagine the thought process behind Brothers In Arms. With the absence of Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren, the film was originally intended as a mini-series of sorts with its follow-up Unfinished Business and was meant, at least in theory, to start a Universal Soldier TV series. The notion of that proved well beyond its capability, with Brothers In Arms weakly flickering like a burnt-out UniSol in need of a cryogenic recharge throughout its entire runtime.
The opening sequence, a badly orchestrated recap of Deveraux and Scott's Universal Soldier showdown, comes off more akin to a Rescue 911 re-enactment and is almost more of a warning of the empty slog the rest of the movie is going to be. From that point on, Brothers In Arms simply goes through the motions with zero emotional registry and incredibly dull action scenes. Hollywood legend Burt Reynolds and fellow film industry giant Gary Busey drop in to add what little flair the movie has to offer, but the energy of Universal Soldier: Brothers In Arms is still in extremely short supply.
5. Universal Soldier III: Unfinished Business (1998)
Arriving within a month of its predecessor, Universal Soldier: Unfinished Business is little more than an extension of Brothers In Arms, and every bit as forgettable. In Unfinished Business, Deveraux and Veronica (Chandra West) continue to be on the run as Burt Reynolds' sinister CIA operative Mentor commissions a UniSol clone of Eric Deveraux. There's exactly as much evident lack of spark on-screen in Unfinished Business as there was in Brothers In Arms, both films having no higher goal other than to get to the finish line as quickly as possible. With how much the absence of Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren is felt, that rush would've been easier to tolerate if the films themselves didn't feel like they were taking forever to get there.
For being such a chore even to itself, Unfinished Business shows the only emotion in its entire spectrum is hubris, with its cliffhanger ending of Mentor being on ice for the UniSol program. Universal Soldier indeed had a future beyond Unfinished Business, though thankfully, it left the business of its two made-for-TV sequels unfinished and completely forgotten. Brothers In Arms and Unfinished Business are so similarly thrown together and bland in their execution as to practically blur into one movie. Despite that and the close proximity of their release dates, a three-hour marathon of Brothers In Arms and Unfinished Business is only recommended if boredom is the order of the evening.
4. Universal Soldier: The Return (1999)
With Bloodsport.
The breakout star of The Return is Michael Jai White as S.E.T.H. Coming off of headlining Spawn in 1997, White's S.E.T.H. is a cool, sly philosopher of a villain, whose lines like "When I was a machine I yearned to be a man. Now I'm better than both" are some of the series' most quotable. The Return's DVD also includes a great behind-the-scenes video showing White's martial arts and bodybuilding training for the film. The Return itself doesn't have much concern for the existential outlook of the franchise on what it means to be alive, with a non-stop assault of explosions and martial arts fights. As an action movie, The Return definitely gives viewers their money's worth, especially in Deveraux's showdowns with S..E.T.H. and the UniSol Romeo (WCW's Bill Goldberg). Universal Soldier: The Return unfortunately didn't kickoff the franchise's second wave after its theatrical disappointment, but its a good ride for the criteria of UniSols going to war for 83 minutes.
3. Universal Soldier (1992)
Before Roland Emmerich became the master of disaster (movies), he got an early head start on bringing super-soldiers to the big screen with Universal Soldier. After Luc Deveraux and Andrew Scott kill each other in Vietnam when the former intervenes on his superior's war crimes against civilians, their bodies are put on ice and revived 23 years later as part of the U.S. government's UniSol program. Despite their programming, both Deveraux and Scott gradually begin to regain their sentience. Deveraux finally breaks rank and goes on the run with journalist Veronica Roberts (Ally Walker) while Scott assumes command of the UniSol unit to pursue his old enemy. Van Damme's famed poker face made him perfectly suited to portray a programmed soldier, and Deveraux gave him a chance to show a bit more range from the affable heroes he'd played before in a more tragic character.
boxing titan Ivan Drago wince, but his campy, mock-boot camp taunting of Deveraux with lines like "Well that's the spirit soldier!" heightens their battle just as much as Van Damme's flying kicks.
2. Universal Soldier: Regeneration (2009)
The Universal Soldier franchise didn't seem to have high prospects for any kind of resurrection at the turn of the century, but Universal Soldier: Regeneration gave the series a stunningly unexpected revival. When terrorists threaten to destroy the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant, ex-UniSol Luc Deveraux is called back into action to help stop them. His mission is much more daunting than it seems, with not only a Next-Generation UniSol (Andrei "The Pit Bull" Arlovski) among the terrorists, but also a clone of Deveraux's old enemy Andrew Scott. Both Van Damme and Lundgren returned for Regeneration, which began their respective comebacks ahead of their roles in The Expendables franchise. Acting as a retcon sequel to the original Universal Soldier only, Regeneration does far more than take the series back to its roots, but actually plants some completely new ones. Director John Hyams gives Universal Soldier a much darker take in Regeneration, and makes it the first Universal Soldier movie that genuinely feels like a war film.
Van Damme and Lundgren's returns, while more compartmentalized in the context of the film than one might expect, are both riveting reprisals of two of their most iconic characters. Lundgren's revived Scott is more of a failed experiment than a central threat, but his and Deveraux's resurrected enmity is a remarkably potent round-two. As a genuine MMA champion, Arlovksi is a significant player in that evolution, with Regeneration's fight scenes having the feel of an MMA match on a war-torn battlefield. With the series' poor fortunes and the time Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren had been out of the spotlight, there was little reason to expect the Universal Soldier series to hit with the kind of power Regeneration packs, and certainly not with how late in the game it arrived. Even with such lowered expectations, Regeneration showed that the franchise had put surprisingly few of its cards on the table before. For action fans, Universal Soldier: Regeneration is a blisteringly straight-faced re-invention of its predecessors, with far more visceral gun battles and martial arts sequences than the series had seen before. Even still, Hyams saved the best for last.
1. Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (2012)
For Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning, John Hyams gives the series the facelift of the work of David Lynch and takes the Universal Soldier franchise into full arthouse territory.
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That said, Day of Reckoning doesn't forget it's an action movie either, with the then-rising Scott Adkins shining in the best martial arts fights of the series (orchestrated by fight choreographer extraordinaire Larnell Stovall of the DC streaming series one-time Leatherface candidate Lundgren (who makes a well-timed call back to Scott's "That's the spirit, soldier!" line) and Van Damme expertly hide. In the unconventional history of the franchise, Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning takes the Universal Soldier series' number one spot.
