Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning

Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning

Theatrical release poster
Directed by John Hyams
Produced by
Written by
  • John Hyams
  • Doug Magnuson
  • Jon Greenlagh
Starring
Music by Wil Hendricks
Michael Krassner
Robin Vining
Cinematography Yaron Levy
Edited by
  • Andrew Drazek
  • John Hyams
Production
company
BMP Productions
Signature Entertainment
Distributed by Foresight Unlimited
Magnet Releasing
Release dates
  • August 23, 2012 (2012-08-23) (Hamburg Fantasy Film Festival)
  • October 25, 2012 (2012-10-25) (Video on Demand)
  • November 30, 2012 (2012-11-30) (United States)
Running time
 114 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $8 million[1]
Box office $1.4 million[2]

Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (formerly known as Universal Soldier: A New Dimension)[3][4] is a 2012 American science fiction action horror film co-written, co-edited and directed by John Hyams, and starring Scott Adkins, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren and Andrei Arlovski. It is the fourth theatrical installment in the Universal Soldier series. The film acts as a semi-sequel to its 2009 predecessor, Universal Soldier: Regeneration and likewise, is unrelated to the two television sequels and ignores the events of the 1999 theatrical sequel Universal Soldier: The Return.

Plot

John (Scott Adkins) awakens from a coma to find that his wife and daughter were brutally murdered in a home invasion. With the help of FBI Agent Gorman (Rus Blackwell), the still amnesiac John identifies the perpetrator as former Universal Soldier (UniSol) Luc Deveraux (Jean-Claude Van Damme), now a wanted man. Meanwhile, a sleeper agent named Magnus (Andrei "The Pit Bull" Arlovski), one of the cloned Next Generation UniSols from Regeneration working undercover as a plumber, is activated. Magnus reaches a brothel and kills all the women working there and most of the patrons, a group of men with exceptional physical resistance. His last adversary, a clone of UniSol Andrew Scott (Dolph Lundgren) and Deveraux's former nemesis, negotiates Magnus and injects him with a serum that frees him from government control. Magnus is introduced to a separatist group led by Deveraux and Scott, who are taking in wayward UniSols to turn them against the government that created them, thus establishing a new order ruled by UniSols.

Determined to find Deveraux, John receives a call from someone claiming to be his friend Isaac, urging the two to meet. Upon reaching his house, he finds Isaac long dead, as well as evidence of Isaac's involvement with the UniSol government program. A matchbox found on the scene leads John to a strip club. There, he is recognized and sent off by a stripper named Sarah (Mariah Bonner), whom however he cannot remember. John is assaulted by Magnus who injects him with Scott's serum, but despite hallucinating about Deveraux, he is not turned. John abducts Sarah and takes her to his apartment, where they are attacked by Magnus again. Though in the confrontation John loses some phalanges, they manage to escape. Sarah later tells John she remembers him working as a truck driver and living in a riverside cabin, and that the two were romantically involved.

Starting to call his own memories into question, John requests a meeting with Agent Gorman. He learns from Gorman that Deveraux was often seen at the docks from where John used to take shipments. John goes to the docks, inspects the last unshipped cargo and meets with local manager Ron Castellano (Dane Rhodes), who plays hidden camera footage for him showing Isaac being brutally murdered by John himself.

As John and Sarah drive towards the cabin, they are once more intercepted by Magnus, whom John finally dispatches. On that occasion, John realizes he possesses superior strength, resistance and fighting abilities, his severed fingers having regrown in the meantime. John and Sarah reach the cabin to find it inhabited by an exact duplicate of John, who reveals himself as the original with whom Sarah and Castellano had been in contact in the past. The original John had been mind-controlled into hunting down Deveraux, but was turned by him and sent to kill Isaac and other men behind the UniSol program, until he met Sarah and deserted Deveraux. He then tries to kill Sarah, but is shot dead by the other John, now suspecting himself to be a UniSol sleeper agent.

By the river, a rogue UniSol takes John to the underground bunker where the separatists have their headquarters. There, he is greeted by Dr. Su (David Jensen), who reveals that John never had a family, having been synthetically created merely a few weeks earlier. Dr. Su goes on telling that the missing shipment from the docks contains the hardware that will allow Deveraux to create clones. John accepts Dr. Su's offer to surgically sever his emotional bond with the fake memories of his family, but the pain and attachment to those memories drive John insane. He kills every UniSol in his path, culminating with Andrew Scott in a one-on-one confrontation. John then reaches Deveraux himself and a fight ensues, with Deveraux eventually gaining the upper hand. Realizing that the cycle of sending clones of John against him is destined to repeat, and seeing John as a worthy successor who could turn the tide of the rebellion, Deveraux gives in to John, who kills him with a machete.

Some time later, John meets with Agent Gorman again. Gorman admits to his involvement with the UniSol program, and that he had purposefully put an unaware John on Deveraux's trail. Gorman ascribes John's success to the attachment to family he was designed with, as opposed to the patriotism implanted in his predecessors. John kills Gorman, then three UniSols and a clone of Gorman emerge from John's van. The clone leaves in the car of the original Gorman, hinting that John has acquired the cloning equipment and taken over the separatist group, now determined to infiltrate the government which he holds responsible for his pain. The film ends with John driving his car as he pictures flashbacks of him with his family.

Cast

Production

In May 2010, it was announced that Van Damme and Lundgren would return for a fourth official installment. Universal Soldier: A New Dimension will be the first in the series to be filmed in 3-D. John Hyams also returned as director.[5] Hyams has cited films like Apocalypse Now, The Manchurian Candidate, Chinatown, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers among others, as inspirations for the film.[1]

In April 2012, it was announced that the film's subtitle was to be re-titled from A New Dimension to Day of Reckoning. When first submitted to the MPAA, the film received an NC-17 rating due to its violence.[1] An edited R-rated version was released in theaters. The NC-17 director's cut has been released overseas.

Release

Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning premiered on VOD on October 25, 2012 followed by a theatrical run starting November 30, 2012. The film premiered on HDNet Movies on November 28, 2012.

Box office

The film was released in Russia and Malaysia on October 4 and grossed $624,724. The film opened a week later in Ukraine and ended up grossing $31,349. It was released on November 30, 2012 in the United States in three screens, grossing $3,181 in its opening weekend, and as of the December 6, the film has grossed $4,928. It also opened on the same day in Turkey, finishing 8th with $75,919 for the weekend, as of the December 9, the film has grossed $138,232 in Turkey. The film was also released in the United Arab Emirates and as of the December 9 it has grossed $193,274. The worldwide total as of the December 12 is $992,507.[2]

Critical reception

Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning received generally mixed reviews from critics and viewers. Some of the main points of contention were that the film deviated greatly from the general idea of a Universal Soldier movie, and that Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren (considered the stars of the franchise) had very little screen time. The level of violence was also considered excessive.

Review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes reports that 50% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 40 reviews and with a rating average of 5.1 out of 10. The site's consensus is: "The mooted final installment in the long-running series is a hyper-violent, often grim throwback to action movies of yore – which will appeal to some audiences just as emphatically as it deters others".[6]

On the other hand, Nick Antosca, writing in The Paris Review, wrote that Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning is "less an action film than a horror film," and concludes that it is his "favorite movie of last year the best movie of last year, I would argue."[7]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Daniels, Hunter. "Director John Hyams Talks 'Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning', Plus the Top 11 Things to Know About Hyams and His Film", Collider, published December 6, 2012. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  2. 1 2 "'Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning'", Box Office Mojo. Retrieved November 11, 2015.
  3. ↑ William, Bibbiani. "BEHIND THE SCENES: 'Universal Soldier: A New Dimension', CraveOnline, published June 8, 2011. Retrieved October 26, 2012.
  4. ↑ Dolph Dishes on 'Universal Soldier: A New Dimension'", www.badmovienite.com, published June 30, 2011. Retrieved October 26, 2012.
  5. ↑ Sciretta, Peter. 'Universal Soldier IV' Announced: Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren in 3D", Slash Film, published May 12, 2010. Retrieved November 11, 2015.
  6. ↑ "'Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning' (General) Critical Consensus", Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved November 30, 2012.
  7. ↑ Antosca, Nick. "Masterpiece Theatre: 'Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning'", The Paris Review, published December 24, 2013. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
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