What If Jean-Claude Van Damme Made No Retreat, No Surrender 2?
Martial arts masters versus Cambodian pirates sounds like the basic pitch of a direct to video action flick, but in the mind of Jean- Claude Van Damme it was something that was undoubtedly going to happen! You see, way back, before Bloodsport‘s success launched JCVD into the action stratosphere, he was set to star in a different movie; a sequel that would see him star alongside Kurt McKinney for the second time as the duo would film a follow-up to No Retreat, No Surrender. Alas, the intended film would never be made, thanks to Van Damme, still several years away from achieving diva status due to his success, dropping out and convincing McKinney to follow suit. The reason for turning down the offer to continue the No Retreat, No Surrender series? Was it for a more high profile role? Not enough money to get him on board? No, Van Damme refused the role because he had convinced himself that traveling to Cambodia to film was unsafe, and that Cambodian pirates were going to rob and rape them.
Sounds sensational, right? Incredulous? Ludicrous? Well, as crazy as it sounds, Van Damme had determined that bad shit was going to go down if he went to Cambodia, and whatever he said to Kurt McKinney (and I’m seriously curious as to how that conversation went) was enough to sway him. Thus, action fans never got a true sequel to the beloved 80’s classic where the Ghost of Bruce Lee trained a bullied teen how to defeat an evil Russian kickboxer. Writer Keith W. Strandberg claimed that even though Van Damme and McKinney were intended to star, the film would not be a direct sequel and merely an “in name only” entry thanks to the popularity of the first film, but there has always been a part of me that wonders if that was a cover story for the loss of the original stars.
With the two leads tapped out, Loren Avedon and Matthias Hues were cast instead, and the end result was something as far removed from the first film as you could imagine. We had military grade weaponry and a female ally who could hold her own and even a hero’s death! In the first film Bruce Lee was already dead, in NRNS2 we actually saw one of the main cast get taken out! Pretty much the only thing similar to the first film is that there was a crazed Russian heel, only Matthias Hues’ Yuri was a sadistic soldier, not the henchman of an unnamed criminal syndicate a la his predecessor. And that’s where I come in…
By now you know that we’re celebrating the BEST VAN DAMME WEEK EVER here at Bulletproof Action, and what type of celebration would it be without a little “what if” content? Over the years we’ve taken rumors and fleshed them out into full-fledged film synopses, or re-imagined blockbuster franchises as if they were produced during the DTV boom of the 90’s. So, to contribute to our tribute to the Muscles From Brussels, I’m going to put together what could have been had JCVD and Kurt McKinney stayed committed to the sequel!
FIRST THING’S FIRST…
We’re doing a direct sequel. I mentioned what’s been said about it, but I feel, much like the Kickboxer series later, that you could take things in a more bombastic action direction while keeping the integral pieces of the franchise. So Kurt McKinney would return as Jason Stillwell, and Jean Claude Van Damme would once again be Ivan “The Russian” Kraschinsky. What we’re not going to have this go-round is the Ghost of Bruce Lee. Since he disappeared into the light in Part One once Jason had honed his skills, and then we saw Jason lay waste to Ivan in the film’s final battle. There’d be no reason for Lee’s spirit to reawaken in our movie, even though young Mr. Stillwell will still need some help…and he’ll get it in the form of one of the actual stars of No Retreat, No Surrender 2, Ms. Cynthia Rothrock! Rothrock and McKinney would eventually star together in 1996’s Sworn To Justice, but for the sake of this column we’re going to make their team-up take place a decade earlier, especially since Rothrock’s portrayal of Terry in No Retreat, No Surrender 2 inspired something even bigger than anyone could have imagined…one of the most popular and recognized video game characters ever, Mortal Kombat‘s Sonya Blade!
We’re also going to keep Matthias Hues on board here; with Van Damme having some more screen time in this sequel, there’s going to be a need for another big bad for Jason Stillwell to be challenged by. Matthias stays, and just to keep things simple, we’re going to have him keep the name Yuri for his character too.
Now, the plot. I thought about a way to put Jason back in Ivan’s crosshairs again, and since this is an 80’s action movie I wasn’t setting out to reinvent the wheel. This is going to be an old-fashioned revenge story, with Ivan bitter about being bested by Jason a few years prior. After his success in running off “The Syndicate” in No Retreat, No Surrender, Jason was welcomed with open arms into the Seattle karate community. He’s now running his own dojo with the help of Terry (Cynthia Rothrock), a no-nonsense sensei who keeps everyone in line, and helps Jason keep his skills fresh. One night at closing, Terry is confronted by an imposing man that we’ll come to know as Yuri (Hues). His intimidation games don’t work on her, and the two fight it out inside the dojo while several goons keep an arriving Jason at bay. Jason eventually makes his way into the dojo (after Terry has been injured) and briefly battles Yuri before getting thrown into a trophy case. Yuri tells Jason “I’d kill you now, but he wants you alive” and knocks Jason out, letting the screen fade to black.
Soon after, Jason is being fixed up at the hospital when he’s approached by Mac (Max Thayer, who played Mac in the real NRNS2, only here he’d be a Seattle detective who knows Jason) who says they don’t have any leads, except for one of the goons that Jason knocked out in custody. Jason demands to see the goon, and after some roughhousing that definitely wouldn’t go down in a normal interrogation room, Jason and Mac find out that these guys are working for Karl Brezdin. Jason and Mac wonder who the hell this Brezdin is, and if you the reader are wondering who he is, it’s the alias of our man Van Damme. For those unaware, although he was Ivan The Russian throughout No Retreat, No Surrender, the credits for some reason list JCVD’s role as that of “Karl Brezdin”. So we’re going to make use of that error here in the sequel, as it will be the name Ivan is hiding out under. Jason, Mac, and Terry will soon discover that Brezdin and Ivan are one and the same, and he’s been hiding out in Cambodia for the past few years after The Syndicate exiled him for being embarrassed by Jason Stillwell. Ivan has spent his days competing in illegal fights and forcing local goons to do his bidding, biding his time until he could strike back at the young man who took everything from him. When Jason Stillwell arrives in Cambodia, a target is placed on his back immediately, as Ivan’s appetite for revenge is strong, and even with Mac and Terry having Jason’s back, they’re going to have a hell of a fight ahead of them.
Although the real sequel was fun for what it was, I don’t think keeping any of the militant aspect would mesh well with the established character of boy-next-door Jason Stillwell. McKinney would play him as more mature, but still with that slight sense of immaturity that Rothrock’s character of Terry would be able to keep in line. It wouldn’t be a romantic relationship between the two, as she’d serve as more of a mentor and confidant than someone that the young man would be falling for. Keeping her on board also enables her to tangle with Van Damme for the first time ever in a dream match of action icons, and to have a featured fight with Hues’ Yuri, a fight that would happen simultaneously with Stillwell’s climactic rematch with Ivan/Brezdin. Updating the character of Mac to a detective keeps Max Thayer in the cast and also gives our heroes an opening as to how they get intel; again, I’d wouldn’t want to evolve Jason Stillwell into something that’s a complete 180 from the first film. The first No Retreat, No Surrender was a Karate Kid clone while the second went the Rambo route. It’s just my opinion, but if McKinney and Van Damme stayed involved, I’d hope it would be true to the former than shift to the latter.
o, we’ve got Cambodia, but no pirates. We’ve got elements of Bloodfist and Kickboxer 2. We’ve got a direct connection to the original movie. We’ve got Van Damme and McKinney. We’ve got Rothrock, Thayer, and Hues. We’ve got Rothrock vs. Van Damme, Rothrock vs. Hues, McKinney vs. Hues, and of course, McKinney vs. Van Damme. We’ve got our heroes vs. all sorts of fodder, from the goons at the dojo to the local thugs employed by Ivan. We’ve got a reason for Ivan to be hiding out, and we’ve got a reason for him to come at Jason after being underground for so long. What we’ve got is a movie that could have been made and should have been made; a revenge story ripe for the video store era that combines many of the best aspects of both No Retreat, No Surrender and its real-world followup. Is there a chance it ever gets made? Would the world want to see Van Damme reprise the role of Ivan 40 years later? I think Father Time wins this round, because I don’t think a requel/reboot/whatever the kids are calling it these days would mean as much as a true sequel would have in the late 80’s. Luckily, the love for old school action runs through my veins just like many of you, so it’s nice to sit back and relax by looking back and rethinking Van Damme’s decision for him. Would that trip to Cambodia be as nefarious as he thought? Would doing the sequel impact his eventual surge in popularity thanks to his bigger films? The logical part of my brain wants to say we’d get everything pretty much just as we did, but we’ll just have to accept the fact that the Ghost of Bruce Lee trained Jason Stillwell so well that the thought of revenge never crossed “The Russian’s” mind.
