How a 2001 action film attempted to blend Indiana Jones with religious intrigue

Entertainment · Published 3 October 2026 · Updated 25 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Directed by Sheldon Lettich and starring Jean-Claude Van Damme in a dual role, The Order is an action-adventure film that spans from the First Crusade to modern-day Jerusalem. While it bypassed American theaters for a direct-to-DVD release, the production remains a curious case study in tonal shifts and international performance.

The film begins in 1099, where a disillusioned Flemish knight named Charles Le Vaillant, played by Van Damme, attempts to unify Christians, Jews, and Muslims into a new religious order. After his murder, his sacred texts are lost. In the modern era, Van Damme returns as Rudy Cafmeyer, a thief and artifact smuggler who travels to Israel to rescue his father, an archaeologist kidnapped while investigating the Order's secrets. The plot centers on a race to find ancient manuscripts that reveal the location of a mythical treasure, which a radical faction of the Order intends to use as a catalyst for a global conflict.

Director Sheldon Lettich intended for the film to mirror the spirit of Indiana Jones and Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest. He specifically highlights a sequence where Van Damme, disguised as a Hasidic Jew, flees from Israeli police in the Old City of Jerusalem as a personal highlight of the project. However, Lettich later admitted that the film suffered from a significant tonal error, noting that the decision to pivot toward a more serious, darker tone during the third act undermined the light-hearted adventure established earlier in the story.

Despite being denied a theatrical run in the United States, the film found an audience through home media, generating over $18 million in rentals. Its international reception varied; it saw theatrical releases in markets like Spain and Mexico in 2002, where it grossed approximately 600,000 euros and over $560,000 respectively. The narrative concludes with a nod to further adventure, as Rudy discovers a map pointing toward the Seven Cities of Gold, leaving the door open for future exploits that never materialized in the same capacity.

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