Few action stars are as memorable as Jean-Claude Van Damme. While some may kill more people on screen or look cooler while doing it, none capture that feeling of raw aggression like Van Damme can. That leads us to the question: just how many people has Van Damme killed in movies anyway?
A lot, as it turns out. YouTuber Benjamin Combes has compiled a 30-minute video featuring every one of Van Damme's on-screen kills, and it makes for one action-packed video. First, some rules. What counts as a kill and what doesn't? Here is the criteria Combes used:
1. Guns, blades and projectiles always kill unless otherwise depicted.
2. Close proximity explosions kill unless otherwise depicted.
3. Indirect kills as a result of an explicit action by JCVD count.
4. Kills must occur on-screen.
5. Dream sequences, fantasies or movies within a movie count. If it's on-screen, it's a kill.
6. People that are killed more than once count each time.
7. If you hear the neck break, it's a kill.
The video follows the same formula of the Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger kill-count montages we've featured here before. At the end, Van Damme has killed 393 people on screen across 14 films. It's not as high as the kill counts of Stallone or Schwarzenegger, but few can top Van Damme's energy. Most of those 393 kills came from firearms, with assorted bladed weaponry and various martial art kills making up the majority of the remaining deaths. Throw in a few impalings and immolations and you have yourself a very well-rounded '80s action hero.
"HUGE THANKS to JCVD wich have sweetened my childhood with helicopter kicks and face splits, I hope it will be a pleasure for you to watch this video as much as it was for me to make it," Combes writes in the video description.
You can check out the full video below.
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