How to watch all ‘Universal Soldier’ movies in order

Universal Soldier is a bizarre franchise. It started out as a standard action entry, but the more sequels have been made, the bolder and more unique the narrative gets. It’s the opposite of most IPs, which generally get safer and more reliant on what worked in the past as they go on. It’s this willingness to go bold, however, that makes the timeline a bit confusing.

There are six films in the Universal Soldier saga, and three different timelines between them. We have to hand it to the creators for being ahead of the curve when it comes to properties that ditch the continuity of sequels prior and try to start fresh. We’re going to attempt to break down the different timelines, and establish the easiest watching order for all six.

Original trilogy

The easiest, and most obvious starting point in the first Universal Soldier (1992). The film was commissioned as a starring vehicle for Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren, and managed to gross $95 million on a $23 million budget. Despite its success, the studio that made Universal Soldier, Carolco, went bankrupt, and were forced to sell the rights to Skyvision Entertainment. 

Skyvision then commissioned two sequels in 1998: Universal Soldier II: Brothers in Arms and Universal Soldier III: Unfinished Business. These have the same timeline, which means they can be watched in the order in which they’re numbered. Easy, right? Well, it’s about to get complicated. 

Retcon sequels

Universal Soldier: The Return (1999) is meant to be a direct sequel to the first, which means it ignores the events of the Skyvision sequels. It brought back the producers of the opener, as well as stars Van Damme and Michael Jai White, but it flopped, grossing only $10 million on a $22 million budget.

A decade passed before the next chapter, Universal Soldier: Regeneration (2009), was released, and it tried to do the same thing that The Return did. It ignored the events of the Skyvision sequels and The Return, and tried to position itself as a direct sequel to the OG. Van Damme and Lundgren were reunited, and the reviews for Regeneration, while mixed, were the most positive they had been in decades.

Regeneration timeline

Universal Soldier: Regeneration was not a roaring box office success, but it did manage to spawn a direct sequel titled Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (2012). Van Damme and Lundgren returned, and the story, which dealt more into the characterization of the titular soldier than ever before, earned some unexpected praise from critics. 

Vulture’s Bilge Ebiri wrote that Day of Reckoning has “a mesmeric, unreal quality, where things can turn on a dime, and often do.” The film completes a trilogy that we will dub the “Regeneration” timeline. It’s easy to remember because they are the only entries in the franchise in which Van Damme and Lundgren both appear.

Viewing order

There are three different ways you can watch the Universal Soldier franchise. Well, four, if you want to simply follow the release date order (but that could get confusing). There’s the original trilogy, which looks like this:

• Universal Soldier
• Universal Soldier II: Brothers in Arms
• Universal Soldier III: Unfinished Business

There’s the Return timeline, which looks like this:

• Universal Soldier
• Universal Soldier: The Return

Then there’s the Regeneration trilogy, which looks like this:

• Universal Soldier
• Universal Soldier: Regeneration
• Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning

Happy viewing, whichever path you chose to follow!