Universal Soldier: The Return (1999)

Screen It! is not attempting to rate the movie as good or bad but to give parents the tools to decide whether it's appropriate for their kids.

This movie has been screened for objectional content in 15 areas. Click for a detailed look.

OUR WORD TO PARENTS: The following is a quick look at the content found in this R-rated action/adventure film. Violence occurs throughout the film and includes people being threatened, wounded or killed by gunfire, electrocution, hand to hand combat, explosions and other means. A few instances of that are a bit bloody, although a surgery scene is much more graphic and gory. The rest of the violence consists of fights with many punches and kicks being thrown--all of which some kids may want to imitate. Profanity is heavy due to at least 9 uses of the "f" word, while other profanities and a few colorful phrases also occur. A scene set in a strip club shows many bare-breasted women in thong-like bottoms that show most of their bare butts. Some brief sexually related material is also present. Beyond all of that, some brief drinking and even briefer references to a dead mother/wife, the rest of the film's categories are relatively void of any major objectionable content. Since teenage males (and possibly some preteens) may just want to see this film, we suggest that you take a closer look at the detailed content listings should you still be concerned about the film's appropriateness for them or anyone in your home. Of special note for those concerned with the bright flashing of lights on the screen, a moment of that occurs during a gun battle sequence.

QUICK TAKE:: Action/Adventure: A former super soldier must contend with a small platoon of even stronger and more invincible soldiers who've been unleashed by a computer that's embodied itself in one of the warriors.

WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT?: If they're fans of Van Damme and his style of movies, or of professional wrestler Goldberg who weighs in as a heavy, they just might.

WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: R: For nonstop strong violence, and for language and nudity.

CAST AS ROLE MODELS:: JEAN-CLAUDE VAN DAMME plays a former Universal Soldier who battles and tries to figure out how to stop the more advanced soldiers. Beyond all of the fighting, he cusses a bit (with brief, but heavy profanity), and does try to protect his daughter and others from harm.
MICHAEL JAI WHITE plays the supercomputer who decides to kill all of the humans after learning that his program is scheduled to be shut down.
HEIDI SCHANZ plays an eager but obnoxious reporter who briefly uses strong profanity and puts her career ahead of her safety.
BILL GOLDBERG plays one of the advanced soldiers who kills many people and often fights with Luc.
BRENT HINKLEY plays a profanity spewing cyberpunk who helps SETH manifest himself as a superhuman.; MICHAEL JAI WHITE plays the supercomputer who decides to kill all of the humans after learning that his program is scheduled to be shut down.
HEIDI SCHANZ plays an eager but obnoxious reporter who briefly uses strong profanity and puts her career ahead of her safety.
BILL GOLDBERG plays one of the advanced soldiers who kills many people and often fights with Luc.
BRENT HINKLEY plays a profanity spewing cyberpunk who helps SETH manifest himself as a superhuman.; HEIDI SCHANZ plays an eager but obnoxious reporter who briefly uses strong profanity and puts her career ahead of her safety.
BILL GOLDBERG plays one of the advanced soldiers who kills many people and often fights with Luc.
BRENT HINKLEY plays a profanity spewing cyberpunk who helps SETH manifest himself as a superhuman.; BILL GOLDBERG plays one of the advanced soldiers who kills many people and often fights with Luc.
BRENT HINKLEY plays a profanity spewing cyberpunk who helps SETH manifest himself as a superhuman.; BRENT HINKLEY plays a profanity spewing cyberpunk who helps SETH manifest himself as a superhuman.

DETAILED CONTENT LISTING:
Click on a category for specific details or scroll through the page for a broader overview.

ALCOHOL OR DRUG USE: MILD (Return to Summary Chart): People have drinks in a strip club and Erin drinks some Scotch.

BLOOD/GORE: HEAVY (Return to Summary Chart): Romeo has some blood on his chest from where he was shot and stabbed by Luc and another soldier has some blood on the side of his head.
From a distance we see a large needle going into a soldier's neck.
In a brief flashback, we see a person executed at point blank range and see blood and what looks like brain matter blast out from the back of their head.
We see Romeo's shirtless, but bloody chest that gets "regenerated" and quickly heals before our eyes.
As a soldier gets an implant in his head, we see a laser cut a square hole into the top of his bald head. A device then removes the square block of bloody flesh and skull and we briefly see the inside of his head (but it's out of focus). The device then returns that block of flesh and skull and the laser then seals the wound.
A person who's been shot is a little bloody.
We see several instances of people--regular soldiers and super ones--fully engulfed in flames.
Romeo's chest is somewhat bloody after he's been attacked.

DISRESPECTFUL/BAD ATTITUDE: EXTREME (Return to Summary Chart): SETH and his platoon of soldiers have both for threatening and/or killing many people.
One of the soldiers comments on Maggie having "nice t*ts." and someone refers to a woman as a "babe."
Erin is a bothersome reporter who puts her job before her safety and won't leave Luc's side since he's her only story.
Needing transportation and acting like a valet, Luc and Erin ride off on a strip club patron's motorcycle.

FRIGHTENING SCENES: MILD (Return to Summary Chart): Scenes listed under "Violence" may also be tense to some viewers, but beyond being action- based violence, most of them are not intentionally suspenseful in the traditional sense of the word.
Luc and Erin try to hide from Romeo as he searches for them and later Luc fights with SETH while trying to save his daughter with us knowing the building's about to be blown up.

GUNS/WEAPONS: EXTREME (Return to Summary Chart): Machine guns/Handguns/Advanced military weapons/Knives/Various explosives: Used to threaten, wound, or kill various people. See "Violence" for details.

IMITATIVE BEHAVIOR: MODERATE (Return to Summary Chart): Phrases: "What the..." "Piss them off," "Babe" (for a woman), "Cut the crap" and "Idiot."
Some kids may want to imitate all of the fighting that occurs (including punches, kicks and other violence, such as Romeo being shot and/or on fire and not being hurt from that). Luc also leaves one of his defeated opponents in an industrial dryer where that soldier spins around out of control.
On a computer screen, SETH shows a drawing of a person's hand "giving the finger."
Needing transportation and acting like a valet, Luc and Erin ride off on a strip club patron's motorcycle.

JUMP SCENES: MINOR (Return to Summary Chart): A person is suddenly shot.

MUSIC (SCARY/TENSE): HEAVY (Return to Summary Chart): A heavy amount of action-oriented, suspenseful music plays throughout the film.

MUSIC (INAPPROPRIATE): NONE (Return to Summary Chart): None.

PROFANITY: HEAVY (Return to Summary Chart): At least 9 "f" words, 8 "s" words (with another being silently mouthed), 1 slang term for male genitals ("pr*cks"), 1 for breasts ("t*ts"), 9 hells, 3 damns, 1 crap, 1 S.O.B., and 1 use each of "Jesus," "Sweet Jesus Christ" and "Oh my God" as exclamations.

SEX/NUDITY: HEAVY (Return to Summary Chart): Romeo tears open Maggie's shirt revealing some cleavage as we see her in her bra. Later, one of the soldiers comments on Maggie having "nice t*ts."
We see a roomful of super soldiers with the men only wearing tightfitting shorts, like the women who also wear cleavage revealing sports bra-like tops.
As Erin changes clothes, we briefly see her in her cleavage revealing bra.
Luc and Erin stop at a strip club to use their computer and we see many bare-breasted women dancing in thong bottoms that show most of their bare butts. Luc then goes into a room to get onto the computer (saying "I'll be quick" with a woman replying, "They all are") and we then hear snippets of the women in there doing their phone sex routine ("Can you give me more?"). Meanwhile, a cleavage revealing woman then comes on to Erin and tries to get her to dance with her. We then see more instances of those bare-breasted women in thong bottoms.
We briefly see some photos/posters of scantily clad women in Squid's place.

SMOKING: NONE (Return to Summary Chart): None.

TENSE FAMILY SCENES: MINOR (Return to Summary Chart): Hilary tells Luc that she's been thinking about her mom and asks Luc why she had to die. After a brief discussion, both admit to still missing her.

TOPICS TO TALK ABOUT: MILD (Return to Summary Chart): The amount of violence in the film and the fact that no one (except such super soldiers) could tolerate such beatings, shootings and being engulfed in flames (as occurs here).

VIOLENCE: EXTREME (Return to Summary Chart): Some soldiers chase Luc and Maggie on jet skis and fire machine guns and explosives at them while Maggie shoots a handgun back at them. During this, an airboat runs over Luc and Maggie's jet ski just as they jump off and after a pursuer has wiped out on the water. Luc then fights with another soldier who tries to attack him with a knife. Luc sends him overboard while Maggie shoots another pursuer several times.
Once on land, Luc and Romeo get into a fight where Luc punches Romeo and then hits him on the head with something else. Luc then shoots him with a weapon that blows Romeo off his feet and sends him sailing backwards through the woods. When that doesn't work, Luc throws a knife that sticks in Romeo's chest (which he then pulls out). Other soldiers then appear and knock Luc to the ground where they hold his head underwater.
In a brief flashback, we see a person executed at point blank range and see blood and what looks like brain matter blast out from the back of their head. We then also see Luc being shot and wounded/killed.
A malfunctioning soldier attacks several technicians (throwing one through a window) until Luc comes to the rescue and strikes this soldier. They exchange blows and the soldier puts Luc into a bear hug and starts to squeeze him to death. Luc then repeatedly hits this soldier's head until he's finally defeated.
Romeo grabs and then raises a technician from the floor by his neck.
While still a computer, SETH electrocutes a worker trying to shut off the power, and then sends out an electrical charge that kills two more people.
A soldier shoots a guard with a machine gun.
Romeo shoots three guards dead with a machine gun. Maggie then kicks that gun from his hands, but he slams her into a wall. As he tries to shoot Hilary, Maggie jumps on his back and he goes careening down a stairwell until his head smashes through a concrete wall.
Romeo shoots several more people dead and then fires explosives into a wall as he tries to get to Luc and Erin. Once inside, he fires many shots from this machine gun at them.
Four Universal Soldiers approach Radford and his military forces. The regular military then opens fire on these soldiers and they fall to the ground as if dead. They suddenly get up, however, and open fire on the regular soldiers with machine guns and explosives and kill many people (and blow up trucks, etc...) in the process.
Luc and Romeo fight with many punches and kicks thrown. After throwing Luc across a room, Romeo comes at him with a knife. Erin then fires some sort of weapon and catches Romeo on fire. After he extinguishes himself, Romeo fires more shots at them.
Romeo jumps from a roof trying to land on a truck, but Luc drives it forward causing the soldier to crash onto the pavement. Luc then backs up this large truck overtop Romeo, seemingly crushing him. Being the super soldier that he is, however, he's not badly hurt from this.
The regular military opens fire on Luc and Erin who hide behind a concrete barrier.
A soldier fires a bazooka (or something similar) and blows up a power station.
Super soldiers attack Luc and his team and after a great deal of gunfire (and people being caught on fire with another being electrocuted), Luc appears to be the only one left alive.
Luc head-butts a guard at a strip club to get into their computer room. Later, that guard has brought along two of his buddies and Luc fights and easily dispatches all three. He then encounters more resistance, however, and fights with more people as a general barroom (or in this case, strip club) brawl breaks out (where Erin joins in by hitting someone over the head with a bottle).
Luc roughs up Squid trying to get info out of him, but SETH then grabs Squid and breaks his neck and throws his body across the room. Luc then tries to attack SETH, but the super soldier hits him several times and knocks him to the floor.
We see a transmitted video clip showing a person being killed (no blood).
A building explodes.
Luc fights more soldiers at a hospital with punches and kicks (leaving one in an industrial dryer). He then fights the other who then tries to strangle him until Luc zaps his head with a defibrillator.
SETH knocks a hospital guard unconscious with a kick and then sets a hospital room on fire as he kidnaps Hilary.
Romeo and Luc fight again with the latter eventually kicking the former out a window where he falls several stories before crashing into a car.
Romeo fights several large men with punches and kicks and breaks one man's back over his knee. As he then dives toward Luc in an elevator, his head crashes into the wall.
Luc hits a super soldier over the head and then shoots him several times with an advanced weapon. He then fires another shot that knocks another soldier to the floor.
After Luc shoots SETH, the super soldier grabs Luc and throws him around a room, including through some glass panels/walls. He also throws a large canister of compressed gas at him that explodes behind him. More hand to hand combat then follows. SETH then tries to get Luc with a laser, but Luc turns it around and nicks SETH with it.
Luc kicks a soldier who's been frozen solid, sending frozen pieces of him everywhere.
Luc fights another soldier with many punches and kicks being thrown. The soldier then picks up Luc by the neck.
A soldier shoots another soldier while Erin punches General Radford.
A huge explosion destroys a building and presumably kills all of those inside it.