Under Siege 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		0.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Under Siege 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 28, 2025

Director Andrew Davis isn't especially shy about discussing the "star temperament" of Steven Seagal in some of the supplements included with this release, and suffice it to say it sounds like Davis may have been brought into this project to help "contain" that very temperament. Whether or not he succeeded may be up for debate with some persnickety types, but this "Die Hard on a ship" outing certainly provides some fun action elements and several over the top performances courtesy of stalwarts like Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey.

Under Siege has had a couple of prior 1080 releases by home studio Warner Brothers. Martin Liebman's very early Under Siege Blu-ray review of the first 1080 release contains plot information and Marty's reaction to the technical presentation (there was no real supplemental content other than a standard definition trailer). For trivia lovers, Under Siege was an early enough release in the 1080 format that it's number 230 in our database.

Under Siege 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: While this is a standalone 4K release without a 1080 disc, I am offering screenshots from Arrow's standalone 1080 release of Under Siege as I think it actually provides a better representation of the look of the palette in particular, rather than offering screenshots from the 4K disc which are by necessity downscaled to 1080 and in SDR. Because this release does not include a 1080 disc, the 2K video score above has been intentionally left blank.

Under Siege is presented in 4K UHD courtesy of Arrow Video with an HEVC / H.265 encoded 2160p transfer in 1.85:1. Arrow's insert booklet (provided with their 4K release) contains to the following information on the presentation:

Under Siege has been restored by Arrow Films and is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with stereo and Dolby Atmos audio mixes.

The original 35mm camera negative was scanned at 4K / 16 bit resolution at Warner Bros. / Motion Picture Imaging. The film was restored in 4K resolution and colour graded at Duplitech.

All materials sourced for this new master were made available by Warner Bros.

QC review was completed by Pixelogic.

This new restoration has been approved by Director Andrew Davis.

The new Dolby Atmos mix was produced at Warner Brothers by Andrew Davis and Frank A. Montaño.

This is another great looking 4K upgrade from Arrow, one that offers some interesting highlights courtesy of the HDR / Dolby Vision grades and which provides some subtle but observable improvements in fine detail from Arrow's perfectly excellent 1080 presentation. Kind of surprisingly some of the establishing shots of the ship (all evidently taken in one day as the Missouri pulled into San Francisco) are just a bit tamped down, palette wise, especially in the opening optically printed credits sequence, but once that is dealt with, suffusion improves markedly and there are some very vibrant hues across the entire spectrum. Some of the most evocative content probably comes somewhat late in the film, when the darkened ship is lit with various hues, and everything from blues and purples to some of the almost orange-sepia tones in scenes featuring Seagal in particular really pop impressively. HDR and/or Dolby Vision may not frankly offer that much extra shadow detail, and perhaps just a little surprisingly there are minor hints of crush in some of the "war room" material vis a vis the black uniforms against black backgrounds. Color temperature generally is much improved over the old kind of yellowish 1080 release from Warner Brothers. Detail levels are consistently impressive throughout, and some of the fine detail on the ship sets is particularly precise looking. Grain resolves tightly for the most part, but some of the rougher looking moments in the darkest material are probably even grittier looking at this resolution.

Under Siege 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Under Siege features Dolby Atmos and LPCM 2.0 options, both easily outdoing the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 track on Warner Brothers' first 1080 release. The stereo track is actually rather nicely widely imaged, especially in some of the action sequences, but the Atmos track significantly opens up the proceedings, both with regard to the ambient environmental effects both inside and outside the ship, and also with regard to Gary Chang's enjoyable score. The Atmos track also provides a much more convincing low end overall, something the becomes more important once all the things that go boom start going boom. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Under Siege 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary with Director Andrew Davis and Writer J.F. Lawton


• I'm on a Boat (With a Bomb) (HD; 19:08) is a new interview with Andrew Davis.


• One of the Guys (HD; 13:52) is a new interview with Erika Eleniak.


• A Tight Ship (HD; 18:35) is a new interview with Damian Chapa.


• The Introvision Files (HD; 27:51) is a new interview with visual effects supervisor William Mesa (which includes some cool archival promotional footage about Introvision).


• Trailer (HD; 2:00)

This Limited Edition also has a reversible sleeve featuring two original artwork options, and a collectors' booklet featuring some good writing by the mononymous Vern and Martyn Pedler. Packaging features a slipcover.

Under Siege 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Under Siege is just flat out goofy some of the time, especially when either Tommy Lee Jones and/or Gary Busey strut(s) across the frame, and fans of the film should be well pleased by both the technical merits of this release as well as the enjoyable supplemental material. Recommended.