The Blood of Heroes (1989)

13% of critics liked it
(8 reviews)
71% of users liked it
(3,556 ratings)

Blood of Heroes features a sport that you're not likely to see on ESPN. It's called "juggers", and Rutger Hauer is the champion jugger in the post-apocalyptic world; he goes from village to village with his entourage, brutishly taking on all comers. The action culminates in the bloody "league… More Blood of Heroes features a sport that you're not likely to see on ESPN. It's called "juggers", and Rutger Hauer is the champion jugger in the post-apocalyptic world; he goes from village to village with his entourage, brutishly taking on all comers. The action culminates in the bloody "league championship." Joan Chen costars as Hauer's apprentice in the film, which was released in Australia as Salute of the Jugger. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: R, 1 hr. 37 min.
Directed By: David Webb Peoples
Genres: Science Fiction & Fantasy

In Theaters: Feb 23, 1990 Wide
On DVD: Jul 15, 2003

Critic Reviews

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
Unlike Rollerball or Death Race 2000, it serves up the carnage with Biblical solemnity.
Variety Staff, Variety
Plot development is slim. Much of running time is given over to the game itself, which seems to have no rules except that the winning team places the skull of a dog atop a pointed stick.
Vincent Canby, New York Times
An unusually successful film of its kind, a good, lean variation on the post-apocalypse adventure-thriller that looks into the future to see the Dark Ages of the past.
Richard Harrington, Washington Post
The Blood of Heroes is a multimillion-dollar movie with about as much plot and depth as your average arcade game, but it's never quite as involving.
, TV Guide's Movie Guide
The film goes wrong by appropriating worn material, then constructing around it a narrative so ruthlessly straightforward it steamrolls over any possibility of dramatic suspense.
, Time Out
There's little to look at and nothing worth hearing. Even the game itself is a drag.
, Film4
Poor old Hauer. Doesn't he long to play sensible characters in settings that don't involve post-apocalyptic societies and peculiar headbands? If he does, his agent never got the message.
James O'Ehley, Sci-Fi Movie Page
There is much worse sci-fi stuff gathering dust on your video shelves, but that is really no recommendation at all.

Read all 8 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Phil H

Bit of a forgotten Hauer cult classic this with your typical popular post apocalyptic world where only the strong survive. Haven't seen this in many many moons and it wasn't quite as cool as I remember it but still decent, the plot has now been copied over and over by many… More
Bit of a forgotten Hauer cult classic this with your typical popular post apocalyptic world where only the strong survive. Haven't seen this in many many moons and it wasn't quite as cool as I remember it but still decent, the plot has now been copied over and over by many films since but as this was back in 89 it feels like its one of the first, almost. An Aussie flick so you would be right in thinking there's a touch of 'Mad Max' in there but there's also allot of classic barbarian type stuff and strong Roman Gladiator themes too, you wonder if Scott took inspiration perhaps. The 'game' itself is kinda odd and simply revolves around sticking a dog skull on a stick in the opponents half, like a touchdown really, whilst you batter your opponents half to death to protect yourself and your players, dogskulls because they eat dogs in the future, why use them for this? who knows. When you watch the game I did kinda get the feeling in reality it wouldn't last more than 5min or less haha but artistic license in heavy use of course. The actual games aren't as violent as you'd think with minor blood and not much carnage, the film is quite tame really now but back in the day it was suppose to be pretty brutal haha Hauer is perfect for the role as the quiet leader, Delroy Lindo in a surprise role and the rest of the team are pretty good too whilst the Aussie outback really gives this a bleak barren feel. Nice ending which isn't totally predictable...if you watch the uncut version, the US version was cut for some reason.
Curtis L

Pretty great stuff. Gotta love the post apocalypse, especailly when they involve brutal sports...and Rutger Hauer.
Dean M

Good futuristic with teams of gladiator-sportsmen roaming the countryside challenging teams to play the vicious game of juggers.