Prime Video streams many fantastic action movies, and subscribers can currently stream John Hyams’ straight-to-video hit Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning on the platform. Day of Reckoning was first released in 2012 as the sixth chapter of the Universal Soldier franchise, with Amazon Prime adding the movie on November 1st. While Day of Reckoning has long been popular among fans of the Universal Soldier series, the movie’s addition to Prime Video could widen its audience to a new legion of action and sci-fi fans.
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Day of Reckoning stars Scott Adkins in the role of John, a man who awakens in a hospital after witnessing his family’s murder at the hands of Luc Devereaux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) and his team of “Unisols.” John embarks upon a revenge mission against Devereaux, but gradually comes to realize not all is as it seems with his recollection of events. As the plot synopsis of Day of Reckoning shows, the movie is a major tone shift from its predecessors in the Universal Soldier franchise.
The Universal Soldier series began in 1992 with Roland Emmerich’s eponymous original movie, with Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren portraying deceased American soldiers Luc Devereaux and Andrew Scott, who became enemies and killed each other during the Vietnam War. Resurrected as part of the U.S. government’s top secret Unisol program, Devereaux and Scott gradually regain their sentience and return to their former enmity.
Universal Soldier was followed by two made-for-TV sequels, Universal Soldier II: Brother in Arms and Universal Soldier III: Unfinished Business, both released in 1998 without Van Damme or Lundgren’s involvement. Universal Soldier subsequently jumped back into the theatrical landscape in 1999’s Universal Soldier: The Return, with Van Damme returning as Devereaux with Michael Jai White and Bill Goldberg in villain roles. Universal Soldier was then revived in the straight-to-video world with 2010’s Universal Soldier: Regeneration, with Van Damme and Lundgren returning along with series’ newcomer and real-life MMA fighter Andrei Arlovski, and Regeneration becoming a significant straight-to-video hit. Two years later, Day of Reckoning would become just as beloved among Universal Soldier fans.
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Not unlike its revived super-soldier characters, the Universal Soldier franchise has often struggled to find a sense of identity, and it really wasn’t until the one-two punch of Regeneration and Day of Reckoning that it did so with a shift into a much darker tone and more visceral action scenes. In the case of Day of Reckoning, the addition of Scott Adkins also made the sequel instantly popular among action and martial arts movie fans. Through his work in straight-to-video action movies, Adkins has headlined some of the best action films in recent memory, including his signature role as Yuri Bokya in the Undisputed franchise, along with the Isaac Florentine-helmed Ninja films, the Accident Man and Debt Collector movies, Avengement, Triple Threat, and many others.
More recently, Adkins has gained a wider mainstream audience with his roles in big budget theatrical hits, including Lucian in Doctor Strange and Killa Harkan in John Wick: Chapter 4, alongside his villain role opposite Donnie Yen in Ip Man 4: The Finale. Fans of Adkins, Van Damme, and Lundgren will all surely be blown away by Day of Reckoning‘s fast-paced, brutal, and heart-racing action scenes, while the movie’s tone shift into something more akin to a horror movie makes it incredibly unique within its own franchise. Whether you’re a long-time Universal Soldier fan, a devotee of the movie’s action legends, or a general fan of action and sci-fi, Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning‘s addition to Amazon Prime sets up all three groups for an unforgettable movie night.
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