Bullet Points: The Order (2001)
I have become something of a regular over at my local Goodwill store these past few months and more specifically their physical media section.
More often that not my trips to Goodwill have been fruitful, adding more action titles to my collection including 2001’s The Order, a Jean-Claude Van Damme that was missing from my JCVD collection, but also a rare Van Damme movie that I had never seen!
- History Lesson: The movie opens up in grand fashion with aerial shots of the desert and a majestic score to accompany it. We then go back to 1099 A.D. and The First Crusade, this is where we learn of the story of Charles Le Vaillant (Jean-Claude Van Damme, Hard Target). Charles, a knight and part of the Christian Crusaders, sees the carnage that the Crusaders have caused and the hypocrisy of killing in the name of religion. This life changing epiphany leads to Charles writing the sacred texts that would become the foundation a new religious sect, eventually known as The Order (ding!). However the last chapter of Charles’ text were lost after he and his followers were attacked by the very Crusaders Charles once commanded… The Order had been accused of heresy.
- Eggcitement: The movie jumps to modern times and this is where we first meet Rudy Cafmeyer (Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bloodsport). Rudy is plotting to steal a Fabergé egg from a Russian mobster with his partner in crime, Yuri (Sasson Gabay, Rambo III). But it’s not all talk… moments later we see Rudy in full cat burglar mode, ziplining from building to building, using the circle glass cutter gimmick, slinking inside after Yuri deactivates the laser security system and getting his hands on the coveted Fabergé egg… seconds later an alarm goes off, Rudy is dealing with security guards on the inside, while the cops are swarming outside… which forces Yuri to abandon his colleague. It’s clear that Rudy is a professional and has been in these type of sticky situations, because before you know it, he’s disguised as one of the policeman and is off to New York with the stolen Fabergé egg.
- Father Knows Best: Rudy makes it to New York City where he drops in on his father, a professor of archeology/museum curator. Oscar Cafmeyer (Vernon Dobtcheff, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) is well aware of his son’s bad reputation and openly questions if the business deal that has brought him to New York is on the up and up… of course a thief and a smuggler like Rudy is going to lie, telling his dad he is a legit importer and exporter. Before Rudy heads off to complete his totally not legal Fabergé egg deal, he notices a scroll under glass in his dad’s office, Oscar freaks out when he sees Rudy near it and tells him that it is the lost chapter of the Fazar (the sacred text of The Order). Then Oscar tells Rudy he needs to discuss some important matters with Rudy tonight and that it has to be tonight. Rudy assures his dad that he’ll be back after his meeting… which of course means that Rudy will not be. Things don’t go as planned at the meeting, Oscar actually calls mid-deal and that’s about the time that Rudy ends up in a fight with some goons, his phone is smashed during the melee and when Rudy’s buyer tries to get away without paying a dime for the Fabergé egg, he ends up tripping and destroying the egg. Rudy then gets mace sprayed in his eyes, before being knocked out by a bouncer, eventually waking up in jail with a detective asking if he knows where his father is and why the scrolls in his office are missing.
- Rudy Cafmeyer and the First Crusade: Rudy gets out of jail and makes it back to his place, checks his answering machine and it is filled with messages from his father, who couldn’t get through to Rudy since his phone was busted. Oscar calls one more time and Rudy is there to answer… he finds tell him that he is in Israel and then something happens to Oscar on the other end… Rudy is not sure what, but knows that his dad is in some kind of trouble, so he’s quickly booking a flight to Israel to track down his father! When Rudy lands in Israel, he is scrutinized by the police specifically Officer Dalia (Sofia Milos). The cops are well aware of Rudy’s reputation so he is held up at the airport for a bit. Dalia finally clears Rudy and he is picked up by Professor Finley (Charlton Heston, Planet of the Apes), a colleague of Rudy’s father. Finley fills Rudy in on what his father was doing in Israel. Apparently Oscar was working on an unauthorized history of The Order, which didn’t sit well with modern day members of The Order… who Finley believes were responsible for abducting Oscar. Cue the abductors and moments later we have ourselves a car chase with Rudy and Finley chasing after the men who kidnapped Oscar… Finley’s car is trashed as Oscar whips through the winding streets of Jerusalem and hits a big jump, before finally ramming the kidnappers’ car. This leads to Rudy having a brawl with the baddies in a fountain, before one of the bad guys shoots Finley dead… Finley gives Rudy a safety deposit key before he passes on and before the police show up to take Rudy away.
- Major Problem: Rudy is once again on the hot seat with the local authorities, this time Major Ben Ner (Ben Cross, The Russian Specialist) who puts Rudy under house arrest at a hotel (with Dalia assigned to watch him) until their investigation of Professor Finley’s murder has concluded. The Major doesn’t listen to anything Rudy is saying about his father being kidnapped and it is pretty obvious he’s going to be a problem as the movie progresses. But being under house arrest is no problem for Rudy… he manages to escape, find a map in the safety deposit box, get the map to his “old buddy” Yuri and get into a foot chase with Dalia and a phalanx of cops before he is ultimately caught and this time it appears the authorities are going to send his ass back to the United States.
- 40 Minutes In: It was right around the movie’s forty minute mark where I said to myself, “I was told Brian Thompson is in this movie”. And that’s when we see the modern day version of The Order as they are upholding a yearly tradition and it is here where we see that Cyrus (Brian Thompson, Perfect Target) is tired of the way The Order has been doing things and with the help of a car bomb assumes the leadership role in The Order… Business really picked up at this point, because next thing you know Dalia is helping Rudy escape his “deportation” and the two are now teaming up to at first rescue Oscar, but that plan changes to also include stopping the totally misguided Cyrus from bombing the Islamic leaders observing Ramadan, an act that would spark a new Holy War and World War III all wrapped up into one.
With numerous action set pieces (I didn’t even mention the airport runway scene!), a story where the stakes just keep rising, a strong supporting cast (who the hell knew Charlton Heston was still making movies in 2001?!) and the star power of Jean-Claude Van Damme coupled with the directorial efforts of Sheldon Lettich made The Order a winner in my book. In some ways this was JCVD’s version of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and if you are going to be inspired by a movie, Last Crusade is a great way to go.
If you are a JCVD fan like me and have never seen The Order, make it your second order of business to check it out ASAP. I say second because your first order of business should be checking out these Bonus Bullet Points right now…
- Familiar Foes: While on the run from the police Rudy bumps into a hulk of man played by none other than Abdel Qissi that leads to an entertaining street fight. Abdel previously squared off with JCVD in Lionheart and The Quest… Peter Malota played Aman, Cyrus’ right hand man in The Order. I’ll always remember him as Spurs in Double Impact.
- Reunited: The Order would be the third film for the actor/director combo of Jean-Claude Van Damme and Sheldon Lettich. Lettich previously directed JCVD in Lionheart and Double Impact. After The Order, Lettich would direct JCVD in The Hard Corps.
- Believe It or Not: According to IMDb trivia, Steven Seagal was originally meant to star in The Order. It would have been a much different if that were the case and not in a good way.
