Jean-Claude Van Damme Movies

Black Eagle takes as its inspiration Reagan-era cold war paranoia. After a renegade scientist goes AWOL, a top secret device is up for grabs. International intrigue ensues, with CIA agent Ken Tani aka Black Eagle and KGB operative Andrei, played by Jon Claude van Damme at the center. The picture builds towards their inevitable showdown where American interests are preserved. Black Eagle was van Damme's second picture.

~ Brian Whitener, All Movie Guide

In a post-apocalyptic world, killer-for-hire Gibson Rickenbacker (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is hired to escort a cyborg--which contains valuable information on a cure for a deathly plague--to its research center. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

Canadian Mountie Louis Burke (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is assigned to a bizarre case where prison inmates are being murdered. Sent to the jail to investigate while undercover as a prisoner, Burke is hot on the trail until one of his former busts, the Sandman (Patrick Kilpatrick), is transferred to the same prison. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

A group of bullies terrorizing a small town meet their match in the Muscles From Brussels in this action drama. Eddie Lomax (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is a drifter who has been in a suicidal funk since the death of his close friend Johnny (Danny Trejo). Riding his motorcycle into a small desert town where Johnny once lived, Lomax is confronted by a gang of toughs, who beat him and steal his bike. However, Lomax is not a man to take an injustice lying down, and soon he begins exacting a violent revenge on the men who stole his motorcycle, with local handyman Jubal Early (Pat Morita) lending a hand and several area ladies offering aid and comfort. Inferno (which was also released under the titles Desert Heat and Coyote Moon) was directed by John G. Avildsen, though Danny Mulroon is credited on some prints. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Like John Woo and Ringo Lam before him, noted Hong Kong action director Tsui Hark made his American filmmaking debut with a thriller starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. For this film, Hark also had the privilege of guiding basketball star Dennis Rodman through his first dramatic role. American anti-terrorist agent Jack Quinn (Van Damme) has retired from duty, content to stay with his pregnant wife at his seaside hideaway. However, the CIA lure him back into duty for one last mission: wiping out crazed international terrorist Stavros (Mickey Rourke). Quinn flies to Antwerp to ambush Stavros, but his plan fails; Quinn is captured and imprisoned in "The Colony," a prison camp for spies "too valuable to kill and too dangerous to set free." To further torture Quinn, Stavros kidnaps Quinn's wife; after she gives birth to their son, Stavros keeps him captive, surrounded by land mines and wild animals. Quinn escapes and makes plans to rescue his wife and child, but he can't do it alone, so he seeks the help of Yaz (Rodman), a top-level underground arms merchant with a tendency towards flamboyant body modification. Rodman also appears with R&B vocalist Crystal Waters on the song "Just a Freak" which appears on the film's soundtrack. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

John Woo's first Hollywood feature stars Jean-Claude Van Damme as Chance Boudreaux, a down-and-out Cajun merchant seaman, who, after saving a young woman, Natasha Binder (Yancy Butler), from a gang of thugs on the streets of New Orleans, agrees to help her search for her father (Chuck Pfarrer), a homeless Vietnam vet. They locate local businessman Randall Poe (Elliott Keener), for whom the vet had been working, and learn that her father has become a victim of wealthy sportsman Emil Fouchon (Lance Henriksen), who, along with his cronies, hunts homeless men as a form of recreation. After Fouchon finds out that the girl is investigating the murder of her father, he arranges for she and Chance to be ambushed, but they manage to escape into the backwoods of Louisiana -- his stomping grounds. Realizing he needs to regroup, Fouchon assembles a private army to invade the bayous. They track the pair to the rustic cabin of Chance's Uncle Douvee (Wilford Brimley), and the real fireworks begin. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide

Jean-Claude Van Damme plays himself in this meta-crime comedy that finds him garnering mores headlines than he's had in years after stumbling into an in-progress bank heist. Down and out, with only straight-to-DVD titles under his belt and a recent job lost out to fellow has-been Steven Seagal, the aging action star returns to Belgium a broken man fresh from losing a custody case for his daughter in Hollywood. Upon his arrival, the bad news continues with a disastrous ATM encounter that leads him into the bank and straight into a robbery situation, for which he's about to be blamed. Soon, crowds grow outside on the street, with the cops quick to point the finger at him and his fans cheering for his release. The film garnered a cult following during its festival run and awarded Van Damme his first theatrical release in the States in almost a decade. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide

Jean Claude Van Damme kicks up his heels once again in this action film. Van Damme plays Kurt Sloane, the brother of American kickboxing champion Eric Sloane (Dennis Alexio). Having bested the best in the United States, Eric takes off to Bangkok with little brother Kurt to defeat the kickboxing champion of Thailand. However, while Eric wins the fight, his career is finished for good when his opponent, the malicious Tong Po (Michel Qissi) breaks his spine after the final bell sounds, putting Eric permanently in a wheelchair. Kurt learns the sport of kickboxing himself, so he can get in the ring and teach the Thai champ a lesson. An old man who is a master at kickboxing, instructs Kurt in the brutal art, along with gentle bromides of Zen philosophy and spiritual peace. Kurt finally becomes a pro and lines up a match with Tong Po, but to insure victory, Tong Po's cohorts rape Kurt's girlfriend, kidnap his crippled brother, and even kill his dog. But Kurt is unbowed and is ready for the champ to meet his match. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Action hero Jean-Claude Van Damme stars in this globe-trotting adventure set in the 1920s. Van Damme plays Alain, a carefree French playboy who makes the mistake of getting involved with the girlfriend of a notorious Mob kingpin. Running for his life, Alain decides to hide out in a time-tested manner -- he joins the French Foreign Legion. Stationed in North Africa, he must deal with a violently psychotic senior officer and troops of bloodthirsty guerillas. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Alain Moreau (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is a French cop whose colleagues make a startling discovery -- a man named Mikhail, who was killed in a high-speed chase with police, looks exactly like him. Curious about the stranger with his face, Alain is told by his mother Chantal (Stephane Audran) that Mikhail was in fact his twin brother, whom her poor family was forced to give up at birth. Alain wants to know more about the brother he never knew, but the more he learns the more troubling the news becomes; it seems that Mikhail was involved with gangsters, corrupt FBI agents, and a gang of drug dealers. In order to avenge his brother's death and get to the bottom of his sad story, Alain assumes Mikhail's identity and travels to New York City, where to maintain his cover he takes up with Alex Minetti (Natasha Henstridge), Mikhail's tough-as-nails girlfriend, before finding himself hip-deep in danger with Mikhail's associates. Maximum Risk was the first American film from noted Hong Kong action director Ringo Lam, whose City on Fire has often been cited as a key inspiration for Reservoir Dogs. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This film is a kind of David meets Goliath story told in martial arts terms. Young Jason Stillwell (Kurt McKinney) moves with his parents to Seattle, where local bullies harass them without mercy. Jason's father Tom (Tim Baker) does not believe in violence, so the family takes it on the chin. One day Jason enrolls in a martial arts class and quietly rises in rank to be a major contender. His mettle is tested in an international match against Ivan, a Russian champion (Jean-Claude Van Damme), expanding the "enemy" beyond Seattle's borders. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This $17 million direct-to-video production by Hong Kong director Ringo Lam is the story of a fire-obsessed serial killer (Jean-Claude Van Damme) and the recently retired cop (Michael Rooker) intent on stopping him. After finding his hair follicle at a crime scene, a secret government agency clones the killer in the hopes that the replicant will aid in the search. Although he's full-grown, the clone (also played by Van Damme) has the emotional and mental capacity of a young child. Soon the naïve replicant begins to have visions of past murders and an abusive mother, leading him to escape and seek the killer on his own. ~ Skyler Miller, All Movie Guide