Hard Target

A woman hires a drifter as her guide through New Orleans in search of her father, who has gone missing. They discover a deadly game of cat and mouse behind his disappearance in the process.

• Director:John Woo
• Genre:Action / Thriller
• Runtime:96 minutes

Cast

Jean-Claude Van Damme: Chance Boudreaux
Lance Henriksen : Emil Fouchon
Yancy Butler : Natasha ‘Nat’ Binder
Wilford Brimley: Uncle Douvee
Kasi Lemmons : Det. Marie Mitchell

In New Orleans, a homeless veteran named Douglas Binder (Chuck Pfarrer) runs through the dark streets of the city fleeing from a group of mercenaries led by Emil Fouchon (Lance Henriksen). With hunter Fouchon and his henchman Stephan (Sven-Ole Thorsen) and Peterson (Jules Sylvester) in pursuit, Binder reaches the docks by the river where he is suddenly shot and killed by a businessman named Mr. Lopaki (Bob Apisa) who had paid $500,000 for the opportunity to hunt a human. Fouchon’s lieutenant Pik van Cleaf (Arnold Vosloo) leans over the dead man and slices off his belt, which contains the money Binder would have won if he eluded the hunters. The next day, Binder’s daughter Natasha (Yancy Butler) drives into a rough area of New Orleans to search for her estranged father and is attacked by a group of thugs. A homeless man saves her by defeating the thugs with his martial arts prowess. Natasha later finds the homeless man who is introduced as Chance Boudreaux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) and asks for his help in searching for her father. Chance is initially hesitant to involve himself, but as his merchant seaman union dues are in arrears he reluctantly allows Natasha to hire him as her guide and bodyguard during her search. Meanwhile, Chance’s homeless friend Elijah Roper is also hunted and killed by Fouchon’s hunting party after trying to get help from a pedestrian (Ted Raimi) to no avail.

Natasha discovers that her father was living homeless in the New Orleans waterfront area and that he did work for a seedy recruiter named Randal (Eliott Keener). Randal has been secretly supplying homeless men with war experience and no family ties for Fouchon to hunt. When Natasha questions Randal in his office, the recruiter avoids her questions as the leering Van Cleaf watches them. New Orleans police then inform her that Natasha’s father’s charred body was discovered in a derelict house that went up in flames. Although his death was ruled accidental, Chance searches the smoldering ruins and finds Binder’s dog tag that has been pierced by a projectile. Van Cleaf’s thugs ambush Chance and beat him unconscious. When Chance recovers, he tells the police about the dog tag, prompting the investigating officer Mitchell (Kasi Lemmons) to order a new autopsy. Unfortunately, the medical examiner is on Fouchon’s payroll and tips him off about the investigation.

Van Cleaf and Fouchon decide to relocate their hunting business and begin eliminating “loose ends”, including the medical examiner and Randal who they murder outside his office. Mitchell, Nat and Chance arrive moments later and are ambushed by Van Cleaf and several of his men. During the shootout Mitchell is shot and killed, while Chance and Nat narrowly escape. As Fouchon and Van Cleaf assemble their mercenary team, Chance leads Natasha to his uncle Douvee’s (Wilford Brimley) house deep in the bayou. Chance kills the mercenary gunman one by one, including Van Cleaf. In the end, only, Fouchon is left, but he holds Chance at bay by taking Natasha hostage. Chance charges and attacks him with a flurry of blows and then detonates a grenade, killing him. Read more

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