History Film / HardTarget

* PoliceAreUseless: The New Orleans police department is on strike, which is why Fouchon is able to carry out his hunting ring with impunity. It also helps that [[spoiler:the police coroner is on his payroll, and covers up the details of Binder's death.]] Detective Mitchell is the only officer who tries to help Natasha. [[spoiler: She gets killed by Van Cleaf.]] There is a bit of a subversion in the fact that once this one detective starts to press on to try to find who killed Douglas Binder Fouchon decides [[ScrewThisIAmOuttaHere the gig is up and it would be a good idea to pull stakes and move elsewhere]] (it's his decision to get rid of Chance and Natasha at all costs that ends up preventing him from doing that).

It received a DirectToVideo sequel in 2016 starring Scott Adkins.

!!This film provides examples of:

* BadassGrandpa: Wilford Brimley, believe it or not, playing Van Damme's Uncle Douvet.

* FamousLastWords: Along with funniest: "''Whoops.''"

* AmoralAfrikaner: Pik Van Clean, TheDragon to Fouchon.

* IronicEcho: "I know you didn't want to hurt my feelings." Pik uses this line as a PreMortemOneLiner to Randall before [[spoiler: cruelly murdering him via a shotgun blast to his head while the latter tried to escape town in his car.]] Later, he spouts the same line to Boudreaux during the AbandonedWarehouse climax before engaging in a one-on-one gunfight. [[spoiler: This time, though, Pik is the one who gets killed.]]

** Also, "I know you didn't want to... hurt my feelings" said by Pik before [[spoiler: murdering Randall when the latter tried to escape the town in his car.]]

* IronicEcho: "I know you didn't want to hurt my feelings." Pik uses this line as a PreMortemOneLiner to Randall before [[spoiler: cruelly murdering him via a shotgun blast to his head while the latter tried to escape town in his car.]] Later, he spouts the same line to Boudreaux before engaging in a one-on-one gunfight. [[spoiler: This time, though, Pik is the one who gets killed.]]

* PreMortemOneLiner: "Hunting season... is over."

%%* TheKillerBecomesTheKilled

* OhCrap: "Whoops." ''[=*Boom!*=]''

* PoliceAreUseless: The New Orleans police department is on strike, which is why Fouchon is able to carry out his hunting ring with impunity. It also helps that [[spoiler:the police coroner is on his payroll, and covers up the details of Binder's death.]] Detective Mitchell is the only officer who tries to help Natasha. [[spoiler: She gets killed by Van Cleaf.]]
* PragmaticVillainy: Fouchon furiously beats Randall for having choosen a man with a daughter for his hunting game - now that Natasha is looking for his father she'll eventualy find out the connection so that means he'll have more troubles to solve.

* TheBigBad: Emil Fouchon, who runs a hunting ring that continuously changes location. He's been in Rio de Janeiro and Yugoslavia, and happens to be in New Orleans this time.

* Bloodier And Gorier: The 100 minute, 116 minute, and 128 minute NC-17 versions are bloodier, gorier, a lot more brutal, and a lot more violent than the theatrical release.

* ColdBloodedTorture: Van Cleaf uses [[ShearMenace a pair of scissors]] to cut off part of Randall's right ear to make him spill the beans on who Douglas Binder really was.

* TheKillerBecomesTheKilled

* CoolGuns: Lots, but the crowner is Fouchon's Thompson Contender.

* DisposableVagrant: Fouchon and Van Cleaf target homeless veterans. Chance and Natasha aim to prove that they are not disposable.
* DisturbedDoves: A John Woo staple!

* GroinAttack: Van Damme finishes off [[spoiler: The BigBad]] this way. Using a grenade.

* HandCannon. The BigBad's Thompson Center Contender.
* HuntingTheMostDangerousGame: What most of the plot is centered around.

* SpannerInTheWorks: Boudreaux becomes this to the whole man-hunting organization by virtue of being [[OneManArmy too badass for them]], and [[ForWantOfANail everything starts to unravel]] when Randall (the man in charge of getting them homeless vets to use as victims) ''twice'' just took the homeless men's words at face value and didn't checked whether or not they had families or friends that would get suspicious (and ''[[ItsPersonal angry]]'') about their deaths.

* ParentalSubstitute: Uncle Douvet to Chance.]

* PoliceAreUseless: The New Orleans police department is on strike, which is why Fouchon is able to carry out his hunting ring with impunity. It also helps that [[spoiler: the police coroner is on his payroll, and covers up the details of Binder's death.]] Detective Mitchell is the only officer who tries to help Natasha. [[spoiler: She gets killed by Van Cleaf.]]

* RefugeInAudacity: In one scene that borders on {{parody}}, Chance tells Natasha to close her eyes and not move. Assuming he is going to kiss her, she complies. Chance leans in and...grabs the [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes giant poisonous snake]] hovering behind her head. He then disables said snake with a [[RefugeInAudacity punch to the face]] (!) and strings it up in a tree, to serve as a trap for the villains who are tracking them. If you guessed that the snake wakes up [[ContrivedCoincidence exactly as the villains are passing by]] and ends up attached to a [[{{mooks}} mook's]] face, then AWinnerIsYou.

* DramaticGunCock

The first film that Creator/JohnWoo made in Hollywood after leaving Hong Kong, ''Hard Target'' (1993) starts off with a homeless man fleeing attackers on motorcycles, before being shot down just before he escapes across a river. Cut to three weeks later, when Natasha Binder (played by Yancy Butler) is looking for her father deep in the heart of New Orleans. Creator/JeanClaudeVanDamme... sorry, "Chance" Boudreaux, saves her from a gang. Natasha, after being told that the police won't be able to find her father, hires Chance to protect her as she investigates. Soon, the pair find out about a secret "hunting" ring, led by BigBad Emil Fouchon (Creator/LanceHenriksen) and ProfessionalKiller Pik Van Cleaf (Arnold Vosloo) and must turn the tables on the hunters.

* GunsAkimbo: Duh. It's a JohnWoo movie.

* OutOfTheInferno / OutrunTheFireball: Used lots of times. It's a JohnWoo movie. Duh.

* ReCut: There is a Director's Cut version only available on bootleg. It features more violence (In a JohnWoo movie, [[SarcasmMode what a shock]]), the ear-cutting scene is shown in more grisly detail, and the scene where Fouchon is playing the piano was originally intercut with scenes of animals hunting in Africa. Also, there's a scene of Chance and Natasha confronting their UST that according to scuttlebutt, was dropped when preview audiences complained that they didn't get to see Yancy Butler's tits. One of the ''good'' cuts from this is Fouchon's death. In the DC, his death scene is a lot more conventional and lame. As noted above in ExecutiveMeddling, Universal executives and Van Damme were critical of this cut.

* UnflinchingWalk: ''Repeat after me'' - It's a JohnWoo movie.

* ShootTheHostageTaker: Unusually subverted (See ShotgunsAreJustBetter).
* ShotgunsAreJustBetter: Subverted, in a rare [[TruthInTelevision nod to reality]]. While the shotguns used are the standard, super-powerful movie versions, Chance's shotgun is rendered useless by the HostageSituation at the film's end, due to the weapon's spread pattern.