Death Warrant
Tags: murder, cult, violence, good versus evil, humor, revenge, sadist

Plot synopsis:
Detective Louis Burke (Jean-Claude Van Damme) of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police from Quebec, confronts the maniac that killed his partner on the force. Later, Burke confronts his arch-nemesis; Christian Naylor (Patrick Kilpatrick), a psychopathic serial killer who calls himself "The Sandman" whose tracked down to an abandoned house in Los Angeles. Although the Sandman nearly kills him, Burke is able to shoot the Sandman several times, but not killing him.
Sixteen months later, Burke joins a task force put together by the governor to investigate a series of unexplained deaths in the Harrison State Prison in California. While Burke poses as an inmate, attorney Amanda Beckett (Cynthia Gibb) acts the role of his wife. Burke and Beckett don't care for each other much in the beginning.
In the penitentiary, Burke is forced to survive in a dismal and dangerous environment. Even though he is surrounded by hostility and suspicion, Burke succeeds in befriending a few of the inmates, including his cellmate Konefke (Conrad Dunn), Hawkins (Robert Guillaume) and Priest (Abdul Salaam El Razzac), who help him with the investigation. It is later revealed that the prisoners are being murdered for their body organs.
Meanwhile, more inmates are mysteriously murdered with one being set on fire in his own cell for giving Burke information about the murders and also Konefke is killed, and stone-faced prison guard DeGraff (Art LaFleur) puts Burke in solitary confinement, where he's interrogated and beaten. Burke is then released upon a visit from Beckett, the two are taken to a trailer for a private discussion but end up having sex. Afterwards, back in the prison Burke inquires about the sudden interest his fellow prisoners are taking in one particular new prisoner who is entering the grounds. Much to Burke's surprise it turns out to be The Sandman and surprise turns to horror as the Sandman knows that Burke is really a cop. The Sandman then kidnaps Burke and tortures him and then reveals to the prisoners and the guards that he is really a cop, turning the whole prison against him, and his fight for survival begins.
Beckett attends a party hosted by Tom Vogler (George Dickerson), the state's attorney general. Just as she's preparing to tell him about the murders at the prison, who she believes Ben Keane (Jack Bannon) is responsible, she then receives a call from Tisdale (Joshua John Miller), Burke's adolescent computer hacker assistant who has been helping Beckett gain information from the prison files, who identifies Vogler as the man behind the murders, which also involve Dr. Gottesman (Armin Shimerman), the prison doctor and surgeon who harvests the organs to be sold to people who are in desperate need of them.
The assistant's suspicions are confirmed when Vogler then explains his motives and also reveals he had The Sandman transferred to the prison to kill Burke. Volger then tries to kill Beckett. She escapes only by the grace of Vogler's wife Helen entering the room, but not before saying to him, "Tell her how you murdered for her", as Helen was a recipient of a liver harvested from his business.
Burke begins an escape from the penitentiary, pursued by DeGraff, the Sandman and hundreds of angry inmates, Gottesman is cornered by the inmates, while DeGraff tries to finish off Hawkins, only to be shot from behind by Priest. During the escape, Priest is killed by the Sandman.
Burke and the Sandman have a final, brutal showdown. The Sandman uses brutal force to watch Burke suffer. Burke gets the upper hand and kicks The Sandman into a lit furnace, but he survives with minor burns. Then Burke kicks the Sandman again and impales his head onto a spike, Sandman taunts him by saying he cannot be killed. Burke grabs his jaw and pushes it further into the spike killing him. Burke leaves and then the inmates allow him to pass and respect him for his brave act. Burke is greeted by Beckett, along with Hawkins who is taken to hospital via ambulance due to a gunshot wound.

Review: Death Warrant (1990) is no-holds-barred-action classic another prison style Van Damme movie.
Also my favorite childhood movie that I still watch today, like other Van Damme action movies I do.
Sylvester Stallone made an action Drama movie Lock Up in 1989 and Jean-Claude Van Damme made Death Warrant a year later in 1990.
The movie is awesome another adrenaline action packed movie I also love the music score: Bring Me a Dream by Craig Thomas, which I am still listening today."Bring me a dream Burke".This movie to me is a kicks-ass, Patrick Kilpatrick as The Sandman was a bad ass villain on screen, I have ever seen.
" Don 'The Dragon' Wilson (Bloodfist) and David Bradley (American Ninja 3) the action stars from the 80's and 90's both ripped off Van Damme movies!
I always enjoyed Death warrant and like I mentioned before it is my fourth favorite best Van Damme Movie.
This was an intense prison movie with Jean-Claude Van Damme as an undercover cop.
Most people just don't understand movies.There are different movie genres,and none can really be compared to the other.Take this movie for instance - it's not " Hamlet " nor is it " Jason Goes To Manhattan ".Not to be crass,but Van Damme makes movies not for artistic value,he makes movies you can pop into your VCR or DVD Player when you feel like kicking someones ass.Think of his movies as " Primal Drama ".
This time around: Louis Burke (Van Damme) is a policeman who goes undercover in a jail to investigate a murder.
Now he has to high kick and low split his way to justice.After the weak "Lionheart", Van Damme realized that he should take a break from the Kumites, and the Underground Brawls and focus his efforts into a making a fun action pic.
The final fight had all the ingrediants for the usual Van Climax: Swift, brutal kicks to the face and an action hero trademark, an impaling.If you watch enough Seagal, Norris, and Van Damme flicks you realize it's all the same, but who cares, it's another 90 minute action movie with mediocre writing and directing!
Have a guess.Naturally, one would assume that a Van Damme movie - set in a prison - called 'Death Warrant' would be action packed.
Unfortunately, 'Death Warrant', much like 'Legionnaire', proves that not all Van Damme movies are excuses for a showcase of spin-kicks.
Granted, the mad scientist's screen time is almost negligible, but the presence of a mad scientist makes the coolness metre of any movie shoot straight up.Sure, 'Death Warrant' may be slow, lack action, and feature a lot of Van Damme acting rather than fighting, but it is entertaining enough (what with the 80s music and all), but it is only for Van Damme fans - 6/10.
The cunning detective named Louis Burke(Jean Claude Van Damme), a Royal Canadian police, fights in an abandoned location with a villain called Sandman.
A mega-tough inmate if ever there was one..."Sandman" looks for all intents and purposes like a close relative of Michael Myers and his climactic set-to with Van Damme is worth the price of at least a small carton of popcorn.
**SPOILERS** One of Jean-Claud Van Damme's better movies in which he plays a Royal Canadian Mountie who goes undercover in a California prison to find out why a number of prisoners have been murdered at the Harrison State Prison over the last year.
Being that officer Louis Burke, Jean-Claud Van Damme, is from out of the country and has worked with the LAPD before, he lost he partner while tracking down a serial-killer known as "The Sandman" (Patrick Klipatrick) it's felt by the prison authorities and the DA's office that no one will recognize him in the pen.Working with DA attorney Amanda Beckett, Cynthia Gibbs, who's posing as his wife on the outside Burke keeps in touch with her on whatever information he can come up with on the dead prisoners.
When Burke started to find out the real reason for them, the dead prisoners, he was to be terminated before he could expose Volgar & Co. and their illegal human organ racket.The action in the film was as good and as exciting as you could ever want in a movie like "Death Warrent" with Van Damme in top form taking out the bad guys with his fists and feet in a number of gut crunching fight sequences.
All typical and trademark moves you expect from JC plus great acting and a great plot which is rare in his films, this is similar to his more recent film In Hell which was highly rated when it came out, this film also has a great yet short love scene with co-star Cynthia Gibb.We also get to see Larry Hankin aka Mr. Heckles from Friends who gets burnt alive for helping Burke, played by Van Damme who is an undercover policeman in a state prison where he meets the Sandman played by Patrick Kilpatrick who have a fight to the death at the end.Great entertainment, this film along with Nowhere to Run are under-rated gems starring JCVD but this one has lots more Van Damage!
Van Damme is super cool, and who doesn't just love prison movies?
This has in my opinion a perfect balance of action and tension building storyline developmentDeath Warrant is without a doubt the best Van Damme movie.
Death Warrant is one of Jean Claude Van Damme's better films.
'Death Warrant' is one of Van Damme's better films.
Death Warrant = Best Action Prison Movie Ever!!!.
A husky sounding Jean-Claude Van Damme is a typical Canadian mounted maverick cop who goes undercover in a maximum security prison to investigate the random deaths of certain prisoners.
"Death Warrant" is another good film from the early nineties featuring Van Damage and all his greatness, this time Van Damme (a police officer) goes undercover to a prison that supposedly has been the hosts to some rather mysterious deaths.
I consider myself one of that number, however this doesn't mean that every film should be talked up as worthy entertainment, Van Damme has done some pretty naff films, Death Warrant as it happens, falls somewhere in between decent and poor.
Death Warrant actually doesn't score too high for the amount of fight sequences, it finds Van Damme and the makers veering towards putting flesh on the bones of their story, it's formulaic for sure, but it's interesting enough and the support cast is worthy of interest.Robert Guillaume is a face most will know from popular TV work {go on, look him up}, Patrick Kilpatrick was in Minority Report and Eraser, and the astute fans of action films will spot the awesome Al Leong, who's credits include Big Trouble in Little China, Lethal Weapon, Action Jackson, They Live and Die Hard.
This film is filled with non-stop Action and it all begins when Jean Claude Ban Damme(Louis Burke),"The Savage",'03, is given the assignment of going into prison as an under cover cop.
No-Holds-Barred in prison - one of Jean-Claude Van Damme's best action films, my number 1 favorite prison flick.
This is one of Jean-Claude Van Damme's best action films and one of his serious roles.
This is my number 1 favorite prison film I don't know a lot of prison movies, I only know: Death Warrant this one, In Hell another Van Damme vehicle, but that is more a drama movie.
The film has a lot of horror elements in it and I love the third action, which undercover detective (Van Damme) discovers the shocking truth.
Louis Burke (Van Damme) is undercover cop who goes undercover to investigate a series of inmate murders at Harrison Penitiatry.
Posing as a prisoner, Burk encounters brutal inmates, corrupt guards, death and betrayal at every turn.I love Van Damme in the opening scene kicking two guys ass.
My favorite Van Damme film of all time, I love Jean-Claude Van Damme to death, I grew up watching his movies..
RCMP Louis Burke (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is in L.A. and brings down madman Christian 'The Sandman' Naylor.
Plot In A Paragraph: Tough police officer Lewis Burke (Van Damme) is sent undercover in a maximum security prison, to investigate some mysterious deaths of inmates and guards.
Also, while it's a good thing Van Damme is less of an egomaniac than Steven Seagal and actually lets himself get hit once in a while, this movie pushes it too far to the other side.
Van Damme takes about a thousand punches throughout this movie and is on the ground for most of the running time, in fact he only wins the end fight (talk about a spoiler!) by dumb luck/opponent.
Obviously this makes more sense than a fighting machine taking down dozens of prisoners at a time, but who the hell wants a Van Damme movie to make sense?
"Death Warrant" gets a pass because again, The Sandman is great, but it definitely isn't Van Damme's best..
Canadian cop Louis Burke (Jean-Claude Van Damme) goes undercover in California (?) prison to solve series of murders.
It's a JCVD movie, so you pretty much know what to expect: kicking, kicking, and, not surprisingly, more kicking.By-the-numbers Van Damme actioner.
By 1990, Jean-Claude Van Damme had claimed success in his late 80s sports films like Kickboxer (1989) and Bloodsport (1988).
The thing was for almost every film Van Damme had played in, his role was that of a character with a family member he had lost and was fighting for.
Then came Death Warrant (1990), a movie with a whole different setting and situation which is great, yet failed to change the rest of the elements that Van Damme has already worked with in past stories.
Of course just like the most of the movies with Jean-Claude Van Damme, this one has some martial arts scenes, only this time there is a little less of them.
The atmosphere was kinda creepy, there were few cruel murder and torture scenes and as in most of Jean-Claude Van Damme movies, there is some colorful bad guys.
I think this movie would be interesting for a different audiences, but if you like prison flicks, than you definitely got to watch it..
The fights, nonetheless, are good: Brutal, down and dirty - as you would expect in a gritty high security prison I guess.The plot is interesting - the movie is mostly suspenseful and you definitely want to know why all the killings are taking place.
If his character was used more, the Sandman could have been one of the great B-movie villains.So this movie really took me by surprise - it is almost certainly Van Dam's best OVERALL (taking into account acting, plot, suspense and so on - although of course Bloodsport has better fights).
It seems to be set in some semblance of reality though the story never seems to be quite sure of what it wants to be or where to go.Lewis Burke is a kickboxing Canadian Mountie (there's a sequence of words you never thought you'd read) who, in the opening moments of the film, guns down and kills demented serial killer The Sandman at point blank range with a .357 Magnum.
Sure, Van Damne may not be the greatest of all the action movie heroes, but he does have his moments (Hard Target, TimeCop, Sudden Death, Universal Soldier).
Louis Burke (Jean Claude-Van Damme) is a cop who is assigned with the task of going undercover in a violent prison whereby inmates and guards are being killed.
Things go from bad to worse for Burke when he learns that someone on the outside is assisting the guards and inmates in carrying out these crimes.Like I said in my summary the story here is OK and serviceable, but it's still rather run-of-the-mill and whilst Death Warrant never does anything truly bad it's also a film that it's really hard to care about whilst watching it.
The only other person to make any sort of impression on the picture was Abdul Salaam El Razzac as The Priest - at least he tried to bring some fun to the picture.The rest of the acting is so-so at best; Van Damme isn't a great actor, but in this film he was really poor and looked as though he was reading his lines from an autocue.
Van Damme at least has some kind of charm about him in most of his movies--that kind of charm that makes you want to see more of an actor, even if his or her acting is terrible at the time (Schwarzenegger is another good example).One of the most annoying things about this movie was the dialogue.
Van Damme is in top form in this movie, in terms of physical conditioning and martial arts moves.there is a bit of acting here,but the movie mainly focuses on fight scenes,and they are pretty good.the story is OK,but not overly inspired,by any means.Cynthia Gibb adds some class as the love interest and Robert Guillame is also good as a fellow prisoner.Patrick Patrick Kilpatrick is quite good as the villain in the piece,though his role is limited,unfortunately.most of the movie takes place in a prison,so of course there is lots of violence and action.in my opinion,this is one of Van Damme's better movies,at least in terms of action and showcasing his martial arts skill.don't expect great acting,or you will be disappointed.but then,you probably don't watch Van Damme movies for the acting.for me,"Death Warrant" is a 7/10.
Jean-Claude Van Damme plays Louis Burke a mounty who goes undercover in a hardcore prison to investigate why people are dying behind bars, and finds out in the process that the cover-up involves the guards who are harvesting organs in this dumb yet mildly diverting prison pic..
Having successfully captured the serial killer The Sandman in America, undercover cop Louis Burke is offered the chance to go undercover in a prison and investigate mysterious deaths that may or may not be linked to guards and inmates working together for some reason.
Overall this starts out as a reasonable film but slips back into the typical Van Damme action flick mode.
Well this is one of my personal favourite Van Damme films.Its a prison movie and a an action/drama/crime movie.Van Damme goes undercover to prison where inmates have been disappearing and discovers that their body parts- livers etc are being sold by the corrupt guards.Van Damme gets off to a decent tart in uncovering the truth with some decent fight scenes.Then "The Sandman" enters the prison and recognises Van Damme and reveals his real identity.Along the way Van Damme is helped by the beautiful Cynthia Gibb.There is a scene where Van Damme arrive in his cell and his cell mate wants him to pay.Van Damme replies i"i don't pay,and i don't punk".As he says this he has his cell-mate pinned against the wall which is actually funny.The Sandman is unstoppable,but he hasn't met Van Damme yet.Now Van Damme must survive and bring the truth to light.This really is one of his best movies..
Death Warrant, or the film where Van Dammes voice broke is an odd affair.
It's not like really any of his other films, it's very dark and gloomy but still has some great fights in it.the story is something about human organs being harvested by the prison, and Van Damme goes in there undercover to find out what in the hell is going on.About halfway through the film,'the sandman' becomes an inmate, and before you know it, he tells everyone that Van Damme is a cop, and probably the fact that he is from Belgium too.This is when the action really begins, but not in very large amounts.
He does his trademark roundhouse kick a few times, and the fight at the end has the good old editing that makes Van Damme look like he kicks the bloke twenty times, when really he does it once.very dark at times, narrative could be better, bit it's a cannon film, so it's ultimately a guilty pleasure..
Jean-Claude Van Damme is great in this movie.
The sudden prison craze of the late '80s (including flicks like Stallone's LOCK UP) is surely the source of inspiration for this entertaining slice of Van Damme action.
Despite some of the more esoteric films that I like, I really DO enjoy watching Van Damme's movies.
When they discover Burke, the black marketeers send in the Sandman, a violent killer who Burke had previously arrested, to kill him.Jean-Claude Van Damme started his career in the late 1980s, making films such as BLOODSPORT, KICKBOXER & LIONHEART / WRONG BET, where he would participate in some kind of underground fighting tournament.
As far as films go, "Death Warrant" is an action film with horror undertones, with its almost superhuman serial killer, the Sandman (played by Patrick Kilpatrick, who gets the chance to go full-on with his role), a psycho who proves to be one of the toughest villains Van Damme has ever faced (along with Dolph Lundgren & Vincent Klyn).
Death Warrant starts as tough cop Louis Burke (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is assigned to go undercover in Harrison Prison to unmask a killer, nine inmates & an assistant warden have all been murdered there within the past few months & it's Burke's job to find out what's going on before the media gets wind of it.
In fact the darker elements of the story such as murdering prisoners & then selling their organs for profit are never really fully developed & don't go anywhere which is a shame because the hard violent action & fights coupled with the horror themed elements could have made for a great film, as it is I think Death Warrant is certainly a good film but by no means a great one.
That is, in essence, why you would watch a Jean Claude Van Damme movie so it's disappointing that this is exactly the opposite of what happens.