Street Fighter is a 1994 movie based on the widely renowned fighting game Street Fighter II by Capcom (officially, although the characters in it are mostly from Super Street Fighter II). The movie starred an international cast comprised from such actors as Jean-Claude Van Damme (in the role of William F. Guile) and Puerto Rico acting-legend Raul Julia (as General M. Bison) as well as pop singer Kylie Minogue (Cammy)

The movie altered the plots and motives of Street Fighter characters somewhat and made several comical interludes (one fight-scene for instance plays homage to the old Godzilla movies). The film was panned by critics, fans of the series, & moviegoers alike. It is regularly listed on the Internet Movie Database's "bottom 100." Even though the movie was a flop, it has gathered some interest. It was Raul Julia's last work as he died some time after the movie's release.

In the credits the makers of the film say a final goodbye to Raul "For Raul: Vaya con dios" which translates roughly as "go with God."

A fighting game was based on the movie. It was released in the arcade. Later, it was released on the PlayStation and Sega Saturn.

Plot

There are several major players in the plot of the movie: Guile, Chun-Li, Ken & Ryu, Dhalsim & Charlie (Blanka) and Bison. The plot described below follows primarily Guile.

The movie takes place in the fictional city of Shadaloo in South-East Asia (Thailand). After months of fighting a multinational military force called the Allied Nations has managed to enter the city. The AN is fighting against the armed forces of drug-lord turned General, M. Bison, who has recently captured a couple of dozen AN workers.

Bison makes his demands in a live two-way television broadcast with William F. Guile, the commander of the AN forces. If he is not paid 20 billion dollars in three days he will kill the hostages.

Guile's assistant, Cammy (played by Kylie Minogue) is only able to partially trace Bison's signal. From that it can be determined that Bison's hideout is somewhere in the river-delta region outside Shadaloo. After one of the thugs of Victor Sagat, head of the Shadaloo Tong, attempts to assassinate Guile, he figures out that Sagat is the arms-supplier for Bison.

Guile attempts to infiltrate Ryu Hoshi and Ken Masters, two foreign operators who were arrested along with Sagat, in to Sagat's gang, stage a prison-break and his own death in order to find out the location of Bison's hideout. Guile's plan hits a snag when a GNT News Reporter Chun-Li Xiang (played by Ming Na), who is out for Bison's blood, finds out that Guile is alive and with the help of her partners, Sumo-wrestler E. Honda and professional boxer Balrog, attempts to kill Bison and Sagat while they are engaged in arms-trade.

The plan fails and Chun-Li and her friends are captured. Since Ken and Ryu manage to get inside Bison's hideout Guile begins to plan an attack. Ryu and Ken try to free Balrog, Honda and Chun-Li but get trapped in Bison's room where they get knocked out by gas.

Meanwhile Guile, T. Hawk and Cammy head up river to lead the attack in a stealth-boat. Bison notices the attack and manages to compromise the boat's stealth-mode making Guile a perfect target. The boat is blown out of the water but luckily Guile and his comrades escape in time.

Guile heads in to Bison's fort alone while T. Hawk and Cammy stay and wait for the rest of the attack-party. Guile falls in to the laboratory of Dr. Dhalsim where he encounters his friend Carlos (Charlie) Blanka who has been warped in to a powerful beast. After realising that Bison attempts to use Blanka to execute the hostages he hides in Blanka's incubation chamber and takes Bison by surprise. Unfortunately he is not able to prevent "red-alert" from going off and Cammy and T. Hawk end up in a tight spot. Luckily the attack party is not far behind and the battle may begin.

While some of the heroes try to free the hostages (and Ken & Ryu wind up fighting again with Sagat and Vega) Guile and Bison engage in a one-on-one fight. Guile seems to be winning, but then an automatic revival system brings Bison back to life and charges his body with great amounts of electromagnetism, allowing him to shoot lightning bolts and fly across the air. After taking a serious beating Guile manages to kick Bison in the stomach and sends him flying against his gigantic Monitor-wall. As he crashes the there are severe electrical disturbances and the base is about to become destroyed.

Guile manages to talk to Dhalsim and Blanka one last time before an explosion separates them and Guile is forced to leave them behind. When the temple comes crashing down everyone thinks that Guile is dead, but then he appears from amongst the smoke.

The movie ends semi-humorously, after Guile converses with everyone they see the last ruins of the temple fall and take their familiar win poses as the camera freezes and fades out.

Trivia

There is also a B-grade Japanese action-movie called The Street Fighter that was released in 1973 and starring martial arts star Sonny Chiba. It also gained a sequel called The Return of the Street Fighter. Neither of these movies are believed to have any connection with Capcom or their Street Fighter series.

Fei Long wasn't in the movie. The reason is that the producers thought that he was too "generic." So he was replaced by Captain Sawada.

The US Street Fighter cartoon was based on the movie. Many feel that the cartoon is much better than the movie.

Capcom has made fun of the movie a few times. The first time was in X-Men vs. Street Fighter. In one of the stages, Blanka is in the background. However when Charlie is fighting on the stage, Blanka is replaced by The Beast. The second time was in Street Fighter III: Third Strike. One of Chun Li's win quotes has her saying: "Hey, leave me alone! I'm a fighter, not a news reporter!"

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