Alain Lefevre is a boxer paid by a Marseille mobster to take a dive. When he wins the fight he attempts to flee to America with the mobster's girlfriend Katrina. This plan fails and he seeks escape by joining the foreign legion. As part of the legion he tangles with abusive lieutenant Steinkampf and bonds with legionnaires Luther, Mackintosh and Rosetti.
Practical Effects
Real Moroccan desert locations, no green screens in sight.
Acting
Akinnuoye-Agbaje's Luther outshines everyone, including JCVD.
Production
Legionnaire costumes and outpost built with surprising authenticity.
Director
Peter MacDonald
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Van Damme was so desperate to prove he could act that he took a massive pay cut and funded part of production himself when studios balked at a 'serious' JCVD film.
The film bizarrely sanitizes actual French Foreign Legion atrocities in Morocco while simultaneously critiquing colonialism—schizophrenic politics typical of 90s action cinema.
US
