10 Things You Didn’t Know About Universal Soldier
When Universal Soldier hit theaters nationwide on July 10, 1992, I was there. At that point in time, Jean-Claude Van Damme was my absolute favorite action star thanks to a string of movies that would go on to become action classics including Bloodsport, Kickboxer and Lionheart.
Recently I picked up the 4K Ultra HD release of Universal Soldier and relived the movie once again, nearly 30 years from the day I first saw it. In addition to the movie itself I also partook in some of the extras that were included on the release. Including an archival commentary track with director Roland Emmerich and writer Dean Devlin.
I know few of you read this part of my 10 things posts, but it was the Emmerich/Devlin commentary track that served as the source material for the information I am about to disseminate, so if you believe any of it to be inaccurate, you will probably want to hit up Mr. Emmerich and/or Mr. Devlin. But with that disclaimer out of the way here’s 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Universal Soldier…
1. Finding a location with enough deep foliage to pass as a jungle in Vietnam for the flashback scene at the start of the movie was no easy task in the area of Arizona where Universal Soldier was shot. But where there’s a will there’s a way and they found it in the middle of an Arizona golf course.
2. The idea for Dolph Lundgren’s character Andrew Scott to make an ear necklace came from actual stories that Devlin researched about the atrocities of the Vietnam War.
3. Camera angles and editing made it appear that the high tech truck that would serve as the Universal Soldier mobile command center would fit inside a cargo plane. In actuality only the cab of the truck fit inside the plane… and even if the entire truck could fit inside the plan, the plane would not have been able to fly with that amount of weight inside.
4. The line of cars waiting to get over the Hoover Dam was an actual traffic jam caused by the production of the movie as they filmed the Universal Soldiers diffusing a terrorist situation at the popular tourist destination.
5. Jean-Claude Van Damme was given the GR44 name as a tribute to the movie Moon 44, which is the movie where Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin first met.
6. The Lucky Motor Court was not an actual motel, but a set that was built for the movie. This is why they were able to shoot it up, bust through the walls and even drive through it. The Deveraux farm house was another set that was built for the movie.
7. The gas station attendant that Luc/GR 44 (Jean-Claude Van Damme) and Veronica (Ally Walker) encounter was played by one of the Teamsters working on the movie. Roland Emmerich thought he had a funny face and wanted him in the movie.
8. Another member of the crew that pulled double duty on the movie was Joanne Baron. Baron played Brenda, the waitress at the diner Luc and Veronica stop at, and she was also Dolph Lundgren’s acting coach.
9. Footage from the big desert chase scene in the desert was repurposed for the series Jag… which Dean Devlin did not realize until he started receiving residual checks.
10. Universal Soldier was meant to have a twist ending where Luc Deveraux’s parents would be revealed as imposters and Jerry Orbach’s character, Dr. Christopher Gregor, would be revealed as a villain. Test audiences hated the ending and felt there wasn’t enough Luc Deveraux vs. Andrew Scott action, so the twist ending was cut and the fight between the two Universal Soldiers was extended with the scenes of Deveraux and Scott fighting inside the barn.
