Cyborg

On the heels of his first major release, Van Damme's stars in Cyborg, which was released in 1989. Cyborg takes place some time in the future. The world had become overrun by a mysterious plague for which there is currently no cure. A group of scientist gather in Atlanta and await information implanted in a Cyborg which can lead them to finding a cure for the plague. All the Cyborg has to do in make it to Atlanta; to do that she must survive the Pirates. Pirates are gang members that feed off the misery and violence of this time. Van Damme stars as Gibson Rickenbacker a well known Slinger, rogue vigilante that protects the innocent from Pirates, who is on a mission of revenge when he comes across the Cyborg Pearl. Pearl is kidnapped by Fender Tremolo, Vincent Klyn, who Van Damme is after for killing his family. With that Van Damme is off on his road to revenge and saving the world.

There are three major action sequences in Cyborg that make up the bulk of the action in the film. Unlike Bloodsport where all the action took place inside an arena where weapons were not allowed in this film Van Damme make use of blades and a gun. As a result of the Van Damme’s weapon use most of the fights in this movie result in quick kills. He combines round house kicks with some sort of slash or stab attack with a blade. Additionally because of the use of weapons the fight choreography is sequenced between multiple opponents as opposed to one at a time. Therefore we see Van Damme taking on several opponents at once using different attack methods. Unlike Bloodsport where the theme was more defensive fighting, in Cyborg Van Damme is much more offensive oriented with the goal to taking the opponent down as quickly as possible.

Even though Cyborg incorporated many new elements into Van Damme’s action sequences much of his choreography remained the same. A lot of round house kicks and jumping round house kicks. He did not throw many punches until the final fight of the movie with the main heel. The movie also featured a very cool visual in which Van Damme suspended himself above an unsuspecting opponent my doing a split between two walls and stabbing the opponent in the face.

Although Cyborg included the elements of weapons which gave the fight sequence some variety in many ways it made Van Damme as a fighter one dimensional. He does not utilize many of the more complex martial arts techniques that he utilized in Bloodsport; mostly because he didn’t have to, but it still takes away from the movie. In addition the final fight sequence was nothing short of terrible. Vincent Klyn, Fender, had no formal martial arts training as all he did throughout the movie was throw these huge hay-maker punches. The entire movies is building to this big confrontation between these two and it ends up being nothing more than Van Damme and Klyn trading punches in the rain. When Van Damme get the edge in the fight he throws some kicks and the death blow ends up being a kick that lifts Klyn off his feet and onto a hook that is driven into his back, but for the most part the final scene is a huge let down to otherwise enjoyable action flick.