in 2004, he starred in an unusually high number of films. he first appeared opposite polly shannon in "direct action" under sidney j. furie, portraying sergeant frank gannon, an officer who has spent the last three years on the direct action unit (dau) task force, fighting gang crime and corruption and after he leaves he is hunted down by former colleagues for betraying the brotherhood. next he appeared in ed bye's "fat slags", a film adaption of a comic strip "the fat slags" which appeared in the "alternative" british comic "viz". his role was little more than a cameo role alongside geri halliwell, naomi campbell and angus deayton. reviews of the film were so poor that it remains on the imdb's bottom 100 as one of the worst movies ever made. he next appeared in christopher kulikowski's science fiction picture "retrograde" alongside gary daniels and joe sagal. it tells the story of "a group of genetically unique people who travel back in time to prevent the discovery of meteors containing deadly bacteria." shot in italy, the film received the support of the film fund of luxembourg. finally he made his directorial debut, replacing sidney j. furie who got ill during pre-production, with "the defender", in which he also starred alongside shakara ledard and jerry springer, who played the president of the united states. lundgren plays lance rockford, the bodyguard of the head of the national security agency, roberta jones (caroline lee-johnson), in a war on terror.