Universal Soldier (1992)
Universal Soldier is a 1992 American military science-fiction action film directed by Roland Emmerich, produced by Allen Shapiro, Craig Baumgarten, and Joel B. Michaels, and written by Richard Rothstein, Christopher Leitch, and Dean Devlin. The film tells the story of Luc Deveraux, portrayed by Jean-Claude Van Damme, a former U.S. Army soldier who was killed in the Vietnam War in 1969, and returned to life following a secret military project called the “Universal Soldier” program. It was the first film on-screen collaboration between Van Damme and Lundgren in the film series, who both later worked together in The Expendables 2 and Black Water, and their voice-roles in Minions: The Rise of Gru.
Plot:
In 1969, a U.S. Army team secures a village against North Vietnamese forces. Luc Deveraux discovers members of his squad and villagers murdered. Deveraux’s sergeant, Andrew Scott, has gone insane, made a necklace of severed ears, and is holding a young couple hostage. Deveraux tries to reason with Scott, who executes the man and orders Deveraux to shoot the girl to prove his loyalty. Deveraux refuses, and Scott kills the girl with a grenade.
After shooting each other to death, Deveraux and Scott’s corpses are recovered by a second squad and cryogenically frozen, their disappearance classified as “missing in action”.
Deveraux and Scott’s corpses, with others, are reanimated decades later and selected for the “Universal Soldier” (UniSol) program, an elite counter-terrorism unit. They are given a neural serum to keep their minds susceptible and their memories suppressed.
