Rutger Hauer Movies
Blonde, blue-eyed, tall, and very handsome Dutch actor Rutger Hauer has an international reputation for playing everything from romantic leads to action heroes to sinister villains. The son of actors, Hauer was born in Breukelen, Holland. Because his parents were often touring, Hauer and his three sisters were raised by a nanny. A bit of a rebel during his childhood, he chafed at the rules and rigors of school and was often getting into mischief. His grandfather had been the captain of a schooner, and at age 15, Hauer ran away to work on a freighter for a year. Like his great-grandfather, Hauer is colorblind, which prevented him from furthering his career as a sailor. Upon his return, he attended night school and started working in the construction industry. When he again bombed at school, his parents enrolled him in drama classes. Fancying himself a poet, Hauer spent most of his time writing poetry and hanging out in Amsterdam coffee houses instead of studying. He got expelled for poor attendance and afterward spent a brief time in the Dutch Navy. Deciding he didn't like military life, Hauer convinced his superiors that he was mentally unfit and was sent to a special home for psych patients. It was an unpleasant place, but Hauer remained there until he convinced his ranking officers that the military really did not need him.Upon his return to Amsterdam, Hauer again enrolled in acting school; he graduated three years later and joined a traveling experimental theater troupe. Five years later he was cast as a dashing swashbuckler in a Dutch television series. He made his film debut in Monsieur Hawarden (1969), but did not make a name for himself until director Paul Verhoeven cast him as a bohemian sculptor in the erotic drama Turks Fruit (Turkish Delight) in 1973. At one point in the story, Hauer faced the camera fully nude. It would not be the last time in which he would do full frontal nudity in his early career. In 1975, the actor made his English-language debut playing a womanizing Afrikaner opposite Sidney Poitier and Michael Caine in Ralph Nelson's The Wilby Conspiracy.
Hauer did not make an impression in Hollywood until he was cast as a psychopathic terrorist opposite Sylvester Stallone in Nighthawks (1981). Always excelling in villainous roles, his next major American appearance is also one of his most famous, that of Roy Batty, one of the rebellious Nexus 6 replicants in Blade Runner (1982). He received kudos for his work in the romantic medieval fantasy Ladyhawke (1985) and in Italian director Ermanno Olmi's drama La Leggenda Del Santo Bevitore (The Legend of the Holy Drinker) (1988). In the latter film, Hauer showed that he was more than a pretty boy-action hero by letting his sensitive, gentle side appear. During the '90s, Hauer regularly appeared in lower-budget films and occasionally in such made-for-TV movies as the well-wrought Call of the Wild (1997). In the early '90s, Hauer tickled and puzzled audiences by appearing in a series of commercials for Guinness. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
In this action drama, Rutger Hauer plays Gene Reardon, a detective working in a small town who is put on the case when a major kidnapping erupts. The FBI is brought in, and Reardon finds himself working under a top federal agent, Wallis Longsworth (Paulina Porizkova) -- who used to be his wife. Evidence begins to suggest that Reardon may be involved in the crime himself, which he adamantly denies. When the kidnapping turns into a murder, Longsworth teams up with Reardon to help him prove his innocence and track down the real culprit. Partners in Crime also stars Andrew Dolin and Frank Gerrish; Jennifer Warren directed. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rutger Hauer, Paulina Porizkova, (more)
An innocent man discovers things are not always what they seem as he's led into a web of murder and revenge in this sexy thriller. Babee Gordon (Thomas Newton) is a quiet, introverted bachelor who one day discovers he has new next-door neighbors, Keith and Vera Miller (Rutger Hauer and Virginia Madsen). Keith and Vera are a friendly, outgoing couple eager to become aquatinted with Babee, while Babee is intrigued by Keith, an ultra-confident ladies' man, and is more than a bit infatuated with Vera, a sexy blonde. As Babee becomes close friends with the couple, he realizes that not all is well with their relationship; one day, they become involved in a serious auto accident after a heated argument. While Vera walks away from the wreck, Keith is confined to a wheelchair, and suffers severe brain damage that prevents him from speaking. Or at least that's what Keith wants people to think. He soon confides to Babee that he's been faking his injuries, and that it's all part of an elaborate plot to seek violent retribution against everyone who has ever crossed him -- so would Babee like to be his partner in crime? Lying in Wait also stars Vanessa Dorman, Shannon Whirry, and Tony Bill. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rutger Hauer, Virginia Madsen, (more)
This ten-hour mini-series extravaganza originally aired on February 26, 2000 on NBC, and concerns the fate of a janitor, Tony (John Larroquette), and his lovely daughter Virginia (Kimberly Williams), who mysteriously find themselves in a land where fairies, trolls, and elves live. Their attempts to return home are thwarted by an evil witch (Diane Wiest). Appearing in supporting roles are Rutger Hauer, Warwick Davis, and Camryn Manheim as Snow White. The 10th Kingdom was rebroadcast on August, 2000, with a substantially trimmed running time of eight hours, which was shortened even further to six hours for the video release, after all commercials had been removed. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kimberly Williams, John Larroquette, (more)
- 1999
In this high-tech thriller, David Marx (Rutger Hauer), a take-no-prisoners homicide detective, is teamed with computer expert Kris Paddock (Tara Fitzgerald) to track down Kurt Bishop (Andrew McCarthy), a software pirate who has been trying to steal a valuable encryption security program. Bishop will stop at nothing, even murder, to get the codes, but when he kidnaps Paddock, he finds out the hard way how Marx gained the nickname "The Coroner." ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rutger Hauer, Andrew McCarthy, (more)
- 1998
Rutger Hauer plays William Palmer, formerly the chief medical examiner of Chicago who now makes his living as a writer. Palmer has written a novel based on one of the more interesting cases he investigated, a psychopathic murderer who would remove the bones from his victims while they were still alive. In his novel, the fiend, nicknamed "Bone Daddy," is caught and brought to justice, but in real life he was never found, and after the publication of his novel, the real-life Bone Daddy is inspired to resume his grisly work. Palmer begins receiving revolting packages in the mail -- human bones wrapped in pages from his book -- and it turns out the bones belong to William's agent. William has to find out where Bone Daddy is while his friend might still be alive, especially since the police have developed the mistaken notion that Palmer's son might be the culprit. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rutger Hauer, Barbara Williams, (more)
- 1998
Director of award-winning short films Ben Hopkins embarked on this ambitious feature project with Robert Jones, the producer of The Usual Suspects. The screenplay is inspired by Central European folklore, spaghetti Westerns and industrial history. But the film, which runs like a fable, has its roots in folktales rather than history. It is the end of the 19th century and progress has arrived in Silesia. Travelers do not stop at the town anymore because the railway track is laid past the small settlement. Incomes have dropped, and so has the number of inhabitants. Noah Taylor plays Simon, a 'holy fool' of sorts, persecuted by fellow villagers who hold him responsible for everything from the failure of the crops to the milk going sour. Simon, who resembles a scarecrow, lives in a hut outside the village. He earns his living emptying the sewers, existing on dry bread and the occasional herring or pickle given by the wife of a rabbi. He knows how to entertain the village children with his magic tricks and devilish masks. At the same time, he feels he actually is pursued by the devil, which makes him do all kinds of evil things, only increasing his isolation. There is also the poor but good-looking Jew, Dovid, who keeps proposing to the beautiful widow Leah, who rejects him. Dovid devises a plan to build the village economy, and in the process gain her affection. He pays a visit to the eccentric poet esquire and agrees to a business deal which entails the esquire allowing a new railway station to be built on his property in return for Dovid reading his newly published anthology. Unfortunately, Hase Sean McGinley, a wealthy Christian merchant with more money and little respect for the Jewish villagers, is also interested in the railway project. Simon Magus is the story of a village caught between two worlds -- the new industrial order and the old, rural world of tradition and superstition. The camera work of Nic Knowland is outstanding, as is the confident performance by Noah Taylor, the teenage David Helfgott of Shine. The rest of the cast is quite international as well -- Irishman Stuart Townsend as Dovid, the merchant; South African-born Embeth Davidtz as Leah, the widow and Dutch star Rutger Hauer cast against type as the gentle poet squire. Various subplots, however, often carry the story in directions which distracts audience attention. Simon Magus competed at the 49th International Berlin Film Festival in 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Noah Taylor, Embeth Davidtz, (more)
In this high-flying action thriller, an expert Air Force flyer finds himself forced to use every trick he has ever learned to stop a murderous, insane former colleague and friend from exacting deadly revenge upon him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rutger Hauer, Robert Patrick, (more)
- 1998
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This four-hour fantasy miniseries, elaborating on the Arthurian legend and filmed in England and Wales, offers a portrait of the wizard Merlin (Sam Neill), following his life as a youth (Daniel Brocklebank) to his later conflicts with the evil Queen Mab (Miranda Richardson) and his love for Nimue (Isabella Rossellini), who is kidnapped by Lord Vortigern (Rutger Hauer). Amid battles and displays of magic and mysticism (courtesy of London's Framestore and the Jim Henson Creature Shop), Merlin strides the English countryside encountering Excalibur, the unbreakable sword, and a Camelot cast of colorful characters including the morphing manservant Frik (Martin Short), Morgan le Fey (Helena Bonham Carter), King Arthur (Paul Curran), Lancelot (Jeremy Sheffield), and Guinevere (Lena Heady). Premiered April 26, 1998 on NBC. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sam Neill, Isabella Rossellini, (more)
- 1998
- NR
In this taut, gruesome thriller, a novelist (and former medical examiner) turns sleuth when he learns about a serial killer with a flair for filleting his victims alive and then keeping their bones. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rutger Hauer, Barbara Williams, (more)
- 1997
- R
In this episode of the sci-fi adventure series, the spaceship Lexx's crew find themselves battling addiction after imbibing a strange liqueur made from body parts. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael McManus, Eva Habermann, (more)
- 1997
A smuggler is killed by a man he thought was his friend and comes back to tell the story in this sci-fi tinged action drama. John Anderson Wade (Rutger Hauer) is a black marketeer who gets on the wrong side of Merrick (Mark Dacascos), his partner in crime. A disagreement with Merrick turns deadly, and Wade ends up murdered. However, scientists from the Russian government perform experiments on Wade's body that bring him back from the dead; Wade teams up with female kickboxer Marina (Yvonne Scio). and they set out to find Merrick and exact revenge for his brief career as a dead person. Redline has also been released under the titles Deathline and Armageddon. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rutger Hauer, Mark Dacascos, (more)
- 1997
Two terminal patients leave their hospital beds for the open highway in this German road movie, a popular success in Germany. When cancer victim Rudi (Jan Josef Liefers) meets Martin (Til Schweiger), who has a brain tumor, they knock back tequila one night and decide to head north to experience life at the seashore, something Rudi has hoped to do his entire life. However, the car they've stolen belongs to two thieves and contains a million marks. Soon they're being pursued by both thugs and cops. The film's soundtrack includes Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door". Shown at the 1997 London and AFI/Los Angeles film festivals. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Til Schweiger, Jan Josef Liefers, (more)
A family of incestuous Dutch aristocrats emigrates to New England, and 300 years later, their long-lost descendent returns to the ancestral environs to research his rare blood disorder in this low-budget horror flick based on a mothballed Dan O'Bannon script. Orphan John (Roy Dupuis) yearns for more information about his family -- and the genetic disorder that threatens his life. Arriving on the Maine island to which he's traced his ancestry, just as its cemetary is being dug up and relocated due to health-code violations, he and his wife, Kathleen (Kristin Lehman) encounter a gin-soaked old M.D. (Rutger Hauer) who agrees to help them in their search for more information. Meanwhile, residents of the island begin to disappear one by one and it appears that a race of horrific mutants is to blame. Slowly realizing the links between John's family legacy and the attacks, the island's surviving residents band together to fend off the monstrous threat. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rutger Hauer, Roy Dupuis, (more)
Based on an actual event, this made-for-television movie chronicles a delicate international situation that could have derailed Russian-American relations in the 1980s. Martin Sheen and Rutger Hauer star as military leaders on opposing sides, in this edgy drama about the collision between a Russian nuclear submarine and an American submarine off the coast of Bermuda. While the sub crews were dealing with the danger of a possible nuclear accident due to vessel damage, political leaders Reagan and Gorbachev were in the middle of sensitive peace talks. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rutger Hauer, Martin Sheen, (more)
- 1997
Richard Dreyfuss narrates this made-for-cable adaptation of the classic novel by Jack London. This particular version of the tale has been hailed as one of the most accurate dramatic presentations of London's work. The story tells the exciting and often brutal tale of Buck, a dog who is stolen from his caring owner in California and sent to the Yukon, where he's forced into service as a sled dog by his new (and violent) masters. Rutger Hauer stars. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
In this low-budget sci-fi adventure, a nerdy college student is shocked to discover that he has been chosen to save the Earth from intergalactic invaders. Joe E. Talbott learns of his mission from the mysterious beauty who suddenly appears in his dorm late one night. Upon hearing her story, he agrees to help. Accompanied by the girl, and an alien mercenary who knows the enemy too well, he sets off to save the day. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rutger Hauer, Josh Charles, (more)
In this future-set sci-fi action adventure the post-holocaust world in which mankind was defeated by his own machines is now populated and controlled by cyborgs carrying sharpened sticks and laser boomerangs. Omega Doom (Rutger Hauer) is one such cyborg. He is programmed to destroy everything that moves until a sharp blow to the head causes a short and makes him want to help the planet's few remaining human beings regain control. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rutger Hauer, Shannon Whirry, (more)
- 1996
- R
Philippe Mora, the genre filmmaker whose marsupial-themed Howling III and alien-abduction hit Communion solidified his reputation as a director of clunky, substandard fantasy, returned with this space-set remake of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. True to form, it's a clunky mess, with Harold Pruett as a young prospector named Ben (complete with a lovable canine sidekick), who teams up with gambler Armand Crile (Rutger Hauer) and a shifty engineer named Horton (Brion James) to look for Au79, a valuable ore also called "Precious." Mora throws in everything but the kitchen sink with sabotage, explosions, crazed hijackings, and a few tacky aliens in an obligatory cantina scene. He also includes a lame CGI monster and some campy humor (as if Don Stroud as a long-haired Asian robot wasn't campy enough). Brion James steals the show as the cynical Horton, and even gets to sing, while Mora makes a cameo appearance as a scummy merchant. Despite its outer-space setting, the science fiction elements pretty much fall by the wayside once the cast leaves the moon and gets to Asteroid 18, which may as well be Bronson Canyon in an old B-Western. While it is true that most science fiction movies are basically frontier Westerns at heart anyway, this one forces the issue in such a way that one can only wonder why Mora didn't just do a straight ripoff of Sierra Madre rather than adding the unnecessary spaceships. Probably because low-budget sci-fi rents and low-budget Westerns don't. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rutger Hauer, Joan Chen, (more)
- 1996
Directed by Albert Pyun, Blast centers around the struggles of a group of would-be Olympic spectators being held hostage by a band of terrorist determined to set off a vast amount of explosives at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. The film featres Linden Ashby, Andrew Divoff, Rutger Hauer, Kimberly Warren, and Tim Thomerson.
~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rutger Hauer, Linden Ashby, (more)
- 1995
This sci-fi thriller takes the Frankenstein story a few steps further and sets it in the near future. Using a variety of human body parts, a scientist (Rutger Hauer) creates Lazarus, a young man (Will Wheaton) with superior mental and physical capabilities. Poor Lazarus would be perfect but for the terrible nightmares that plague him. He does not know of his gruesome origins and so goes to a psychiatrist for answers. But for Lazarus, learning the whole truth may be a dangerous endeavor, not only for him, but for the world. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rutger Hauer, Nia Peeples, (more)
- 1994
In this crime drama, a ring of Polish criminals are implicated in the murder of a Chi-town cop and the disappearance of a few Russian immigrants. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Thomas Ian Griffith, Rutger Hauer, (more)
The Richard Connell short story, The Most Dangerous Game, has been adapted for the screen many times. In this updated version, the rapper-actor Ice-T plays Mason, a homeless man whose best friend and his dog both die on the same day. Cole (Charles S. Dutton, a relief worker, tells Mason that there's a job available that entails leading a hunting expedition in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest. The desperate Mason signs on. The hunting party is led by two CIA agents, Burns (Rutger Hauer) and Hawkins (Gary Busey), and it includes a business executive, Wolfe, Sr. (F. Murray Abraham), his son (William McNamara), and a strange Texan, Griffin (John C. McGinley). Mason flies on ahead to prepare the hunting lodge, and there he discovers that he is to be the prey for the hunt, though the hunters at least give him a head start before pursuing. The violent action pits the high-tech hunters, armed with numerous fancy weapons and vehicles, against Mason -- who must rely on his street smarts to escape and turn the tables on the hunting party. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ice-T, Rutger Hauer, (more)
- 1994
Made-for-television, this drama tells the story of real-life pioneer aviatrix Amelia Earhart. Diane Keaton stars as the famous American female pilot, who challenged social stereotypes and took to the air in the 1930s. In an attempt to fly around the world, Earhart's plane went missing in 1937 and was never recovered. Keaton was nominated for a Golden Globe, an Emmy and a SAG Award for her portrayal of this ground-breaking historical figure. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
- 1994
- R
This period drama explores the life and times of the 16th century doctor and scientist who some believed could see into the future. Michel de Nostradamus (Tcheky Karyo) was the son in a Jewish family who posed as Catholics to be spared the wrath of the Inquisition. As a student of the renowned physician Dr. Scalinger (F. Murray Abraham), Nostradamus created herbal cures and did pioneering research in the importance of proper nutrition and hygiene. However, he was unable to protect his wife Marie (Julia Ormand) from the Black Plague sweeping the country, and he lost both her and their two children. Nostradamus remarried, to widow Anne (Assumpta Sterna), but at the urging of Scalinger, he began to more carefully explore the strange trances that befell him, and Nostradamus began writing prophetic essays predicting any number of future catastrophes. Nostradamus also features Amanda Plummer as Queen Catherine de Medici and Anthony Higgins as the King. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tchéky Karyo, F. Murray Abraham, (more)
- 1994
What if Germany had won WW II and successfully taken over Europe? Based on a novel by Robert Harris, this compelling drama is set in just such a world, 30 years after the Germans defeated the Allies at Normandy on D-Day. By this time, the country is known as Germania and since the war it has been at odds with the United States. In hopes of bringing peace, the two government leaders, Hitler and president Joseph Kennedy Sr. are planning a historic summit in hopes of obtaining detente. It's a tense situation and matters are made worse when an SS detective and an American reporter begin investigating a series of murders. Together, they discover a horrible and long-suppressed secret: Hitler and his regime were responsible for the deaths of over six million Jews during the war. Armed with this damning information, the two must hurry to the summit to stop President Kennedy from making a terrible mistake. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rutger Hauer, Miranda Richardson, (more)
