JCVD (2008)

The film establishes Jean-Claude van Damme playing himself as an out-of-luck actor. He is out of money; his agent cannot find him a decent production; and the judge in a custody battle is inclined to give custody of his daughter over to his ex-wife. His own daughter rejects him as a father. He returns to his childhood home of Schaarbeek in the Brussels capital region, Belgium, where he is still considered a hero. After posing for pictures with clerks outside a video store, Van Damme goes into the post office across the street. A shot is fired inside the post office, and a police officer responds but is waved off by Van Damme at the window, which is then blocked. The officer calls for backup.

The narrative then shifts to Van Damme’s point of view. He goes into the post office to receive a badly needed wire transfer but finds that the bank is being robbed. He is taken hostage along with the other customers. The police mistakenly identify Van Damme as the robber when he is forced by the actual perpetrators to move a cabinet to block the window. Van Damme finds himself acting as a hero to protect the hostages by engaging with the robbers about his career (one of them being a fan of his), as well as both a negotiator and presumed perpetrator. While speaking by phone as the ringleader of the robbers, Van Damme even goes so far as to demand $465,000 for the law firm handling his custody case. It is not clear if Van Damme demands the $465,000 out of self-interest, or out of a desire to appear as a genuine bank-robber to the police as he insists to the thieves, or perhaps both.