Forget the Past: Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning 3-D

A strange and unlikely entry in the pseudo-genre of Action Sequels Better Than The Originals, Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning is a marvel of brutal action choreography visualized with an inky layer of paranoia thriller style. Shot natively in 3-D, it’s hardly ever been seen that way–unless you happened to check out Alamo Drafthouse’s Weird Wednesday last month.

Introduced by programmer Laird Jimenez and guest programmer Ron Blackwell Bauerle-McKnight, this fifth iteration of the Unisol franchise stars Scott Adkins as John, an amnesiac victim of Luke Devereaux, the undead super-soldier played here and in the original by Jean-Claude Van Damme. Dolph Lundgren, looking like an ancient golden god, reprises his role as Devereaux’s nemesis, a rogue Unisol who now commands a small army of the lethal automatons.

The original 1992 film represented the first team-up of producer Dean Devlin and director Roland Emmerich, who would later nail their blockbuster formula with Independence Day. This first effort lacked the slickness of their future summer tentpole classics – while action-packed, it’s also full of broad comic relief and wild suspension of disbelief swings. The presence of Van Damme and Lundgren, already past their 1980s action heydays, feels dated and forced.

The franchise traveled a bumpy road in the ensuing years, with two TV movies and a theatrical sequel that went nowhere. Director John Hyams, son of 2010 director Peter Hyams, was hired on for a direct-to-video fourth sequel, Regeneration, which follows Devereaux as he struggles to adapt to civilian life before being reactivated to fight terrorists in the ruins of Chernobyl. 

Hyams brought a smart and serious-minded approach far above expectations for a direct-to-video sci-fi actioner. The fight scenes have a brutal matter-of-factness gleaned from Hyams’ documentary on MMA fighter Mark Kerr, The Smashing Machine (the source of the upcoming Dwayne Johnson/Benny Safie film). No one expected it to be good.

But the less-plot, more-vibe approach clicked, and when it did decent business, a follow-up materialized. The Day of Reckoning production focused on cost-effective realism, with most effects done practically in front of the camera. Said Hyams at the time to Collider, “We didn’t have the money to blow up the world, so we tried to be visceral.” 

The director was blessed with the natural star power of Scott Adkins, a British native who made his bones as a stuntman in Hong Kong under legends like Yuen Woo-Ping and Sammo Hung. No acting slouch, he holds the film together with remarkable intensity. With his chiseled yet boyish face and hulking physique, it’s hard to believe he isn’t a household name by now,* although a few in the Weird Wednesday audience seemed to be there just for him.

• Adkins recently had a big, bonkers role in John Wick 4; he looks a little different.

Where Regeneration feels arid and washed-out, Reckoning conjures a lurid, oppressive atmosphere, informed by the humming hallways of David Lynch and blinding strobe effects of Gaspar Noe. The 3-D elements make some images shimmer with acid-trip intensity, particularly the nightmarish opening POV shot.

Reckoning’s use of 3-D compares favorably with 2012’s other big-budget sci-fi releases Prometheus and Dredd. While a few classic cliches like the ax-through-the-door shot appear, Hyams mainly uses the effect to amplify the protagonist’s limited perspective, informed by noir classics like Chinatown and Angel Heart. Adkins’ character starts out on a bloody revenge quest, but the more he learns the more the story mutates into a surreal heart of darkness tale.

Impressively, Hyams’ films seriously engage with the war trauma theme that served as stock character development in the original film. The details are subtle, but all the Unisols are played as beyond broken, utterly desensitized with no humanity left to save. Their spaces are awash in booze, the clink of empty bottles amassed on floors and tables a recurring motif. Reckoning also circles back to the first film’s Vietnam War cold open, in the climactic battle directly inspired by Apocalypse Now.

Even with (slightly) higher visibility, Day of Reckoning only played three screens in the US (including Fantastic Fest) in its initial run, after premiering on VOD. It’s taken years for word of mouth to percolate up through the particular Venn diagram of gorehounds and film nerds, but Regeneration and Reckoning are basically the “John Hyams ones” now, elevated from the rest of the franchise through pure cinema.

Day of Reckoning is way too grim for the average Tubi and chill, and might not inspire as much engagement on the small screen as the full 3-D theater experience did. But it’s refreshing, in our dismal attention economy of influencers and AI slop, to find an honest to goodness word of mouth success story. Roundhouse kicks, included.

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