The latest entry in the Planets of the Apes franchise, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, is in theaters this weekend (and getting surprisingly good reviews) and it seems like the perfect time to take a look back at the franchise, starting with the 1968 classic original going all the way to the Tim Burton “reimagining”

Planet of the Apes (1968): The original Planet of the Apes is a sci fi classic that is essential viewing, if only to understand the hundreds of parodies and references to it.  Charlton Heston stars as astronaut George Taylor, who is part of a crew on a 2006 year, light speed voyage.  He and his crew crash land on a planet and discover it is populated by intelligent apes, who hunt and enslave the primitive humans.  Taylor’s fellow astronauts are systematically killed by the apes but Taylor is saved because he catches the eye of ape scientists Cornelius and Zira.  With their help, Taylor escapes with a female slave named Nova and heads into the “Forbidden Zone”, where he discovers that the planet is Earth after finding the remains of the Statue of Liberty and realizes humanity must have finally wiped themselves out with a nuclear war.

Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970): Picking up where Planet of the Apes left off, Taylor and Nova continue deeper into the Forbidden Zone but get separated when the ground opens up with chasms and fire. Elsewhere, another US spaceship crashes onto the planet and the only survivor, Brent, makes his way to shore and finds Nova.  Brent was part of a search and rescue mission to find Taylor and his crew.  Brent sees that Nova is wearing Taylor’s dog tags and follows her to the ape capital of Ape City, where they see gorilla General Ursus gathering troops to march into the Forbidden Zone to capture it as a new food source.  Brent and Nova are captured by the gorillas but Zira helps them escape into some nearby caves, which Brent is shocked to discover is the Queensboro subway station.  Following the subway tunnels, the pair discovers a strange cult of humans who worship a golden doomsday bomb.  Due to years of radiation exposure, the humans are horribly mutated and have telepathic powers.  After being questioned, Brent is thrown into a cell with Taylor and the pair manages to escape in the chaos of the gorillas attack on the cult.  The cult plans to detonate the bomb and Brent and Taylor attempt to stop them but Brent and Nova are killed by the gorillas and Taylor is mortally wounded.  Dr. Zaius, who wanted to experiment on Taylor in the original Apes, arrives and ignores Taylor’s pleas for help.  Taylor decides to use his last bit of strength to detonate the bomb, destroying all life on Earth.

Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971): While the gorillas and doomsday cult battle in Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Zira, Cornelius and their friend, Dr. Milo, have managed to repair and launch Taylor’s spaceship.  Passing through the shockwave of the doomsday bomb opens up a time rift and sends the three apes back to 1970′s Earth, specifically Los Angeles.  After landing, the trio is sent to the Los Angeles Zoo for observation by scientists Stephanie Branton and Lewis Dixon and they reveal that they are intelligent and able to speak.  Unfortunately, Milo is killed by a gorilla.  Zira and Cornelius are introduced to the world and become celebrities but they catch the attention of the President’s Science Advisor, Dr. Otto Hasslein, who wants to find out how they got Taylor’s spaceship and how apes took over the planet.  Hasslein is horrified to learn that Zira is pregnant and eventually learns that she used to dissect humans.  After Cornelius accidentally kills an orderly who calls their baby a “little monkey”.  Hasslein gets a presidential order to have Zira’s baby killed and Zira and Cornelius sterilized and Zira and Cornelius escape to a circus thanks to Stephanie and Lewis.  Zira gives birth to a baby they name Milo.  Hasslein knows that Zira was due any day and orders troops to search every zoo and circus in the area.  Lewis gives Cornelius a gun and he, Zira and their baby flee to the nearby marina and an abandoned ship.  Hasslein kills Zira when she refuses to hand over her baby and also shoots the baby as well.  Cornelius kills Hasslein but is shot himself by a Marine sniper.  In a twist, the baby Zira and Cornelius had with them was a normal ape baby and Milo is left in the care of circus ringmaster Armando.

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972): In 1991, baby Milo (now calling himself Caesar), is a performer in Armando’s circus.  A disease has caused all the dogs and cats of Earth to be killed and humans decided to take in various primate species as their new pets.  They eventually learned that apes could be taught to do various menial tasks and now society runs on the backbone of ape slave labor.  While handing out fliers, Armando and Caesar see apes being treated horribly and Caesar yells out “Lousy human bastards!”.  Armando quickly covers for Caesar with the police, since if it was discovered that Caesar was the son of Zira and Cornelius, they would both be killed.  A crowd overhears the confrontation and becomes agitated.  Armando and Caesar quickly run off and Armando says that Caesar should lay low while Armando goes to smooth things out.  Caesar hides with a bunch of fellow apes but finds that the group is being trained for slavery.  Caesar is sold to Governor Breck and is put to work by his African American aide, MacDonald, who sympathizes with Caesar and eventual figures out who he actually is.  Meanwhile, Armando is questioned by Police Inspector Kolp and is forced into an “authenticator machine” which will force him to tell the truth about Caesar.  Armando breaks out of the device and fights the guards, but slips and falls out a window to his death.  Caesar learns of this and, with his foster father killed by his fellow humans, loses faith in humanity and plans a rebellion.  Caesar teaches his fellow apes combat techniques and has them gather weapons.  Caesar and his army march on the Ape Management building and succeed in taking it over and capturing Governor Breck.  Caesar is about to execute Breck but a female ape named Lisa asks him to stop.  Caesar agrees and leads the apes off to form their own society.

Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973): 10 years after the Ape rebellion, Caesar is the leader of a society of apes in Ape City.  Caesar wants to attempt to live in peace with the surviving humans but gorilla General Aldo wants to wipe them out.  Caesar wants to learn more about his parents and MacDonald, now Caesar’s assistant, suggests he go to the Forbidden City where he can watch the archived footage of Zira and Cornelius’ arrival in LA.  The Forbidden City is home to angry, irradiated humans and Caesar just barely manages to watch the archives before getting chased off by the humans.  The humans, led by Governor Kolp, take Caesar’s entrance into their city as an act of war and set out to destroy Ape City.  Aldo, meanwhile, plans a coup and murders Caesar’s son, Cornelius.  The humans manage to break through the defenses of Ape City but are outsmarted by Caesar and his troops, who pretend to be dead and ambush the humans as they pass.  The humans are captured and Aldo demands they be killed by Caesar refuses and Caesar declares that Aldo broke the most sacred law of Ape society, “ape must not kill ape” and chases him into a tree.  Aldo loses his footing and falls to his death and Caesar releases the humans but they refuse to leave unless they are treated as equals by the apes.  Caesar agrees and a flash forward in time reveals that the future has changed from the one Taylor stumbled into in that apes and humans live together in peace.

Planet of the Apes (2001): Tim Burton’s “re-imagining” of the original Planet of the Apes had some impressive costumes and sets but Burton probably should have spent more time on the story and, especially, the horrible ending.  Mark Wahlberg stars as astronaut Leo Davidson, who is stationed on the US Space Station Oberon.  An electromagnetic storm suddenly appears near the station and chimp name Pericles is sent in a pod to investigate.  Pericles disappears into the storm and Leo, against orders, gets in a second pod and goes in pursuit.  Passing through the storm, Leo crash lands on a planet in the year 5021 (Leo came from the year 2029) and discovers that a race of intelligent apes control the planet and have enslaved the human population.  Leo is captured but is bought by kind female ape Ari, the daughter of an ape senator.  Leo and a female slave named Daena lead an escape of the human slaves and manage to convince Ari to escape with them.  The group flees toward the Ape holy site of Calima with the ruthless General Thade in pursuit.  Leo is shocked to discover that Calima is the remains of the Oberon (the name Calima coming from the only letters of “Caution Live Animals” that remained on a wall).  Leo finds the logs of the Oberon and learns that the apes, led by a chimp named Semos, stage a mutiny and the battle caused the Oberon to crash on the planet.  The surviving apes and humans left the wreckage and set out to settle the planet.  Leo leads the humans in battle against Thade and his troops and manages to turn the tide by setting off the Oberon’s rocket boosters.  In the middle of the battle, Pericles arrives in his pod and the apes take this as the arrival of their god, Semos, and bow to him.  Only Thade is unimpressed and chases Leo into the Oberon.  After a fierce fight, Leo manages to lock Thade in the pilot’s deck.  Leo leaves Pericles in the care of Ari and the humans and takes Pericles’ pod to travel back through the electromagnetic storm and, hopefully, return to his own time.  Arriving back in 2029, Leo makes his way to Earth and crash lands in Washington D.C.  Leo is shocked to find that somehow apes have taken over the planet and the Lincoln Memorial is now a monument to General Thade.

The Fast and The Furious (2001): The movie that kicked off the franchise was a pretty blatant rip off of Point Break with street racing replacing surfing/sky diving.  The original movie also put Vin Diesel on the map as one of the de facto action stars of the 2000′s.  It also kind of introduced the world to Paul Walker, so put that in the “con” column.  The first movie takes it self much more seriously than the other entries in the franchise but that makes it even more hilarious when lines like “I live my life a quarter mile at time” are uttered.  The first movie also focuses much more on the actual street racing which gradually receded into the background in favor of ridiculous action sequences.  The plot of the original movie finds LAPD officer Brian O’Connor going undercover in the world of illegal street racing to try and find a gang of hijackers that have been terrorizing the truckers in the area.  Brian becomes close with Dominic Toretto and his crew of racers and signs point to another racer, Johnny Tran, being behind the hijackckings, but a raid proves that he isn’t.  Brian eventually realizes that Dom and his crew are the hijackers and he and Dom’s sister Mia attempt to stop the gang before they get themselves killed by the, now heavily armed, truckers.  They manage to save the crew but Brian has to blow his cover.  Brian and Dom have to put aside their differences to chase down Johnny Tran after he kills one of Dom’s crew, Jesse, in a drive by because Jesse fled from a desert street race when he lost a pink slip race to Tran.  Dom and Brian manage to kill Tran and his cronies and Dom attempts to flee before Brian can arrest him.  Dom goads Brian into a drag race and the two barely avoid a train but Dom clips his Dodge Charger into a parked semi-truck.  Dom is pretty badly injured but instead of arresting him, Brian gives him his keys to his Toyota Supra and allows Dom to escape.

2 Fast 2 Furious (2003): Directed by Boyz in the Hood director John Singleton, 2 Fast 2 Furious started the franchise’s move toward stupidly entertaining action movies, albeit with the absence of Vin Diesel.  Paul Walker was left to carry the movie and, with rare expceptions, he is never up to that task.  Thankfully Tyrese Gibson and Ludacris are on hand to offer comedic relief and Eva Mendes is on board for eye candy.  Plot wise, the movie picks up a short time after 1, with Brian now off the force and on the run for having aided and abetted a felon, among other crimes.  Brian eventually makes his way to Miami and hooks up with the local street racers.  After winning a pretty heated street race one night, Brian is caught by the police using a EMP device and is offered a deal by a joint FBI/US Customs task force.  They want Brian to go undercover as a potential driver for drug kingpin Carter Verone.  Brian agrees but wants his old childhood friend Roman Pearce as his driving partner.  If the guys are successful, all their respective crimes will be pardoned.  The guys manage to win an “audition” race for Verone and are given the job of delivering two trunk loads of money to a drop off point so that Verone can smuggle it out of the country.  The guys get help from another undercover FBI agent, Monica Fuentes, and she reveals that Verone plans on killing the guys after they drop off the money.  The guys come up with a plan to ditch the Verone henchmen who are riding with them and to get the FBI to raid Verone’s private jet.  Unfortunately, Verone is smuggling the money out with his boat.  He takes Monica hostage and Rome and Brian decide to jump one of their cars onto the boat in a last ditch effort to stop Verone.  They somehow able to land the jump and Verone is apprehended by Monica.  Rome and Brian are given full pardons by the FBI but they also manage to steal some of evidence money.

The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006): Considered a “spin off” of the Fast and Furious franchise, Tokyo Drift is a fan favorite because it’s kind of the turning point when F&F realized how stupid it actually was and decided to embrace it and then up the ante.  I think Tokyo Drift sets a ridiculous bar early on that it never really reaches but it’s still a pretty fun vehicular action movie, even with only a cameo from Vin Diesel at the end.  It also does a great job of showing how crazy Japanese culture is.  Chronologically, Tokyo Drift is the last movie in the timeline as fan favorite character Han Lue dies in Drift but is alive in Fast & Furious and Fast Five.  The movie follows rebellious good ole boy Sean Boswell as he is forced to move to Japan to live with his Navy dad after getting arrested following a race through a development under construction.  Upon arriving in Tokyo, Sean makes friends with fellow military kid Twinkie and learns about the Japanese style of racing called Drifting.  After a completely disastrous first drift race, Sean is taken under the wing of drifter Han Lue and starts learning the sport.  He also starts romancing one of his classmates, Neela, but she is the girlfriend of DK, currently the best drifter in Tokyo.  DK’s uncle is also a Yakuza member and DK and Han are business partners, giving a percentage of their take to DK’s uncle.  Uncle Kamata reveals that he has learned that Han is stealing from them and DK goes to confront him.  Han attempts to flee and Han, DK, DK’s sidekick Morimoto and Sean and Neela get involved in a deadly drift race through Tokyo which ends in Han getting killed and Sean’s father and DK getting into an armed stand off.  DK demands that Sean leave Tokyo but Sean manages to get money from Twinkie to pay off Kamata and proposes that he and his nephew have a final drift race, where the loser must leave Tokyo.  Racing down a deadly mountain road, Sean is able to win when DK crashes off a cliff.  Now the new “Drift King”, Sean is challenged by the newly arrived in Tokyo, Dom Toretto.

Fast & Furious (2009): After two movies, the original Fast and Furious crew all reunited for Fast & Furious.  Completely embracing over the top action, Fast & Furious was an extremely fun, if dumb, action movie that reignited interest in the franchise and brought Vin Diesel back from the brink of family movie hell that he had fallen into.  Dom and his new crew of girlfriend Letty, Tego, Rico and Cara are hijacking gasoline tankers in the Dominican Republic.  After their latest job ends badly, Dom suspects that the heat might be too much and leaves Letty her share of the money and disappears.  A few months later, Dom’s sister Mia calls him and tells him Letty has been murdered in Los Angeles.  Meanwhile, Brian, somehow in the FBI, is investigating drug dealer Arturo Braga and finds out that he is holding a street race where the winner will be placed on a team that will be smuggling heroin from Mexico to the US.  Dom, finding out about the race from the same informer Brian did, beats Brian and gets the last slot but Brian arrests one of other members of the team and takes his slot.  The team of drivers learns that Braga has found a series of tunnels that run under the US Border, allowing them to travel undetected between the countries.  Dom, Brian and the team get their shipment and head back to the US but they learn that Braga is in the habit of killing his drivers when the job is done.  Dom blows up his car’s nitrous tanks and he and Brian escape in a Hummer with the load of heroin in the back.  Brian and the FBI come up with a plan to lure Braga to the US by arranging a deal where Brian and Dom will sell back the heroin, but only if Braga arrives in person.  Braga agrees but the Braga that shows up is a double and the real Braga manages to escape.  Dom and Brian head back to Mexico to capture Braga and find him in a church.  Braga’s henchmen give chase and Dom and Brian head into the smuggling tunnels.  One of Braga’s henchmen, Fenix, crashes Brian on the other side of the tunnels and leaves his car to finish him off, in the same way he killed Letty, but Dom manages to crush him with his Camaro.  Brian gives Dom the opportunity to run again but Dom claims he’s tired of running and allows the FBI to capture him.  He’s given 25 years to life and is transported by bus to a maximum security prison.  On the way however;  Brian, Mia and Dom’s crew from the Dominican Republic arrive to hijack the bus and free Dom.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990): The original movie is a beloved classic for kids who grew up in the 90′s and actually still holds up pretty well.  The movie struck a great balance between the cartoon series’ goofy humor and action and the darker tones of the original comic.  There are a ton of great fan service moments for fans of the comic series including shots right out of the comic.  The costumes designed by Jim Henson Creature’s Shop are still fantastic looking and they get an amazing amount of facial animation out of them.  The movie also pretty much set the trend for what would be cool in the 90′s, which is refined to a laser point during the scene in the Foot Clan HQ. The story follows the Turtles as they fight their first battle and, in the process, rescue reporter April O’Neil from some street thugs.  The Turtles become the target of the evil Foot ninja clan, led by the evil Shredder, who kidnaps the Turtles father/mentor Splinter.  The Turtles are ambushed at April’s apartment by the Foot and Raphael is seriously injured.  The Turtles, April and their other new ally, vigilante Casey Jones, head to April’s family farm.  The Turtles recover and decide to return to New York City and rescue Splinter.  The Turtles fight the Foot through the streets of NYC and eventually face off against Shredder on a rooftop.  Shredder fights off the Turtles but is ultimately defeated by Splinter and thrown off the roof into a garbage truck, which Casey turns on and seemingly crushes Shredder in it.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze (1991): Only a year after the original, Secret of the Ooze came out in theaters.  The movie was much more humorous and light hearted than the original movie, moving even more toward capturing the feel of the cartoon rather than the comics.  The Turtles also barely used their weapons, a result of an outcry by concerned parents about the Turtles being too violent.  Nowadays, Secret of the Ooze is probably most remembered for it’s ridiculous final fight scene, that takes place at a Vanilla Ice concert and where the Iceman comes up with a brand new, Turtles based, rap right on the spot.  It also introduced new villains Tokka and Rahzar, although most fans were probably hoping Bebop and Rocksteady would have gotten a big screen appearance.  The story for II finds the Turtles trying to find out more about their origin and discovering the company that manufactured the Ooze that mutated them.  Unfortunately, Shredder survived the first movie and wants revenge on the Turtles.  He also discovers the company that manufactured the ooze and steals a vial and it’s chief scientist.  Shredder forces Dr. Jordan Perry to make him a pair of mutants but Perry alters the formula so that the resultant mutants are like children.  They are still incrediably strong so Shredder decides to let them rampage through the city.  The Turtles eventually rescue Dr. Perry and he and Donatello come up with a plan to stop Tokka and Rahzar by feeding them an antimutagen.  It doesn’t work immediately, resulting in the aforementioned Vanilla Ice flavored fight scene.  The mutants are eventually unmutated but Shredder takes some of the ooze and tranforms into Super Shredder.  The turtles face off against him under a pier and Shredder, in a blind rage, destroys the supports and causes the pier to collapse on top of him, killing him.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (1993): Universally regarded as the worst Turtles movie, III suffered from terrible writing, awful jokes and the absence of Jim Henson’ Creature Shop, so the Turtle costumes for this movie are horrible.  A super in depth criticism of III can be found courtesy of the Angry Video Game Nerd. The story finds April getting switched in time with the son of a Japanese warlord and the Turtles must use a magical scepter to travel back in time to rescue her.  The Turtles help a group of villagers fend of the evil British arms dealer Walker and the local warlord Norinaga’s men.  The scepter is broken during the fight but the local blacksmith agrees to help make another.  The Turtles are welcomed warmly by the villagers and they even consider staying in Feudal Japan but ultimately decide to leave after they help the village fend off a final assault by Walker.  Meanwhile, in 1993, Casey Jones goes on a wacky adventure with the four samurai the Turtles switched places with.  Ultimately everyone makes it back to their own time.

TMNT (2007): 14 years after the last Turtles movie, the guys returned in 2007 with a CG movie that ignored III existed and was an interesting mish mash of the first two movies continuity and also took elements from the surprisingly awesome 2005 cartoon series.  The fact that the movie is animated allows for some truly great action sequences, including what could possibly be one of the greatest Turtles moments of all time, the Raph vs Leo fight.  The voice cast is also great with the likes of Patrick Stewart, Frank Welker, Nolan North and John DiMaggio.  The plot finds the Turtles off doing their own things following the death of Shredder.  Splinter has sent Leonardo to Central America to fight drug dealers (?), Donatello is doing IT work, Michelangelo is a birthday party performer and Raphael has become a vigilante called the Nightwatcher.  April now operates a company with Casey that acquires artifacts and they deliver their latest item to rich industrialist Max Winters.  Winters is actually an immortal who is trying to gather his former generals, who were turned to stone by the same power that gave Winters his immortality in ancient times when a portal to another dimension opened.  Winters manages to revive his allies in the present but they are not human, but living stone.  Capturing 13 monsters that were released from the portal.  Winters hires the Foot to capture the monsters.  The Generals ultimately decide to betray Winters and want to use the newly opened portal to release even more monsters and take over the Earth.  The Turtles, April, Casey and even the new leader of the Foot, Karai, must join forces to stop the Generals and the Monsters.  They succeed and Karai tells the Turtles they will get a small reprieve before a familiar foe faces them and Winters, now mortal, is able to finally die.

Predator (1987): A Delta Force rescue team is called in the jungles of Central America by the CIA to help rescue a Presidental cabinet minister, whose helicopter crashed and the passengers kidnapped by rebels.  Leading the Delta Force team is Dutch and he joins his old buddy Dillon, now working for the CIA, and the team heads into the jungle.  They discover the wreckage of the helicopter and also the bodies of a Green Beret squad, skinned and hanging from the trees.  Making their way to the rebel village the team destroys it and kills the entire rebel squad but finds no signs of the minister.  Dillon admits the job was to a lie to get the village cleared so that operations in the area could continue.  Taking the only survivor of the attack, a rebel woman, the team heads for their extraction point but begin to get taken out one by one by a mysterious, invisible alien.  Trying their best to kill it, the team is reduced down until just Dutch and the woman, Anna, are left.  Dutch tells Anna to get to the extraction chopper and then leads the Predator away.  Barely escaping by having his body heat blocked by mud, Dutch fashions some primitive traps and weapons and makes a final stand against the Predator.  Crushing the alien with a log trap, Dutch barely escapes it’s failsafe device, which causes a nuclear explosion, and gets rescued by the chopper.

Predator 2 (1990): Ten years after the incident in Central America, another Predator arrives in Los Angeles, where a vicious street war is raging between the Colombians, Jamaicans and the police.  Lieutenant Michael Harrigan and his team are engaged in a shootout with a Colombian gang when gang retreats into a building.  Explosions and gunfire come from inside and when Harrigan and his team enter, they find all the gang members killed.  Returning to the station, Harrigan finds out that a federal task force is investigating the cartels, led by Special Agent Peter Keyes.  Harrigan is also getting a new team member, Jerry Lambert.  Members of the cartels continue to be killed in brutal ways and the team suspects something is up when they find a Predator weapon embedded in an air conditioner at one of the crime scenes. Two of Harrigan’s officers are killed by the Predator.  Harrigan catches the Predator in the middle of removing one of the officer’s spine and skull as a trophy and he gives chase, only to be caught by Keyes and his men.  Keyes reveals that his team is actually trying to capture one of the aliens.  Heading into a building where the Predator has been stealing food, Keyes and his team wear thermal suits and are armed with liquid nitrogen guns.  The Predator, unable to see the team in infrared, switches to ultraviolet and kills everyone but Keyes.  Keyes and Harrigan pursue the Predator to the rooftops.  Keyes tries to use his liquid nitrogen but is killed by the Predator’s disc weapon.  Harrigan manages to force the Predator over the edge and it tries to self destruct, but Harrigan cuts off it’s arm with it’s own disc.  The Predator falls but survives and flees into a basement.  Harrigan follows and discovers the Predator actually fled into the Predator spaceship.  Harrigan battles and kills the Predator but a group of elder Predators materializes.  Respecting Harrigan’s win, they present him with an antique pistol and then allow him to leave.

Alien vs Predator (2004): A research team led by billionaire industrialist Charles Bishop Weyland heads to Antartica to investigate a mysterious heat signature that was detected by satellite.  Heading down a shaft near an old whaling station, the team finds an ancient pyramid.  On the surface a team of three Predators arrives and kills everyone and then follows the team into the temple.  Finding what appears to be a sacrificial chamber, the team finds a box of mysterious weapons.  Taking them seemingly activates a power source causing the pyramid to shift and Alien eggs to hatch.  Several of the team members are attacked by face huggers, which causes full grown Aliens to start running around the temple, battling the Predators and killing the team members.  Eventually it comes down to team guide Alexa and a single Predator.  Alexa manages to kill one of the aliens and gains the respect of the Predator, who makes her some weapons out of the alien carcass.  The two decide to use the Predator’s self destruct device to blow up the pyramid and escape to the surface.  However, the Alien Queen bursts out and chases them across the ice.  Alexa and the Predator manage to tie the Queen to the chain of a water tower and topple it over a cliff, pulling the Queen into the chasm.  The Predator is mortally wounded and dies and his body is collected by group of Predators who just arrived in their ship.  They take the body on board and give Alexa a spear as a sign of respect.  However, the dead Predator was face hugged and a chestburster busts out that has characteristics of both the Alien and Predator species.

Alien vs Predator: Requiem (2007): Directly following AVP, the Predalien grows to maturity and wrecks havoc on the Predator ship, causing it to crash outside of the small town of Gunnison, CO.  The Predators are all killed and the Predalien and some facehuggers escape.  A father and son and some homeless people are all facehugged and adult aliens grow out of them.  A distress call from the Predators is answered by a Predator on their homeworld and he arrives on Earth, erasing all evidence of the Alien presence and the following and killing several Aliens in the sewers of the town.  The Aliens escape into the streets and start attacking the townspeople.  A group of survivors meets up in sporting goods store to get weapons and try to escape the town.  The national guard arrive but are all killed by Aliens.  The Predator and Aliens battle into the sporting goods store and the group retreats.  The Predators shoulder cannon is damaged but he turns it into a pistol.  The human group manages to get into contact with the Army, who claims they are evacuating at the center of town.  Soldier mom Kelly isn’t buying it and the group splits into two, with Kelly leading one group to the local hospital to take it’s helicopter and the other group heading to the evacuation point.  The hospital is infested with Aliens as the Predalien had been pumping embryos into the pregnant women there.  The humans manage to get into the helicopter while the Predator and Predalien battle.  The Army’s “rescue” turns out to be a bomber armed with a nuke that destroys the entire town and causes Kelly and the others to crash their chopper.  They are rescued by the military and the Predator’s pistol, which the survivors stole, is taken and presented to a Ms. Yutani.

With the reboot coming out tomorrow we thought we’d go back and examine the classic horror series.  Starting in 1984, Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger killed his way through eight movies, even taking on his biggest horror rival, Jason Voorhees.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)- Nancy Thompson and her friends are terrorized in their dreams by a burned man with razor blades on his fingers.  After her friend Tina is viciously murdered, the police suspect her boyfriend Rod.  However, Nancy soon learns it was Freddy who did it and she seems to be next.  Rod is killed by Freddy in jail and Nancy refuses to sleep.  After her mother becomes concerned, Nancy agrees to go to a sleep research center but just barely escapes from Freddy, managing to pull out his hat into the real world.  With this knowledge, Nancy sets up an elaborate series of traps and asks her boyfriend Glen to guard her while she goes into the dream world to pull Freddy out.  Glen falls asleep however and is killed by being exploded in a fountain of blood.  Nancy manages to pull Freddy into the real world by herself and hits him with her traps.  Freddy, on fire, smothers Nancy’s mother and disappears.  Mrs. Thompson’s skeleton descends into a portal of light but Freddy reappears.  Nancy chooses to ignore him to attempt to negate his powers.  It seems to work and the next day everyone is alive and well, seemingly everything that happened was a nightmare.  However, when Nancy gets into a car with her friends the convertible top goes up and it has Freddy’s sweater design on it.  Nancy turns to see her mother getting pulled through their front door by Freddy.

Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985)- Five years after the first movie, a new family moves into the Thompson’s house on Elm Street.  The son, Jesse Walsh, starts having nightmares of Freddy demanding that Jesse allow Freddy to use him as a host so he can kill in the real world again.  Finding Nancy’s diary, Jesse grows worried but is ignored by his parents.  Jesse starts going out at night and killing people, first his gym teacher and then one of his classmates, Ron Grady, who Jesse asked to guard him.  Jesse’s girlfriend Lisa does some research and finds the old power plant that Freddy operated out of.  Freddy attack Lisa at a pool party, boiling all the kids except Lisa in the pool.  Lisa escapes to the old power plant and tells Jesse to fight Freddy from the inside.  Freddy starts to lose control and bursts into flames.  The entire building bursts into flames as well and Jesse manages to crawl out of Freddy’s ashes and he and Lisa escape.

Dream Warriors (1987)- A group of kids have been sent to the Westin Hills psychiatric hospital for various problems.  One, Kristen Parker, is there because she was attacked by Freddy and it was mistaken for a suicide attempt.  She refuses to be sedated and starts reciting the Freddy chant, which is finished by new hospital employee Nancy Thompson.  Nancy realizes that Freddy is back and tries to convince her co-worker Dr. Neil Gordon, to use an experimental drug called Hyponcil on the kids.  The drug causes the user to not dream and Nancy reveals she has been using it for years.  Neil is reluctant but another solution presents itself when Kristen is attacked by Freddy in the form of a giant snake.  Kristen pulls Nancy into her dream and Nancy helps Kristen escape.  Nancy realizes they could train all the kids to develop powers to fight Freddy in the dream world and they attempt a test deep hypnosis sesssion.  However, one of the kids, Joey, is kidnapped by Freddy and is left comatose in the real world.  Nancy and Neil are fired and the kids are left to fend for themselves.  Neil gets visited by a mysterious nun who tells him the only way to defeat Freddy is by giving his remains a proper burial.  Nancy’s father and Neil go attempt this while Nancy leads the kids into the dream world.  Freddy separates the kids and kills everyone but Nancy, Kristen, Joey and Kincaid, who has the power of super strength.  The dream warriors are reunited by Freddy overpowers Kincaid and is about to finish him when he realizes what is happeing in the real world.  His skeleton comes to life and kills Nancy’s father but Neil manages to throw holy water on it and bury it.  Freddy meanwhile is killed by Nancy with his own glove but not before she recieves fatal wounds trying to protect Kristen.  The surviving kids are released from the hospital with Freddy seemingly defeated.

The Dream Master (1988)- Kristen, Joey and Kincaid have seemingly returned to normal lives in high school.  However, Freddy returns from the dead and kills Joey and Kincaid.  Kristen tells her new friends about her nightmares.  They reveal that they know all about Freddy and Alice tells Kristen she has the power to control her dreams.  Kristen has a nightmare that night and is cornered by Freddy, she pulls Alice into her dream but Alice is unable to stop Kristen from being killed.  Kristen’s powers however transfer themselves to Alice.  Freddy starts targeting Alice’s friends and she realizes she can enter their dreams to try and save them.  She is too weak to fight Freddy but for every death, she grows stronger and gains new powers.  Eventually Alice feels she is strong enough to fight Freddy and enters into a final showdown with him.  Alice attempts to shatter his portal of trapped souls, the source of his power, and they battle.  Freddy gains the upper hand until Alice uses The Dream Master spell to cause Freddy to realize his evil and that shatters the portal, releasing the souls.

The Dream Child (1989)- A year after Dream Master, Alice is pregnant with her boyfriend Dan’s baby.  However, she starts having dreams about Freddy’s mother, Amanda Krueger and sees her deliver a baby that turns into adult Freddy.  Alice’s friends start dying and she realizes that Freddy is using her unborn son to attack her friends.  Chasing him down in the dream world, she realizes that Freddy has actually possessed her baby and, though it almost kills her, she manages to force him out.  Alice’s friend Yvonne manages to free Amanda Krueger’s spirit at the old Westin Hills hospital and she gives Alice advice on how to defeat Freddy.  Alice’s son, Jacob, who can appear in the dream world, manages to turn Freddy and himself into babies.  Alice absorbs Jacob and Amanda absorbs Freddy and Alice manages to escape.  Jacob is born a short time later and Alice hopes Freddy is gone for good.

Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)-  Freddy has returned and killed nearly every child in Springwood, OH except “John Doe”, whom Freddy throws outside the city limits during a dream and cannot cross after him.  John hits his head and forgets who he is or where he came from.  John is picked up and transferred to a home from troubled youth where he meets a group of  kids and their Doctor, Maggie Burroughs.  Maggie finds a newspaper clipping about Springwood and decides to take John there in an attempt to job his memory.  The other kids stow away in the van, hoping to run away, but John experiences a hallucination and almost crashes the van.  John and Maggie go to Springwood Orphanage while the kids take shelter in an abandoned house.  Maggie and John find out that Freddy had a child and John thinks he might be it because Freddy didn’t kill him.  However, Freddy kills John later in a dream and reveals his child is a girl.  Maggie and Tracy, one of the kids, return to the troubled youth house and find the only one that remembers anything about what happened recently is Doc, one of the workers at the house who has learned to control his dreams.  He reveals that Freddy can only be killed by being brought into the real world and Maggie decides to enter the dream world to do this.  Maggie does this and is able to enter Freddy’s mind and learns that she is Freddy’s daughter.  She also learns about Freddy’s past and learns that demons from hell gave Freddy his powers.  She manages to pull him into the real world and after a hand to hand battle, stabs him with his glove and then impales him on a steel support beam.  Doc throws her a pipe bomb and Maggie shoves it into Freddy’s chest.  Freddy explodes and the demons who made him fly off.

New Nightmare (1994)-  Wes Craven is making a new Nightmare movie and wants Heather Langenkamp, who played Nancy, to reprise her role.  Heather refuses because she has been having nightmares that are very much like those of her character in the Nightmare films.  Wes Craven reveals that he has been writing the script for the new movie based on dreams he has been having and that evil can be temporarily defeated if it is captured in a work of art that equals it, hence the new Nightmare movie.  Evil has taken on the form of Freddy in an attempt to stop it and begins attacking Heather and her son Dylan, who Freddy eventually kidnaps.  Heather realizes she will have to face Freddy for real and goes into a deep sleep to face him.  Heather brought a kitchen knife with her and uses it when Freddy attempts to wrap his tongue around her face.  Dylan and Heather manage to push Freddy into a furnace, burning and destroying him.

Freddy vs Jason (2003)- Freddy, trapped in hell, is unable to gain back his powers because the children of Springwood have forgotten him.  He concocts a plan to trick fellow killer, Jason Voorhees, into going to Springwood and killing the children for him.  Freddy will be blamed and he’ll gain back his powers.  Jason attacks Lori Campbell and her friends at Lori’s house, also the former home of Nancy Thompson, and kills her friend Trey.  After being questioned about it, the police conclude that Freddy is somehow back.  Lori starts having dreams about Freddy, causing him to regain his powers.  Lori reunites with her boyfriend Will, who along with his friend Mark, were at Westin Hills being treated.  They escaped after hearing about the murders. Lori’s friends decide to ignore the murders and go to a rave where Jason attacks and kills a number of teens.  Freddy is angry that Jason might steal his thunder and his kills.  Lori and Will, along with Lori’s other friends, decide to tranquilize Jason and bring him to Camp Crystal Lake.  Lori will then pull Freddy into the real world and the two will hopefully destroy each other.  The plan works, at the cost of everyone but Lori and Will getting killed by either Jason or Freddy and Jason almost getting killed in the dream world.  Jason and Freddy battle through a construction site, and eventually onto the dock of Camp Crystal Lake.  Lori and Will set the dock’s gas tanks on fire and blow up Freddy and Jason into the lake.  Freddy, despite getting his arm ripped off by Jason, staggers out to kill Lori but Jason stabs him through with his own clawed arm and then collapses into the lake, since he was stabbed by Freddy through the art with his machete.  Lori takes Jason’s machete and beheads Freddy, seemingly killing him and then kicks him into the lake.  Lori and Will head off but the next morning Jason emerges from the lake carrying Freddy’s head, which winks to the camera.

With news of 24′s cancellation last week I thought it would be a good time to look back on the last 7.5 years of the show from the first time we saw the split screen and ticking clock to last year’s adventures in DC.

Season One (2001-2002)- The first season featured some growing pains but also some of the most memorable and important events of the series.  CTU gets a tip that an assassination attempt is imminent against Senator David Palmer.  Jack investigates with help from his second in command Nina Myers but things get complicated when his daughter Kim and wife Teri are kidnapped. Major 24 characters like Nina Myers, Aaron Pierce and Tony Almeida were all introduced this season as well.  This season was also still getting used to the split screen as they overused it a tad and there was a weird obsession with indie rock in the beginning of the season.  Time was also more realistic than in later seasons; there’s an entire episode featuring Jack driving somewhere.  Despite his horrible accent, Dennis Hopper was a pretty great choice for the first big bad and the last episode of the season is one of the best of the series as it features Jack wiping out the Drazens after thinking they killed Kim and Teri getting killed by CTU mole Nina Myers, which would have ramifications through the next two seasons.

Season Two (2002-2003)- Brian’s favorite season features Jack at arguably his most bad ass as he returns from inactive duty to help CTU find a nuclear bomb that has been smuggled into LA. The first episode ends with probably one of the best lines in 24 history, “I’m gonna need a hacksaw” and also shows the lengths Jack will go when he fake executes terrorist leader Syed Ali’s family.  Nina also shows back up as she sold plans to CTU to a group Jack went undercover with which resulted in the first, and actually pretty shocking, attack on CTU. We also get the heroic death of George Mason, who was a douche through most of season one and this one but redeems himself by flying the plane carrying the nuke out into the desert to have it detonate away from populated areas instead of Jack. President Palmer also shows why he’s the best fictional president by dealing with, first the nuke, and then a coup attempt by his cabinet when he refuses to retaliate against a group of unnamed Middle Eastern countries who helped Ali.  Both those plots are some of the strongest of the series but this is also the infamous “Kim’s Adventures in Babysitting” season where Kim winds up running from her babysitting client after he kills his wife and beats his daughter and then gets arrested, attacked by a cougar, locked in a bunker with a crazy survivalist and involved in a convenience store robbery.  This is the season that also had one of the biggest cliffhangers as President Palmer collapses after greeting the public following a press conference.  He was attacked by a biological agent by bi-sexual assassin Mandy and it was only resolved what happened in 24: The Game (this is also where we see what happens to the mysterious villain Max, who seemed to be the mastermind of the entire day).

Season 3 (2003-2004)- An interesting season that found Jack addicted to heroin and some massive deaths.  LA was under threat of a deadly biological weapon that seems to be linked to the Mexican drug cartel run by the Salazars, who Jack just finished three years undercover with.  This is also the season that Jack was saddled with partner Chase Edmunds (whose backstory is also explained in the game).  This season also introduced fan favorite computer expert Chloe O’Brien and also saw Kim Bauer working at CTU along with future Spock Zachary Quinto.  We eventually learn that one of Jack’s former Nightfall team members, Stephen Saunders, is behind the biological attacks and he releases it in an office building, trapping a number of people including CTU agent Michelle Dessler (and Tony Almeida’s wife).  Saunders makes a number of demands, one of which is the death of CTU director Ryan Chappelle, which Jack ultimately has to carry out.  Jack also finally gets to kill Nina after she tries to escape CTU and uber-bitch Sherry Palmer, the President’s ex-wife who made his life a living hell for three seasons, is killed by the wife of Alan Milliken, one of Palmer’s supporters who is threatening his presidency because brother Wayne Palmer slept with his wife.  Jack eventually saves the day but has to cut off Chase’s hand with an ax after he grabs the bio-weapon dispersal device and is unable to let it go or else it will go off.

Season Four (2005)- My personal favorite season is like the Michael Bay of 24 seasons, it just keeps ramping up and there’s almost constant action.  Forced to resign from CTU, Jack goes to work for Secretary of Defense James Heller and becomes romantically involved with his daughter Audrey Raines.  Terrorist Habib Marwan launches multiple threats against LA, with the help of the sleeper cell Araz family.  Heller is kidnapped, Nuclear power stations are melted down, Air Force One is shot down, the nuclear football is stolen and a nuclear missile is stolen and launched.  Fortunately the Dream Team of 24 is assembled this season: You have Jack, Tony and Curtis Manning in the field, Michelle and Bill Buchanan in charge, Chloe and Edgar Stiles on the computers and Ex-President Palmer coming back to help the inept Vice President Logan after he becomes president due to President Keeler going into a coma after the Air Force One attack.  Jack and co. manage to stop most of these threats but in the process Jack runs afoul of the Chinese government after one of their officials is killed during a black ops raid led by Jack.  Logan wants to frame Jack so he fakes his death with only Tony, Michelle, Palmer and Chloe knowing he’s alive and then heads off into the sunset.

Season Five (2006)- This season started off with a bang, literally.  Palmer is assassinated, Michelle is killed by a car bomb (with Tony seriously injured) and Chloe would have been killed as well if she didn’t call Jack, who arrives just in time but is then framed for Palmer’s murder.  Season Five probably has one of the most complex plots in 24 history that didn’t completely become clear until the end of Season 7 but a massive conspiracy is created by President Logan, Jack’s mentor and now defense contractor Christopher Henderson and a group of shadowy men with bluetooth headsets led by a man named Graem.  They help Russian terrorists, led by Vladimir Bierko, attack an airport and then seize control of a cache of Centox nerve gas, which they release in a mall and also at CTU, killing Edgar and new director of CTU Lynn McGill.  The ultimate goal is to kill the visiting Russian president, killing a peace agreement and in return the US will be given access to a huge oil reserve.  Henderson, who was captured by Jack and was seemingly unconscious in the medical bay, escapes during the CTU attack, seemingly killing Tony in the process.  Henderson is eventually cornered again and agrees to help Jack stop Bierko from taking over a submarine armed with nuclear warheads.  Bierko and his men are killed and Jack kills Henderson as revenge for Michelle, Tony and Palmer.  Jack’s has also been trying to take down President Logan.  He tries to track down an incriminating recording, following it to a passenger jet that Jack hijacks.  He gets it but it is erased by weasel Miles Papazian so Jack and Co. devise a plot to plant a listening device on Logan, which pays off and he’s arrested by US Marshals.  Jack can’t celebrate for too long however as the Chinese return and kidnap him.

Season Six (2007)-  Easily the worst season of 24, I barely remember anything that happened.  Jack was returned to the US after a series of suicide bombings over the last 11 weeks can be halted if he is turned over the Abu Fayed, who in turn will give the location of terrorist mastermind Hamri Al-Assad.  Fayed is the true mastermind and Al-Assad is in the US to try and make a peace agreement and stop Fayed.  Wayne Palmer somehow became president but is so terrible that he’s exploded into a coma halfway through the season and Vice President Powers Boothe takes over.  We also learned that Graem is Jack’s brother and he and his father Phillip are behind the Season Five events and are hatching even more schemes this season.  Some things happen involving Russia, China, Audrey turns up insane and Ricky Schroeder runs around as CTU head of field ops until he gets his face blasted off by a bomb.  It all ends on an oil rig that Jack leaves his father to die on and then Jack winds up actually looking over a cliff outside of Audrey’s house.

24: Redemption (2008)- Because of the writer’s strike there was a large gap Season Six and Seven.  To make up for the wait, Fox released this two hour TV movie which found Jack in Africa helping his friend Carl Benton defend his school from the evil General Juma’s men.  Second best President Allison Taylor is also sworn in and baddie Jonas Hodges (Jon Voight) acts shifty.  Jack leads the boys of the school to the US embassy after Carl is killed by a mine and must turn himself in for the boys to get passage out of the country.  Jack is given a subpoena to appear before a Senate commission investigating CTU, which has been disbanded.  Redemption was like Citizen Kane compared to season six and featured some great Jack action, especially in a sequence where Jack defends the school.

Season Seven (2009)- The last season of our retrospective finds Jack under investigation by the Senate for his controversial investigation methods but the hearing is interrupted by FBI agent Renee Walker, who informs Jack that a series of thefts have been carried out by Tony Almeida.  Jack reluctantly agrees to help and unravels a conspiracy led by Jonas Hodges and featuring elements of President Taylor’s administration.  Hodges agreed to help dictator General Juma attack the US and in exchange Juma would give Hodges free reign to create biological weapons in his country of Sangala.  Hodges ultimate goal is for his defense company to take control of the US government.  Jack teams back up with Tony, along with Bill and Chloe and they attempt to unravel the conspiracy.  One of the set piece episodes was the attack on the White House where Aaron Pierce showed back up and Bill sacrificed himself so Jack could protect the President.  Tony flip flopped back to evil and stole a canister of the nerve gas.  He ultimately wanted to meet with the mastermind behind almost everything that happened since Season Five, Alan Wilson, and then kill him as revenge for Michelle and his unborn child.  Jack and Renee stop him and then Jack resigns himself to dying due to his exposure to the nerve gas.  Kim, who came back at Renee’s request, decides to undergo an operation to extract some of her bone marrow to save Jack.  Renee, who kind of becoming a protege of Jack, decides to do a Jack style interrogation on Wilson and, we learn in Season Eight, almost kills him.  This season benifitted from the change of scenery and the return of Tony and, with no CTU, didn’t fall pray to some of the cliches of the past seasons.  Unfortunately that doesn’t seem to be the case for Season Eight, which is moving along OK but things are definitely feeling tired.

Well I’m exhausted after writing that and I’m positive there’s moments and details that I missed so feel free to comment about your favorite 24 moments and what your favorite season was and check back every Tuesday for our recaps of the final season in The Jack Attack.

Iron Eagle (1986)- Doug Masters’ father is shot down by an unnamed Middle Eastern country and tried by their courts.  He is sentenced to death and Doug finds this unacceptable so he enlists the help of Col. Chappy Sinclair to fly with him to the country and rescue his father.  With the help of Doug’s friends, Chappy and Doug are able to acquire a pair of F-16s and head off.  Upon arriving in the country, Doug and Chappy are attacked by anti-aircraft guns and enemy jets.  Doug manages to take the jets out but Chappy is critically hit and crashes.  Doug heads on alone and blows up important facilities until the country’s head general agrees to release his father.  Doug and his father narrowly escape from the runway and get into a final dogfight with the evil general, which Doug wins.  Doug is brought before an Air Force tribunal (along with Chappy who survived the crash and was picked up by a freighter), and, although reprimanded, is admitted into the Air Force Academy and acquitted of all charges.

Iron Eagle II (1988)- Another unnamed Middle Eastern country is threatening the security of the world, this time holding the world ransom with ICBMs.  A US/Soviet task force is formed to lead an attack against the country, led by Chappy.  One of Doug’s friends, Matt Cooper, is also in the task force.  The group has to overcome technical and personal problems but they eventually come together and stop the threat.

Aces: Iron Eagle III (1992)- Chappy is enlisted by Anna, whose South American village has been taken over by drug dealers led by a former Nazi.  Chappy agrees to help but when he tries to get help from the Air Force he finds out that the general he contacts is actually the Nazi’s partner.  Chappy then goes rogue and recruits a group of older pilots and together in some vintage jets they fly to South America to stop the drug dealers.

Iron Eagle IV: On the Attack (1995)- Chappy is tasked with training a group of ragtag Air Force recruits for an upcoming aerial competition.  Chappy asks Doug to come and help him and they set about to training the pilots.  The group stumbles onto a conspiracy among a group of Air Force officers who are dealing in toxic waste.

Universal Soldier (1997)

Directed by disaster film master Roland Emmerich, Universal Soldier tells the story of a secret government project to develop the ultimate soldiers.

Back during the Vietnam War, Private Luc Devreaux finds out that his commanding officer, Sgt. Andrew Scott, has gone insane and is murdering and cutting the ears off of the residents of a small village.  Devreaux tries to stop him and they end up shooting and killing each other.  A special forces team arrives the next morning and puts their bodies on ice and the incident is buried. 30 years later there is a hostage situation at the Hoover Dam and and Devreaux and Scott are sent in, now mindless Universal Soliders.  They efficiently end the hostage crisis but both men start experiencing memories of Vietnam.

Meanwhile, a reporter, Veronica Roberts, sees the Universal Soldiers and decides to investigate.  She sneaks onto the program’s secret base and tries to take pictures but is caught and pursued by Scott and Devreaux.  Scott executes her cameraman but Devreaux stops him before he can kill Roberts.  Roberts and Devreaux escape and are pursued across country by the UniSols and technicians.  Scott completely regains control of his old personality and executes the technicans and reanimates the rest of the UniSols.  Roberts and Devreaux manage to find the creator of the UniSol project who explains it’s history.  Shortly afterwards, Roberts and Devreaux are arrested for the murder of the cameraman and are transported on a police bus when it’s ambushed by Scott and the UniSols.  Roberts and Devreaux manage to escape and the UniSol transport and police bus both explode with Scott and the UniSols believed dead.

Roberts and Devreaux flee to Devreaux’s family farm and he finds his parents but Scott manages to survive the explosion and pursues them.  A vicious fight ensues between Devreaux and Scott and Scott gains the upper hand because of muscle enhancers he’s been injecting.  Devreaux manages to steal one from Scott and evens up the fight after injecting it.  Devreaux impales Scott on a hay harvester and finishes him by turning on the machine to grind him up.

Universal Soldier II: Brothers in Arms (1998)

A direct to video sequel of the first film, this and US III where later made non-canonical by US: The Return.  The movie features the same characters as the first movie but different actors.  Luc Devreaux finds out that he has a brother and then must rescue him and Veronica Roberts from the bad guys.

Universal Soldier III: Unfinished Business (1998)

Luc Devreaux and Veronica Roberts are determined to expose the Universal Soldier program but Veronica is wrongfully accused of being involved in a hostage crisis and the pair must go into hiding.  Meanwhile, the Universal Soldier program makes a poweful clone of Luc’s brother and sends him out to kill Luc and Veronica.

Universal Soldier: The Return (1999)

The actual sequel to Universal Soldier, we find Van Damme’s Luc Devreaux is now a technical assistant for the new Universal Soldier project.  He and his partner Maggie run combat training missions with the UniSols in order to make them more independent and efficient.  The UniSols are able to think more for themselves but are connected and controlled by a AI system named SETH or Self Evolving Thought Helix.  Due to budget constraints, the UniSol program is being going to be shut down but SETH won’t allow it and takes control of the UniSols and kills the technicians trying to shut him down.  With the help of a rogue hacker, SETH manages to create a human body for himself and kidnaps Luc’s daughter.  Luc has a code that will stop the automatic shutdown of SETH that has been activated.  Luc manages to infiltrate the where the UniSols are operating out of and takes on SETH.  After a fierce battle, Luc manages to freeze SETH with liquid nitrogen and shatter him.  Unfortunately a bomb that was placed to kill the UniSols was deactivated but Luc manages to get his daughter out and shoot the bomb just as the UniSols are marching out, killing them all.

Universal Soldier: Regeneration (2010)

The newest film in the series finds Luc Devreaux as the only man who can stop a terrorist group from detonating the remains of the Cherynobyl nuclear plant.  The terrorists are lead by a Next Generation Unisol and they’re also joined by a cloned and upgraded version of Andrew Scott. You can read the EA review of this movie here.

Highlander (1986)- Immortal Connor Macleod has lived for centuries and engages in his final battle against the deadly Kurgan in New York City.  Flashbacks reveal the Connor was born in Scotland and was “killed” in battle.  He miraculously recovered and was cast out of his village for being a witch.  He then met a man named Ramirez, who trained him for “The Gathering” of other Immortals, who will all battle for “The Prize”.  In NYC Connor meets and falls in love with police examiner Brenda Wyatt.  The Kurgan kidnaps Brenda and he and Connor have a final showdown on a rooftop.  Connor wins and gains unlimited knowledge and gets the ability to have children, which Immortals normally don’t have.

Highlander II: The Quickening (1991)- Connor MacLeod and Brenda are living Africa in 1994 when the ozone layer of the Earth starts fading.  Millions start dying, including Brenda.  Connor promises to help solve the problem and in 1999 he helps create an electromagnetic field that surrounds the earth and blocks the radiation.  However, it also causes a state of constant night to envelop the Earth.  By 2024, humanity has fallen into despair and Connor is an old man waiting to die.  A flashback reveals that Connor and Ramirez are both aliens from the planet Zeist who led a rebellion against the evil General Katana.  The rebellion is crushed and Connor and Ramirez are sentenced to be exiled to Earth and be reborn as Immortals.  If they can win “The Prize” they can either grow old and die on Earth or return to Zeist.  General Katana decides that Connor cannot be allowed back on Zeist and sends henchmen to kill him.  Connor manages to kill them both and grows young again due to the quickenings, or release of energy when an immortal is killed.  Connor revives Ramirez and the two join Connor’s current love interest, Louise Marcus, in trying to take down the Shield, since Louise recently found out that the ozone layer restored itself.  Katana arrives in NYC and Connor and Ramirez go to fight him.  Everyone but Connor and Louise are killed and Connor uses the Quickening he got from Katana to destroy the shield.  Connor then decides to stay on Earth with Louise instead of returning to Zeist.

Highlander: The Final Dimension or Highlander III: The Sorcerer (1994)-  Basically erasing the events of Highlander II, Highlander III finds Connor living with his adopted son John in Marakesh in 1994.  Brenda died in a car accident a few year earlier.  A flashback reveals that in the 16th century, Connor journeyed to Asia to train with an Immortal master named Nakano, who is a master of illusion and magic.  While Connor is there, another Immortal named Kane arrives with two henchmen to learn the art of illusion as well.  Nakano refuses and Kane decapitates them despite Connor’s attempts to stop it.  The quickening that results causes a landslide that seals Kane and his henchmen in the cave and Connor manages to escapes.  Back in 1994, archaeologist Alexandra Johnson is investigating Nakano’s cave and inadvertently releases Kane.  Connor learns of this and heads to NYC for the final battle for The Prize.  Kane challenges him on holy ground and in the battle, Connor’s sword is broken.  He flees to Scotland to try and make a new sword but fails until Alex arrives with a piece of steel she found in Nakano’s cave.  Connor builds a new sword and learns that his son is heading to NYC.  Kane gets to him before Connor and holds him hostage to lure Connor into a final battle.  The two battle and Connor wins, gaining the Prize.  Connor, John and Alex return to Scotland to live a normal life.

Highlander: Endgame (2000)-  In 1555, Connor returned to his home village to rescue his mother from the village priest Jacob Kell.  Kell executes her as a witch and Connor kills him and Kell’s adopted father, Father Rainey.  Kell is reborn as an immortal and proceeds on a centuries long revenge quest against Connor, killing his friends and gaining a number of followers.  Kell kills the most Immortals of any other Immortal and is the most powerful Immortal in the world.  After Kell kills Connor’s adopted daughter Rachel, Connor goes into hiding at a sanctuary run by The Watchers, a group who have made it their mission to record and observe the battles of the Immortals.  Kell attacks the sanctuary about 10 years later and kill everyone but Connor, leaving him alive so that he can suffer more.  Meanwhile, Connor’s fellow clansman, Duncan Macleod, arrives upon hearing about Connor’s supposed death and is almost killed by Kell and his minions.  Kell then decides to kill Duncan to further hurt Connor.  Kell kills all of his immortal henchmen to gain even more power and Connor decides that the only way Duncan can defeat Kell is to allow himself to be beheaded by Duncan.  Duncan reluctantly agrees and gains all of Connor’s power.  Duncan and Kell engage in a final battle, which at first Kell seems to be winning until Duncan executes a flip over Kell’s head and decapitates him in mid air.  Duncan then bring’s Connor’s body to his home in Scotland and buries him next to his first wife, Heather.

Highlander: The Source (2007)- Duncan Mcleod and a group of immortals set out to find the source of immortality.  The source is guarded by a supernatural Guardian.  Duncan, his wife Anna and others meet in a monastery and are told about the Source from a mysterious Elder.  He reveals that in the past, another group of immortals tried to find the source.  All but two of the them were killed and those two killed the Guardian.  However, this caused one of them to be the new Guardian and the other to become the Elder.  Duncan and his group set out but are attacked by the Guardian.  Two of the party are killed and Duncan’s sword is destroyed in the fight.  After burying their friends, they set out for an island in Eastern Europe that is supposed to be the source.  On the boat ride to the island, the captain warns the group that cannibals control the island and kill anyone who sets foot on it.  The group fights off a group of locals who were torturing a man and get a van and a pair of swords for Duncan.  They drive to an abandoned house close to the location of the source but as a consequence they start losing their immortal powers.  The Guardian arrives during the night and kills another member of their group.  The next day, they find the road blocked and are captured by the cannibals.  When the cannibals get drunk, The Guardian arrives and takes Anna.  Duncan manages to free himself and defeats the cannibals, and then gives chase after the Guardian.  Duncan finds Anna in a clearing and they look up to see a cosmic alignment taking place directly overhead.  The Guardian arrives and challenges Duncan to combat.  The two battle and Duncan finds himself with powers equal to the Guardian.  The Guardian eventually gets itself buried and trapped in the ground and demands that Duncan decapitate him.  Duncan refuses and the Guardian vanishes.  Duncan and Anna then enter the Source and Anna reveals that she is pregnant.