| Director | Roland Emmerich |
|---|---|
| Budget | $23 million |
| Box office | $120 million |
In 1969, a U.S. Army team secures a village against North Vietnamese forces. Luc Deveraux discovers members of his squad and villagers murdered. Deveraux's sergeant, Andrew Scott, has gone insane and is holding a young couple hostage. Deveraux tries to reason with Scott, who executes the man and orders Deveraux to shoot the girl. Deveraux refuses, and Scott kills the girl with a grenade. After shooting each other to death, Deveraux and Scott's corpses are recovered by a second squad and cryogenically frozen, their disappearance classified as "missing in action".
Deveraux's and Scott's corpses, with others, are reanimated decades later for the "Universal Soldier" (UniSol) program, an elite counter-terrorism unit. They are given a neural serum to keep their minds susceptible and their memories suppressed. The team demonstrates its superior training and physical abilities against communist terrorists, but Deveraux regains memories from his former life upon seeing two hostages that resemble the Vietnamese villagers. Deveraux disobeys commands from the control team and becomes unresponsive.
In the mobile command center, the UniSols are revealed to be genetically augmented soldiers with enhanced self-healing abilities and superior strength, but they overheat and shut down. Because of the glitch, Woodward, one of the technicians on the project, suggests removing Deveraux from the team, but UniSol commander Colonel Perry refuses. TV journalist Veronica Roberts tries to get a story on the UniSol project. Roberts sneaks onto the base with a cameraman, discovering GR76 immersed in ice, still alive despite normally fatal injuries.
When Roberts is discovered, Deveraux and Scott are ordered to capture her dead or alive. She flees to her cameraman's car, but they crash. Scott murders the cameraman against orders. Deveraux rescues Roberts, and they escape in a UniSol vehicle. To protect the program, Colonel Perry sends the remaining UniSols to find Deveraux and Roberts.
Deveraux and Roberts flee to a motel, where Roberts discovers she has been framed for the murder of her cameraman. Deveraux collapses from overheating and has to take an ice bath. The UniSols destroy the motel, but Deveraux and Roberts hide in a bed until they leave. The couple flees in a stolen car to a gas station, where Deveraux has Roberts remove a tracking device from his leg. They set a trap and when the UniSols arrive the gas station explodes. Colonel Perry is ordered to terminate the mission, but Scott's insanity returns, and he kills Perry and all but two doctors. Deveraux and Roberts sneak onto the command center bus and steal UniSol documents. Scott orders the rest of the mindlessly obedient UniSol team to kill Deveraux and Roberts.
Using information from the stolen documents, Roberts contacts Dr. Christopher Gregor. Gregor informs them that the UniSol project was started in the 1960s to develop the perfect soldier. Although they were able to reanimate dead humans, they could not overcome the body's need for cooling. Another major problem is that memories of the last moments of life are greatly amplified; Scott believes he is still in Vietnam. When Deveraux and Roberts leave the doctor's home, police arrest them. Scott and GR76 ambush the police convoy. After a chase, the police bus and the UniSol truck both drive off a cliff in the Grand Canyon and explode, killing GR76. Deveraux and Roberts head to Deveraux's family farm in Louisiana.
After Deveraux is reunited with his parents, Scott appears and takes the family and Roberts hostage. Scott's use of muscle enhancers enables him to mercilessly beat Deveraux. Roberts escapes, only to be seemingly killed by a grenade thrown by Scott. Deveraux grabs the muscle enhancers Scott used and injects himself. Now evenly matched, Deveraux impales Scott on the spikes of a hay harvester and activates it, shredding Scott to pieces. Roberts, who survived the explosion, embraces Deveraux.