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Released
1998 · FILM

Legionnaire

A defiant boxer who refuses a mobster’s fix must flee France with his lover and, when that fails, enlists in the brutal French Foreign Legion—only to battle a sadistic commander while fighting for survival and redemption.

“A fugitive from a killer. A remote outpost. A fight to the death.”

Directed by
Peter Macdonald
Written by
Sheldon Lettich, Jean Claude Van Damme
Runtime
98 min
ActionAdventureDrama

Synopsis

Alain Lefevre is a boxer who is paid by a Marseille mobster to lose a fight. When he unexpectedly wins, he tries to escape to America with the mobster's girlfriend, Katrina. The plan does not succeed, and he attempts to find refuge by enlisting in the Foreign Legion. While serving in the legion, he comes into conflict with the abusive lieutenant Steinkampf and forms close relationships with fellow legionnaires Luther, Mackintosh, and Rosetti.

Credits

Actors
Editor
Production Designer
Director of Photography
Writers
Director

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How many hands made this film

The scale of the collaboration

Principal cast & crew: 20

These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.

Why a floor?

This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.

Craft leads on file

Edited by Mike MurphyShot by Douglas MilsomeScored by John AltmanDesigned by Charles Wood

Box Office

1998 · Box office

✅ Made its money back — grossed 3.4× its budget

Why 2.5×?

Cinemas keep roughly half of every ticket sold, and a wide release’s marketing often costs about as much again as the film — so a movie needs to gross around 2.5× its production budget just to break even theatrically. It’s a rule of thumb, not the studio’s ledger (home video and streaming come later).

Worldwide gross

$67.9M

Budget$20.0M
Worldwide gross$67.9M
break-even (2.5×)

Also known as

  • Der Legionärde
  • Der Legionär - Seine Zukunft heißt vergessende
  • Legionarioes
  • Légionnairefr
  • The Legionary - Fuga all'infernoit

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