A martial-arts action film about long-lost twins reuniting to track down the men that murdered their parents. Stars Jean-Claude Van Damme and Jean-Claude Van Damme.
Like most action stars of his day, Jean-Claude Van Damme was not a success because of his profound acting ability. He did turn in an acclaimed performance later in his career, playing a fictionalized version of himself in 2008’s “JCVD,” but during his peak in the 80s and 90s, all the Belgian karate champion needed to do to win over audiences was flash a winning smile and throw some sweet kicks.
And he did just that. Following a breakout starring role in 1988’s “Bloodsport,” Van Damme spent the next decade helming more than a dozen martial-arts action films. Most of these were moderate-to-large successes, with 1994’s “Timecop” being his biggest box office win during this period.
The biggest similarity among these films, which included prison dramas, sci-fi adventures and franchise tie-ins, was Van Damme himself. With a bodybuilder’s physique and a distinct accent, he could not disappear into a role any more than Arnold Schwarzenegger could, leaving characters like Kurt Sloane, Chance Boudreaux and “Street Fighter’s” Guile all feeling like small variations of the same man.
Perhaps the only film from Van Damme’s early years that ever put an emphasis on characterization was the title we discussed in S1E4 of Meet Your Double Feature, 1991’s “Double Impact.”
Here, in a “Parent Trap”-esque twist, Van Damme plays both Alex and Chad Wagner, twins separated at birth after their parents are assassinated by shady businessmen in Hong Kong. The two grow up apart, with Chad being raised by a family friend in France while Alex is left in a Hong Kong orphanage. When they meet again years later, the twins have become completely different people, forcing Van Damme to seek a different angle in his portrayal of each one.
So, how are the Wagner twins different? We meet Chad, the westernized twin, working in a karate dojo in Los Angeles, having been raised in comfort by his father’s loyal friend, “Uncle Frankie.” Chad is well-groomed and played by Van Damme with a boyish charm, wooing groups of women with his trademark JCVD splits. He learns from his uncle that his twin brother has been located (and that he exists), so the two depart for Hong Kong together to track him down.
Alex, the bad boy twin, aged out his Hong Kong orphanage and turned to a life of crime, becoming a successful smuggler with ties to the Triads. Visually, he is portrayed as more hardened and serious than his brother: slicked back hair, a cold scowl, a perpetual cigar hanging from his mouth. The only warmth to Alex is that he has a girlfriend, Danielle, whom he is fiercely protective of (though this does tie into some questionable plot elements later on).
Neither of these are complicated characters, merely the two ends of a very small spectrum labeled “action man archetypes.” However, the script for ‘Double Impact,” which Van Damme co-wrote, does add some details that help him flesh out each character.
Following some mistaken-identity comedy upon their arrival in Hong Kong, Chad and Uncle Frankie find Alex, and after some initial quarreling, they settle on a plot to take revenge against the men who killed their parents. Alex takes the newcomers to his island hideout just off the mainland, carrying nothing but his signature cigar. Chad, on the other hand, stumbles off their boat with several jackets and trunks of luggage, jumping to avoid small puddles lest they ruin his expensive shoes. It’s the closest Van Damme has ever come to feeling like Johnny Cage, the “Mortal Kombat” mainstay that was heavily inspired by his character from “Bloodsport.”
These small beats are what make the two characters feel unique, with the only downside being that they don’t take the polarization even further. The tagline for “Double Impact” memorably states that “one packs a punch, one packs a piece,” which would be an interesting distinction if it were actually true. Instead, the twins prove to be equally skilled in karate, and both wield Alex’s arsenal of guns as if it doesn’t matter which one we’re following. As we joked when reviewing the film on the podcast, “Van Damme thinks that inside of him there are two wolves, and they’re both very good at martial arts.”
The other disappointment in watching Van Damme play two characters in one film is that we don’t get to see the classic beat where the twins pretend to be each other for convoluted plot reasons. There are a couple of scenes where Chad lets someone believe that he is Alex, but not in a way where Van Damme gets to do any playful acting to match. It’s a missed opportunity in a movie full of missed opportunities.
The only interesting promise that “Double Impact” does deliver on is a brief fight between Alex and Chad that marks the end of the second act. Due to a miscommunication, the fiercely protective Alex is led to believe that Danielle is cheating on him with his twin brother, a suspicion first formed when Danielle accidentally flirted with Chad earlier in the movie.
After Chad rescues Danielle from the Triads, he brings her back to the twins’ island hideout, only to find a drunken Alex looking for a fight. Danielle tries to explain but is slapped away (needlessly undercutting Alex’s one sympathetic trait), and the Wagner brothers brawl through a charming abandoned-hotel set for all of about 90 seconds.
“Double Impact” is not the best of Van Damme’s early filmography, but it does offer a memorable gimmick for an actor not usually known for his character work. Van Damme even cited the film as one he’d like to revisit in an interview from 2012, noting that “after movies like ‘JCVD’ and movies like ‘Expendables 2,’ my acting improved, so I would like to make a very serious ‘Double Impact.’”
WATCH: Van Damme talks about Double Impact 2 (2012): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT_N0BOxa6k
While plans for the remake never materialized, it’s worth highlighting “Double Impact” as an earnest effort to shake up a tired action movie formula. Its largest failing is that it simply isn’t that interested in showing the effects of nature versus nurture on the long-separated Wagner brothers. Rather, it seems like a feature length attempt to say “You know what would be better than one Jean-Claude Van Damme? Two Jean-Claude Van Dammes.”
For our original review of "Double Impact," check out S1E4, "Twin Van Dammes & Inifnite Todds."