Summary

• Jean-Claude Van Damme's science fiction films range in quality, with clear winners and losers in the lineup.
• The Universal Soldier series, featuring Van Damme, is the most famous and strongest of his science fiction offerings.
• Van Damme's best sci-fi film is Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning, which explores the darker implications of the Universal Soldier program.

Primarily known for his work in martial arts films, Jean-Claude Van Damme's best fight scenes, finding the flexible action star plenty of excuses to perform his signature feats of athleticism.

Most famous among Van Damme's science fiction offerings is the Universal Solider series. A mix of Demolition Man and Robocop, the winding saga of revived military men has grown past Van Damme in the past, but the films featuring the Belgian martial arts star are undoubtedly the strongest of the series. Beyond that, Van Damme has also graced a handful of smaller, one-off sci-fi projects with his dashing good looks and impressive kicking skills, to mixed results. The average quality of Van Damme's science fiction movies ittedly isn't too high, with clear winners and losers in the final lineup.

8 Alien Uprising

2012

A low-budget indie science fiction venture, Jean-Claude Van Damme's presence in Alien Uprising feels more like a personal favor to the filmmaker than anything else. Also known by its original release title, U.F.O., Alien Uprising is a low-rent British action flick with ambitions that far outscale its abilities. Primarily starring Van Damme's daughter, Bianca Brigitte Van Damme, Jean-Claude only appears as a ing character, blackening his sci-fi record. The film chronicles a group of ordinary people struggling to survive in the wake of a stock-standard alien invasion, who begin their attack with an EMP.

The film unnecessarily lingers overlong on unimportant moments, including a painfully unedited opening sequence in a nightclub and a pointlessly awkward sex scene shortly after. When it finally is able to focus the swooping, restless camera on the action, all the movie is able to conjure are unimaginative flying saucers trading weightless laser fire and rote human infighting. Even the decent performances of not one, but two Van Dammes aren't enough to retain interest in Alien Uprising's tedious editing and mediocre script.

7 Universal Soldier: The Return

1999

After the Universal Soldier franchise soldiered on with two films sans Jean-Claude Van Damme's signature fighting style, the science fiction saga had to it that it needed its original star. Enter Universal Soldier: The Return, clearly advertising the comeback of Van Damme's Luc Deveraux plainly in its title. This time around, Deveraux must contend with the dangerous artificial intelligence, S.E.T.H., who plans to weaponize the UniSol program for its own electronic dreams of world domination. Of course, the rogue A.I. needs a fellow Universal Soldier body to carry it through the action scenes, supplied by Michael Jai White.

Pitting Jean-Claude Van Damme against a fellow martial arts expert was a fantastic direction for the series to go in, as Deveraux and S.E.T.H. trade blows again and again over the course of the brisk sub-90-minute runtime. Unfortunately, even this brief trek back into the world of Universal Soldier can feel like an eternity as the film re-uses similar action scenes, wandering through a nonsensical plot that fails even by the low standards of the Universal Solider franchise. A tragic waste of its starring talent, Universal Soldier: The Return failed to manifest a triumphant return to form.

6 Cyborg

1989

An unapologetically vicious post-apocalyptic romp, Cyborg posits Van Damme as mercenary Gibson Rickenbacker, tasked with escorting a female cyborg holding the secrets of a cure for a deadly virus across a war-torn Atlanta. Cyborg's ludicrous amounts of brutal, if fake-looking blood and gore make it stand out among Van Damme's action catalog, not to mention some standout fight scenes opposite Vincent Klyn's deliciously hammy villain.

Even if Cyborg does, ironically, feature one of Van Damme's more robotic performances propped up against low-budget set design and cinematography, it has an unmistakable charm as an ultra-violent cathartic action flick. For a better viewing experience, a more rare Director's Cut of Cyborg - titled Slinger (the original title) - was created by Albert Pyun in 2011 when the director got his hands on the print. It was released solely in .

5 Universal Soldier: Regeneration

2010

Once again reviving the dormant Universal Soldier line with a fresh infusion of Jean-Claude Van Damme, Universal Soldier: Regeneration is a reboot-quel that directly follows up the original film while ignoring the last three entries. That creative decision proved to be a strong one, particularly because it helped bring Van Damme's Private Deveraux back into the action.

A remarkably grittier retelling of the franchise's chronology, Deveraux must this time wade into an outmatched fight against Russian terrorists posted up in Chernobyl with a series of next-gen UniSol units, including a clone of Deveraux's old nemesis, played again by Dolph Lundgren. Despite being a financial flop, Regeneration's somber re-imagining paved the way for Universal Soldier's comeback.

4 Replicant

2001

After Double Impact, it seems Van Damme was typecast as an action hero who could juggle two roles at once. In Replicant, Van Damme stars as both hardened Detective Jake Riley and his clone, who team up to take down a pyromaniac serial killer. Impressively, this marked the third of three movies in which JCVD played two different characters: in this case it was an original and a clone, and in Double Impact (1991) and Maximum Risk (1996), the action icon played twins.

It's amazing how well the then 40-year-old martial arts star is able to balance fighting on behalf of two characters in Replicant, with the chilling murderer "The Torch" balancing out his unstoppable gymnastic prowess with a genuinely terrifying villain. Even if the budget and concept were both obviously underdeveloped, Replicant isn't a film to miss among Van Damme's sci-fi outings.

3 Universal Soldier

1992

The film that started it all, 1992's Universal Soldier was Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren's break into the world of sci-fi action. Smartly excusing the pair's less-than-captivating acting skills as revived super soldiers with suppressed personalities thanks to a neural serum. The real star of the show is director Roland Emmerich's utter mastery of fight choreography, with Van Damme and Lundgren duking it out in ever more creatively violent capacities, punctuated by some simmering comedic beats.

Though not the most ingenious sci-fi premise, Universal Soldier is a capable, if flawed, masterclass in action filmmaking. So strong was the action IP that it spawned five sequels - each with varying degrees of success - and one planned TV spin-off series that was announced in 2011, but is yet to be released. In 2018, Kraven the Hunter writer Richard Wenk was hired to script a new reboot.

2 Timecop

1994

Of all the science fiction films to center around time travel as its main conceit, Timecop might play it the fastest and loosest of any of them. Jean-Claude Van Damme lends his talents to Max Walker, a police officer who is sent back into the past to prevent known crimes as they happen. When he gets sucked into a conspiracy regarding a corrupt presidential candidate, Walker has no choice but to split-kick his way across the timeline in order to prevent a grave future, undoing the murder of his wife and dodging traitorous elements within the force along the way.

For how ridiculous and poorly-thought out its premise is, Timecop asks viewers to take it relatively seriously, indulging itself in an aggrandizing tale of government corruption with the ludicrous framing device of wanton time travel. That being said, the film's action scenes more than take advantage of Van Damme's physical abilities. The villainous politician Aaron McComb, played by Ron Silver, at least presents Walker with a raucously evil and memorable foe. If the audaciously unexplained time travel elements can be forgiven, a fun, brainless action experience can be appreciated in Timecop.

1 Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning

2012

Iterating on the fresh start to the franchise provided by Universal Soldier: Regeneration, Day of Reckoning is by far the most ambitious and successful of the franchise. This time pairing Van Damme and Lundgren as unlikely allies against a new horde of reanimated soldiers, the film puts a greater focus than before on the terrifying implications of the Universal Soldier program, exploring the oppressed psyche of the resurrected warriors.

Carrying over the darker tone of Regeneration while elevating the series with more thought without compromising the expected thrills, Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning is Van Damme's strongest sci-fi offering.