The One (2001)

Directed by: James Wong | 85 minutes | action, science fiction, thriller | Actors: Jet Li, Jason Statham, Delroy Lindo, Carla Gugino, James Morrison, Dylan Bruno, Richard Steinmetz, Steve Rankin, Tucker Smallwood, Harriet Sansom Harris, David Keats, Dean Norris, Ron Zimmerman, Darin Morgan, Mark Borchardt, Joel Stoffer , Kim McKamy, Archie Kao, Narinder Samra, Doug Savant

Traveling between different worlds in a parallel universe. Many books have been written about it and several movies and TV series have been made about it. Such as the series ‘Sliders’ in which the main character travels to other worlds and encounters himself several times (only slightly different). In these copies of our globe, the same people live, but they do different work, there is a different president and they drive through red instead of green. In ‘The One’, a film by director James Wong (‘Final Destination’), we also have to deal with this special phenomenon called Multiversum.

Detective Gabe Law (Jet Li) has noticed in recent years that something strange is going on with him. He can run faster, is stronger and thinks faster. When Gabe is attacked while moving a criminal, he comes face to face with Gabriel Yulaw (also played by Jet Li). This exact copy tries to kill him, but fails due to the intervention of two Multiverse Agents, played by Delroy Lindo (“Romeo Must Die”) and Jason Statham (“Transporter”). These agents, tasked with combating the abuse of Parallel Worlds, explain to Gabe that this Gabriel is a spitting image of him in another world. His twin brother from this parallel universe has learned that the life energy of a deceased copy of him is distributed among the survivors. He has already managed to kill 123 copies in the Multiverse. Gabe is his 124th and last victim before he is the only one of his kind. If he succeeds, he becomes ‘The One’ and thus unbeatable. It’s up to Gabe and the Multiverse Agents to stop him.

The name of the film is very reminiscent of ‘The Matrix’. And that’s not so crazy. In that film, the main character is called “The One” and the special properties such as slowing down time are also discussed in this film. That’s why ‘The One’ feels a bit like a ‘been there, done that’ action movie. The story lends itself to be an interesting film, but because of the mediocre acting of Jet Li and the bad script, it remains a superficial action film. The special effects in the film are very well done. There are several fight scenes in which Jet Li has to fight against himself. Very nicely done. It’s a shame that the film starts at the moment when the evil Jet Li commits his 123rd murder. It would have done the film well if the effect that the murders have, on themselves and on the surviving copies, had been better fleshed out.

With its 85 minutes (including credits) the film is already on the short side and character development is certainly not done at all. That way you don’t sympathize for a moment with the things that the good Jet Li experiences. Despite the beautiful effects and the ingenious fact (parallel universe and the division of forces after a spitting image dies), the film falls under the bad screenplay and the unconvincing Jet Li. ‘The One’ has become a mediocre action film that is in the shadow of classics like ‘The Matrix’.