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Universal Soldiers
Tropes Shared
- Artificial Human: In the John Hyams-directed films, thanks to gene therapy and cloning technologies.
- Back from the Dead: They're basically reanimated soldiers that have been killed in action.
- Bio-Augmentation: Pituitary and Thyroid Augmentations plus deep tissue electrical shocks to reheat a surgically repaired body on ice, along with implied bone, muscle and joint augmentations for added strength, durability and speed, along with other assorted goodies. Later kicked up a notch with gene therapy.
- Hand Cannon: The original film equipped them all with Desert Eagles.
- Hollywood Cyborg: With the exception of the headset and the blackbox, installed in the thighs of the UniSols, there really aren't many cybernetics in a UniSol's body. It's implied that there are additional bone and muscle augmentations for the UniSols, to add to their Made of Iron and Super-Strength capabilities.
- Laser Sight: Their MP5's are armed with Imatronic LS45 laser sights.
- Monogender Monsters: Averted in the non-Canon movies, where there are female Unisols. Played Straight in the Canon movies. As to why there are no female UniSols, no one knows. It is a possibility, that the process of augmenting a female combatant would be much more time-consuming, as they would have to add more bone and muscle mass to make them as physically strong as their male counterparts without the muscle booster.
- A simpler explanation is that there are far fewer deceased female soldiers to chose from.
- More Dakka: The UniSol 2500's were equipped with OICW rifles.
- Terminator Impersonator: They are deceased soldiers that are reanimated via a combination of genetic modification and an uncertain amount of cybernetic enhancements. They are revived to be stronger, faster, more durable, and more resistant to pain than ordinary humans. The first film also keeps a Terminator Twosome dynamic whereas the female lead is an eyewitness that learns an Awful Truth about the Unisol program and is ordered to be killed. The protagonist is a Unisol whose final memories before his death lead him to save her and protect her from the other unisols.
Luc Deveraux/GR44 (Jean-Claude Van Damme)
- Authority Equals Asskicking: He's the leader of the UniSols in Day of Reckoning, and is just as badass as ever.
- Awesome Anachronistic Apparel: In Day of Reckoning, he goes the route of Colonel Kurtz by wearing an M65 Field Jacket, along with matching pants and combat boots.
- Bald of Evil: In Day of Reckoning. He sports a bald head and strange black-and-white war paint.
- Big Bad: Is the main antagonist and final opponent of Day of Reckoning.
- Bond One-LinerYou're discharged, Sarge!This is not your lucky day.
- Dark Messiah: Becomes this in Day of Reckoning. He is seen as a messianic figure by the liberated UniSols, and has created a church-like compound deep in the swamps of Louisiana. They are seen as a separatist group by the US Government.
- Expy: Starts taking on Colonel Kurtz-esque traits, a la Heart of Darkness in Day of Reckoning.
- Face Death with Dignity: Admits his defeat against John and allows John to deliver the final blow.There is no end... Always another, John.
- Fallen Hero: He takes command of the UniSols in Day of Reckoning, leading them in an uprising against the government.
- The Hero: For most of the series, except Day of Reckoning.
- Kill the Ones You Love: In "The Return", he learns that that his partner Maggie was killed and turned into a Uni Sol to serve S.E.T.H.. Even though he managed to free her by destroying S.E.T.H., Maggie refuses to spend the rest of her life as a Uni Sol and asks Luc to blow up the building with herself and the remaining Uni Sols inside since they are heading out for war. Sharing sympathy for Maggie as he too once endured this horrible fate, Luc reluctantly obliges to Maggie's wishes after bidding her farewell, knowing that she risked her life protecting his daughter Hilary.
- Killed Off for Real: John kills him at the end of Day of Reckoning.
- Kubrick Stare: Dons one in Day of Reckoning.COME HERE!
- One-Man Army: Becomes one at the climax of Regeneration. He manages to wipe out the company-sized force that the General brought with him to occupy Chernobyl, without much resistance, and does so with a combination of small arms fire, knife work, and lots of good ol' fashioned hand-to-hand combat.
- Rogue Protagonist: In Day of Reckoning, he goes rogue and leads the UniSols in an uprising against the government.
- The Stoic: Shows almost no emotion at all in Regeneration and Day of Reckoning.
- Turned Against Their Masters: In Day of Reckoning, he goes rogue and leads the UniSols in an uprising against the government.
Andrew Scott/GR13 (Dolph Lundgren)
- Awesome Anachronistic Apparel: In Day of Reckoning, he runs around wearing clothing components from infantrymen in World War II, along with combat boots from The Vietnam War era.
- Ax-Crazy: Very, very, very much so. He was a deranged war criminal even before he was a UniSol, and in the original film he honestly thinks he's still fighting in the Vietnam war, even though it was the 1990s. In Regeneration, he just starts killing everything in sight for no particular reason.
- Badass Boast: His speech in Day of Reckoning.
- Big Bad: Of the original film. He goes rogue, kills his commanding officers, and recruits the other UniSols to help him hunt Deveraux.
- Bond One-LinerThat's the spirit, soldier!
- Creepy Souvenir: Wears a necklace of human ears at the start of the first film, and again later.
- Dynamic Entry: Starts off his fight with John by walking up to the latter from behind, and punching the man hard enough in the face to knock him clear on to his ass.
- Failsafe Failure: In Regeneration. The Doctor tries to attribute it to a failure in temperature regulation. It doesn't stop Scott from pulverizing his head with his bare hands.
- Large Ham: Once he regains his memories. His second clone keeps up the tradition in Day of Reckoning.
- Killed Off for Real: Fed through a harvester in the first film, has his brains blown out in Regeneration, and takes a machete to the head in Day of Reckoning.
- More Dakka: Courtesy of his M60 in the first movie.
- Sociopathic Soldier: As a human, he massacred an entire Vietnamese village. When converted into a UniSol in the original film, he goes crazy, murders his controllers, and starts hunting down Deveraux, convinced that the latter is a Vietnamese spy even though the Vietnam War is long over. In Regeneration, he goes even crazier and starts killing everything in sight for no discernible reason.
- They Killed Kenny Again: He's died four different deaths in the Regeneration timeline.
- 13 Is Unlucky: Even his serial number thinks he's bad news!
- Turned Against Their Masters: Murders his controllers in both the original film and in Regeneration.
GR74 (Ralf Moeller)
- The Dragon: To Scott.
- Turned Against Their Masters: Along with Scott, becoming his Dragon.
GR55 (Tommy Lister)
John (Scott Adkins)
- Anti-Hero: Of Day of Reckoning. He seems a straightforward hero at first, but as we learn of his true nature, things get murkier.
- Badass Normal: ...though as the plot progressed we learn that he's a UniSol.
- Berserk Button: If you mess with his non-existent family, then you're gonna have a hell to pay.
- Fingore: Loses his fingers to Magnus, who used an fireman's ax to chop his fingers off.
- It's Personal: Wants to take down Deveraux because he killed his family. Or so he thinks.
- Made of Iron: Survived many heavy impacts including being thrown through a wall of bedrock by another Unisol and having Devereaux almost cut his arm off with a sharpened machete. Granted, he's a cloned UniSol.
- One-Man Army: Becomes this after he is captured by the UniSol Army. He proceeds to wipe the floor with a lot of UniSols attempting to stop him, and takes down both Scott and Deveraux in the process.
- Super-Soldier: He's actually a UniSol.
- Unstoppable Rage: Bears a murderous grudge against Deveraux for apparently killing his family.
- Unwitting Pawn: His family never actually existed. He's just a UniSol who was programmed with memories of Deveraux killing his family so that he would try to kill Deveraux.
NGU (Andrei Arlovski)
- An Arm and a Leg: His arm is damaged, and so the doctors have it severed and replaced with a cloned spare.
- Big Bad: Of Regeneration. He is the final opponent for Deveraux to face.
- Blade Below the Shoulder: Sports one. He uses it twice to kill two of the four UniSols sent after him, and attempted to use it against Deveraux. He did use it against Captain Burke, stabbing him hard after Burke made a feeble attempt to take him down.
- Killed Off for Real: Deveraux blows him up with the detonator for the nuke.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: It doesn't kill him though.
- More Dakka: Gets in on the action, with a heavily modified AK variant loaded with double-stack magazine, which he has no problem unloading a ridiculous amount of lead downrange in the process.
- One-Man Army: Capable of wiping out an entire security detail by himself, along with an incredible amount of Ukrainian Police, in an effort to kidnap the children of the Ukrainian Prime Minister. He later wipes out a company of soldiers by himself.
- The Stoic: Wasn't programmed with any real emotion.
Magnus (Andrei Arlovski)
- Beard of Evil: Sports a big, bushy beard.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Initially believing he's a plumber, the government activates his programming and sends him after Deveraux.
- Killed Off for Real: Scott takes the top of his head off with a baseball bat.
- Your Head Asplode: Scott smashes his head apart with a baseball bat.
- Shotguns Are Just Better: Massacres the UniSols at the motel with a shotgun.
S.E.T.H./Super UniSol (Michael Jai White)
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Starts off as very benign in general (playing with the protagonist's daughter), but the moment he overhears a visiting officer say that the project will be canceled due to budget cuts, he goes into "kill all humans" mode.
- Authority Equals Asskicking: When he transfers his program into a physical body, chooses the strongest shell available.
- Big Bad: Of Universal Soldier: The Return.
- Immortality: What he wishes to achieve.
- Karmic Death: Shattered to pieces by Luc for murdering many people and trying to subject Hilary to become a Uni Sol.
- Kill All Humans: He plans to exterminate all humans and replace them with Uni Sols to take over the world.
- Killed Off for Real: Frozen in liquid nitrogen and shattered into pieces by Luc.
- Literally Shattered Lives: Deveraux defeats him by freezing him, and then kicking him in the head, shattering his whole body.
- Love Makes You Evil: He want to turn Hilary into a Unisol because he cares for her.
- Nanotechnology: His body is enhanced using nanomachines.
- The Social DarwinistThe creator has become the created.
- Straw Hypocrite: Possibly an unintentional example; he declares in his speech that UniSols act without emotions, yet some of them smiled during said speech. Both Romeo and SETH themselves also emotes throughout the entire movie.
- Turned Against Their Masters: Done so after hearing that the Uni Sol project will be shut down due to massive budget cuts, something which he finds to be a total disgrace.
Romeo (Bill Goldberg)
- Attempted Rape: Attempted this on Maggie during their 'routine' by tying her in a tree and unbuttoning her shirt. Fortunately for Maggie, Luc came to the rescue.
- Bald of Evil: He is played by Bill Goldberg, after all.
- Beard of Evil: It wouldn’t be Bill Goldberg without his signature beard.
- Bond One-LinerNext stop intensive care!
- The Dragon: Of S.E.T.H.. He chases down Luc on his orders since S.E.T.H. does not have a body of his own for most of the film.
- Dragon Their Feet: Takes over as the leader of the Uni Sols following S.E.T.H.'s demise.Not so fast, Deveraux.
- Hate Sink: Prior to his history as a Uni Sol, Romeo was implied to have been a rapist in his past life. Following S.E.T.H.'s hostile takeover of the Uni Sol building, Romeo killed several guards and a technician before being assigned by S.E.T.H. in tracking down Luc's daughter Hilary so that S.E.T.H. could use her as bait against Luc. Romeo catches up to Hilary's current location at a hospital after tracking a phone message at Luc's house from Luc's partner Maggie, whom he tried to rape earlier before. Informing S.E.T.H. of Hilary's location, Romeo heads over to the hospital, where he murdered Maggie, several orderlies and a security guard while S.E.T.H. kidnaps Hilary and takes her to the Uni Sol building. Romeo also took Maggie's body back to the Uni Sol building to revive her as a Uni Sol to serve S.E.T.H., a fate that she finds to be unbearable to live with. Even when an angry Luc finally managed to destroy S.E.T.H. and a majority of Uni Sols while letting Hilary escape, Romeo brutally defeated Luc in combat, intending to murder him and lead the remaining Uni Sols into war out of complete spite against him.
- Implacable Man: Romeo is ordered by S.E.T.H. to capture Deveraux, since only he possesses the code that can avoid the automatic resetting of S.E.T.H.'s memory. Romeo proceeds to get fired at, slammed through walls, set on fire, and run over by a truck, but nothing seems able to stop him permanently. Even when Luc managed to destroy S.E.T.H. and a majority of Uni Sols, Romeo still proved to be impossible to destroy as he managed to pummel down Luc without breaking a sweat. It eventually took the explosion of an entire building to finally bring Romeo down for good.
- It's Personal: Romeo applies this to Luc after the latter killed S.E.T.H., intending to kill him and continue on with S.E.T.H.'s plans.
- Karmic Death: Perished in the building's explosion set off by Luc at Maggie's final request in revenge for her horrible fate that Romeo brought her into.
- Killed Off for Real: Perished in the explosion along with the remaining Uni Sols, thanks to Luc setting off the explosive charge at Maggie's final request.
- More Despicable Minion: As S.E.T.H. only turned against the government in hopes of keeping the UniSol program in control and was willing to take care of Hilary (in his own twisted way), Romeo is more despicable due to his supposed past life as a perverted soldier, even way before he became a UniSol. Even when Luc finished off S.E.T.H. and many UniSols down, Romeo refused to accept defeat and almost killed Luc if Maggie hadn't interfere.
- Nanotechnology: His body is enhanced using nanomachines.
- Pre Ass Kicking One LinerGuard this!
- Spear Counterpart: Romeo is this to Andrew Scott (the Big Bad of the original film): they both despise Luc up to the extent of harming his loved ones, and they both are psychopathic, yet super-strong soldiers who want nothing more than endless carnage for their own amusement. However, Scott has proven to be unstable as he foolishly underestimated Luc's intelligence and ended up being chopped to pieces in a hay harvester, similar to how S.E.T.H. endured the same fate by being shattered to pieces in liquid nitrogen. Romeo, on the other hand, remained calm and collected as he played wise to Luc's intelligence and proved to be far more stronger in combat, and he would've succeeded in murdering Luc if Maggie hadn't arrive to the rescue.
- Wrestler in All of Us
Maggie (Kiana Tom)
- Action Woman: Spent countless hours training alongside Luc, even putting her own life in risk to protect his daughter from danger.
- Attempted Rape: Almost fell to it after Romeo tied her up to a tree and unbuttoned her shirt during their 'routine'. Part of the reason why she hates him so much.I don't care if he's dead. Next time he grabs me, I'll kill him!
- Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Feels this way after being revived as a Uni Sol, which is the very same reason why she chose to perish in the explosion rather than live as a killing machine.
- Dying as Yourself: Prefers this way rather than living as a ruthless Uni Sol.
- Face Death with Dignity: After letting Luc rescue his daughter Hilary, Maggie tells him to blow up the building with herself and the other Uni Sols inside, as she refused to live the rest of her life as a killing machine, something which Luc reluctantly obliged to.Maggie: It's too late for me, Luc. Get Hilary out of here.
Luc: (reluctantly) Okay. - Fate Worse than Death: Became a Uni Sol after being killed by Romeo thanks to a neural implant injected into her brain by S.E.T.H., something which she refused to live with. She is eventually freed from this by getting Luc to blow up the building with herself and the other Uni Sols inside as her final request.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Allows Luc to escape with Hilary before accepting her fate in the explosion thanks to her final request to Luc.
- Honorary Aunt: Serves this to Hilary as she defended the latter from Romeo; she even tries to pass this off to convince the doctors to fix Hilary's brain tumor with a procedure, only for her plea to be denied as the doctors need to have Luc's permission first.
- It Has Been an Honor: Implied as she lets Luc rescue Hilary before telling him to destroy the building with herself and the other Uni Sols, in which Luc reluctantly obliged as he considered her a close friend who died protecting his daughter.
- Kick Chick: Gives one on Romeo's gun during the massacre as she tries to let Hilary escape.
- Killed Off for Real: Perished in the Uni Sol building explosion, though it's more of a Mercy Kill as she demanded Luc to set off the bomb in order to destroy herself and the other Uni Sols from going to war. And unlike the other Uni Sols, she quietly accepted this fate to ensure both Luc and Hilary's safety and make Romeo pay for his actions against her.
- Sidekick: To Luc..... that is until her death.
- Super-Soldier: Tragically became this after being killed by Romeo.
- Sacrificial Lion: Died protecting her partner's daughter from ruthless killing machines.
- Taking You with Me: Successfully applies this to Romeo by getting Luc to blow up the building so that Romeo and the other Uni Sols will perish alongside herself in revenge for her horrible fate.
- The Dog Bites Back: After being killed by Romeo, she was turned into a Uni Sol to serve S.E.T.H.. Even when Luc manages to kill S.E.T.H., he ends up being beaten up by Romeo, who intends to kill him for this. However, being freed from S.E.T.H.'s control, Maggie shoots Romeo in the chest before getting Luc to destroy the building with herself and the other Uni Sols inside.
- Unwilling Roboticization: Was subjected to this tragically after being killed by Romeo, thanks to a neural implant injected into her brain by S.E.T.H..
U.S. Military
Col. Perry (Ed O'Ross)
- Eye Scream: Scott kills him by shooting him in the left eye.
Cpt. Kevin Burke (Mike Pyle)
- Badass Normal: He holds his own against the General's forces, although he doesn't fare as well against the NGU later on.
- Super-Soldier: By the end of the film he becomes one.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Not mentioned again in Day of Reckoning.
Gen. Coby (Corey Johnson)
Agent Gorman (Rus Blackwell)
Cpt. Blackburn (Justin Lazard)
Sgt. Morrow (James R. Black)
- Black Dude Dies First: Averted. He was the third Ranger to be killed by the UniSols.]]
Gen. Radford (Daniel von Bargen)
- Elites Are More Glamorous: His arm patch implied he is a Special Forces commander.
- General Ripper: Becomes one when he decides to blow up the whole facility to eliminate SETH and the other UniSols, even if that means killing Deveraux, who was inside the facility.
Scientists
Dr. Christopher Gregor (Jerry Orbach)
Dr. Sandra Fleming (Emily Joyce)
Dr. Richard Porter (Garry Cooper)
- Mad Scientist: He is rather amoral, viewing ordinary soldiers with disdain and highly praising the efficiency and deadliness of the NGU. As a middle finger to Burke, who had stated his intense dislike for the UniSols, he is cloned at the end of the movie and made into a UniSol.
Dr. Robert Colin (Kerry Shale)
- Mad Scientist: He stole the NGU from the US Government used the NGU as a gun-for-hire as well as equipping Topov's fledgling terrorist army with a nasty surprise in the form of Andrew Scott 2.0.
Miles (Kristopher Van Varenberg)
- Beleaguered Assistant: To both Dr. Colin and Dr. Su.
- Unexplained Recovery: Was killed by Scott in Regeneration, as we (and Deveraux) see his corpse. Somehow, he returns in Day of Reckoning.
Dr. Su (David Jensen)
- Deprogram: Sides with the renegade UniSols to free them from their mind control.
Dr. Dylan Cotner (Xander Berkeley)
Squid (Brent Hinkley)
- Evilutionary Biologist: Sort of.A Super UniSol, with SETH's own thought matrix for a brain... The next level of evolution, man and computer... *yells excitedly* ...extinct with one stroke of the key!
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Gets killed immediately after SETH tracks him down.
Russian Military
Col. Petrov (Aki Avni)
- Taking You with Me: Blows himself up to eliminate the NGU. Naturally, it doesn't work.
Gen. Boris (Aki Avni)
Civilians
Veronica Roberts (Ally Walker)
Erin Young (Heidi Schanz)
- Expy: A brutally obvious replacement of Veronica.
