Universal Soldier (1992)
Thriller, Action, Science Fiction, Crime • 1h 43m
Director: Roland Emmerich
Cast: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren, Ally Walker, Ed O'Ross, Ralf Moeller, Jerry Orbach, Leon Rippy, Tico Wells, Robert Trebor, Tommy Lister Jr., Simon Rhee, Rance Howard, Lilyan Chauvin, Thomas Rosales Jr., Ned Bellamy, George Fisher, Duane Davis, Kamel Krifa, Michael Jai White, Kris Van Damme, Mark Hanson, Joel Kramer, Drew Snyder, Michael Winther, Joseph Malone, Monty Laird, Joanne Baron, Lupe Ontiveros, Jack Moore, John Storey, Bradford Bancroft, Trini Tran, Tai Thai, Rachel Wagner, Brandon Lambdin, Paul Raczkowski, Daniel Demorest, Tanner Gill, Eddie Braun, Walter Robles, Jophery C. Brown, Dona Hardy, Leon Delaney, David Efron, Myron L. Lapka, Dave Digregorio, Rhino Michaels, Ralph D. Carpenter, Shane Dixon, Rodd Wolff, Leilani Jones, Mike Rauseo, Stephen Wolfe Smith, Tom Taglang, John Anthony D'Angelo, Roger B. Ellsworth, Matt Thomas, Mirron E. Willis, Al Wyatt Jr., Allan Graf, John DeMita, Jill Jaress, Eric Norris
UHD tiers
About the film
An American soldier who had been killed during the Vietnam War is revived 25 years later by the military as a semi-android, UniSols, a high-tech soldier of the future. After the failure of the initiative to erase all the soldier's memories, he begins to experience flashbacks that are forcing him to recall his past.
- Alternative Titles
- Universal Soldier 01 Universal Soldier
Director: Roland Emmerich
Sony 4K Blu-ray (theatrical only in 4K)
Sony 4K Blu-ray Steelbook upcoming with Dolby Vision and both cuts in 4K
The LPCM 5.1 from the old Extended BD and the DTS-HD 5.1 from the new Extended UHD are exactly the same. The DTS-HD tracks on both of the theatrical UHDs are also the same, and in fact appear to be lossless versions of the Superbit DTS mix with no tampering.
Director: Roland Emmerich
Fox 4K Blu-ray reference sound
Fox 4K Blu-ray, merely okay with compression issues
Director: John Huston
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Eureka Blu-ray > StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray. Older DVD or LaserDisc probably even better
All blu-ray releases so far is from the 2010 scan.
Director: Michael Cimino
2020 Shout! Factory 4K
2020 Shout! Factory 4K slightly better than StudioCanal in HDR10. Similar in DV
35mm mix: 1991 Universal LaserDisc
70mm mix: StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray
35mm mix: 1991 Universal LaserDisc marginally better than StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray. Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray is downmix.
70mm mix: StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray. Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray is remix.
Director: Jacques Tati
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray (part of Jacques Tati boxset releasing December 2026)
Director: Jacques Tati
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray (part of Jacques Tati boxset releasing December 2026)
Director: Jacques Tati
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray (part of Jacques Tati boxset releasing December 2026)
Criterion/StudioCanal Blu-ray > BFI. New restoration unreleased.
Old R2 DVD 1.0
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray (part of Jacques Tati boxset releasing December 2026)
Director: Jacques Tati
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray (part of Jacques Tati boxset releasing December 2026)
2014 StudioCanal Blu-ray
The UHD is slightly cropped in.
Director: Paul King
StudioCanal UK 4K Blu-ray minimal picture upgrade (2K upscale)
StudioCanal UK 4K Blu-ray has good new Atmos mix
More Thriller on Blu-ray
Director: Roman Polanski
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
UK 4K teased by 88 Films https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?p=24252379
Carlotta France 4K Blu-ray > Vinegar Syndrome 4K Blu-ray (better encode on Carlotta without any low-pass filtering, more extras and English subtitles on Vinegar Syndrome)
4K restoration of the original 3D left eye and right eye camera negatives
Director: John Woo
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Arrow has a different grade and a better encode than the Shout! Factory, though the difference in either is not major. Imprint release, which leaves Shout! Factory's master and subtitles as is, is encoded by FiM. https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=24473097&postcount=56
Original mix: Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray
Alternate mix: Scanbox Nordic PAL DVD
Surround remix: HK Video France 4K Blu-ray (5.0)
Original mix: Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray (similar to Criterion LaserDisc, but less distorted)
Alternate mix: Scanbox Nordic PAL DVD
Surround remix: HK Video France 4K Blu-ray (5.0)
Arrow used the alternate mix, but with extra filtering and lowered dynamic range. The alternate mix has much better fidelity.
Imprint presumably used the Shout! Factory original mix and left it as is, though no official confirmation.
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Arrow 4K Blu-ray > Criterion 4K Blu-ray > Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray
1991 Orion LaserDisc vs 2024 Arrow 4K Blu-ray
Director: Jonathan Demme
Video format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: vitalpassenger.com (opens in a new tab)
FiM are mistakenly credited, one of the four known instances of this for a Cinématographe title (the other three being Thieves Like Us, Who Killed Teddy Bear?, and The Gambler). 4K encode was done by Vital Passenger. https://vitalpassenger.com/our-work
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
The 4K discs in both Criterion and Imprint sets are FiM encodes, but low-passed, Imprint minimally less so. Unfortunately, unlike with The Killing, Kino does not hold up at all, the grain is much rougher and the compression visibly struggles making for a much less pleasant watch, even if select stills look better.
All discs use the same source transfer. Criterion cleaned up some hums and hiss, but lost a little bit of high-end detail. Unlike The Killing, the difference's relatively mino.
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
The 4K discs in both Criterion and Imprint sets are FiM encodes, but low-passed. The compression is better, but some of the grain is lost. Difference is pronounced in screen caps, but not likely to be noticed during playback, without a reference to compare it to. Comparisons
All discs use the same source transfer. It's not of the highest quality, and it includes some slight distortion, looping, clicks, pops, and hum. Criterion cleaned it up for their release, but unfortunately also lost a lot of fidelity in the process.
MGM NTSC DVD doesn't seem to have some of the more prominent distortion and has slightly different EQ but is otherwise the same.
Video format: UHD Blu-ray
WB 4K
Sources: YouTube (opens in a new tab)
An undeniably significant improvement from the BD yet still severely flawed. See DFIC's review.
Director: Bernard Rose
Scream Factory/Arrow 4K Blu-ray or Turbine 4K Blu-Ray
SF and Turbine also have the 2004 Audio Commentary with Bernard Rose, Clive Barker, Alan Poul and actors Virginia Madsen, Tony Todd and Kasi Lemmons
Director: Rob Reiner
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab) · instagram.com (opens in a new tab)
UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray > US Kino Lorber/Germany Capelight - caps and audio comparison on this page. Discussion is still ongoing about the 2.0 but as none of the three 4Ks seem to have the true original mix, I think it's fair to leave them all in the blue tier for now and only note that Kino Lorber has the worst PQ.
The initial release of the Capelight 4K mediabook had some playback issues with Dolby Vision on Panasonic devices due to an encoding error, the HDR10 apparently works fine, see Capelight’s official response here.
The 4K master has a shot at the very end of the movie (on James Caan's face) that looks incredibly soft and not good at all. This was visible on the DCP as well so it might just be a source issue rather than being the fault of Kino, Capelight or Arrow.
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Every recommendation follows the same method — how these calls are made.