Hard Target Film

Hard Target is a 1993 American action film directed by Chinese director John Woo. The film stars Jean-Claude Van Damme as Chance Boudreaux, an out of work Cajun merchant seaman who saves the young woman Natasha Binder (Yancy Butler) from a gang of thugs in New Orleans. Chance learns that Binder is searching for her missing father (Chuck Pfarrer), and agrees to aid Binder in her search. Boudreaux and Binder soon learn that Binder's father has died at the hands of wealthy sportsman Emil Fouchon who hunts homeless men as a form of recreation.

Hard Target was the John Woo's first American film and was also the first film made in Hollywood by a Chinese director. Universal Pictures was nervous on having Woo direct a feature, and sent in director Sam Raimi to look over the film's production and to take Woo's place as director if he were to fail. Woo went through several scripts finding mostly martial arts films which he wasn't interested in. After deciding on Chuck Pfarrer's script for Hard Target, Woo wanted to have actor Kurt Russell in the lead role but found Russell too busy with other projects. Woo then went with Universal Studios initial choice of having Jean-Claude Van Damme star. Woo got along with Van Damme during filming and raised the amount of action in the film as he knew that Van Damme was up for it.

After 65 days of filming in New Orleans, John Woo had trouble with the Motion Picture Association of America to secure the R rating that Universal Pictures wanted. Woo made dozens of cuts to the film until the MPAA allowed it an R rating. On its initial release, Hard Target was a financial success but received poor reviews film critics. Critics found Hard Target to have good action scenes but noted the weak script and poor quality acting from Jean-Claude Van Damme.

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.

Cast

* Jean-Claude Van Damme as Chance Boudreaux: An out of work Cajun merchant. After Boudreaux saves Natasha Binder, he is hired by her to help search for her missing father.
* Lance Henriksen as Emil Fouchon: A wealthy sportsman who hunts homeless men as a form of recreation. After finding that he is being investigated by Chance and Natasha, Fouchon sends out his gang led by Pick Van Cleaf to ambush them.
* Arnold Vosloo as Pick Van Cleaf: Van Cleaf is a collaborator of Fouchon who takes part in his sport of hunting men. He leads the crew of men who are sent out to murder Chance and Natasha. Van Cleaf's surname is a reference to actor Lee Van Cleef.[2]
* Yancy Butler as Natasha "Nat" Binder: A young women who comes to New Orleans to search for her father who she hasn't seen since she was seven years old. When Natasha is attacked by thugs, she is saved by Chance Boudreaux who agrees to help her find him.
* Kasi Lemmons as Carmine Mitchell: A detective at the police station who works in the office while the police are on strike. Mitchell helps Natasha by ordering another autopsy when they show her the pierced dog tags that her father had.
* Chuck Pfarrer as Douglas Binder: The father of Natasha who has moved to New Orleans. After Natasha finds that three weeks have passed since she has heard from her father, she goes to New Orleans to find that he has been homeless and has been murdered by Emil Fouchon's crew.
* Wilford Brimley as Uncle Douvee: Uncle Douvee is Chance Boudreaux's uncle who lives deep in the Bayou. Chance and Natasha take shelter at his home as well as have him help during the film's final shoot out.