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The Protagonists
Chance Boudreaux
Chance Boudreaux
"Hunting season is over."
Played By: Jean-Claude Van Damme
A homeless former Force Recon Marine who now works as a sailor.
- Clothing Combat: During the fight in the warehouse, Chance ties a grenade inside his shirt as uses it as weighted flail to take down one of the mooks.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Implied. Not much of his background is revealed, but the fact he's homeless and the few comments he makes alluding to the circumstances of how it happened make it easy to infer it wasn't particularly nice.
- The Drifter: While actually a native of New Orleans, Chance otherwise falls into the archetype. He's a silent, brooding man with a mysterious background who becomes involved in the plot through happenstance, and proceeds to methodically destroy the villains.
- Extremity Extremist: Courtesy of being played by the famously agile Jean-Claude Van Damme, who is trained in Karate. Muay Thai and Taekwondo, Chance uses an impressive array of devastating kicks in battle and shows particular fondness for the spinning kick.
- Guns Akimbo: Being the hero in a John Woo film, he naturally does this in the final battle with two Beretta 92's.
- Mr. Fanservice: The camera does a nice slow pan over his ripped muscles when he strips to a tank top.
- Mysterious Past: Chance won a Silver Star and grew up in a rural, isolated neighborhood, but most of his past is left mysterious.
- Semper Fi: He was in the Marine Corps and earned a Silver Star, making him an exceptionally skilled and tough opponent.
- Spanner in the Works: Boudreaux becomes this to the whole man-hunting organization by virtue of being too badass for them, and everything starts to unravel when Randall (the man in charge of getting them homeless vets to use as victims) twice just took the homeless men's words at face value (because someone down in the gutter and desperate has no problem saying anything to get a job) and didn't checked whether or not they had families or friends that would get suspicious (and angry) about their deaths.
Nat Binder
Natasha "Nat" Binder
Played By: Yancy Butler
A young woman searching for her missing father.
- Audience Surrogate: She's an upper-middle class woman whose unfamiliarity with the setting allows other characters to make exposition.
- Naïve Newcomer: She's not an Upper-Class Twit, but coming from money, she's unfamiliar with the setting. She meets Chance when he rescues her from a street gang after she parked her expensive convertible in a bad neighborhood.
- Nice Girl: She's naive, but friendly and polite with everyone.
Uncle Douvee
Clarence Douvee
Played By: Wilford Brimley
Chance's uncle.
- Eleveth Hour Ranger: He is a core part of the final battle, but only appears to start helping Chance and Nat well past the halfway point of the film.
- Cool Old Guy: He's a friendly, witty old man who makes moonshine and shoots down Fouchon's henchmen.
- Hillbilly Moonshiner: Uncle Douvee is introduced amidst making moonshine.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Uncle Douvee shows promise at first, but his French accent degrades quickly, at times almost sounding Indian.
- Parental Substitute: He takes on a fatherly role to Chance, despite being his uncle.
- Pocket Protector: Douvet survives Fouchon's stabbing attack thanks to his steel whiskey flask.
Detective Mitchell
Detective Maria Mitchell
"The wheels of justice to be slowly around here, but they do turn."
Played By: Kasi Lemmons
A New Orleans Police Department detective.
- Beware the Nice Ones: She's amiable, good-humored, and ebullient, but when Fouchon's goons try to assassinate her, Nat, and Chance, Mitchell immediately returns fire. She's able to kill two of them before Van Cleaf fatally wounds her.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Mitchell dies shielding Nat from Van Cleaf and his men's gunfire.
- Married to the Job: She throws herself a lonely birthday party in one scene between investigations.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: While cynical, Mitchell is willing to help to Chance and Nat. When Chance gives her evidence that Douglas was murdered and a cover-up is at work, Mitchell immediately starts investigating.
Elijah Roper
Elijah Roper
Played By: Willie C. Carpenter
A homeless war veteran and friend of Chance's.
- Defiant to the End: Elijah dies standing up rather than begging for his life or mercy when it's clear that the people of New Orleans aren't going to be of any help at all.
- Nice Guy: He's very kind and empathetic.
- The Vietnam Vet: He served in the Vietnam War, which makes him a target for Fouchon's hunting ring.
Douglas Binder
Douglas Binder
Played By: Chuck Pfarrer
Nat's missing father, murdered by the hunting ring.
- Death by Cameo: He is a Pursued Protagonist who loses the pursuit in the opening scene, and is played by the film's screenwriter.
- Plot-Triggering Death: His death is what causes Chance and Nat to uncover Fouchon's hunting ring.
The Hunters
Emil Fouchon
Emil Fouchon
"There's always some unhappy corner of the globe where we can ply our trade."
Played By: Lance Henriksen
"Let me review the tactical situation for you, gentlemen. Boudreaux is wounded. He's been pursued and harried across miles of open country. Now he's cornered and outnumbered 20 to 1. He's an annoying little fucking insect and I want him stepped on hard."
The wealthy, sociopathic head of the hunting ring.
- Angrish: When one of his men is fatally wounded by a trap Chance set, Fouchon loses it. He screams semi-coherent threats while repeatedly kicking the dying man.Fouchon: I'll fuck you, then I'll eat you!
- Authority Sounds Deep: He's the leader of the hunting ring, and has a very deep voice.
- Bad Boss: He has no problem with killing his employees once they're no longer useful. As well, his only reaction when one of his henchmen is killed by one of Chance's trap is exasperation that the man won't die quicker.Fouchon: If you'd all die quieter and pick up the pace, he wouldn't have time for these little surprises.
- Big Bad: He's the man running the hunting ring that continuously changes location. He's been in Rio de Janeiro and Yugoslavia, and happens to be in New Orleans this time.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Fouchon is completely baffled as to why Chance went out of his way to upend his operations or cares about the people he targets.Fouchon: You see, Miss Binder, you I can understand. It was a matter of family. You had nothing in common with those people. What made you want to complicate my life like that?
Chance: Poor people get bored too.
Fouchon: Oh! - Evil Sounds Deep: Courtesy of Lance Henriksen's booming, gravelly voice.
- Explosive Stupidity: Fouchon quickly unscrews the fuse assembly from the live grenade he's been gifted with — just not quite quickly enough. Throwing it away seemingly never occurs to him.
- Face Death with Dignity: Fouchon's reaction to realizing the grenade he seemingly disarmed is about to detonate anyway isn't panic, but wry amusement.Fouchon: Whoops.
[BOOM!] - Faux Affably Evil: He's witty, formal, and polite with everyone. It only barely conceals Fouchon's contempt for everyone around him, and he has no problem about killing the people he was chummy with just seconds before.
- Laughably Evil: While he's a vile man, his dry wit and nonchalance results in a lot of Black Comedy.
- Made of Iron: Fouchon takes a shotgun blast dead center and gets up and keeps fighting, even briefly throwing down with Chance in hand to hand in the climax. He might have been wearing body armor, but if he was it's exceptionally well concealed.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Fouchon furiously beats Randall for having chosen a man with a daughter for his hunting game - now that Natasha is looking for his father she'll eventually find out the connection so that means he'll have more troubles to solve.
- Revenge Before Reason: Several times during the final act, Van Cleaf advises Fouchon that they should just leave Chance and Binder alone and Run for the Border (the business wouldn't get much damage, anyway — Fouchon himself was wondering about moving to Eastern Europe earlier because the investigation was becoming annoying). But as the film goes on, Fouchon is too pissed off about Chance just refusing to die that he not only decides not to run away, but he enlists all of his best regular customers to bolster his mooks' numbers and tosses them all into the fray, leading to the deaths of the aforementioned customers, his own soldiers, Van Cleaf and himself.
- Villainous Breakdown: Fouchon gets more aggravated as the hunt for Boudreaux goes on, culminating with Pik's death.
- Villainous Friendship: Van Cleaf and Fouchon are both monstrous figures but they seem to sincerely like one another with Fouchon being genuinely upset at Van Cleaf's death, even taking the time to close his eyes out of respect.
- Villainous Valor: Fouchon, despite being a skinny middle aged man with little combat experience, doesn't go down easy when up against a former Marine and Silver Star recipient who is decades younger and a martial arts expert and he never tries to cut and run, not even when everyone else is dead and it's just him against Chance.
- Wicked Cultured: One scene shows Fouchon playing the piano extremely intensely.
- Worthy Opponent: While he clearly despises Chance, Fouchon can't help but be visibly impressed at his ingenuity.
Van Cleaf
Pik Van Cleaf
"You were going to leave without saying goodbye, huh?"
Played By: Arnold Vosloo
"Boudreaux, Boudreaux, Boudreaux. I've been looking all over for you."
Fouchon's sadistic Afrikaner right-hand man.
- Amoral Afrikaner: He's a sadistic Afrikaner mercenary who gleefully helps Fouchon with his operation, especially butchering anyone who could attract the attention of law enforcement.
- Bald of Evil: He has a crewcut and is very evil.
- Faux Affably Evil: Van Cleaf is constantly jolly and upbeat. It only barely masks the fact that he's bad news, and he clearly loves hurting people.
- Ironic Echo: "I know you didn't mean to hurt my feelings." Pik uses this line as a Pre-Mortem One-Liner to Randall before cruelly murdering him via a shotgun blast to his head while the latter tried to escape town in his car. Later, he spouts the same line to Boudreaux during the Abandoned Warehouse climax before engaging in a one-on-one gunfight. This time, though, Pik is the one who gets killed.
- Laughably Evil: Van Cleaf is a horrifying sadist, but his snark and love of puns makes him really funny at the same time.
- OOC Is Serious Business: He is a sadist who enjoys the hunt, so when he is the one intimidated enough by Chance to start suggesting the hunters flee the country, it is a clear sign of just how precarious things are for the villains.
- Pungeon Master: Van Cleaf just won't stop making puns, especially about the Ear Ache he inflicts on Randall.Van Cleaf: Oh, Randall? He's all ears.
- Sadist: While Fouchon is indifferent to killing people, Van Cleaf clearly loves it. He also takes sick pleasure in cutting off Poe's ear, enough so to keep making puns about it.
- Smug Snake: He's very arrogant and smug, especially when he's in a position to hurt someone.
- Villainous Friendship: Van Cleaf and Fouchon are both monstrous figures but they seem to sincerely like one another with Fouchon being genuinely upset at Van Cleaf's death, even taking the time to close his eyes out of respect.
- Villain Respect: Van Cleaf is clearly impressed with Chance's resilience and ingenuity, while still being very eager to kill him.Van Cleaf: It appears your trophy is ripping us a new orifice.
Randall Poe
Randall Poe
Played By: Elliot Keener
A pimp who runs a phone sex hotline and hires homeless people to work odd jobs. Randall secretly lures in homeless veterans for the hunters to prey on.
- Asshole Victim: He's bullied and assaulted by both the protagonists and the villains, culminating in Van Cleaf shooting him in the face point-blank with a shotgun. However, Randall is a Smug Snake who was tricking homeless veterans into becoming the hunting ring's victims for a cheap buck, so it's hard to feel too bad for him.
- Ear Ache: To punish him, Van Cleaf cuts off his ear with a pair of scissors.
- Hate Sink: Randall's every scene is used to make him come across as completely loathsome, with none of the things that make Fouchon and Van Cleaf entertaining.
- Jerkass: Randall takes a lot of pleasure in bullying the homeless people he hires, as well as forcing a female employee to give him back rubs.
- Karmic Butt-Monkey: Randall is subject to a lot of abuse, both physical and verbal. However, he thoroughly earns it by being a slimy Jerkass who lured homeless people in to be Fouchon's victims.
- Slimeball: He's a skeezy, unshaven pimp who bullies the homeless people he hires, and lures some of them into becoming Fouchon and Van Cleaf's prey out of greed.
Dr. Morton
Dr. Morton
Played By: Marco St. John
A corrupt medical examiner working for the hunting ring.
- Asshole Victim: He covers up the hunting ring's murders in exchange for bribes. It's hard to feel bad when he becomes another victim once he outlives his use.
- Eye Scream: Van Cleaf executes him by shooting him right in the eye.