Double Dragon (film)

Double Dragon is a 1994 film loosely based on the Double Dragon video game series. And by "loosely based", we mean it has nothing in common with the original video games other than the names of a few characters and the title.

Set in the then-futuristic year of 2007, a huge natural disaster known as the "Big One" has left most of California flooded. In the city of New Angeles, a powerful crime lord named Koga Shuko (Robert Patrick) owns one half of a mythical medallion known as the "Double Dragon". When Koga learns that two young brothers named Billy and Jimmy Lee (Scott Wolf and Mark Dacascos) have uncovered the other half, he orders the entire gang population of New Angeles to go after the Lee boys.

When their adopted mother Satori (Julia Nickson) is killed during an explosion, the Lees must team with a Guardian Angel-style group of vigilantes known as the Power Corps, led by the police chief's daughter Marian Delario (Alyssa Milano), in order to avenge the woman that raised them and save the city.

Aside from deviating from the original game's basic plot of two brothers beating up gang members in order to rescue a common love interest, the film also downplays the Lee brothers' martial art skills from the game by having their movie alter-egos spend most of their screen time screaming like girls and running away from the bad guys, Completely Missing the Point of the original games, which was about beating people up.

For those looking for a more faithful adaptation of the games, just watch the Jean Claude Van-Damme movie Double Impact and pretend that Alex and Chad are really just Billy and Jimmy.

Tropes used in Double Dragon (film) include:
  • Actor Allusion: The Cat Fight between Marian (Alyssa Milano) and Linda (Kristina Wagner) gave us the following lines.

Linda (while standing over Marian): Who's the boss now?
Marian (after tying up Linda): You're lucky. Generally, I sent people to the hospital.

Billy and Jimmy: Oh, sh-
Koga Shuko: You said it.

  • Fascinating Eyebrow: Shuko, after possessing Jimmy, as Billy fights just before the final battle.
  • Hey, It's That Guy!: Robert Patrick was still fresh off his performance as the T-1000 in T2: Judgment Day.
  • In Name Only
  • MacGuffin: The Double Dragon Medallion.
  • Recursive Adaptation: The Double Dragon fighting game for the Neo Geo featured elements from the movie.
  • Recursive Canon: A Double Dragon arcade cabinet appears in the background. A Shuko-possessed Jimmy breaks it while fighting Billy.
  • Romance on the Set: Scott Wolf and Alyssa Milano dated for a while after the production of the movie.
  • Wonder Twin Powers: The only way the Dragon medallion could be used in the movie without corrupting the user with its power, with Billy using one half of the medallion and Jimmy using the other.
  • Xenafication: Marian, the Power Corps leader, is supposed to be the same character who gets gut-punched and carried off by the bad guys in the original game.
  • Zeerust: The film takes place in a future after a huge natural disaster has left most of Los Angeles (now dubbed New Angeles) flooded... in the year 2007.
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