Maximum Risk

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Maximum Risk
Original Poster
Directed by	Ringo Lam
Produced by	Moshe Diamant
Written by	Larry Ferguson
Starring	Jean-Claude Van Damme Natasha Henstridge Jean-Hugues Anglade
Music by	Robert Folk
Cinematography	Alexander Gruszynski
Editing by	Bill Pankow
Release date(s)	September 13, 1996
Running time	100 mins
Country	USA
Language	English
IMDb profile

Maximum Risk is a 1996 film, directed by Ringo Lam and starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and Natasha Henstridge.

Alain Moreau (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is a cop in Nice, France. Alain is at a funeral that is being held for a fellow cop, and Alain’s partner Sebastien (Jean-Hugues Anglade) shows up. Sebastien takes Alain to a murder scene, where the victim is a man who looks exactly like Alain.

There is evidence that the victim was being chased and that the victim was recently tortured. Sebastien and Alain go to the Hotel Chevre D’Or, where they find the victim’s ID, which shows that his name was Mikhail Suverov, and Mikhail was born on the exact same day Alain was born on.

Mikhail was on his way to the street where Alain’s home is located. Mikhail had come to Nice from New York City.

Alain visits his mother, Chantal (Stephane Audran), and tells Chantal about this case. Chantal admits that Mikhail was Alain’s twin brother, and Chantal had given Mikhail up for adoption. Mikhail had been on his way to introduce himself to Alain when Mikhail was murdered.

On the next morning, Alain and Sebastien go to Paris, so Alain can talk to Etienne St. Denis, the lawyer who handled Mikhail’s adoption.

Sebastien and Alain head to a building where Etienne’s office is on the 6th floor. When Alain and Sebastien get to the 6th floor, they notice smoke pouring out from under Etienne’s office door.

They open the door – only to see flames everywhere, and an explosion knocks them backwards. Sebastien takes off after a blond haired, red-faced man (Stefanos Miltsakakis) that he and Alain saw leaving the area.

Alain hears cries for help coming from Etienne’s office. Alain enters the office, where he finds Etienne dead, and then he finds the secretary who yelled for help. The secretary gives Mikhail’s adoption papers to Alain, then Red Face returns to the room and opens fire on Alain and the secretary.

Alain beats up Red Face and gets the secretary out of the room as Red Face also leaves. A few minutes later, outside of the building, Alain and Sebastien read the adoption papers.

According to the adoption papers, Mikhail’s adoptive father was a Soviet diplomat who lived in Paris for 5 years before moving to the USA in 1968.

Alain remembers that Mikhail had left behind an airplane ticket to New York City at the Hotel Chevre D’Or, so Alain takes a flight to New York City, knowing that a phone message for Mikhail at the Hotel Chevre D’Or had the name Alex Bohemia on it.

After arriving in New York, Alain hails a taxicab that is driven by Davis Hartley (Frank Van Keeken). When Davis drops Alain off at his downtown destination, Alain tells Davis to find a man named Alex Bohemia.

Alain then walks inside of a building and talks to Morris (Rob Kaman), a man who knew Mikhail. Morris explains that Mikhail’s adoptive family had a grocery store in Little Odessa, a section of Brooklyn that is controlled by the Russian mafia, and that when Mikhail was 16 years old, he had joined the Russian mafia.

Alain asks Morris if Mikhail ever mentioned anyone named Alex Bohemia. Morris tells Alain that he hasn’t, but there is a nightclub in Little Odessa called The Bohemia.

That night, Alain has Davis drive him to the Bohemia, where everyone thinks he’s Mikhail. Alain goes inside, and a woman takes Alain to where the payphones are and kisses him.

This woman is Mikhail’s fiancé, Alex Bartlett (Natasha Henstridge), and she thinks Alain is Mikhail. Alex Bohemia was not a name. It was a phrase that was meant to tell Mikhail that Alex would be waiting for Mikhail when Mikhail returned from France. Alex tells Alain to leave, and that she’ll see him later.

Alain goes outside and is confronted by a group of Russian men led by a thug named Yuri (Dan Moran).They tell Alain, whom they think is Mikhail, that Ivan Dzasokhov (Zach Grenier), one of the higher-ups in the Russian mafia, wants to talk to Mikhail.

Alain beats up Yuri and his men, and is picked up by Davis. Davis drops Alain off at a hotel, and Alain checks into room 305. Ivan shows up at the Bohemia, and Yuri says he saw Mikhail with Alex, and what they don’t know is that the man they think is Mikhail is Alain Moreau.

Alex goes to the hotel and up to Alain’s room. Alain tells Alex that he’s not Mikhail, and that Mikhail was murdered.

Ivan and two of his men show up, and Alain and Alex head up to the roof, and when they see Alain behind them, they hide on the roof of the building next door. Ivan sees them and opens fire.

Alain and Alex enter the building they are on through a nearby door, and they go down some stairs into a strip bar called The Zanzibar. They get out of the Zanzibar, and are picked up by Davis.

Red Face, who works for Ivan, fires at them. Davis drives for a couple of more blocks, and then realizes that he’s been shot. Davis stops the cab, and Alain get out of the cab to check on Davis, who dies in Alain's arms.

Alex and Alain go to a restaurant to talk about this situation. Alex tells Alain that Mikhail once told her that he had a plan that would get him out of the Russian mafia. Alain asks Alex to take him to Mikhail’s home, and Alex pays the restaurant’s bill for what they ordered.

Outside the restaurant, Alex tells Alain that Ivan won’t stop until they are both dead, and that Ivan and his boss, Dmitri Kirov (David Hemblen), who has corrupt FBI agents Pellman (Paul Ben-Victor) and Loomis (Frank Senger) in his pocket, are relentless.

But, as it turns out, not nearly as relentless as Alain when it comes to avenging Mikhail's murder.

[edit] Critical & box office reception

Maximum risk opened on September 13, 1996 at the number 1 spot at the box office taking in $5,612,707 in its first weekend,and made final tally of just $14,502,483.Overseas it made $37,600,000 in ticket sales.

Critics were mixed on the movie noting that as a Ringo Lam film it was a disappointment when compared to his earlier work,while as a Van Damme feature it was better than average.