The One (2001)

The One (2001)

Starring: Jet Li, Carla Gugino, Delroy Lindo, Jason Statham, James Morrison, Dylan Bruno, Richard Steinmetz, Steve Rankin
Director: James Wong
Action Director: Corey Yuen

Before Everything, Everywhere, All At Once. Before Spider-Man: No Way Home. Before Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness. Before The Flash '23. Before Deadpool and Wolverine. There was...The One. Originally written as a vehicle for Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, whose acting career was kicking off at the time, it somehow morphed into a Jet Li film, which Li himself promoted as a safe alternative to the blood-and-guts carnage that was Kiss of the Dragon. And when it comes to gimmicks, "Jet Li vs. Jet Li" is certainly more interesting than "The Rock vs. The Rock." And with online critics talking down almost every multiverse themed film outside of EEAAO, I have to wonder if this film is in for a re-evaluation almost a quarter of a decade later.

We open with a brief narration informing us that yes, the Multiverse is a thing and yes, it is possible to travel from one parallel universe to the next. And because of that, there is a special police force in charge of supervising travel and activity between the universes: the MVA.

After that, we turn to a prison, where the guards are removing an inmate, Lawless (Jet Li, of Fist of Legend and Bodyguard from Beijing), from his cell for a transfer. I think it has something to do with him deciding to testify against his old cronies, judging from the sheer anger directed at him from the other inmates. Once he reaches the prison garage, a bullet comes out of nowhere and pierces the bulletproof, protective headgear he was wearing. Head shot. The prison guards open fire on the large ventilation pipes from whence the shot came, peppering up the metal tubing quite well. But to everybody's surprise, the assassin is not dead. And more to their surprise, it turns out that it's Lawless...only that it isn't. It is Yulaw (also Li) and before you know it, the guy is opening up a can of Matrix on everybody. Yulaw makes a break for it, ultimately getting captured by a pair of law enforcement agents, Roedecker (Delroy Lindo, of Romeo Must Die) and Funsch (Jason Statham, of Safe and War). These two work for the MVA and have been on the Yulaw case for quite some time.

Now that Yulaw is in MVA custody, we learn that he has murdered not one...not two...but 123 versions of himself in different universes. Initially, we not quite sure why, although it is implied (and later explained) that the lifeforce of each reality's version of oneself is connected somehow. When one kills a version of himself, that person's lifeforce is redistributed among the surviving versions, hence Yulaw's strength, speed, and ability to perform all sorts of crazy wire-fu tricks. The movie never explains this--probably the biggest plot hole in the film--but I am going to assume that this only happens when you kill your own self. Otherwise, your lifeforce just dissipates...or something. But if you absorb all of your versions' lifeforces, you may become a god--or just make everything explode.

Back to the story, Yulaw is found guilty of 123 counts of multidimensional murder and 123 counts of unauthorized multidimensional travel. Plot hole: we learn later on that Yulaw killed his first version of himself out of some sort of necessity--he was an MVA agent himself--during a job. Technically, that would mean that it should be 122 counts of unauthorized travel, considering that it happened a job. Whatever. He is sentenced to life in the Stygian Penal Colony--i.e. a prison planet a la Fiorina 161--in the Hades universe. I wonder what things were like there in order to earn that moniker. He is rescued by his lover (Carla Gugino, of Spy Kids and Sin City), who unleashes an explosive mouse (!) into the teleportation chamber. During the confusion, Yulaw breaks out of the chair, switches the coordinates, and disappears.

Switch to our universe. A prison in Los Angeles. Not too unlike the one in the first scene. The police are seen escorting a criminal out of his cell on his way to court to testify against his gang. Is it Lawless? No, just some guy. But one of the guards is Gabe Law (also Li), a clean-cut, good-natured law enforcement officer working for the County Sheriff's Office. Once they reach the transport area, someone (we know it's Yulaw) starts firing on the procession. This time, it's clear that he's aiming at Gabe and not the prisoner. Gabe is quite astonished to learn that he's being attacked by...himself. He takes a bullet, but thankfully it does not penetrate his kevlar vest.

At the insistence of his wife, T.K. (also Gugino), Gabe goes to the hospital for a check-up and to do an MRI scan to figure out if there is anything wrong with his mind. Gabe has had a number of unexplained health issues over the past two years (hmmm) and now he's ranting about getting hunted by himself. Something must be wrong. But Yulaw, Roedecker, and Funsch all show up at the hospital and a gunfight breaks out. Thanks to some bad luck involving the placement of the security cameras, when Yulaw shoots a security guard to death in the hallway, Gabe's colleagues think it was him who did it. It is not long before before his luck gets so bad that getting shot while wearing a bulletproof vest looks like small potatoes in comparison.

Director James Wong saw his stock rise following the success of Final Destination. I don't think this film did much to improve his career, but the third FD film did pretty good (I reckon). After a few Hollywood Remakes--Willard and Black Christmas--Wong sunk his movie-making career with the notoriously dismal--if unintentionally hilarious--Dragon Ball film, which I reviewed years ago in an earlier incarnation of this site. Wong seems to have kept himself busy since then on TV, writing and producing for American Horror Story and directing episodes of the "X-Files" series reboot. All that said, Wong directs this film with a breakneck pace, never allowing the occasional moment of exposition to get in the way of the action. At a scant 87 minutes, the film just blazes by.

The plot predates the comic book movie multiverse trend by a good two decades. That said, because this is not part of a bigger universe, you don't get the overwhelming feeling that death doesn't matter. In the recent batch of comic book movies, the death of main characters no longer feels like a tragedy because one can theoretically just grab another version of oneself and place it in the main universe. By establishing our main protagonist, Gabe Law, as one of the remaining two versions of himself, we know that death is a finality. And by using the mistaken identity subplot, we also know that even if he does survive, he is completely screwed once he has to face the authorities. That does add an element of suspense to the proceedings.

Martial arts fans were only probably only partially satisfied with the action here. There is a lot of (uninspired) gunplay, plus some foot chases, vehicular mayhem, and explosions. For most of the movie, the martial arts sequences are very quick. As expected, Corey Yuen could do traditional kung fu, modern kickboxing, wire-fu, and gunplay, but he faltered once CGI was introduced into the mix. When Yulaw fights the police in the first scene, he does a lot of "kick a person, switch to slow motion as they get knocked off their feet, and then back to regular speed as he punches them again." There is a scene later on where Yulaw kills some policemen by clubbing them with their own motorcycles.

The film's best moment comes at the climax, where the two Jet Li's finally have their big showdown...in a chemical factory. Jet Li fights himself through the use of doubles, who include Guo Jianyong (Corey Yuen's protégé); Lin Feng (action director of the Detective Dee sequels); and Huang Kaisen (another member of Corey Yuen's stunt team). Yulaw and Gabe Law have differing philosophies on life and existence. Yulaw is goal-focused and sees life as a straight line toward one's objectives, independent of the cost. To that end, he uses Hsing-I Chuan, a Chinese internal style based on the movements of a spear that is straight and direct in its attacks. Gabe is a bit more "circular" in this thinking, treasuring balance and harmony, and uses Baguazhang instead. It is great to see two of the Chinese internal styles in a Hollywood movie, especially ones that aren't Tai Chi. Despite the frequent Matrix flourishes--this was a 2001 production after all--the choreography is pretty good and I'm always a sucker for more traditional fight direction. I just wished there was more of this and less CGI-fu and bullet time effects.