The Universal Soldier Multiverse and Timelines Explained
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- čas přidán 14. 07. 2024
- In this video I breakdown and discuss the Universal Soldier Multiverse. There are 3 different Universal Soldier Timelines. The first film was a blockbuster action hit starting the “Muscles from Brussels”, Jean-Claude Van Damme as well as the man known as “Drago”, Dolph Lundgren.
Michael Jai White would appear in the “The Return” timeline and Scott Adkins would star in the final film within the “Ultra-Violent” Timeline.
Chapters:
00:00 - Introduction
01:04 - The DTV (Direct to Video) Universal Soldier Timeline
04:22 - Universal Soldier: The Return Timeline
07:43 - The Ultra-Violent Timeline
Watch my breakdown of Van Damme's Double Team here:
• DOUBLE TEAM - when VAN...
Watch my breakdown of Van Damme's Knock Off here:
• The crazy time Van Dam...
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Dolph Lundgren simply doesn't get enough accolades for his performance as Sgt. Andrew Scott. In the first movie especially, he's just totally electric and even terrifying at times.
my favorite movie as a kid, his ear necklace omg he was terrifying for sure i was only about 13 or 14. my two favorite actors at the time in the same movie at the peak of their careers. definitely my favorite dolph lundgren performance of his career even now
@@riverbendkings sergeant Andrew Scott - " I'm all ears " , damn epic reply with his necklace .
I’m all ears!
@@athurV1 damn beat me to it
@wespozo That's another thing Dolph doesn't get enough credit for. I like all of The Punisher movies and I think that each of the actors brought interesting, unique facets to the character. But I have to say, in a lot of ways, I think Dolph embodied Frank Castle better than anyone. For me I think it's a toss-up between him and Ray Stevenson as far as who I think did it best. I didn't care for Jon Bernthal's portrayal. I really think that Scott Adkins should be given the role next, I think he has the potential to be the best Frank Castle ever.
I have no idea how many times I watched this movie growing up. We were poor didn't have cable. My father provided us with a bunch of action and horror films that we watched over and over. My dad was a big Segal, Stallone and Van Damme fan. This movie was one of my favs, always thought Dolph looked massive.
I think a Day of Reckoning sequel, bringing JCVD back could have worked. Scott working with Deveraux is weird. My thoughts while watching the movie is Luc isnt Luc, either a clone of him or someone given plastic surgery to look like him. Scott using Deveraux, who people look up to, as a puppet. Turning Luc into a villain makes no sense.
Luc deveraux is a clone in day of reckoning. Has to be.
The "Ultra-Violent" timeline is the canonical one. And if it's not, then let's just say there is no canonical sequel.
Day Of Reckoning was very good by the way, thanks John Hyams for this pure B Horror/Action Movie experience.
I really liked the Universal Soldier 2 with Jay White and Van Damme. Both the 1st and the 2nd timelines were good in my opinion.
My twin brother is in the last UNIVERSAL SOLDIER and literally appears on screen with Jean-Claude Vandamme, Dolph Lundgren, Scott Adkins, and Roy Jones Jr. His name is Patrick Rutherford.
Thanks man!
Great story bro
Can't go wrong with the classics. The 1st Universal Soldier film was the best. Day of Reckoning was also good. Many twists and turns. I just wish these films had stuck with a continuity. If the 1st film was such a success, a sequel should have been greenlit immediately.
Scott Adkins v. JCVD in Day Of Reckoning was a passing of the torch moment IMO. Enjoyed Universal Soldier The Return it had that whole 90s feel to it.
I love day of reckoning, it’s ultra violent and has some awesome fight scenes brought to life by Atkins. But you probably have to say the first movie is still the best! Great video VS, thanks for the effort.
Fun facts also. The role of Romeo was originally intended for Stone Cold Steve Austin, but contractually WWE /WWF wouldn't allow him time off to work on the film. When Austin learnt that the WWF/WWE office refused the offer by the movie studio he was livid.
The studio then of course approached WCW.
Honestly that would have been awesome. Stone cold always struck me as a much better technicial performer than Goldberg
@@shwetaketutyagi3083 a safer worker also , I did like Goldberg back in those days when I didn't appreciate how dangerous he was. Austin could have made this movie much more successful.
Regeneration is my favourite by a long way. In fact it's one of my favourite martial arts movies ever.
It's one of my favorite movies of any genre ever!
great video my Man, love this style of stuff on your channel. BIG UPS ON DON WILSON BTW!
I love the scene where Dolph terrorizes people in supermarket
I love universal soldier and universal soldier day of reckoning that movie was really violent
Universal Soldier is a very good movie I've been a fan of Jean-Claude Van Damme since my childhood I hope universal soldier 5 movie will be released soon
Thanks for this video! This answered so many questions I had.
Thanks so much for the extra support!
1. Universal Soldier
2. Universal Soldier: Regenration
3. Universal Soldier: Day Of Reckoning
4. Universal Soldier: The Return
5. Universal Soldier II
6. Universal Soldier III
First ones always going to be my favorite.
Regeneration is a very underrated film, which really caught the interest of cinephiles and arthouse fans at the time for its atmosphere and stylistic storytelling.. I love the original, its one of the great pop-corn clicks of all time, has everything from gory war-movie to broad comedy ... JCVD can do comedy, which many actors cannot and Dolph is a great villain. I tried to watch Day Of Reckoning, but its too sick from its opening scene (kind of ripping of the work of Gaspar Noe) ... And judging by this preview Im even less interested... But for some real down-and-dirty B-movie flavour, I want to watch the the two straight to video films/reworked pilot/TV Series episodes. They have horrible ratings on IMDB, something like 2 point something out of 10, but Iv always been curious.
I enjoy them
The first two originals will ALWAYS be the BEST of the Universal Soldier franchise. I also believe that it's a great platform for up and coming martial artists and badasses to get on the action film circuit!
I thought Van Damme was very fun in Universal soldier the Return but Dolph was awesome in the original. Thanks for the great content keep up the Van "Damage" vids.
I actually love all of the Universal soldier movies but my favorites are the first and regeneration followed by Day of reckoning and the return and then they made for TV movies
The same, in my case. And in the same order👌
Happy early 30th Anniversary Universal Soldier!
An amazing series... one of the best Sci-fi and martial arts series ever!
Thanks for the breakdown on the timeline
great movie ! loved it as a kid
Great universal soldier video I like the ultra violent timeline.
Incredible video, Van Damme's the best!
My Twin literally doubled for Van Damme and played the character of Luc Devereax in the the first appearance of the character in Day of Reckoning!!!!
You know, I think Regeneration and Day of Reckoning had the most realistic follow up in comparison to the other sequels. I mean, you expect me to believe that Luc would actually be a consultant for the same project that experimented on him, took away his humanity, and made him a living weapon? Yeah, it's nice that he finally settled down and had a family. But I don't think family life is even possible after what he went through.
Thanks a lot. I’ve only seen the first one. Got it in 4K
Awesome content David!!!
Great video Viking!! Love Universal Soldier💪👍
I'll only be interested in seeing a Universal Soldier 5 if Scott Adkins returns.
i had an idea that the next one should have van damme, (in all 4) dolph lundgren, (in 3 of the 4) Scott Adkins and Andrei "The Pit Bull" Arlovski (in the last 2)
i feel they all need to be in it because they are all apart of the series, scott adkins only in the last one but his fight scenes were bad ass in that movie, i didn't really like the movie, they tried to make it horror and to me that didn't work for a universal soldier movie but scott adkins scenes were intense and badass.
i also didnt like the second one, but i loved regeneration, it was gritty and realistic and the kidnapping and car chase at the beginning was intense. so it seems the odd number ones are great while the even ones are bad, which means the next one should be great again lol
@@The_Chameleon I'd like to see it be a direct sequel to Day of Reckoning. I don't know how JCVD would fit into that, but I love him so much I'd be willing to accept almost anything. I really enjoyed Day of Reckoning myself, I'd put it right after the original but I do understand that it's a very different kind of movie and not for everyone. I agree with you, Regeneration is a totally kickass movie and the single-take action sequences were awesome!
@@The_Chameleon I would watch that. Need to rewatch the 1st it been a while
Hi Viking Samurai, I wrote an article about film theory that combines The Return and Ultra-Violent Timeline together with the use of cloning technology.
Interesting, send the link
The original one remains a classic and Universal soldier 2 is a guilty pleasure. I like it. Universal soldier 3 was good. The 4th was more of a Scott Adkins film with Vandamme as a guest star. The others it's no need to mention. Universal soldiers without Vandamme is not Universal soldiers film. That's fear of the new reboot. Can the new franchise be successful without Vandamme? That's questions?
Awesome!!!
I had no idea this had a Multiverse timeline. I can not understand how they wanted us to just accept Sgt. Andrew Scott (Dolph Lundgren) still being alive after dying in a wood chipper.
Universal Soldier: Regeneration I absolutely love this movie !!!! best fight scenes of any movie.
Obviously I have seen all these movies countless times I do think he should of just made the 1st one. Both van damme and dolph was amazing in it.
Love this channel
Universal Soldier is a classic! It was a really good movie and can still watch it today! The push in public really pumped up hype to see the movie back in the day!
....i have no idea why they kept doing sequels these past couple ot years. Their really bad.
My favorite Universal Soldier movies are the first and fourth ones
Universal soldier 1992
Universal soldier regeneration 2009
Are my favorite 💯
I think John Hyams destroyed the series with the ultraviolet ones he made - Even though we had those TV movies and the RETURN which did not help the series either - I think the mistake John Hyams made was not putting any light moments and romance in like the original classic by Emerich (The cafe scene in the original was brilliant and so was the scenes with the girl; they needed stuff like that in John Hyam's UR sequels timeline but sadly that didn't happen). I love the first movie and they can still make a sequel worthy of it with Van Damme and Lundgren coming back as the main characters. I thought the fight at the end of Day of Reckoning was also terrible, killing Van Damme off was a bad mistake in that, it made an already depressing movie worse. That one was literally a horror movie hehe. This is a brilliant timeline Viking Samurai - Thanks for this. Universal Soldier definitely needs love.
My take on the timelines:
Universal Soldier - Good Timeline: The First One, Brothers In Arms, Unfinished Business, The Return.
Universal Soldier - Bad Timeline: The First One, Brothers In Arms, Unfinished Business, Regeneration, Day Of Reckoning.
I preferred the one with Goldberg and MJW. Also, I prefer Robocop 1 over U.S. 1. .. No Retreat, No Surrender is my Favorite Van Damme movie. Universal Soldier doesn't break the top 10 Van Damme movies for me..
I prefer Robocop 1 over most movies 😋
I saw Universal Soldier on opening day, back in 1992. The movie was awesome and everyone in the crowd stood up and cheered every time Van Damme would kick some ass. However, I didn't see the sequel because at that time, Van Damme's star was dwindling and after seeing one too many flops from him (all the way from Street Fighter) I kinda gave up on him at that time. Needless to say, when I saw rhe film on HBO if I am not wrong, it was so bad that I even stopped watching it halfway through. Heck, not even the shot of half naked strippers could save that piece of trash. It looked like it was shot as a TV movie of the week, the plot made as much sense as eating an ice cream cone in a blizzard, and you could tell that JCVD was in this clusterf%$k because he needed the money.
I believe I saw the beginning of the Unisol film with Scott Atkins, but when they showed in the beginning how they graphically killed his family, it turned me off and stopped watching. As a husband and a father of a toddler at that time, it was kind of too much for me.
But seeing that even Dolph Lundgren's character was back, I always asked how did they bring him back if he was grinded in a woodchipper in the first one? Is he a clone? And if he is, why would the powers that be want to even bother with the whole universal soldier experiment and not concentrate in creating clones instead? I believe it would be cost effective and less messy than trying to preserve dead carcasses. But then again, I dont know a thing about making movies and my degree is in accounting anyway LOL!!
UNS was a Blockbuster movie!
One big problem was that The Return was directed by a stunt coordinator, not a real director. You could clearly see the acting performances were lacking and overall direction, which is why, as you said, it looks like a made for TV movie of the week.
@@VikingSamurai I get that but he could've tried his best to put a good movie. A good example of someone getting out of his comfort zone and now he's a legend, and I know it's two different careers, is Danny Elfman. He was just a lead vocalist and a keyboard player for the Oingo Boingo, but Tim Burton gave him a chance to create him a musical score for a few of his films (Batman 1989 if I am not wrong and A Nightmare Before Christmas). Now he is hired constantly to create musical soundtrack for many films because he not only stepped out of his comfort zone, but created a masterpiece. I believe if that stunt coordinator, whatever his name is, would've done the same thing, maybe he would've been very successful. He has one of the biggest actio heroes of rhe 90s to work with. But hey, what do I know?
Hated that Van Damme was the bad guy in the last one. First one remains the best.
Dolph Lundgren should get an Oscar for this movie I'm not joking !!!! and also The End fight scene is the best....................
Like video keep up
YEAH, UNIVERSAL SOLIDERS MOVIES! GOOD MOIVES😎
Kickboxer and Bloodsport timelines would also be good or even better. Bloodsport 4 rant/ review lol
I love the og Universal best. By far
I’d like to see your take on American kick boxer with Keith vitali!
Very interesting look at a franchise which has its own Multiverse before the MCU adopted it. I've only seen the first movie, I am aware of them though. It is one of Van Damme's best movies ever made. Will you ever make a video on Death Warrant - a underrated Van Damme classic that never got the respect it deserves.
I will
@@VikingSamurai Hell yeah! Death Warrant is awesome! It's one of the first JCVD movies I ever saw and it made a lasting impression.
The first one is amazing. I saw it in the theater and I've watched it MANY times since and enjoyed the hell out of it every time. The Return, which I also saw in the theater, was definitely a letdown, which sucked because I went into it thinking it was a mortal lock that I would love it. I've never seen the DTV sequels, despite being a fan of Jeff Wincott, and I've only seen bits and pieces of the ultraviolent ones. The Adkins/Arlovski fight is here on CZcams. It's pretty solid.
Double team kicks ass! Directed by tsu hark!
My favorite is original one
I love universal soldier, Ronald Emmerich directing, he done independence day, few other big films. The story, stunts, fight choreography was very good between Dolph and van damme, and I heard they went and shoot a different ending, one you can hear about on special edition DVD. The sequel I thought was terrible, I only bought it because of fight with THE, that was pretty good. I know Jeff Wincott in the TV series so wanted to see those films for him, Jeff was an excellent marital artist and multi talented you can see this in his films. The 3rd film with JCVD and Dolph with Andrei the Pitball Arlovski (Arlovski was a good cage fighter at time), the fight with him again is very well done and put together and the stunts are good, story not too good. That 4th film with Scott Adkins is bloody but has a good revenge feel, as I feel very much the violence and the gloves off are needed to justify Scott Adkins family loss of been killed. I look forward to a 5th film if there ever will be one, not too sure if it would hold up now and be of any good, as a lot of time has gone by since the last one, or you could bring in new stars, have to wait and see. Love your channel Viking samurai. Keep it up. Best of luck. Jamie. :))
Regeneration is my favorite.
it just dawned on me. Ever consider doing a video on Jeff Wincott?
Back in the 80s his best work was on the Canada Tv series Night Heat, in the 90s he also starred in a lot of martial art and action DTV films, such as Mission Of Justice, Open Fire, and Marshal Law 2. His younger brother Michael of course, is slightly better known.
It needs to happen. Out of all the 90s DTV martial arts heroes, Jeff is one of the most legendary.
1st
I agree with you about being very disappointed with universal soldier the return. I remember being more exited about JCVD and Chuck Norris appearing on WCW Nitro than I was watching the movie it was heartbreaking it wasn't better than it was.
Like theme music
The first and last Universal Soldier movies are the best in my opinion. The first beeing the original and one of my favorite JCVD movies as a kid and the last, as I am a huge sucker for Adkins 😁👌🏼💯 Dudes a friggin ninja, LOVE IT! 😁🥷🏼 ❤️💯 and as much as i love JCVD and his style of fighting (flawless) 😉 I’ve always been more of a kung fu wushu 5 venoms tiger crane type of guy 🤌🏼😆🤫
Like the video viking samurai man. In my honest opinion boss. The first is the one and only. Good story line, good action, good characters, good paste, good directing, good acting. Everything was right on par. No disrespect to JCVD. But this was one of those movie story lines that I think could have worked still if you took JCVD out and replaced him with a good seasonal actor to play
Luc Deveraux, the movies story just had that good quality too it. Having JCVD and Dolph was just a bonus. And I liked Alley Walker, but I had one hell of a crush on Mia Sara, I think it would have been a better choice seeing her play the reporter instead, but hey that's just me.
Hey buddy! Thanks for putting out this video I look forward to talking martial arts with you in action movies. Thanks for coming to my channel .I hope to collaborate and do a video with you soon.
I am probably in the minority but I really like all four films with JCVD, the first is a masterpiece but in their own way the other three are enjoyable too.
I absolutely loved universal soldier return I thought it was great. It was the ones that followed I didn't like to much
I only like the original, its a classic and it holds up really well today. One of Van Damme's best.
I just want to eat....proceeds to beat everyone up while eating mashed potatoes and meatloaf! Lol
I really Like all. Universal soldier. Universal soldier the return. Universal soldier regeneration & universal soldier day of reckoning ❤️
I love them all, but the original is a my fave.
I loved All the films each with its own greatness but I have to say the first one and the one with Scott Adkins are my favorite Jean Claude and Dolph are among my old school favorites but Scott Adkins is my new favorite and he should be in more major film rolls.
Hey viking I just posted my Jean-Claude Van Damme movie collection on my channel it is the newest video if you would like to watch it, i don't have all his movies though, i'm missing some, if you watch it let me know what you think. also my dolph lundgren collection is the video right before it. have you ever thought about doing a movie collection video for your van damme movies or all your martial arts movies so we can see your collections? we only get a glimpse of your movies on your shelf behind you. would be cool to see all of them.
as for universal soldier it was my favorite movie as a kid because my two favorite stars were in it at there peak and i like regeneration too, it seems every other one is good, 2nd and 4th not so good, id like to see another one but it needs to have van damme, (in all 4) dolph lundgren, ( in 3 of the 4) Scott Adkins and Andrei "The Pit Bull" Arlovski (in the last 2) in it. im sure the next one will be good since the even numbers are good and the odd ones are bad. i don't really count the tv movies as part of the series even though the second one seemed to start where the first one left off him at his house with the reporter still with him but they were ok as tv movies go.
I saw the original US, and the Return. Never saw any others, but it's kinda crappy to see our original hero eventually being the final villain.
There All Good
Honestly my favorite universal soldier movie of all time would still be universal soldier the very first one with Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph lundgren I did like universal return I actually have them all but to be honest my still my favorite one of them universal soldier but that's just my opinion every now and then I'll watch him and order just for the fun of it and have a great day
In someways though I like Day of reckoning better than regeneration because it is a super awesome action movie and Scott Atkins I really think that it is his best movie as does Scott Atkins and also the fact that my twin brother is a Universal Soldier in this movie who actually legitimately plays as Luke Devereaux on screen is absolutely amazing and for that reason I have to say that day of reckoning could be my favorite of all do you’ll have to excuse me for being a little biased!
There was a reason Van Damme didn't do sequels originally and this franchise proved it. His films from back in the day just didn't have substance to carry on for more than one film.
Viking Samurai, love the channel by the way. How would you rank all 6 Universal Soldier films from best to worst?
The original is number 1, then I like Regeneration, then The Return, then Day of Reckoning, followed by the 2 straight to video ones... You?
Day of Reckoning, original, Regeneration, The Return then the straight to video ones. I thought Day of Reckoning was an exceptionally good film, great visuals, combat and Sci fi.
Universal Soldier is My Favorite Film.
I liked. I Like Van Damme as luc deveruaxe. I Understand why Luc deveruaxe character change in universal soldier day of reckoning.
I'm also a huge van damme fan like viking samurai but in all honesty i don't think he or anyone else for that matter could take on Goldberg dude's a legitimate machine! Even Mike Tyson would have a problem with him he makes damn near everybody look like a kid.
Awesome ! Bro , one of my all time favorite movies. What a classic ! VS, share it on your Twitter. I'll do a re-tweet ; )
Matt Battaglia!🤟🏻💯🇮🇹
What is this alternate universe I’ve woken up in?
Part 1 classic... but regeneration was so clever.. well done for the budget.. fights were sick anf the use of dolph and pyle was great.. he was a natural to me... regeneration was a little too dark. But to have a false memory implanted and van damme be the jesus was dope.. he was trying to help free them.. and scott couldnt be his programming until he got false revenge... i was hoping for another one... lighter in tone
What’s the background music?
I feel like the best action movies and best martial arts movies ended in Hollywood in the 90s....the 80s & 90s were definitely the prime of that era.... however there's some great action/martial arts films done in China are you familiar with Wu Jing? I wish you could do an episode about him and some of his movies which capture the mood of 80s action films and some of the great more recent Hollywood action movies like the Bourne series....
Did you see the new jcvd footage bts fighting ramez? Idk what its for
Day of reckoning was awful especially after how good regeneration was
Is it unfortunate a TV series that didn't include Van Damme wasn't picked up lol?
I would try emailing all the cast of the movie and seeing if you can get them to sign it and have everybody on it if I had something like that I would never sell it I’m not like everybody else I still watch movies for the actor‘s
"Mother... come here"
I like the first one the best. I've never liked Day of Reckoning. Didn't feel like a Uni Sol movie to me and making JCVD the bad guy was a bad idea in my opinion.
The original is a Classic. It had potential for framchise stuff, but it really hit a dull wall. The sequals, hhhmmmmm. I haven't seen the made for tv stuff. But yeah, the Universal Soldier return was a real let step backwards , though it is a fun watch compared to many of todays action films. Does have its issues but would take it anyday over Sharknados. As for the Ultra violent timeline, the films seem kinda dull and hideous to me, not even in a pretty or movie way. Kinda feels damp, Doph Lundgren was great in the 2009 film and their fight scene was the best part of the film. But the rest of it felt like STDVD territory, and no charm or wits to it. The day of reckoning gave me a headache, WTF is with the story. It kinda stunk up allot of things, the action is plenty, but its really over choreographed, dull, a depressing film. The fights in reckoning feels like its jacked up on ADHD with waaayyyy too much flipping and demented slowmo, choreographed to death syndrome , all style but no substance.
Anyway thats my take on it.
That's a super soldier
The ultra-violent timeline sucks. Some good action, but it was a crime what they did to Luc Devereux. And we got "dead eyed" Van Damme, which is always disappointing.
I never got how they made Luc be the bad guy in Day of Reckoning and call it a sequel. So, you got one movie, he's the hero and the next, he's this villain... What happened in between? Most incoherent storyline... The tv sequels at least had a better storyline....
You missed the plot. Luc was never the bad guy, Scott Adkins' character was just brainwashed into believing that he was.
@@MatrixCobretti Thanks for clearing that up.. I mean, I knew about the fake memories and all that... But still I didn't imagine Luc creating some Unisol army... I just can't connect with that movie even though I like Scott a lot. Still thanks guys.
@@jensboffin7225 You're welcome, no big deal. The plot line is twisty enough to be confusing. While I personally loved the movie and think it's a minor masterpiece, I understand why some people don't enjoy it. It's a very harsh departure from the rest of the series.
@@MatrixCobretti I could never understand why people think Regeneration and Day Of Reckoning are so great. It eschews everything that made the first movie great. The Return was at least more respectful to the original imo
@@TotalMeltdown2 You just have to kind of separate them I guess. The first movie is just a totally different thing tonally and narratively. I agree that tonally The Return is not as big a departure, but it really deserves to be retconned. You either appreciate what the other sequels offer, or you don't. I think that their extreme departure from the past movies tonally is what makes them work because, honestly, Universal Soldier is not a movie that really needed sequels. It is a complete product on it's own with all of the narrative loose-ends tied up nicely by the climax. Even though it doesn't make any sense, in my mind I kind of think of the first movie as being alone in it's own bracket, with Regeneration and Reckoning existing together in another reboot bracket.