after appearing in "rocky iv", lundgren portrayed he-man in the 1987 science fantasy film "masters of the universe", lt. rachenko in "red scorpion" (1988) and frank castle in the 1989 film "the punisher". throughout the 1990s he appeared in films such as "i come in peace" (1990), "cover-up" (1991), "showdown in little tokyo" (1991), "universal soldier" film series (1992, 2009, 2012), "joshua tree" (1993), "pentathlon" (1994), "men of war" (1994), "johnny mnemonic" (1995), "" (1995), "silent trigger" (1996), "the peacekeeper" (1997), and "blackjack" (1998). in 2004 he directed his first film, "the defender", and subsequently directed "the mechanik" (2005), "missionary man" (2007), "command performance" (2009), and "icarus" (2010), also starring in all of them.