The Quest

The Quest (1996) is an adventure martial-arts film you can watch online on iFILM. It marks Jean-Claude Van Damme's directing debut, with the star taking the lead himself and Roger Moore alongside as a silver-tongued rogue.

Set in the 1920s, the story follows Christopher Dubois, a small-time New York pickpocket who flees the law and falls into the hands of smugglers, slave traders and pirates. The journey hurls him halfway across the planet, from the slums of New York to the hidden Tibetan city of Tong. There, every few years, fighters from every continent gather for the Ghang-gheng, a brutal contest where the prize is a Golden Dragon and the rules are winner-take-all.

The real draw is that tournament: a parade of national fighting styles, each opponent throwing something different, from a hulking Mongolian wrestler to a Brazilian capoeira specialist. Van Damme shaped the film like the pulpy adventure comics he loved as a kid, padded out with his trademark splits and spinning kicks. Pure old-school stuff for anyone who misses straight-faced nineties action. Stream The Quest online on iFILM.