The Order finds martial artist Jean-Claude Van Damme cast as the rogue son of respected archaeologist Vernon Dobtcheff answering a call for help when dad summons him. Van Damme is a smuggler of artifacts and seller of same and Dobtcheff is worried about some ancient parchment that the members of an underground religious cult want very badly.
Later on dad gets summoned to Israel and then is kidnapped by The Order and Jean-Claude is on the hunt.
Charlton Heston is in this film in a small role as an archaeologist colleague of Dobtcheff. Heston also narrates a small prologue showing how a Crusader knight also played by Van Damme who was tired of all the killing started a religious order that also attracted Jews and Moslems to it. The powers that be wiped it out like the Albigensians, or so they thought.
Of course when he gets to Jerusalem, Van Damme is involved in a car chase that in the end results in Heston's death and him being accused of it by over zealous Jerusalem homicide cop Ben Cross. There's customs&immigration inspector Sofia Milos who is familiar with Van Damme because of his criminal enterprises and we're not sure what her agenda is. And there's Brian Thompson all decked out like those Nazis from Raiders Of The Lost Ark who are trying that ancient Hebrew ritual at the climax of that film. The climax here has that kind of potential.
In fact The Order is a hybrid of any number of cop chase films and Raiders Of The Lost Ark set in modern times. Charlton Heston did not look well in his small role, I'm thinking the disease that eventually killed him was starting to show. But I also think Heston knew he wasn't in anything like the great epics he was famous for.
Lot's of martial arts and chase action as per a Jean-Claude Van Damme film with some specious theology thrown in as well. His fans should like it, Heston's fans will be pained.
Later on dad gets summoned to Israel and then is kidnapped by The Order and Jean-Claude is on the hunt.
Charlton Heston is in this film in a small role as an archaeologist colleague of Dobtcheff. Heston also narrates a small prologue showing how a Crusader knight also played by Van Damme who was tired of all the killing started a religious order that also attracted Jews and Moslems to it. The powers that be wiped it out like the Albigensians, or so they thought.
Of course when he gets to Jerusalem, Van Damme is involved in a car chase that in the end results in Heston's death and him being accused of it by over zealous Jerusalem homicide cop Ben Cross. There's customs&immigration inspector Sofia Milos who is familiar with Van Damme because of his criminal enterprises and we're not sure what her agenda is. And there's Brian Thompson all decked out like those Nazis from Raiders Of The Lost Ark who are trying that ancient Hebrew ritual at the climax of that film. The climax here has that kind of potential.
In fact The Order is a hybrid of any number of cop chase films and Raiders Of The Lost Ark set in modern times. Charlton Heston did not look well in his small role, I'm thinking the disease that eventually killed him was starting to show. But I also think Heston knew he wasn't in anything like the great epics he was famous for.
Lot's of martial arts and chase action as per a Jean-Claude Van Damme film with some specious theology thrown in as well. His fans should like it, Heston's fans will be pained.