Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning

"Under their own command"

2012 1h 54m EN

😐

5.6

MID

★5.6TMDB · 507

ActionScience FictionThriller

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

After his wife and daughter are murdered in a home invasion, a widower named John now finds himself up against an army of Universal Soldiers in relentless pursuit, led by a mysterious leader who promises to set UniSols free from their conditioning.

“Under their own command”

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Cast

Jean-Claude Van Damme
Luc Deveraux
Scott Adkins
John
Dolph Lundgren
Andrew Scott
Andrei Arlovski
Magnus
Mariah Bonner
Sarah
Audrey P. Scott
Emma
Rus Blackwell
Agent Gorman
James DuMont
Dr. Timothy Brady

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: John Hyams
Writers: John Hyams, Doug Magnuson, Moshe Diamant
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 9.9× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 14 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Part of the "Universal Soldier Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by John Hyams, shot by Yaron Levy. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Wil Hendricks. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Andrew Drazek shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Jean-Claude Van Damme and Scott Adkins and Dolph Lundgren carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Under their own command".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

John Hyams directs. Yaron Levy behind the camera. Wil Hendricks scores. Andrew Drazek cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Made its money back 9.9× over at the box office.
2Released 14 years ago.
3Part of the "Universal Soldier Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
4Directed by John Hyams, shot by Yaron Levy. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Wil Hendricks. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Andrew Drazek shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Jean-Claude Van Damme and Scott Adkins and Dolph Lundgren carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "Under their own command".
9IMDB entry: tt1659343 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Released under 17 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Yaron Levy
Original score: Wil Hendricks
Editing: Andrew Drazek
Production design: Nate Jones
Costume design: Kim Martínez
Makeup / hair: David Atherton
VFX supervisor: Ilia Goncharov
Sound: Neil Fazzari
Stunt coordinator: Chuck Picerni Jr.
Runtime: 114 min · 1h 54m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $11,500,000
Box office: $113,706,000
Return: 989% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (2012)

Part of

Universal Soldier Collection

The Universal Soldier film series concerns soldiers who kill each other in Vietnam but are reanimated in a secret Army project along with a large group of other previously dead soldiers. This premise furnishes the plot framework for all the sequels.

Also by

John Hyams

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Dark Jedi2013-02-09
★ 5/10
This movie was not really what I expected or at least not what I hoped it would be. Sure it is a decent enough action flick if you watch it as a stand-alone movie but it is also really different from the other Universal Soldier movies and I cannot say that I really liked the different track this movie took. The good part is that there is no lack of action and it is indeed both brutal and quite gory action. Those parts of the movie are quite good and are what keeps me from giving the movie a real trash rating. However, the pace of the movie also drops into really slow scenes quite frequently. This could have been effective if there would have been some form of coherent plot to follow but there really isn’t. A lot of things just happen and the lead character goes to various places, does things, without any obvious reason or explanation. Speaking of the plot, on some movie sites you can read a synopsis like this one: "In a world without government, the surviving Unisols maintain order and choose the strongest of their ranks to rule, testing them in life-or-death combat." Unfortunately this synopsis has also ended up on the French Amazon site where I bought the Blu-ray and it is total bullshit. It is not a world without government or any other doomsday world like what the French cover tries to imply. There is also not really any “testing” going on but more a spontaneous brawl ending up in a “unfortunate casualty'” among the rather emotionless uni-sols. This blatantly false advertising really annoys me. Another thing that did not sit very well with me is that both Dolph Lundgren and Jean-Claude Van Damme is not really main characters but rather obscure ones that kind of hide in the shadows until a show-down fight at the end. Not only that but Jean-Claude is more or less portrayed as a bad-guy throughout the movie. Not only as a bad-guy from the governments point of view but also from the viewers. It is kind of shown at the end that he is not but still…the entire movie is very dark and without hope. As I said, the action scenes are really the only thing that saved this movie from a real trash rating. If you have not seen any of the other Universal Soldier movies previously you might give this one a higher rating though.
ZACKSBR2022-09-21
★ 9/10
Masterpiece
CinemaSerf2022-11-10
★ 6/10
The handsome, but wooden as a board, Scott Adkins ("John") wakes from a coma after his wife and daughter are brutally murdered before his eyes in his kitchen! For some reason he was left alive, and he determines on vengeance against "Devereaux" (Jean-Claude Van Damme). He, meantime, is teaming up with "Scott" (Dolph Lundgren) and the pair are working to establish a new world order run by him and his fellow "UniSols" with only the strongest destined to survive and take on the government. "John" meantime is closing in on his protagonist, but as he does he begins to doubt what he believes. Is he being manipulated too? This moves along well with plenty of action and combat scenes but the characterisations are well past their use-by-dates now. Neither Lundgren nor Van Damme are anywhere near their best, the dialogue is clunky at best and Adkins, well his looks were all anyone could ever say he had enough of to merit on-screen time. The ending is predictable, though colourful, and as I finished this fourth outing I prayed that we won't have another. Repetitive and tired, sorry.