Uploaded May 2019 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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Double Impact is a 1991 American action film written and directed by Sheldon Lettich, and written, produced by and starring Jean-Claude Van Damme in a dual role as Chad and Alex Wagner. The film was released in the United States on August 9, 1991. The film marked Van Damme's second collaboration with Bolo Yeung (the first being Bloodsport in 1988).
Jean-Claude Van Damme as Chad & Alex Wagner
Alicia Stevenson as Baby Chad
Paul Aylett as Baby Alex
Geoffrey Lewis as Frank Avery
Alonna Shaw as Danielle Wilde
Bolo Yeung as Moon
Alan Scarfe as Nigel Griffith
Philip Chan as Raymond Zhang
Corrina Everson as Kara
Andy Armstrong as Paul Wagner
Julie Strain as one of Chad's students
John Sham as a HKPF Officer
The story begins with the opening of the Hong Kong Victoria Harbour tunnel by business partners Paul Wagner and Nigel Griffith. Paul attends with his wife, and their twin infant sons, Chad and Alex. However, after the celebrations, the family is followed home by a Triad hit squad on orders from Griffith and crime lord Raymond Zhang. A shootout ensues, in which Paul and some henchmen are killed. Paul's wife begs them to spare the kids but is killed by Moon (Bolo Yeung), the top henchman. Chad is rescued by the family bodyguard, Frank Avery, and raised abroad. Alex is dropped off on the doorstep of a Hong Kong orphanage by the family maid.

In the present day, Chad and Frank are running a successful martial arts business in Los Angeles when Frank reveals a new "business" for the two of them in Hong Kong. Frank also tells a surprised Chad that he is not his uncle. Soon after arrival, they find Chad's long-lost twin brother Alex and Frank explains their shared past. It is revealed that Alex would never wear black silk underwear, the only discernible difference between the identical twins. Alex also has a girlfriend who works for Griffith’s company, Danielle Wilde. After escaping the Hong Kong Marine Police for trying to illegally sell foreign cars with electronics inside, Chad (mistaken for Alex) is taken in by the Triads to discuss the incident. During the interrogation, Chad learns about a drug lab in Causeway Bay.

Alex and Chad arrange to destroy the lab by planting C4 in the complex one night, but Chad's clumsiness triggers a massive gunfight. The lab is destroyed, but Alex loses any respect for Chad. Later, Danielle and Alex talk on a ferry and discuss a meeting that will take place soon in a night club in Hong Kong, with Zhang and other bosses in attendance. Alex, Chad and Frank endure their third mission to take down Zhang using Cognac boxes with C4 encased in them.

Zhang discovers that both Chad and Alex are not only twins, but the twins from 25 years ago. Danielle locates the document she had been sent to recover, but is stopped and sexually harassed by Kara, Griffith's muscle bound assassin. She reports her findings to Chad, who goes to meet her alone. He brings her to one of Alex's hideouts in a bar, but they are forced to flee when the Triad comes looking for them. Due to an incomplete phone call, Alex suspects Chad of having an affair with his girlfriend and starts drinking heavily as he dreams of Danielle and Chad having sex. Due to his unfounded paranoia, Alex attacks and fights Chad in a drunken rage upon his return, after which the brothers angrily part ways.

Unbeknownst to Chad and Danielle, Kara had followed them by helicopter to the island hideout during their escape, and after a massive hangover, a sober Alex returns to the house to find it being raided by armed soldiers working for Griffith and Zhang, who capture Frank and Danielle. Frank and Danielle are then taken hostage and transported to the Golden Glory ship's furnace room where they are tortured. Despite the ongoing tension between them, Alex and Chad join forces to infiltrate the ship and rescue Frank and Danielle. The duo, well-armed, arrived at the ship where they fight their way through Griffith and Zhang's henchmen. While Chad fights and kills Moon, Alex saves Danielle and Frank. Kara is killed by a knife in her chest, during a fight with Alex. After a climactic showdown, Chad and Danielle are confronted by Griffith who tried to kill Chad with a raised, moving sea cargo container controlled by Griffith. Chad surreptitiously evades being killed by the container, by jumping into the sea. Chad kills a surprised Griffith after getting into the container transport vehicle and dropping the container on him. Alex kills Zhang by making him fall to his death. The duo are reunited, along with Danielle and Frank, as they decide to put their rivalry aside.