Universal Soldier: Regeneration is a sequel to Universal Soldier, which brought back both Van Damme as Deveraux and Lundgren as Andrew Scott. Set after the events of the first film, Deveraux is undergoing therapy when he is called on to defuse a hostage situation at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, where a more advanced UniSol is under the control of a group of Russian terrorists.
This film provides examples of:
- Badass Normal: Captain Burke holds his own against the General's forces, although he doesn't fare as well against the NGU later on.
- Bittersweet Ending: All the terrorists are dead and their plan is thwarted, but most of the good guys are dead as well. Also, it is heavily implied that “reactivating” Deveraux erased the last bit of humanity left in him and made his rehabilitation back into society impossible, not to mention that the UniSol project will probably cause more problems in the future (which is exactly what happens in the sequel).
- Blade Below the Shoulder: The NGU sports one. He uses it twice to kill two of the four UniSols sent after him, and attempted to use it against Deveraux. He did use it against Captain Burke, stabbing him hard after Burke made a feeble attempt to take him down.
- Camera Abuse: Blood splatters the lens when Deveraux kills a mook.
- Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: The chip used to control the NGU makes him into a remorseless killer, unable to disobey orders given to him by his handlers. Once Commander Topov's men are chipped with failsafes, he is unable to attack them or harm them. Scott removes this from his head after he kills the Doctor.
- Darker and Edgier: While not as dark compared to it's successor. The whole film is overall is darker than the Lighter and Softer Universal Soldier: The Return. With a more serious and depressing atmosphere, More graphic violence, barely any laughs and jokes to be found. Dont forget the Bittersweet Ending
- Failsafe Failure: Scott. The Doctor tries to attribute it to a failure in temperature regulation. It doesn't stop Scott from pulverizing his head with his bare hands.
- Goggles Do Something Unusual: To prevent anyone from tampering with the UniSols and issuing other commands, these newer headsets are bolted into their skulls using high-powered bolters to secure them in place. The last first-generation UniSol to fight against the NGU during the initial attack on Chernobyl gets hit by the NGU so hard that it removes the headset from the Unisol's head, leaving bloody head wounds in the process. Ouch.
- Hollywood Cyborg: It is shown that the NGU has a retina implant that is tied into his nervous system, preventing him from attacking those who are chipped with beacons that indicate that they are not to be fired upon or attacked. Scott has the same chip in the back of his head, which helps keep him in line, which he later removes forcefully with a knife. This also prevents his handlers from wiping out his memories and sedating him in the process.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: One of the first-gen Unisols gets impaled on a large metal hook that is generally used to transport heavy objects across factories. The NGU gets impaled through the neck with rebar. Of course, this does nothing to stop the NGU, merely slow him down.
- Last of His Kind: The Next Generation Unisol, the NGU; is the only Series 7 Unisol we get to see in action. It is presumed all of the others have been destroyed, and Dr. Colin saved him before they could terminate him. All of the other Unisols we get to see, including the Scott clones, are presumed to be earlier Series Unisols that have been improved upon for current operation parameters.
- Implacable Man: The scene in which the NGU slaughters an entire company of soldiers and then merely shrugs off being blown away by an explosion is a prime example of this trope.
- Made of Iron: Devereaux shrugs off multiple gunshot wounds and close-range explosions during his direct attack on Chernobyl. Deveraux and Scott used their augmented bodies to barrel through many walls during their fistfight. The NGU not only sustains multiple gunshot wounds that would drop an elephant, but likes to make use of jumping down from really high places as a means of ambushing his enemies and evading their efforts to shoot him. He also shrugs off having a grenade go off near him, which only served to slow him down.
- Mad Scientist:
- Dr. Porter is rather amoral, viewing ordinary soldiers with disdain and highly praising the efficiency and deadliness of the NGU. As a middle finger to Burke, who had stated his intense dislike for the UniSols, he is cloned at the end of the movie and made into a UniSol.
- Dr. Colin is also an Insufferable Genius; he stole the NGU from the US Government used the NGU as a gun-for-hire as well as equipping Topov's fledgling terrorist army with a nasty surprise in the form of Andrew Scott 2.0.
- More Dakka: The NGU gets in on the action, with a heavily modified AK variant loaded with double-stack magazine, which he has no problem unloading a ridiculous amount of lead downrange in the process.
- Murderous Thighs: The NGU uses his superhuman strength augmented thighs to kill another Unisol. Mind you, when He did it, He was using it not only to break the Unisol's neck, but his collarbone, spine and parts of his upper ribcage. To make it even crazier, Unisols are Madeof Iron. It was like He was using his thighs to break a column of reinforced concrete. Yikes.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: They begin using gene therapy to make Super UniSols and cloning to make more of them and to grow replacement parts for them when they sustain massive damage. These Super UniSols are controlled by chips implanted in their heads, that also are used for memory clearance.
- One-Man Army: Devereaux becomes one at the climax. He manages to wipe out the company-sized force that the General brought with him to occupy Chernobyl, without much resistance, and does so with a combination of small arms fire, knife work, and lots of good ol' fashioned hand-to-hand combat. Earlier in the film, the NGU was shown to be capable of wiping out an entire security detail by himself, along with an incredible amount of Ukrainian Police, in an effort to kidnap the children of the Ukrainian Prime Minister. He later wipes out a company of soldiers by himself.
- The Oner: The movie features several long tracking shots, but the best example is when Deveraux infiltrates Chernobyl at the end.
- Operation: [Blank]: The original Universal Soldier project that revived Deveraux is shown on the Info Dump explaining the Unisols to have had the code name "Black Tower", with the "new and improved" version of it that created the NGU code-named "White Tower".
- Redshirt Army: The whole American-Russian combined army platoon that attacks Chernobyl, even with backing of four UniSols. The NGU just kills the other Universal Soldiers and forces the rest of the group to retreat single-handedly.
- Scenery Porn: Ukraine during the winter time is hauntingly beautiful, from what glimpses of it the audience gets. The same with Chernobyl.
- Sequel Goes Foreign: All other Universal Soldier films take place in the United States. This one takes place in Eastern Europe (Ukraine, specifically).
- Shout-Out:
- The film's soundtrack to it is very evocative of the synthesizer music that John Carpenter used for his earlier works, and the works of Tangerine Dream.
- The film invokes Blade Runner, when Scott 2.0 loses his shit after killing Topov, and proceeds to crush Dr. Colin's head in with his hands, while questioning the meaning of life.
- Luc's Mandatory Unretirement is eerily similar to Metal Gear Solid.
- Smug Snake: Dr. Colin is extremely condescending with chunks of Insufferable Genius, almost to the point that his death at the hands of Scott 2.0 is of no surprise.
- Super-Speed: The NGU, being augmented with gene therapy, is able to move so quickly that the first-generation UniSols sent after him couldn't get a lock on him long enough to hit him outside of close-quarter ranges. Unaugmented humans like Burke couldn't even manage to get a shot on him even when he was charging at the latter and engaging him in a fistfight. Once Deveraux was reactivated and upgraded, he was able to go toe to toe with the NGU, but was still a magnitude slower by comparison.
- Super-Strength: With gene therapy, UniSols like the NGU are capable of hitting metal structures with enough force to crumple them upon impact and kill another UniSol with superhuman thigh strength.
- Third Time's The Charm: It takes Deveraux three tries to finally convince NGU to fight him.
- Villainous Valor: The terrorist leader, Commander Topov. He takes over Chernobyl and is threatens to detonate the radioactive materials in the remaining reactors if the Ukrainian government does not free his comrade-in-arms, who is being imprisoned by the Ukrainian government. He is carrying on his father's legacy.
- Worf Effect: All four of the older, obsolete UniSols get promptly beaten by the more powerful NGU.
