Street Fighter (film)
Encyclopedia
Street Fighter is a 1994 American action
film written and directed by Steven E. de Souza
. It is based loosely on the same-titled
video games produced by Capcom
, and stars Jean-Claude Van Damme
, and Raul Julia
, along with supporting performances by Byron Mann
, Damian Chapa
, Kylie Minogue
, Ming-Na
and Wes Studi
.
The film altered the plot of the original game and motives of the Street Fighter characters. It also significantly lightened the tone of the adaptation, inserting several comical interludes (for instance one particular fight scene between E. Honda and Zangief
pays homage to the old Godzilla
films).
The film was a commercial success, making approximately three times its production costs, but was universally panned by critics and fans of the video game series alike. However, Raul Julia's performance as General M. Bison was widely praised and garnered him a nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the Saturn Awards. Julia, who at the time was suffering from stomach cancer
(as evidenced by his pale and gaunt facial complextion throughout the movie), took the role at the request of his two children. This was Julia's final theatrical performance, and he died before the film's release. The film is dedicated to his memory.
Two video game
tie-in
s based on the film were released which used digitized footage of the actors performing fight moves, similar to the presentation in the Mortal Kombat series of games.
(Jean-Claude Van Damme
) secure a $
20 billion ransom in three days, or he will kill the hostages and the world will hold Guile and the Allied Nations accountable. Guile's assistant, Cammy (Kylie Minogue
), is only able to partially trace Bison's signal, determining that his hideout is somewhere in the river-delta region outside Shadaloo City.
Among the captured Allied Nations relief workers is Carlos "Charlie" Blanka, a peacekeeper and one of Guile's closest friends. Bison orders his henchmen to take Blanka to a laboratory, where he is to be brainwashed and turned into a mutated soldier, the first of many, which Bison plans to use to help him conquer the world. Dr. Dhalsim
(Roshan Seth
), a captured scientist, decides to sabotage Bison's scheme by tweaking the brainwashing process to retain Blanka's humanity.
Meanwhile, in an underground fighting arena, con artists Ryu Hoshi
(Byron Mann
) and Ken Masters
(Damian Chapa
) attempt to sell fake arms to Shadaloo Tong crime syndicate's leader Victor Sagat
. His plan to kill them both by having them fight his champion, Vega
(Jay Tavare
), is interrupted when Guile crashes into the building and takes everyone into custody for violating a curfew. When later seeing Ryu and Ken fighting Sagat's men in the prison grounds, Guile realizes that they may be able to help him find Bison, and presses Ryu and Ken into infiltrating Sagat's gang with a homing device by staging a prison-break and faking his own death. The plan hits a snag when news reporter Chun-Li Zang (Ming-Na Wen), who wants revenge against Bison for the death of her father, finds out that Guile is alive. Her partners, Sumo
wrestler E. Honda
(Peter "Navy" Tuiasosopo) and professional boxer Balrog
(Grand L. Bush
), each of whom hold a grudge against Sagat for ruining their reputations, attempt to kill Bison and Sagat with a truck bomb, which destroys much of Bison's arms cache but fails to kill the dictator. Chun-Li and her friends are captured when Ryu and Ken seemingly turn on them, to earn Bison's trust and allow Guile to track them to Bison's lair. Once in the fortress (which is built under a Cambodia
n temple similar to Angkor Wat
), they free Balrog and Honda, and the four of them go to find Chun-Li, who is fighting a surprised Bison in his private quarters. Unfortunately, the arrival of the others interrupts Chun-Li long enough for Bison to escape and trap the five of them by sedating them with gas.
Meanwhile, the Allied Nations is able to locate Bison's headquarters from Ryu's homing device and the explosion at Bison's camp, and since Bison's air defenses are too powerful they begin planning an amphibious assault on the base. A group of peace negotiators inform Guile that the invasion is no longer authorized, since the ransom demand is about to be paid, but Guile protests what he sees as appeasement and rallies the troops to assault on his own.
As Guile, T. Hawk (Gregg Rainwater
), and Cammy head up river, they use the weapons systems on their armored speedboat to blow up Bison's radar systems. Bison detects the boat and disables its cloaking system, then uses underwater mines to blow up the speedboat. However, Guile and his two companions narrowly escape the explosion and sneak into the fortress, where Guile is ambushed by a horribly mutated Blanka, who soon recognises Guile as his friend. Guile prepares to kill Blanka to end his suffering, but Dhalsim intervenes and persuades Guile not to do so. At the same time, the 72 hour time limit Bison gave for the ransom runs out, and when Bison leanrs that the money has not been paid, he decided to kill the hostages. After learning from Dhalsim that Bison plans to use Blanka to execute the hostages, Guile hides in Blanka's incubation chamber and attacks Bison after being hoisted right into the command center. At the same time, a huge battle ensues between the arriving Allied Nations forces and the Bison troops while Guile and Bison fight their own, personal duel. Ken attempts to leave the battle, but returns to save Ryu from an ambush, and the two of them defeat Vega and Sagat after an intense fight.
Meanwhile, Guile's battle with Bison rages on until Guile kicks Bison into a bank of hard-drives, delivering an apparently fatal electric shock to the crazed general, until an automatic revival system brings Bison back to life. Bison then reveals his ace in the hole: his uniform is powered by electromagnetism, allowing him to shoot bolts of electricity and fly across the air, giving Guile a hard time fighting against him. Consumed by megalomania
, Bison declares himself a god before flying towards Guile to deal the death blow. However, Guile counters with a well-timed roundhouse kick which sends Bison crashing into his gigantic monitor wall, resulting in a huge explosion. The damage causes severe electrical disturbances which destabilize the power system of the base, but the heroes find and release the hostages just in time, and everyone evacuates.
Guile finds his way back to the lab and tries to persuade Dhalsim and Blanka to escape with him, but Blanka refuses to return to society in his condition, and Dhalsim decides to atone for his actions by keeping him company until the end. After the crash, Dee Jay
(Miguel A. Nunez Jr.
) and Sagat, who survived from the beating by Ken and Ryu, swim out to an island with the recovered treasure that Dee Jay stole from M. Bison's chamber. Dee Jay thought he would have the treasure for himself, but Sagat caught up with him and now they share the treasure. But it turns out it was all the fake money that M. Bison put his face on for his new city to rule the world, Bisonopolis. So Dee Jay and Sagat were tricked. When the temple comes crashing down after an explosion, everyone thinks that Guile was killed in the destruction, but then he emerges from the smoke. After Guile converses with Chun-Li, Ryu, Ken, Cammy, Zangief
(Andrew Bryniarski
)(Who joins them after being informed by Dee Jay that Bison is the enemy), Balrog, E-Honda, T-Hawk, and Sawada, they see the last ruins of the temple fall and take their familiar win poses from the video game as the camera freezes and fades out.
In the home video version of the film, a post-credits scene
returns to the ruins of M. Bison's lair, as the main computer announces that its batteries are recharging from solar power and it begins fibrillating Bison's heart with electricity. Bison's fist suddenly smashes through the rubble, and on a computer screen the resurrected dictator selects "World Domination: Replay."
Shadaloo Tong
featuring mostly rap music. The soundtrack found mild success, peaking at #135 on the Billboard 200
and #34 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
. Upon its release on home video in the United Kingdom
, the soundtrack was given away free with every purchase of the VHS tape at branches of Tesco
for a limited period. Although this was the only way for anybody in the UK to purchase the CD, "Straight to My Feet" by Hammer was still released as a single, which charted #57 in the UK
.
's annual Movie and Video Guide: "Even Jean-Claude Van Damme
fans couldn't rationalize this bomb, a more appropriate title for which would have been Four Hundred Funerals and No Sex (derived from Four Weddings and a Funeral
)...It does, however, seem like Citizen Kane
when compared to The Legend of Chun-Li
." After the movie's failure amongst both critics and audiences alike, Van Damme's career went downhill.
Rotten Tomatoes
gave the film a rating of 13% based on 24 reviews by critics with the consensus "Though it offers mild entertainment through campy one-liners and the overacting of the late Raul Julia, Street Fighter's nonstop action sequences are not enough to make up for a predictable, uneven storyline." Richard Harrington of The Washington Post
noted that the film was "notable only for being the last film made by Raul Julia
, an actor far too skilled for the demands of the evil warlord, Gen. M. Bison, but far too professional to give anything less than his best." Critic Stephen Holden
of The New York Times
referred to the film as "a dreary, overstuffed hodgepodge of poorly edited martial arts sequences and often unintelligible dialogue". In 2009, Time
listed the film on their list of top ten worst video games movies. However, IGN stated that the film was more enjoyable than The Legend of Chun-Li
.
GameTrailers
ranked the film as the eighth worst video game film of all time, citing that "...the fights are awful, Guile's from Brussels and apparently, there's some cyborg soldiers we never knew about." and described the overall film as "... a total knockout."
Despite the mostly negative response, the film was a commercial hit, grossing approximately three times its budget worldwide.
It also received two nominations at the Saturn Awards: Best Fantasy Film and Best Supporting Actor (a posthumous nomination for Raul Julia).
The film has become a subject of a running gag in the Internet reviews of The Nostalgia Critic
, where he uses a clip of M. Bison saying “Of course!” from the film when he says in a review that the goal of many a villain is to “you guessed it, take over the world”. The M. Bison clip from Street Fighter then follows.
during the spring and summer months of 1994 with most of the interiors and exteriors filmed on soundstages in Brisbane
. Some exterior scenes were filmed in Bangkok, Thailand which were used as the backdrop for the fictious Shadaloo City.
adaptation of the film, titled Street Fighter: The Battle for Shadaloo, was published by DC Comics
in 1995. The comic was drawn by Nick J. Napolitano and written by Mike McAvennie. A Japanese one-shot manga
adaptation by Takayuki Sakai was also published in the June 1995 issue of CoroCoro Comics Special.
Two video games based on the film were produced. The first was a coin-operated arcade game
titled Street Fighter: The Movie
, produced by American developer Incredible Technologies
and distributed by Capcom. The second was a home video game developed by Capcom also titled Street Fighter: The Movie
, released for the PlayStation
and Sega Saturn
. Despite sharing the same title, neither game is a port of the other, although they both used the same digitized footage of the films cast posing as the characters in each game.
Many plot elements of the film, such as Blanka's identity and Dhalsim's role as a scientist, were reused in the American-produced 1995 Street Fighter
animated series which combined story aspects of this film with those in the games.
Action film
Action film is a film genre where one or more heroes is thrust into a series of challenges that require physical feats, extended fights and frenetic chases...
film written and directed by Steven E. de Souza
Steven E. de Souza
Steven E. de Souza is an American producer, director and screenwriter. He is among a handful of screenwriters whose films have earned over two billion dollars at the worldwide box office.-Life and career:...
. It is based loosely on the same-titled
Street Fighter
, commonly abbreviated as SF, is a series of Fighting Games developed in Japan in which the players pit the video games' competitive fighters from around the world, each with his or her own unique fighting style, against one another...
video games produced by Capcom
Capcom
is a Japanese developer and publisher of video games, known for creating multi-million-selling franchises such as Devil May Cry, Chaos Legion, Street Fighter, Mega Man and Resident Evil. Capcom developed and published Bionic Commando, Lost Planet and Dark Void too, but they are less known. Its...
, and stars Jean-Claude Van Damme
Jean-Claude Van Damme
Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg , professionally known as Jean-Claude Van Damme, is a Belgian martial artist and actor, best known for his martial arts action films, the most successful of which include Bloodsport , Kickboxer , Double Impact , Universal Soldier , Hard Target , Timecop ,...
, and Raul Julia
Raúl Juliá
Raúl Rafael Juliá y Arcelay was a Puerto Rican actor.Born in San Juan, he gained interest in acting while still in school. Upon completing his studies, Juliá decided to pursue a career in acting. After performing in the local scene for some time, he was convinced by entertainment personality Orson...
, along with supporting performances by Byron Mann
Byron Mann
Byron Mann is an actor who has made films in both Hollywood and Asia. He is perhaps best known for his performance as Ryu in Street Fighter.-Biography:...
, Damian Chapa
Damian Chapa
Damian Robert Chapa is a Mexican-American actor, film director and film producer.Chapa was born in Dayton, Ohio, USA. He was briefly married to Natasha Henstridge. Among his earlier notable film roles are one of the leads in Taylor Hackford's Blood In Blood Out and the part of Ken in the film...
, Kylie Minogue
Kylie Minogue
Kylie Ann Minogue, OBE - often known simply as Kylie - is an Australian singer, recording artist, songwriter, and actress. After beginning her career as a child actress on Australian television, she achieved recognition through her role in the television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing...
, Ming-Na
Ming-Na
Ming-Na is a Macanese-born American actress. She has been credited with and without her family name, but most credits since the late 1990s have been without it...
and Wes Studi
Wes Studi
Wesley "Wes" Studi is a Cherokee actor, who has earned notability for his portrayal of Native Americans in film. He has appeared in well-received Academy Award-winning films, such as Kevin Costner's Dances with Wolves, Michael Mann's The Last of the Mohicans, the award-winning Geronimo: An...
.
The film altered the plot of the original game and motives of the Street Fighter characters. It also significantly lightened the tone of the adaptation, inserting several comical interludes (for instance one particular fight scene between E. Honda and Zangief
Zangief
is a fictional character in the Street Fighter series of video games. Created by Akira Yasuda for Capcom, Zangief first appeared in Street Fighter II, later appearing in other games, media, and promotions related to the Street Fighter franchise...
pays homage to the old Godzilla
Godzilla
is a daikaijū, a Japanese movie monster, first appearing in Ishirō Honda's 1954 film Godzilla. Since then, Godzilla has gone on to become a worldwide pop culture icon starring in 28 films produced by Toho Co., Ltd. The monster has appeared in numerous other media incarnations including video games,...
films).
The film was a commercial success, making approximately three times its production costs, but was universally panned by critics and fans of the video game series alike. However, Raul Julia's performance as General M. Bison was widely praised and garnered him a nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the Saturn Awards. Julia, who at the time was suffering from stomach cancer
Stomach cancer
Gastric cancer, commonly referred to as stomach cancer, can develop in any part of the stomach and may spread throughout the stomach and to other organs; particularly the esophagus, lungs, lymph nodes, and the liver...
(as evidenced by his pale and gaunt facial complextion throughout the movie), took the role at the request of his two children. This was Julia's final theatrical performance, and he died before the film's release. The film is dedicated to his memory.
Two video game
Street Fighter: The Movie
Street Fighter: The Movie may refer to:* Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, a 1994 Japanese animated film...
tie-in
Tie-in
A tie-in is an authorized product based on a media property a company is releasing, such as a movie or video/DVD, computer game, video game, television program/television series, board game, web site, role-playing game or literary property...
s based on the film were released which used digitized footage of the actors performing fight moves, similar to the presentation in the Mortal Kombat series of games.
Plot
A multinational military force known as the Allied Nations has managed to enter the fictional South East Asian nation of Shadaloo to combat the armed forces of a drug lord turned General named M. Bison, who has recently captured several dozen humanitarian workers. Via a live two-way TV broadcast, Bison demands Allied Nations regional commander, Colonel William F. GuileGuile (Street Fighter)
is a fictional character in Capcom's Street Fighter series of fighting games.-Street Fighter series:Guile made his first appearance in Street Fighter II as one of the eight selectable characters featured in the first release of the game...
(Jean-Claude Van Damme
Jean-Claude Van Damme
Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg , professionally known as Jean-Claude Van Damme, is a Belgian martial artist and actor, best known for his martial arts action films, the most successful of which include Bloodsport , Kickboxer , Double Impact , Universal Soldier , Hard Target , Timecop ,...
) secure a $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
20 billion ransom in three days, or he will kill the hostages and the world will hold Guile and the Allied Nations accountable. Guile's assistant, Cammy (Kylie Minogue
Kylie Minogue
Kylie Ann Minogue, OBE - often known simply as Kylie - is an Australian singer, recording artist, songwriter, and actress. After beginning her career as a child actress on Australian television, she achieved recognition through her role in the television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing...
), is only able to partially trace Bison's signal, determining that his hideout is somewhere in the river-delta region outside Shadaloo City.
Among the captured Allied Nations relief workers is Carlos "Charlie" Blanka, a peacekeeper and one of Guile's closest friends. Bison orders his henchmen to take Blanka to a laboratory, where he is to be brainwashed and turned into a mutated soldier, the first of many, which Bison plans to use to help him conquer the world. Dr. Dhalsim
Dhalsim
, is a video game character from the Street Fighter series of fighting games.Dhalsim made his debut in the original Street Fighter II as one of the games original eight main characters. In his backstory, Dhalsim is characterized as a pacifist who goes against his beliefs by entering the World...
(Roshan Seth
Roshan Seth
Roshan Seth is an Indian-born British actor, who appears mainly in British and American films. He is known for his critically acclaimed performances in the films Gandhi, Mississippi Masala, Not Without My Daughter, My Beautiful Laundrette, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Such a Long...
), a captured scientist, decides to sabotage Bison's scheme by tweaking the brainwashing process to retain Blanka's humanity.
Meanwhile, in an underground fighting arena, con artists Ryu Hoshi
Ryu (Street Fighter)
is a video game player character created by Capcom, the main protagonist of the Street Fighter series. Having premiered in the first Street Fighter in 1987, Ryu appears as the lead character from the game along with his best friend Ken Masters participating in the Street Fighter tournament...
(Byron Mann
Byron Mann
Byron Mann is an actor who has made films in both Hollywood and Asia. He is perhaps best known for his performance as Ryu in Street Fighter.-Biography:...
) and Ken Masters
Ken Masters
, originally spelled in Japanese as , is a video game character created by Capcom. As a main character, he has appeared in all of the Street Fighter games along with his best friend and rival, Ryu...
(Damian Chapa
Damian Chapa
Damian Robert Chapa is a Mexican-American actor, film director and film producer.Chapa was born in Dayton, Ohio, USA. He was briefly married to Natasha Henstridge. Among his earlier notable film roles are one of the leads in Taylor Hackford's Blood In Blood Out and the part of Ken in the film...
) attempt to sell fake arms to Shadaloo Tong crime syndicate's leader Victor Sagat
Sagat (Street Fighter)
is a boss character from the early editions of Capcom's Street Fighter fighting game series. He was later turned into a regular, playable character. Sagat is depicted as a well-renowned Muay Thai expert fighter known for his incredible power. He is often called the "Emperor of Muay Thai" in his...
. His plan to kill them both by having them fight his champion, Vega
Vega (Street Fighter)
Vega is a fictional character from the Street Fighter fighting game series. Vega is a masked, claw-wielding warrior from Spain who uses a personal fighting style combining Japanese Ninjutsu and Bullfighting, earning him the nickname the "Spanish Ninja".Vega first appears in the original Street...
(Jay Tavare
Jay Tavare
Jay Tavare is an American actor. Tavare is perhaps best known as Vega in 1994 film Street Fighter. Tavare has played a number of roles in movies, including a Seminole in Adaptation, an Apache in The Missing, a Cherokee in Cold Mountain, and a Cheyenne in Into the West.His mother was White Mountain...
), is interrupted when Guile crashes into the building and takes everyone into custody for violating a curfew. When later seeing Ryu and Ken fighting Sagat's men in the prison grounds, Guile realizes that they may be able to help him find Bison, and presses Ryu and Ken into infiltrating Sagat's gang with a homing device by staging a prison-break and faking his own death. The plan hits a snag when news reporter Chun-Li Zang (Ming-Na Wen), who wants revenge against Bison for the death of her father, finds out that Guile is alive. Her partners, Sumo
Sumo
is a competitive full-contact sport where a wrestler attempts to force another wrestler out of a circular ring or to touch the ground with anything other than the soles of the feet. The sport originated in Japan, the only country where it is practiced professionally...
wrestler E. Honda
Edmond Honda
, more commonly known as E. Honda, is a video game character created by Capcom for the Street Fighter series of fighting games. Introduced in Street Fighter II as part of the starting lineup, he has appeared in Street Fighter Alpha 3, Street Fighter IV, and the Capcom vs. SNK series, as well as...
(Peter "Navy" Tuiasosopo) and professional boxer Balrog
Balrog (Street Fighter)
Balrog is a character from the Street Fighter fighting game series.Balrog is depicted as an African American boxer wearing blue trunks with white trim and a torn white shirt under a blue tank top. He wears red boxing gloves and boxing shoes...
(Grand L. Bush
Grand L. Bush
Grand Lee Bush is an American actor of stage, television and major motion pictures.-Personal life:Bush was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Essie and Robert Bush, who was an actor...
), each of whom hold a grudge against Sagat for ruining their reputations, attempt to kill Bison and Sagat with a truck bomb, which destroys much of Bison's arms cache but fails to kill the dictator. Chun-Li and her friends are captured when Ryu and Ken seemingly turn on them, to earn Bison's trust and allow Guile to track them to Bison's lair. Once in the fortress (which is built under a Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
n temple similar to Angkor Wat
Angkor Wat
Angkor Wat is a temple complex at Angkor, Cambodia, built for the king Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and capital city. As the best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious centre since its foundation – first Hindu,...
), they free Balrog and Honda, and the four of them go to find Chun-Li, who is fighting a surprised Bison in his private quarters. Unfortunately, the arrival of the others interrupts Chun-Li long enough for Bison to escape and trap the five of them by sedating them with gas.
Meanwhile, the Allied Nations is able to locate Bison's headquarters from Ryu's homing device and the explosion at Bison's camp, and since Bison's air defenses are too powerful they begin planning an amphibious assault on the base. A group of peace negotiators inform Guile that the invasion is no longer authorized, since the ransom demand is about to be paid, but Guile protests what he sees as appeasement and rallies the troops to assault on his own.
As Guile, T. Hawk (Gregg Rainwater
Gregg Rainwater
Gregg Andrew Rainwater is an American actor of Osage, Cherokee, Irish, and Filipino descent, who is most well known for his role as half Kiowa Buck Cross on The Young Riders ....
), and Cammy head up river, they use the weapons systems on their armored speedboat to blow up Bison's radar systems. Bison detects the boat and disables its cloaking system, then uses underwater mines to blow up the speedboat. However, Guile and his two companions narrowly escape the explosion and sneak into the fortress, where Guile is ambushed by a horribly mutated Blanka, who soon recognises Guile as his friend. Guile prepares to kill Blanka to end his suffering, but Dhalsim intervenes and persuades Guile not to do so. At the same time, the 72 hour time limit Bison gave for the ransom runs out, and when Bison leanrs that the money has not been paid, he decided to kill the hostages. After learning from Dhalsim that Bison plans to use Blanka to execute the hostages, Guile hides in Blanka's incubation chamber and attacks Bison after being hoisted right into the command center. At the same time, a huge battle ensues between the arriving Allied Nations forces and the Bison troops while Guile and Bison fight their own, personal duel. Ken attempts to leave the battle, but returns to save Ryu from an ambush, and the two of them defeat Vega and Sagat after an intense fight.
Meanwhile, Guile's battle with Bison rages on until Guile kicks Bison into a bank of hard-drives, delivering an apparently fatal electric shock to the crazed general, until an automatic revival system brings Bison back to life. Bison then reveals his ace in the hole: his uniform is powered by electromagnetism, allowing him to shoot bolts of electricity and fly across the air, giving Guile a hard time fighting against him. Consumed by megalomania
Megalomania
Megalomania is a psycho-pathological condition characterized by delusional fantasies of power, relevance, or omnipotence. 'Megalomania is characterized by an inflated sense of self-esteem and overestimation by persons of their powers and beliefs'...
, Bison declares himself a god before flying towards Guile to deal the death blow. However, Guile counters with a well-timed roundhouse kick which sends Bison crashing into his gigantic monitor wall, resulting in a huge explosion. The damage causes severe electrical disturbances which destabilize the power system of the base, but the heroes find and release the hostages just in time, and everyone evacuates.
Guile finds his way back to the lab and tries to persuade Dhalsim and Blanka to escape with him, but Blanka refuses to return to society in his condition, and Dhalsim decides to atone for his actions by keeping him company until the end. After the crash, Dee Jay
Dee Jay
is a character from Capcom's Street Fighter series of fighting games. He is a Jamaican kickboxer who also works as a recording artist and breakdancer...
(Miguel A. Nunez Jr.
Miguel A. Núñez Jr.
Miguel A. Núñez, Jr. is an American actor. He is best known for his supporting roles in The Return of the Living Dead and Life and a leading role in Juwanna Mann....
) and Sagat, who survived from the beating by Ken and Ryu, swim out to an island with the recovered treasure that Dee Jay stole from M. Bison's chamber. Dee Jay thought he would have the treasure for himself, but Sagat caught up with him and now they share the treasure. But it turns out it was all the fake money that M. Bison put his face on for his new city to rule the world, Bisonopolis. So Dee Jay and Sagat were tricked. When the temple comes crashing down after an explosion, everyone thinks that Guile was killed in the destruction, but then he emerges from the smoke. After Guile converses with Chun-Li, Ryu, Ken, Cammy, Zangief
Zangief
is a fictional character in the Street Fighter series of video games. Created by Akira Yasuda for Capcom, Zangief first appeared in Street Fighter II, later appearing in other games, media, and promotions related to the Street Fighter franchise...
(Andrew Bryniarski
Andrew Bryniarski
Andrew Bryniarski is an American actor and a former bodybuilder of Russian descent, who is best known for portraying Steve Lattimer in The Program, as well as Leatherface in the remake of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and its prequel and Zangief in the live action Street Fighter movie...
)(Who joins them after being informed by Dee Jay that Bison is the enemy), Balrog, E-Honda, T-Hawk, and Sawada, they see the last ruins of the temple fall and take their familiar win poses from the video game as the camera freezes and fades out.
In the home video version of the film, a post-credits scene
Post-credits scene
A post-credits scene is a short clip that appears after some or all of the closing credits of a film have run...
returns to the ruins of M. Bison's lair, as the main computer announces that its batteries are recharging from solar power and it begins fibrillating Bison's heart with electricity. Bison's fist suddenly smashes through the rubble, and on a computer screen the resurrected dictator selects "World Domination: Replay."
Cast
Allied Nations- Jean-Claude Van DammeJean-Claude Van DammeJean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg , professionally known as Jean-Claude Van Damme, is a Belgian martial artist and actor, best known for his martial arts action films, the most successful of which include Bloodsport , Kickboxer , Double Impact , Universal Soldier , Hard Target , Timecop ,...
as Col. William F. GuileGuile (Street Fighter)is a fictional character in Capcom's Street Fighter series of fighting games.-Street Fighter series:Guile made his first appearance in Street Fighter II as one of the eight selectable characters featured in the first release of the game... - Byron MannByron MannByron Mann is an actor who has made films in both Hollywood and Asia. He is perhaps best known for his performance as Ryu in Street Fighter.-Biography:...
as Ryu HoshiRyu (Street Fighter)is a video game player character created by Capcom, the main protagonist of the Street Fighter series. Having premiered in the first Street Fighter in 1987, Ryu appears as the lead character from the game along with his best friend Ken Masters participating in the Street Fighter tournament... - Damian ChapaDamian ChapaDamian Robert Chapa is a Mexican-American actor, film director and film producer.Chapa was born in Dayton, Ohio, USA. He was briefly married to Natasha Henstridge. Among his earlier notable film roles are one of the leads in Taylor Hackford's Blood In Blood Out and the part of Ken in the film...
as Ken MastersKen Masters, originally spelled in Japanese as , is a video game character created by Capcom. As a main character, he has appeared in all of the Street Fighter games along with his best friend and rival, Ryu... - Ming-Na Wen as Chun-Li ZangChun-Liis a video game character produced by Capcom. First introduced in Street Fighter II, she has since appeared as a player character in nearly all subsequent games....
- Grand L. BushGrand L. BushGrand Lee Bush is an American actor of stage, television and major motion pictures.-Personal life:Bush was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Essie and Robert Bush, who was an actor...
as G. Balrog - Peter "Navy" Tuiasosopo as Edmund Honda
- Roshan SethRoshan SethRoshan Seth is an Indian-born British actor, who appears mainly in British and American films. He is known for his critically acclaimed performances in the films Gandhi, Mississippi Masala, Not Without My Daughter, My Beautiful Laundrette, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Such a Long...
as Dr. DhalsimDhalsim, is a video game character from the Street Fighter series of fighting games.Dhalsim made his debut in the original Street Fighter II as one of the games original eight main characters. In his backstory, Dhalsim is characterized as a pacifist who goes against his beliefs by entering the World... - Robert MammoneRobert MammoneRobert Mammone is an Australian actor who has many television and film credits.-Filmography:* Sons and Daughters * All the Way * Embassy * The Crossing...
as Cpt. Carlos "Charlie" BlankaBlankais a video game character from the Street Fighter series of fighting games. Blanka is depicted as a feral savage, with green skin and long orange hair, resembling a monster more than a human... - Kylie MinogueKylie MinogueKylie Ann Minogue, OBE - often known simply as Kylie - is an Australian singer, recording artist, songwriter, and actress. After beginning her career as a child actress on Australian television, she achieved recognition through her role in the television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing...
as Cammy White - Kenya Sawada as Cpt. Sawada
- Gregg RainwaterGregg RainwaterGregg Andrew Rainwater is an American actor of Osage, Cherokee, Irish, and Filipino descent, who is most well known for his role as half Kiowa Buck Cross on The Young Riders ....
as Sgt. T. Hawk
Shadaloo Tong
- Raul JuliaRaúl JuliáRaúl Rafael Juliá y Arcelay was a Puerto Rican actor.Born in San Juan, he gained interest in acting while still in school. Upon completing his studies, Juliá decided to pursue a career in acting. After performing in the local scene for some time, he was convinced by entertainment personality Orson...
as Gen. M. BisonM. BisonM. Bison, known in Japan as Vega, is a video game character created by Capcom. First introduced in Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, he is a recurring character in the Street Fighter series of fighting games, acting as the final boss and primary antagonist of the Street Fighter II and Street... - Wes StudiWes StudiWesley "Wes" Studi is a Cherokee actor, who has earned notability for his portrayal of Native Americans in film. He has appeared in well-received Academy Award-winning films, such as Kevin Costner's Dances with Wolves, Michael Mann's The Last of the Mohicans, the award-winning Geronimo: An...
as Victor Sagat - Jay TavareJay TavareJay Tavare is an American actor. Tavare is perhaps best known as Vega in 1994 film Street Fighter. Tavare has played a number of roles in movies, including a Seminole in Adaptation, an Apache in The Missing, a Cherokee in Cold Mountain, and a Cheyenne in Into the West.His mother was White Mountain...
as VegaVega (Street Fighter)Vega is a fictional character from the Street Fighter fighting game series. Vega is a masked, claw-wielding warrior from Spain who uses a personal fighting style combining Japanese Ninjutsu and Bullfighting, earning him the nickname the "Spanish Ninja".Vega first appears in the original Street... - Miguel A. Núñez, Jr. as Dee Jay
- Andrew BryniarskiAndrew BryniarskiAndrew Bryniarski is an American actor and a former bodybuilder of Russian descent, who is best known for portraying Steve Lattimer in The Program, as well as Leatherface in the remake of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and its prequel and Zangief in the live action Street Fighter movie...
as ZangiefZangiefis a fictional character in the Street Fighter series of video games. Created by Akira Yasuda for Capcom, Zangief first appeared in Street Fighter II, later appearing in other games, media, and promotions related to the Street Fighter franchise... - Joe BugnerJoe BugnerJózsef Kreul "Joe" Bugner is a Hungarian-born British-Australian former top heavyweight boxer. He holds triple nationality, being a citizen of Hungary and a naturalized citizen of both Australia and the United Kingdom where he learned to box and spent his peak years.Born in Szőreg, a southeastern...
as Bison's torturer
Soundtrack
A soundtrack was released on December 6, 1994 by Priority RecordsPriority Records
Priority Records is an American record label, owned and operated by EMI, which has made a name for itself dealing primarily in hip hop, pop and world...
featuring mostly rap music. The soundtrack found mild success, peaking at #135 on the Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
and #34 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The name of the chart was changed from Top R&B Albums in 1999...
. Upon its release on home video in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, the soundtrack was given away free with every purchase of the VHS tape at branches of Tesco
Tesco
Tesco plc is a global grocery and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Cheshunt, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues and the second-largest measured by profits...
for a limited period. Although this was the only way for anybody in the UK to purchase the CD, "Straight to My Feet" by Hammer was still released as a single, which charted #57 in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
.
Reception
Street Fighter received mostly negative reception from critics on its original release. One of its worst reviews came from Leonard MaltinLeonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin is an American film and animated film critic and historian, author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives.-Personal life:...
's annual Movie and Video Guide: "Even Jean-Claude Van Damme
Jean-Claude Van Damme
Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg , professionally known as Jean-Claude Van Damme, is a Belgian martial artist and actor, best known for his martial arts action films, the most successful of which include Bloodsport , Kickboxer , Double Impact , Universal Soldier , Hard Target , Timecop ,...
fans couldn't rationalize this bomb, a more appropriate title for which would have been Four Hundred Funerals and No Sex (derived from Four Weddings and a Funeral
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Four Weddings and a Funeral is a 1994 British comedy film directed by Mike Newell. It was the first of several films by screenwriter Richard Curtis to feature Hugh Grant...
)...It does, however, seem like Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film, directed by and starring Orson Welles. Many critics consider it the greatest American film of all time, especially for its innovative cinematography, music and narrative structure. Citizen Kane was Welles' first feature film...
when compared to The Legend of Chun-Li
Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li
Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li is the second live-action film based on the Street Fighter series of video games. It follows the quest of Street Fighter character Chun-Li, who is portrayed by Kristin Kreuk. The story follows Chun-Li's personal history and her journey for justice. The film...
." After the movie's failure amongst both critics and audiences alike, Van Damme's career went downhill.
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
gave the film a rating of 13% based on 24 reviews by critics with the consensus "Though it offers mild entertainment through campy one-liners and the overacting of the late Raul Julia, Street Fighter's nonstop action sequences are not enough to make up for a predictable, uneven storyline." Richard Harrington of The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
noted that the film was "notable only for being the last film made by Raul Julia
Raúl Juliá
Raúl Rafael Juliá y Arcelay was a Puerto Rican actor.Born in San Juan, he gained interest in acting while still in school. Upon completing his studies, Juliá decided to pursue a career in acting. After performing in the local scene for some time, he was convinced by entertainment personality Orson...
, an actor far too skilled for the demands of the evil warlord, Gen. M. Bison, but far too professional to give anything less than his best." Critic Stephen Holden
Stephen Holden
Stephen Holden is an American writer, music critic, film critic, and poet.Holden earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Yale University in 1963...
of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
referred to the film as "a dreary, overstuffed hodgepodge of poorly edited martial arts sequences and often unintelligible dialogue". In 2009, Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
listed the film on their list of top ten worst video games movies. However, IGN stated that the film was more enjoyable than The Legend of Chun-Li
Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li
Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li is the second live-action film based on the Street Fighter series of video games. It follows the quest of Street Fighter character Chun-Li, who is portrayed by Kristin Kreuk. The story follows Chun-Li's personal history and her journey for justice. The film...
.
GameTrailers
GameTrailers
GameTrailers is a media website that specializes in video game related content. It provides free access to original programming , game trailers and recorded game play. Along with standard definition , many of the video clips are offered in a higher resolution .Users can upload videos, create...
ranked the film as the eighth worst video game film of all time, citing that "...the fights are awful, Guile's from Brussels and apparently, there's some cyborg soldiers we never knew about." and described the overall film as "... a total knockout."
Despite the mostly negative response, the film was a commercial hit, grossing approximately three times its budget worldwide.
It also received two nominations at the Saturn Awards: Best Fantasy Film and Best Supporting Actor (a posthumous nomination for Raul Julia).
The film has become a subject of a running gag in the Internet reviews of The Nostalgia Critic
The Nostalgia Critic
The Nostalgia Critic is a web television series starring Doug Walker as the eponymous reviewer. The series was initially launched on YouTube before moving to an independent site, That Guy with the Glasses, run by production company Channel Awesome...
, where he uses a clip of M. Bison saying “Of course!” from the film when he says in a review that the goal of many a villain is to “you guessed it, take over the world”. The M. Bison clip from Street Fighter then follows.
Locations
Street Fighter was filmed mostly in Queensland, Australia along the famous Gold CoastGold Coast, Queensland
Gold Coast is a coastal city of Australia located in South East Queensland, 94km south of the state capital Brisbane. With a population approximately 540,000 in 2010, it is the second most populous city in the state, the sixth most populous city in the country, and also the most populous...
during the spring and summer months of 1994 with most of the interiors and exteriors filmed on soundstages in Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
. Some exterior scenes were filmed in Bangkok, Thailand which were used as the backdrop for the fictious Shadaloo City.
Deleted scenes
- Chun-Li, disguised as a civilian, wanders through the marketplace and meets up with E. Honda and Balrog, both disguised and who have just acquired the explosives to use on Bison and Sagat.
- Moments before Chun-Li prepares to set the bombs in the Black Market, she is confronted by Cammy, who demands to know where Ryu and Ken are. Chun-Li defeats Cammy in a brief fight and traps Cammy underneath a tent before escaping.
- An alternate and extended opening scene, depicting Chun-Li reporting on the news and attempting to speak with Guile, who is preoccupied with his own business.
Related media
A one shot comic bookComic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
adaptation of the film, titled Street Fighter: The Battle for Shadaloo, was published by DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
in 1995. The comic was drawn by Nick J. Napolitano and written by Mike McAvennie. A Japanese one-shot manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
adaptation by Takayuki Sakai was also published in the June 1995 issue of CoroCoro Comics Special.
Two video games based on the film were produced. The first was a coin-operated arcade game
Arcade game
An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
titled Street Fighter: The Movie
Street Fighter: The Movie (arcade game)
Street Fighter: The Movie is a head-to-head fighting game released as a coin-operated arcade game. The game is based on the 1994 live-action Street Fighter movie and uses digitized images of the films cast posing as the characters in the game...
, produced by American developer Incredible Technologies
Incredible Technologies
Incredible Technologies , based in Arlington Heights, Illinois is a US-based designer and manufacturer of coin-operated video games. Some of their games include Silver Strike Bowling, Power Putt, Target Toss Pro: Bags/Lawn Darts, and Golden Tee Golf...
and distributed by Capcom. The second was a home video game developed by Capcom also titled Street Fighter: The Movie
Street Fighter: The Movie (home video game)
Street Fighter: The Movie, released in Japan as , is a head-to-head fighting game released for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn. The game is based on the 1994 live-action Street Fighter movie and uses digitized images of the films cast posing as the characters in the game...
, released for the PlayStation
PlayStation
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...
and Sega Saturn
Sega Saturn
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console that was first released by Sega on November 22, 1994 in Japan, May 11, 1995 in North America, and July 8, 1995 in Europe...
. Despite sharing the same title, neither game is a port of the other, although they both used the same digitized footage of the films cast posing as the characters in each game.
Many plot elements of the film, such as Blanka's identity and Dhalsim's role as a scientist, were reused in the American-produced 1995 Street Fighter
Street Fighter (TV series)
Street Fighter is an American animated series produced by InVision Entertainment based on the Street Fighter live action movie, which was in turn based on the Street Fighter video game franchise. The series aired as part of the USA Network's Cartoon Express and Action Extreme Team lineups...
animated series which combined story aspects of this film with those in the games.