Jean-Claude Van Damme’s New Netflix Action Movie Gets An Awesome Trailer

Jean-Claude Van Damme doesn't quit. The action star has a new movie coming to Netflix and we have the new trailer. See it here.

By Faith McKay | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

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Jean-Claude Van Damme is now 60 years old, but he’s proving that age hasn’t yet slowed him down one bit. The new trailer for The Last Mercenary, an action-adventure movie coming to Netflix this summer, has Van Damme kicking butt and dancing through his scenes.

You can watch the trailer for Jean-Claude Van Damme’s The Last Mercenary below.

About halfway through the trailer for this new Netflix movie, it becomes clear why the streaming service categorized this one under “Comedy“. The first half of the trailer focuses more on the action and adventure aspect, showing that Jean-Claude Van Damme’s character is a former secret service agent who has been out of action for a long time. Now, the character known as Mist, is returning to France. His estranged son is in trouble. He’s been falsely accused by the government of trafficking guns and drugs. Only his father will be able to get him out of this mess, which means that his wisened character will be hanging out with characters his son’s age the whole movie.

The comedy aspects for The Last Mercenary play up the age gap in a lot of the jokes we see in the trailer. We see one of the characters wearing virtual reality glasses during a shoot-out scene. The character is unaware that they’re being shot at and insists whoever is blowing on his neck cut it out. We see Jean-Claude Van Damme dancing, comments about him fighting “Terminator-style”, and Van Damme wearing a wig meant to make him look like a woman when a fight scene breaks out. And, of course, we see the older Van Damme standing stoically as a younger character suggests they bump fists and Van Damme does not comply. It’s a classic age-gap joke for a reason, especially with secret service agent characters.

The movie is in French and has subtitles, just as the trailer suggests. While Jean-Claude Van Damme clearly speaks French, it’s a language that he has used on and off throughout his life. In the early 2000s, he was often mocked by French society for things he said during interviews. He had taken to discussing personal well-being and attempted to be inspirational for younger versions of people like himself. Clips from his French interviews appeared on comedy shows, and for a while, the actor refused to give any more interviews in the language. Moving forward with an action movie for Netflix where he speaks French makes it seem like he’s well moved past those old hangups.

In recent years, we’ve seen Jean-Claude Van Damme sign up for plenty of action movies, mixed in with voice work for animated series. He recently voiced Master Croc for Kung Fu Panda 3. He also has a new part in Minions: The Rise of Gru, where he’ll be voicing a character named Jean Clawed. That movie doesn’t release until July 1, 2022. Judging on his character’s name alone, it seems that Van Damme is perfectly okay with making a bit of light fun about himself for the new project.

As for when we can see the legendary star next, Jean-Claude Van Damme’s The Last Mercenary releases on Netflix July 30, 2021.