Street Fighter

***Street Fighter*** is a 1994 American action film written and directed by Steven E. de Souza. It is based loosely on the video game *Street Fighter II*, produced by Capcom, and stars Jean-Claude Van Damme and Raúl Juliá, along with supporting performances by Byron Mann, Damian Chapa, Kylie Minogue, Ming-Na Wen, and Wes Studi.

## Plot

In the Southeast Asian nation of Shadaloo City, civil war has erupted between the forces of crazed military dictator General M. Bison (Raúl Juliá) and the Allied Nations, a multinational military force, led by their regional commander, Colonel William F. Guile (Jean-Claude Van Damme). Bison has recently captured several A.N. relief workers, and via a live two-way radio broadcast, demands Guile secure a US$20 billion ransom in three days or else face responsibility for the hostages' deaths. Guile refuses and vows to track Bison down,
but his assistant, Sergeant Cammy (Kylie Minogue) is only partially able to pinpoint Bison's location to the river-delta region outside the city. One of the hostages is Guile's close friend, Carlos "Charlie" Blanka (Robert Mammone), who Bison orders taken to his lab for his captive witch doctor, Dhalsim (Roshan Seth), to turn into the first of his supersoldiers. Though Charlie is severely disfigured by the procedure, Dhalsim secretly alters his cerebral programming to maintain Charlie's humanity.

Meanwhile, travelling con artists Ryu Hoshi (Byron Mann) and Ken Masters (Damian Chapa) attempt to swindle arms dealer Viktor Sagat (Wes Studi) by providing him with fake weaponry. Sagat sees through the ruse and has Ryu fight his cage champion, Vega (Jay Tavare), but the fight is interrupted when Guile bursts in and arrests everyone present for violating a curfew. In the prison grounds, Guile witnesses Ryu and Ken fighting against Sagat's men, and recruits them to help him find Bison in exchange for their freedom, since Sagat is Bison's arms supplier. They are entrusted with a homing device and win Sagat's trust by staging a prison escape and faking Guile's death. However, reporter Chun-Li (Ming-Na Wen) and her crew, former sumo wrestler E. Honda (Peter Tuiasosopo) and boxer Balrog (Grand L. Bush), all of whom desire vengeance on Bison and Sagat, stumble across the plan, and, over Guile's objections, attempt to assassinate Bison and Sagat at a party. In order to maintain Bison's trust, Ryu and Ken stop the assassination and reveal Chun Li, Honda, and Balrog to Bison.

Upon returning to his base, Bison inducts Ryu, Ken and Vega into his organization and orders Honda and Balrog imprisoned and Chun-Li taken to his quarters. Ryu and Ken break Balrog and Honda out of confinement and rush to confront Bison, who is fighting Chun-Li, but Bison manages to escape and unleash a sleeping gas, sedating them all. Meanwhile, Guile plans his assault on Bison's base. He is briefly impeded by the Deputy Secretary of the A.N. (Simon Callow), who informs Guile that the decision has been made to pay Bison the
ransom, but Guile takes no notice and proceeds with the mission on his own. At the base, Dhalsim is found by a security guard, and a fight ensues in which Charlie is released and he kills the guard to protect Dhalsim. Guile arrives shortly thereafter and sneaks into the lab, where Charlie begins strangling him. Charlie stops when he recognizes Guile. Horrified at what his friend has become, Guile prepares to kill Charlie, to end his suffering, but Dhalsim stops him. Because the ransom was never paid, Bison prepares to kill the hostages by unleashing Charlie on them, but Guile emerges and a gunfight ensues with Guile only barely holding his own until the remaining A.N. forces arrive. After ordering Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Honda and Balrog to find and rescue the hostages, Guile engages Bison in a one-on-one duel. As Guile and Bison fight, Ryu and Ken are confronted by Sagat and Vega, and only barely manage to defeat them. Bison's computer expert, Dee Jay (Miguel A. Nunez Jr.) steals Bison's trunk of money and escapes, joined by Sagat. Bison's bodyguard, Zangief (Andrew Bryniarski), engages Honda in a vicious fight until learning from Dee Jay that Bison was the true enemy, and decides to join sides with Ryu and Ken.

Guile eventually gains the upper hand against Bison and kicks him into a bank of hard drives, delivering him a fatal electric shock, but a revival system restores Bison and he reveals that his suit is powered by electromagnetism which enables him to fly and fire electricity from his knuckles. Bison takes control of the fight and eventually moves to deal the death blow, but Guile counters with a well-timed roundhouse kick that sends Bison crashing into his gigantic monitor wall, but also causes the base's energy field to overload. The hostages are rescued, but Guile stays behind to convince Dhalsim and Charlie to return with him, though they refuse, Charlie unwilling to return to society in his condition and Dhalsim wishes to atone for his part in mutating Charlie in the first place. Guile escapes just as the base explodes and reunites with his comrades, while Sagat and Dee Jay realize the trunk was full of useless "Bison Dollars" that Bison intended to use once he had taken over the world. As the base collapses, the fighters strike their winning poses from *Street Fighter II: The World Warrior*.

In a post-credits scene, Bison's computer is reactivated from solar power and the revival system restores Bison again. His fist smashes through the rubble and a computer screen is shown selecting "World Domination: Replay". This scene was omitted from the theatrical release "out of deference to Raul Julia".

## Cast

* Jean-Claude Van Damme as Colonel Guile
* Raúl Juliá as M. Bison
* Ming-Na Wen as Chun-Li
* Damian Chapa as Ken
* Kylie Minogue as Cammy
* Simon Callow as A.N. Official
* Byron Mann as Ryu
* Roshan Seth as Dhalsim
* Andrew Bryniarski as Zangief
* Grand L. Bush as Balrog
* Robert Mammone as Carlos Blanka
* Miguel A. Núñez, Jr. as Dee Jay
* Gregg Rainwater as T. Hawk
* Kenya Sawada as Captain Sawada
* Jay Tavare as Vega
* Peter Tuiasosopo as Honda
* Wes Studi as Sagat

## Release

*Street Fighter* had opened in New York and Los Angeles on December 23, 1994, earning $3,124,775 on its opening day. The film grossed $33,423,521 at the domestic box office and $66,000,000 at the international box office, making a total of $99,423,521 worldwide.