The Last Battle Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

The Last Battle Blu-ray Movie Review

"Bon... jour?"

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown November 24, 2025

Just in time for holiday shopping and potentially ideal for those French alt-genre film-fans in your family or friend group comes the Luc Besson 9-Film Collection from Sony, which offers six of the controversial filmmaker's movies on 4K UltraHD with Dolby Atmos tracks and three additional flicks on standard Blu-ray with DTS-HD Master Audio. Besson has a messy, I'll just call it "icky" personal past (a word that feels generous), but for those who can separate art from an artist's alleged and/or admitted misdeeds, this box set makes for a solid albeit flawed gift. The films included in the collection are black-and-white post-apocalyptic drama Le Dernier Combat (The Last Battle, 1983), stylized crime dramedy Subway (1985), theatrical and director's cuts of off-kilter romance The Big Blue (1998), proto-Wick assassin thriller Le Femme Nikita (1990), underwater documentary Atlantis (1991), theatrical and extended versions of the beloved, fan-favorite Leon: The Professional (1994), zany '90s sci-fi epic The Fifth Element (1997), domestic and international cuts of underrated historical biopic The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999), and visually striking supernatural noir Angela-A (2005).

The Last Battle, which was initially distributed in the U.S. under its French title, Le dernier combat, is about a mute man trying to survive a post-apocalyptic world. After crashing a mini-plane of his own construction into the busy business district of a large metropolis, he meets a small group of men that have settled in front of a junkyard granting access to an underground storage facility. The group has a leader (Fritz Wepper) who likes to cut off the fingers of anyone that dares to question his authority. He also likes his 'toy' (Maurice Lamy), a weird looking man with a helmet and a pair of diving glasses, whom he has locked in the trunk of an old car. Eventually the man from the mini-plane ends up in an abandoned hospital where he is seriously hurt by another loner (Jean Reno) and saved by a freaky doctor (Jean Bouise) who has been dodging Reno's loner for a while. The two become friends and the doctor shows him something he has never seen before: a woman locked in a cell (Petra Müller).

Click here to read the rest of Dr. Svet Atanasov's review of the film, which he calls "impossible to accurately describe with simple words." Adding, "as cliché as it may sound, one has to see it in order to fully understand and appreciate it. I personally think that it is one of the most unique French science fiction films from the last thirty or so years."

The Last Battle Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Possibly created utilizing the same 2.35:1 master as the 2009 UK Blu-ray from Optimum, perhaps with some tweaking or, given I was more impressed with the end result than my colleague was with the previous international release, perhaps with a newer master altogether. Either way, I find it difficult to hope we'll ever get a better video transfer of The Last Battle than is represented by this solid 1080p/AVC-encoded presentation. The black and white photography is quite striking, particularly considering the film's age, the production's low budget and Besson and his team's relative inexperience at the time. Shadows are deep and absorbing most of the time, though the hot sun and at-times hotter contrast leveling certainly flood the image with searing whites when the cameras move outdoors. Thankfully, interiors don't suffer the indignity of direct sunlight and gray midtones are lovely and gradients are smooth. You'll likely notice some crushing here and there, and a bit of grain inconsistencies. Both appear to my eye to be products of the original cinematography but can prove distracting when so much of the film fares beautifully. Technical issues are kept to a bare minimum and don't appear to be the product of a lesser encode, and more significant issues like banding, blocking or ringing are MIA. All told, Sony has given us a more-than-worthy transfer with which to experience or savor The Last Battle.

The Last Battle Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The film's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.0 surround track is less satisfying, unfortunately, although it's a more than competent upgrade and presentation of the original sound design. What little central dialogue there is -- which amounts to all of a word or two -- is clean and clear, prioritization of the film's environmental effects and ambient noises are fairly well refined, and rear elements, while subtle, are effective on the whole and create a decidedly decent soundfield. (Again, given the era.) Lower beats are missing the oomph proper LFE support might provide, meaning the film's more intense drama lacks some sonic heft, the score lacks a fullness and presence, and the action lacks the sort of chest-thumping goodness you'll enjoy thanks to the audio tracks bolstering Besson's later efforts. Again, there's nothing exactly wrong with the mix. It's good. It just doesn't offer the greatness of a respectfully designed 5.1 or Atmos offering.

The Last Battle Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Blu-ray edition of Le dernier combat doesn't include any special features.

The Last Battle Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It's a shame The Last Battle doesn't earn any supplemental love. Other entries in the Besson 9-Film Collection have been granted all sorts of newly produced interviews and additional content. Ah well, as a starter to a beefy box set, The Last Battle at least looks and sounds the part. The movie itself didn't hit me center mass with the precision it did with my colleague, but it's still an inventive foray into a desolate sci-fi dystopia and one fans of Besson will love to excavate for all the signs of his future talent.