Double Team (1997)

Double Team (1997)

Taglines: They don’t play by the rules.

Double Team movie storyline. Having successfully completed his final mission three years prior, which was to retrieve a truck load of plutonium stolen from a US military base in Croatia by freelance international terrorist Stavros, government anti-terrorist agent Jack Paul Quinn is relaxing by his pool in Southern France with Kathryn, his pregnant wife.

Quinn is approached by a government representative who tells him that Stavros, Quinn’s nemesis, has become active again and tries to convince Quinn to come out of retirement telling Quinn that he ‘can’t retire until he [Stavros] does’. Quinn is reluctant to return to duty but agrees after the same representative is killed by Stavros shortly after the meeting with Quinn.

Acting on intelligence received, Quinn travels to Antwerp, Belgium where he meets up with quirky arms dealer Yaz, who equips Quinn with weaponry and then proceeds to meet the Delta team put together to capture Stavros. Stavros has been tracked to an amusement park but Quinn hesitates to give the order to shoot Stavros when it becomes apparent that Stavros is meeting with his six-year-old son.

Stavros exploits Quinn’s hesitation and a shootout ensues in which Stavros’ son is killed and Stavros is able to escape into a hospital, pursued by Quinn. Stavros and Quinn fight in the hospital’s maternity ward with Stavros getting away after knocking Quinn unconscious in an explosion. Quinn wakes up on ‘The Colony’, an inescapable, invisible penal institution island for secret agents.

Quinn learns that he has been sent to the Colony due to his failure to capture Stavros, that his family has been told he was killed and that only agents considered “too valuable to kill but too dangerous to set free” are committed to the institution. The occupants of the Colony are expected to help analyse terrorist threats and have to register themselves present every day using a fingerprint scanner. Meanwhile, Kathryn receives a call from an art gallery in Rome telling her that they would like to display her sculptures and that they will fly her out immediately. When she arrives, Stavros kidnaps her.

Double Team is a 1997 American action comedy film directed by Tsui Hark in his American directorial debut and starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dennis Rodman and Mickey Rourke. Van Damme plays counter-terrorist agent Jack Quinn, who is assigned to bring an elusive terrorist known as Stavros to justice. Things become personal when Stavros kidnaps Quinn’s pregnant wife after his own lover and child were killed in an assassination attempt that went awry. Aiding Quinn in his rescue is his flamboyant weapons dealer Yaz (Dennis Rodman).

Double Team Movie Poster (1997)

Double Team (1997)

Directed by: Tsui Hark
Starring: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dennis Rodman, Mickey Rourke, Paul Freeman, Natacha Lindinger, Valéria Cavalli, Jay Benedict, Joëlle Devaux-Vullion, Bruno Bilotta
Screenplay by: Don Jakoby, Paul Mones
Production Design by: Marek Dobrowolski
Cinematography by: Peter Pau
Film Editing by: Bill Pankow
Costume Design by: Magali Guidasci
Set Decoration by: Christian Calviera
Art Direction by: Damien Lanfranchi
Music by: Gary Chang
MPAA Rating: R for some nudity and brief strong language.
Distributed by: Columbia Pictures
Release Date: April 4, 1997

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